FREECITY’s founder talks Amsterdam communes and the secret to a perfect pair of sweats.
Talking to Nina Garduno, designer and founder of the unisex brand FREECITY, feels like sitting down to dinner with Joni Mitchell, Vivienne Westwood, and a black sheep aunt. Conversation bounces from Amsterdam communes to Laurel Canyon and back again. She invites you to come to her studio just to see the collection of vintage Wrangler jeans she’s amassed over the years (“People are all about the Levi’s, but the Wranglers are better.”). And, the whole way through, you’re thinking about how many times you’ve seen a hand-painted FREECITY graphic out of the corner of your eye — in the Equinox locker room, transatlantic flights, random street corners, on celebrities in the tabloids.
Whether you’re a Levi’s or Wrangler stan, Garduno’s signature tees and sweatpants are everywhere because they’re for everyone, including you. We spoke with Garduno about how something as seemingly simple as a t-shirt can summon a profound sense of self and community, all while feeling deliciously soft (her word; also true).
You launched FREECITY back in 2001, which is over 20 years ago. What’s your origin story?
Ready? It’s a big, long story.
First of all, I'm from LA. I grew up in Laurel Canyon in the 70s, and trust me, that was a fun time to be in Laurel Canyon. It had the best of both worlds — city and nature, and I had a very free upbringing. Then, I started in retail when I was really young, working in sales for Ron Herman Fred Segal — and I say Ron Herman Fred Segal because that was a particular, influential era. And I grew up to be the vice president of that store. I did all the interiors and was in charge of all the men's, which meant buying elevated designer brands. We were the first in L.A. with many European designers, like Maison Margiela and Dries van Noten and Helmut Lang.
That sounds like an incredible time to be coming up in the L.A. fashion world.
It really was. From the very beginning, the store was a landmark. Fred Segal was like the neighborhood store for every celebrity in L.A. I got tons of inspiration and incredible education over the 28 years I worked there.
The funny thing is, I never wanted to be in fashion. I sort of fell into it. But I wanted to travel, and the job gave me plenty of that. At a certain point, I took a trip to Copenhagen and got very inspired by a commune there. It was an a-ha moment for me. [The commune] was so much like how I grew up. It broke open a memory, or more like a feeling, this feeling of — not to sound too crunchy — nature love. It was an epiphany for me, and that epiphany became FREECITY.
My first t-shirt was just that: a t-shirt with FREECITY printed on it. It was kind of…anti-fashion. It wasn’t about the desire to be in the fashion world. It was this desire to share that mantra.
FREECITY being the mantra?
Yes. Think of FREECITY this way: You are in a space with other people — you know, kind of in that collective energy — and it's yours, and it’s also theirs, and it’s also ours. It’s the mind-body-soul connection. That’s FREECITY. It’s aspirational, it’s very individual, but it’s also about community.
So I started to sell that — FREECITY, the idea and the experience, more than the brand — within the walls of Fred Segal. And it got tons of exposure very quickly, and not because we ever gave anything away — I have never gifted to celebrities. It was all very organic. I think it felt unique [to people] because I chose a T-shirt and a sweatpant. Nobody [in fashion] cared about a t-shirt at the time. That was not the world. People could relate to FREECITY. I left room for it to be meaningful to you. FREECITY was yours. It felt like the beginning of a new form.
What do you think still gives your t-shirt, your sweatpant cult status all these years later?
Especially during COVID, everybody turned to making t-shirts and sweatshirts. I’ve evolved over 20 years, but the core of what we do hasn’t changed. I want to make sure I’m doing the most delicious sweatpants. Each one is still hand-printed with water-based paint. It’s all made here [in California]. It takes a lot to get even one thing made. I think people see the difference. They feel the difference, and they know the difference.
You know, I wanted to make something that felt elementary with a Sesame Street knowingness that anybody in the world would understand and could personalize. That’s my ideal, and I think I’ve arrived. We're small in the scheme of things but big for those reasons. It’s a really lovely point in my career.
Your brand is — and has always been — unisex. Why?
This is another huge thing for me. I started in men, so that’s where my heart was, and I always loved seeing women shopping in the [Fred Segal] men’s department. It was an era when menswear was becoming more fitted, and suits were shrunken. So many women wanted to shop in the men’s department.
When you design unisex, people get to play together. They get to be together. Again, it’s another one of those communal experiences. So why wouldn’t you want to make unisex clothing? Why wouldn't you want to offer something to a guy and a girl? I've always seen that as attractive. You know that a woman looks great in men's clothes and a man looks great in women's clothes. I just never saw it any other way.
Which man or woman, living or dead, would you like to see wearing FREECITY? Who’s your dream FREECITY icon?
Oh my God. Name a celebrity, and they've been in my clothes. But icons…I'd say Jacques Cousteau. I'd say Joni Mitchell.
Celebrities aside, FREECITY is really about checking the other box. I’ve had people send me pictures climbing Kilimanjaro in FREECITY. Pregnant women in FREECITY. I’ve had dancers — many, many, many dancers — send me pictures performing. A violinist asked me to make something special for them for a solo performance.
One of the magical things about when we had a FREECITY store [editor’s note: FREECITY moved online only in 2020] was watching all the people shopping. It would be a woman — a very sophisticated woman with like a Kelly bag — and it would be a skater with a mohawk. It could be anyone and everyone.
One of my favorite things to hear is how many people get their things stolen. They’re that beloved. Or you know, somebody tells me that they have a collection of FREECITY that they’ve acquired over years — stacks and stacks. It’s really beautiful.
We’ll have to put a disclaimer on this article that everyone needs to hold onto their FREECITY gear extra tightly at the Club.
Exactly. Be extra careful. Thinking about Equinox, it’s like how you’ve revolutionized fitness. That’s how we’ve been revolutionizing this space between art and retail — the connections between physical items and the kinds of memories they unlock.
Check out FREE CITY at The Shop