From Mexico City we talked to Emmanuel ‘Manu’ Castillo, a face that becomes more familiar thanks to the Tiktok algorithm.If you are interested in fashion, style and history, surely you have given more than one like.Not for nothing has more than 21 million hearts achieved on this platform, which has given an international showcase.
This is the story of this 34 -year -old designer who has made his passion his greatest advantage.
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How does this life lead on social networks?
I taught fashion long before the pandemic.My co -workers told me ‘Styling’, because that is my user on Instagram (@manustyling) and there it stayed.When I opened Tiktok remained the same and it was very organic.It is very fun how everything has been giving.
What were your beginnings in fashion?
I studied graphic design like my first career, something that my parents considered more serious.You know, they had the thought that I was not going to live fashionable, and I liked the graphic a lot.But in my university there was the possibility of a specialization and there I studied fashion.It helped me a lot because I think that alone, as a profession, I would not have loved it, since I am not a fan of patron or sewing (laughs).They give me a lot of lazy, but I discovered the fashion style and I was passionate about.The clothes already existed and only had to put it on people.
But first it started in the graphic part ...
Yes, I began to make designs for everything digital and, little by little, my path turned completely towards fashion.The brands for which I worked were close to the sector.They were perfumery, fashion editorial design.Then I did a diploma and my concept was expanded.Then I met who my boss would be and she invited me to teach at her school.Then a friend invited me to e!Entertainmenty was assistant to Raúl Álvarez, who was creative director of Elle Mexico.
What is your vision of fashion?
What I want is to demystify its frivolous and banal part.Although it is, because it is aspirational, it has its reasons beyond trends.Even social movements.Clothing is identity and sociological.I always told my students that it is a historical document to know how to read.Know where the clothes come from and why we wear it.What we use generates a speech for each place.
Studying fashion is studying anthropology ...
Yes. The other day I was working with a friend in a production and she told me: "If they had taught me universal history through clothes, I would have understood it better."And it is true, she is a very strong and didactic visual reference.For pure clothes you can know what happened in World War II or in the independence of Mexico.
How has you improving your style with what you have been studying?
Fashion is a form of expression and I think no one is the same as 15 years ago.When you stagnate in a style it is because something is happening, good or bad.Among all I have tried, I realize that I am very retro.It goes between the dandy, Rockabilly, but in general also very seventies.I think I have never identified as much as with the style that I now have and it is something that happens to everyone.Now I mix two genres and every time I care less to excel.
Does clothes help people get work, get a partner?
Of course.It is not that it is a magical formula, but it influences a lot.When I make image advice, I see it a lot.The key is to dress for the position you want, not for the one you have.What you generate is to highlight, since clothes also have a language.It is the psychology of dress.Certain colors and certain types of garments make you shine or not, depending on the medium in which you develop.Put your desire, your goals and your personality and you will distinguish yourself.The history of fashion supports all this.
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More personal
What is the first memory of Manu of his childhood?
It has a lot to do with my mother, who recently died.I remember that I was always a little remote about how I had to do.He wore comb, coordinated.It was something of her that got into me and when I began to dress alone and went out to play with my friends hidden or burned, my friends told me: ‘You always go out in shirt and bermuda’, and I did not understand.But it is true, I had bought a silk shirt, but it is not that I wanted to see myself different, but I was always as very formal and combined for a child.
What is shopping with you?
When I go as staff Shopper is easy because I ask the right questions, he bought and get it, but he can take a whole day.It is the latest thing in the universe (laughs).I wonder about the investment, how much I am going to put it on, how am I going to combine ... Everything.
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Have you stopped dating someone for how you dress?
Oh, no!But I think they have stopped going out with me for that (laughs).Sometimes they told me that I was intimidated by how I dressed and fixed.When I am with someone, and only if he wants, I do help him a little with his style (laughs).
And how did you see to go to the store?
Relaxed but well combined.Never low in pajamas or so.
And sleep with pajamas or without pajamas?
Always with pajamas because I am cold, everything is going fashion and the sexy (laughs).Always use socks.
Fashion in 30 seconds
How do you start in Tiktok?
In mid -2019 I raised a couple of things, but I didn't understand it and I left it.Already in the pandemic, when we were all locked, I resumed it.And the truth, what I like most is talking and I started like this.The first ones I made were the history of fashion in 1900 and that of Louis Vuitton.And he hit.But when I started with the part of the 90s, and as I brought this teacher chip, I made it very graphic and did not understand that Tiktok canceled you.So they blocked and closed the account because you saw breasts in the air, but they were fashion photos, so I lost everything.But I started again.
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It has several sections ...
Yes, macabre fashion they like very much.Also, be formed with me, social fashion, ancient fashion and fashion history.
The exhibition that Tiktok gave him, how changed his life?
It has been very strong.It is a very dedicated job and consumes you a lot, a long time.This pushes you to make you more organized.I honestly do not win so much of the reproductions, but of the collaborations and invitations of the brands.And many talks and agreements have come out.Now I do projects and content in networks, but I do not dedicate myself to this one hundred percent.It is very difficult to create every time and also think of numbers, it is preferable to let it flow.
Will it get to TV in any time?
I have not been proposed to have my own television program, but I would love to carry this concept.
When does one have the best style?
Now.You have to love you at the time you are and enjoy it.
In his speech also refers to the activism and projection of social issues that the fashion industry speaks.
Mexico is in a very strong awakening in which there is much more awareness of skin and gender diversity.We are getting out of American discourse, since African -Americans and indigenous people of Mexico and Latin America have another context.Of course, they have been oppressed, but our colonialism was different and we must understand it.We are much more multicultural.
What line traces us fashion?
Everything is connected to her.We cannot talk about sexual diversity without fashion, you cannot talk about socioeconomic problems without fashion, you cannot speak without racism and classism without it.The economy too.
How did fashion change pandemic?
When there is no economic bonanza, clothing becomes bigger because you have to ensure the material you are wearing and that the profit arrives almost completely.But if you do it smaller you have a lot of excess and you have to make it more face.But if there is bonanza, people buy it.Right now we are in the ‘Y2K’ tendency (based on the 2000s), in which there was a good monetary streak.That is why the clothes were very small, with ‘tops’ and pants to the hip.The roll is that now there is crisis and we have been with the ‘loungewear’ (pretty clothes to be at home).Now we aspire to end up living a normal life.That is why we wear a lot of glitter and small clothing, but with oversize garments.It's a mix.It is a transition.As for innovation, there is not much visually remarkable.They are known silhouettes, but now everything is preparation technology and making more ecociable garments.
