Sustainable Baddie of the Week: Hud Oberly

When you think about people who are creative, your brain might create images of a painter or a musician, and not jump to the idea that an engineer or a doctor can be creative. Hud Oberly, designer and founder of Here’s to You, thinks a little differently. He believes anyone can be creative. “It’s cool to see someone light up, and not just be told that they’re creative, but also [listen to] me further explaining how they may be creatively problem-solving throughout their day or creating their day and schedule, whatever it is that they do outside of work or that they don’t see as being creative.” This week, we had the honor of speaking with Oberly about building a slow fashion brand, this year's National Indian Education Association (NIEA) convention, and why Ratatouille is the greatest film of all time! 

We caught him on a sew-all-day day. These days are often the most tedious, but also the most therapeutic. Oberly launched Here’s to You, an apparel and accessories brand that is handmade in Brooklyn, in August of this year, with the tagline “a brand that invokes creativity through fashion and art.” His aim is to create utility clothing for people who practice different crafts and artistries. Oberly built this concept from workwear, an enduring fashion trend, but his take is more specific to artists – garment utility tailored uniquely to various crafts. The next few planned Here’s to You releases are designed for more general utility, but in the future, Oberly hopes to study a range of crafts, and customize the garments with the craftsman at work in mind. For example, imagine large-scale sculptors who are working on a big piece – they don’t want to run back and forth to the table, when they could instead have their tools on them, almost like a toolbelt.

“‘Here’s to You,’ that phrase came from a conversation with my grandma. I had a name, originally, and I liked it, but I was getting these inklings and signs of ‘maybe I shouldn’t do this as a long-term name,’” Oberly tells us.

“I asked my iko, my grandma, ‘what’s a good phrase or word that pops into mind?’ and she said a quote from Casablanca, ‘Here's looking at you’ I played around with it in my notepad and put down ‘Here's to You’ and I liked it…”

After toying with ideas of what the phrase meant to him he realized “‘Here’s to you’ is a me-to-me statement people can say when they’re deciding between practicality and fulfillment.” He looks back to the decision to move to Brooklyn and start his line, “it was me kind of betting on myself and saying ‘here’s to you.’” 

Here’s to You’s first release was a handmade oversized wool crewneck sewn with double-layered felt lettering and designs. It sold out in three hours. We wouldn’t be surprised if something similar happens with Oberly’s upcoming Blank Canvas collection, a slow-release collection of seven garments. One of the first planned releases is a vest made out of canvas, “it's very blank, but in February I want to release an accessory that's also part of the blank canvas collection, and then summer and fall release a full seven-item collection that’s all part of this blank canvas collection.” 

It’s uncommon to see brands release a collection slowly, piece by piece, instead of all at once, but Oberly finds there is something artistic to the slow release process and that it’s something that other designers can learn from,

“it makes people think, and it probably doesn’t make sense to some people to see a slow release collection and not see someone putting out something new every time they release something. I’m really trying to process… how I can communicate it so that other people incorporate it or consider it or think about it, as opposed to what's out there right now.”

After reading the book Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser, Oberly was inspired to look deeper into the histories of the fabrics he uses and keep that history in mind when considering a piece’s fabrics. Thanhauser studies a number of different fabrics and the history behind them. “There’s a very interesting backstory in how those fabrics are made and how they affect the Earth, I keep that in mind,” Oberly says. He would like sustainability to be understood as the foundation of his and others’ businesses, and not as a marketing tool. 

Before Here’s to You, Oberly was Creative Director for Urban Native Era, an indigenous streetwear brand based in Los Angeles. It was his introduction to the fashion industry as well as to design, screenprinting, and embroidery. He had yet to learn how to sew until March of this year, “I learned from YouTube and I literally started in March, which is when I started making the sweater that I launched...” are you kidding me? What a turnaround! 

Working at Urban Native Era was a stepping stone for Oberly to get to where he is now. “It’s kind of like when you go to college and you’re on your own for the first time, but there’s still structure,” he says.

“It was a structure to gradually learn about how to make clothes and there was an additional structure of being an Indigenous streetwear brand…our audience was the Indigenous community and allies, and the brand was built out of bringing awareness to social justice events in the Indigenous community.”

Oberly spent a few months in his home state of Oklahoma before moving to Brooklyn. This time helped him to think, plan, and strategize about Here’s to You’s very first move. But, he found that there was nothing like the inspiration and network building that can come from being in NYC. Even being brand new to the city, Oberly sought out ways to learn about artists in the area, “New York, there’s just endless inspiration everywhere you go, and Brooklyn especially, even Bushwick especially. There’s so many artists, and I think maybe you do have to seek it out, that's what I did when I first got here…” he says.

“I found different community events and was following people on Instagram and replying to their stories, or if they had a podcast I’d listen to it and post it on my story and eventually become connected to people. The brand is built around creative communities and creatives, so that all influences me right now.” 

This October, Oberly attended the NIEA convention in Oklahoma City, where he was a speaker for the student days portion of the conference. He had the opportunity to speak to Indigenous youth about his journey and provide a few tips on how students can work towards their goals too. A proud moment, given that a few years ago, Oberly himself was sitting in the crowd watching other Indigenous leaders present. “I have this photo of me at one of their conferences like ten years ago and that’s what kind of flipped the lightbulb on in my head… I’ve been in the shoes of these students.”

He presented two strategies, the first being “Act as if.” “Before I joined Urban Native Era as  Creative Director I was making content around Indigenous pop culture happenings, either like films coming out or clothing brands, different videos commentating on it. So I was able to exhibit my skills of getting peoples attention and making content. I was ‘acting as if’ I was already in a role that was requiring those skills.” This technique is a powerful manifestation tool for embodying your dream reality. By acting as if you have already achieved your goal, you are aligning yourself with the version of you who has achieved this goal, which will bring it closer to your present reality. 

The second strategy Oberly presented was “visualize what you want” by closing your eyes and picturing your goal becoming a reality. “Similar to manifesting, when you visualize something happening your body and your brain experience it happening…” he says.

“Also, visualizing that end goal happening and taking one step back, and another step back, and another step back until you get to where you are now, just to have a loose path of how to get to where you want to be, but also being flexible to whatever happens along the way.”

These two strategies certainly helped Oberly to find himself launching a fashion brand only five months after learning how to sew. 

If you follow Oberly on Instagram, you may notice a slight obsession with the 2007 film Ratatouille. Besides being a cult classic and comfort film for many, the recurring posts made us wonder, “what do Ratatouille and Here’s to You have in common?” Oberly explained that Here’s to You, the Blank Canvas collection, and everything that comes in the future is not just for established creatives,

“I want someone who doesn’t see themselves as a creative but is ‘creative curious’...to put [the clothes] on and feel like it makes them creative, like they can go and buy paint supplies at the store or even doodle and scribble around on something.” 

In a world where the value of your art and creativity is based on how much you can capitalize off your talents, we need more people, like Oberly, who believe there is art in everyone no matter what you do with it. “Everyone can be creative, just like anyone can cook.”