A Conversation with Fashion Trendsetter and Creative Director Raeland Mendoza

A few weeks ago, Eric got to sit down and have a very inspiring conversation with fashion trendsetter and creative director Raeland Mendoza of I’ll Call You Tomorrow and Tomorrow Works.

In our latest episode of 12TV, Raeland speaks on his early days – from how he got started in the fashion industry to being featured in GQ Magazine 😎

In this weeks edition of Marketing Mondays, we wanted to take you through a few of our favourite points from our conversation with Raeland 👇

1. THE FIRST STEP TO MOVING FORWARD IS GETTING TO KNOW YOURSELF 🙋

When Eric asked Raeland for his advice for people who want to get started in the fashion industry or want to build their own lines, he had a great answer.

When Raeland was starting I’ll Call You Tomorrow, he started to realize that the first step to moving forward was getting to know himself by asking questions like:

“Who do I want to be as a designer?”
“What kind of product do I want to make?”
“What kind of story do I want to tell?”
“What is good product to me?”

Which then led to helping him get all of the other questions he needed to ask himself, like what time of product he wanted to create, what manufacturers did he want to use, or what kind of brand did he want to build?

2. DON’T FORGET YOUR ROOTS 🏠

Raeland came back to Edmonton right before the pandemic hit to visit his family and save up some money for a few months then go to Toronto – but his plans changed when COVID-19 hit.

As we all know, COVID sucked. But for Raeland, it kind of became a silver lining because it let him see all that he had in stock.

He ended up revisiting his ICTY brand with his friends where they did a couple of online events and their product that they had in stock really started to sell. Then, they started doing more online apparel events, or events at restaurants when things started to open up a little bit.

When it started to sell faster and faster, they realized that they have now created an entire community for their brand within the city.

Fast forward a few years, they are now doing collaborations all across the country. They’re selling product in Europe, Morocco, Asia – places they never would have expected.

What started as attending local Edmonton pop-ups has now led to them having a global website – a community with members from all over the world. 🌎

3. DM’S ARE JUST ANOTHER FORM OF EMAIL 📧

Eric asked Raeland about how someone should go about even finding their suppliers, and he said the amount of mountains that his team has been able to move just off of DM’s is crazy.

Which in his eyes, is really just another form of email. Just send a polite DM or even a LinkedIn message that shows you know what you’re talking about and most of the time, you’ll be able to get the answers your looking for.

4. HOW DO I CATER TO EVERYONE?

You know what they say – teamwork makes the dream work…

And this includes when Raeland and his team come up with designs to cater to their now global market.

He said it really comes down to looking at what their entire team is into, and how it’s a reflection of them. They are all into such a wide range of different subcultures and references, and says that, “if we’re into it, we know other people are going to be into it.”

Trust in yourself, trust in your brand, and trust in your team.

5. THE WORLD IS A BIG PLACE. 🌎

Sometimes, people struggle to think that they have to get out of their hometowns or move somewhere else before they can start a project, company, whatever it may be.

Raeland says this is something he’s wrestled with too, but has come to realize that the world is a BIG place – and we have the internet.

He’s realized that while he’s building his connections in Edmonton – the city that is such a huge support for I’ll Call You Tomorrow, he can still be building his connections across the globe.

For him, he feels such a sense of pride being able to represent and bring light to parts of Edmonton close to his heart. For example, when ICYT was featured in GQ – he was able to talk about our Edmonton local Chinatown which was such a core moment for him.

His plan is for him to stay in Edmonton, but he’s bringing the world here.

and that’s all we got for this week.

There’s so many more great topics of conversation in this episode of 12TV with Raeland – be sure to give it a full listen here.

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