Growing up in South Texas and receiving labels from teachers, counselors, coaches, friends, and family is what drove the passion in Arturo Castañeda to create his own label. After moving to New York and being mentored by some of the top names in the fashion industry, a new label was born – Cielo Brands!

Arturo of Cielo Brands, left Mercedes, Texas and his journey brought him to New York City. His fashion sense and creativity were discovered, eventually landing him a job as a concept designer for Ralph Lauren. Arturo went on to co-found Cielo Brands a personal styling and clothing company where he works with professional athletes and entertainers. He frequently visits the Rio Grande Valley to share his journey and inspire others to dream big. He recently took some time with co-founder, Stephanie Higgs, to answer my questions in Brooklyn, NY.

INTERVIEW WITH CIELO BRANDS

ARTURO

STEPHANIE

Diego: How did you start in fashion?

Arturo Castañeda: I’m first generation. My mum came from Mexico and she was a seamstress and that’s where it began for me. I didn’t go to school but I knew this is what I was going to do and it kind of grinded. My mum made curtains, quilts. She would make my shorts and shirts for school because we didn’t have much you know.

I moved to New York, lived in my car for 6 months. When I got here, I didn’t have a place to live but I came here with that dream and I worked hard. I became the Lead Designer there at Ralph for men’s sportswear. I was there for about 8 years.

Eight years wow.

AC: And then I just walked away 5 months ago. I was working 7 days a week, 14 hours a day at Ralph. Because Ralph has like four concept designers, we would create so he could create. So we’d have rooms so big we’d create concepts then he’d come in and ask me to walk him through it. I learned a lot from him and it was hard to leave but I knew that I had my own dreams. I never felt that I was too good for the place or I was bitter, no, I was just wanting to do my own.

How did you get into styling?

AC: I was styling for celebrities as a stylist for years, over 10 years. I was a stylist when it wasn’t cool for celebrities or athletes to have. They were like, they didn’t want to say who this person was that was styling them.

Stephanie: They didn’t want to admit it.

AC: And now when June Ambrose and Rachel Zoe came out, they made it probably irrelevant for us to come out of the scene, you know, out of the woodworks when we were always at the back of the house you know. So after that, it was the opposite. It was like what, you don’t have a stylist? Like it was the opposite, like now we were getting paid, now we were like grinding and like we’re at the scene; building a name for ourselves.

That was what I was doing and then my desire to launch my own brand was there but I never met the right person. I met a lot of people like myself just you know, dreamers and I needed to kind of balance that. Somebody who can dream but somebody who’s like hey, reality! We got to pay the bills. Or else I’m going to have to work myself to the ground.

When I met Stephanie, we had a couple of meetings to see what your taste is like and then we kind of just ended up spending a lot of time in this field. I’m like, we didn’t have this and then she was using local factories because we believe in Made in America.

So then she said to me “You have to come check on this factory. And I said, yeah let’s go.” And when I visited it I said, this is where my mom used to work. Like there’s no way I could give my money to a company that treats our people in this manner. All of them. The number one factory in America is here in New York and it is abysmal. They don’t have views. They don’t have air conditioning. It’s just really rough. They bring their own toilet paper to work.

They bring their own toilet paper to work? That’s terrible. They don’t treat them like people?

AC: Yes, really, really terrible. They don’t treat them like people! We believe we in Made In America, so we are going to build and treat our own team right.

Where did the name Cielo come from?

AC: We called it Cielo because we always have the blue sky thinking. The sky’s the limit. Dream big, nothing can stop you no matter what background or where you were raised you know, that and then my life background.

They don’t expect a lot from being Latino? Like you’re always like lower class type of thing?

AC: Even within my own community, it’s like poverty creates a poverty mentality. You trying to crawl out and your own people are like, what are you doing? Get your ass back down here, but you overcome all those things. I said I’m gonna write my own story. I’m not going to listen to these things that are being said to me. I’m going to write my own narrative, my own story and that’s where we are today.

Stephanie: And I was on the opposite spectrum, my grandma, my dad, and now my brother are all entrepreneurs. They have built brands and manufacturing facilities in the US. So we pick their brains like crazy and just take any mentorship that shows up. So it’s really helped. Because we didn’t know how to build a manufacturing facility. We just knew we wanted it for business. So they’ve really helped us a lot to just navigate you know, the business side of it; the building, the manufacturing. It’s been really helpful.

How did Cielo grow?

AC: We didn’t have a social media. We didn’t have a website. All the sales we had and all the clothes we were making were because of our previous styling and experience. So it grew by word of mouth. It got to athletes, some music entertainers and they came through. And they were like– I want to know wear you.

Tell me about your tailors, who are they?

AC: They are part of our team. Without them we nothing. We know each story that sits there and every garment that leaves these doors carries our story. All of us. Their story, my story, their struggle. Their struggle is real. They are all immigrants and it’s like they are so appreciative of being here. They just feel like they should be respected, like human beings.

I know there are some brands that are pushing into like bespoke women’s suits as well. So do you guys do women’s suits?

Stephanie: Our women’s program actually grew organically just by getting to know the tailors, we realize their other capabilities. Most of these other manufacturing facilities don’t even get to know their own people.

So we have Marco, who is actually passionate about women’s wear. He’s incredible in getting the fit right. So a lot of time when we work with our clients, their wives or girlfriends or whatever, are interested in getting pieces and you just didn’t have the capability before.

So now we have been growing this program and it has been really successful. You know, it just randomly kind of happened. So now we have done some research and that feels like there is a huge void for women’s custom clothing.

How do you feel about the quality and presentation of your suits?

AC: Just be real. Don’t pitch it as true bespoke tailored if its made in China. It is what it is. Don’t make it seem like something it is not.

Stephanie: It makes us to have to be more on point. Because some people come to us and they don’t understand why they would have to wear a $2400 suite. They have been buying $800 suites and it is like: “Please experience one suit or one shirt even” to feel the difference.

AC: It is a made in America product. We have paid Americans sitting here.

You believe the story; all our customers believe it. “You know what, I am buying this because of you guys. I am definitely buying it because of your story.”

I felt the same when I came in.

AC: A client would call us: ”Hey I don’t actually need the French cuff, can you make it into barrel?” Hey Marco, can you make that a barrel cuff? It is not going to come from England or China, and arrive 8 weeks later. No, it is going to happen right here right now. Real time.

But what it also does, it empowers our guys. You know our guys here make a full garment. They are not just putting the shoulder every day, 60 hours a week. They making a full garment and they get to see a finished product. That’s not robbing them from their talent, their creativity.

You can see when a customer walks in, puts on a suit and they are like: “I did that”. And then they come over and thank us immediately. It is just a great family. We call it “Celio Family”.

Check out Celio here!

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Thanks for reading, and follow me on Instagram: @DandyInTheBronx 😎
-Diego