My Palace in Dallas: Crespatrick de los Reyes

“Solitude requires you to move past reacting to information created by other people and focus instead on your own thoughts and experiences – wherever you happened to be”

— Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism

Welcome back folks, it has been a WHILE! Many things happened after my last piece that took place in Taiwan as many of y’all know. (If not, now you do! ) We are officially halfway through 2023 and things are only about to get better for all of us I’m sure of it! I’m happy to see how the habits we’ve nurtured during the pandemic are now integrated into our lives. We love staying in now and HOME has become a much more important concept for everyone who is finding peace in being alone and enjoying their space.

This is the exact idea that gave birth to this project, I want to know, I want to see, and more importantly, I want to document what the people around me have become after this unprecedented year, they can be artists, comedians and they can also be the people you meet daily on the street (which is quite hard cause apparently people in Dallas don’t walk at all). What is it that they do? What are their stories and what does their Palace in Dallas look like?

Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to Crespatrick de los Reyes! The founder of Crescente Patricio and an all-around amazing soul. I got to talk to him in person a few times and am always blown away by how he carries himself with confidence and elegance, I’m excited to show you what we talked about as I picked his brain in his beautiful home!

Hi Cres! Always good seeing you my dude, thank you for making time in your busy schedule to talk to me! I’ve been wanting to do this for a good while and now we’re here! Before I bomb you with questions, would you like to tell people a bit about yourself? Who are you and what is it that you do?

My name is Crespatrick de los Reyes, Philipino American, I work creatively as a stylist and fashion designer. I do the styling for Dickies ecomm and I also have my own clothing brand, Cresente Patricio. I am happily married to my best friend and wife Erica, and father to a lovely dog Corduroy.

How long has it been since you started Crescente Patricio? Being a local staple like you are sir, how did you get to where you are now? What’s that journey like?

I started Crescente Patricio in 2017 so it’s been like 6 years now. It started out with me wanting to finally make something of my own. I went to fashion school and worked in the industry as a denim designer and have always wanted my own brand, it was daunting and scary as a dream doing something all on my own, my brand, my voice, my design, and all that. I started in 2017 by creating some pieces by myself which came out pretty well and the more I make the more I realize I love stories, I mean we all do through film, tv, and books and I loved learning from people who put stories into their clothing and brand.

With this idea, I started out Crescente, seeking to tell stories through the pieces I created, and with that those stories form the pieces. Honing in on those ideas and continuing to create through my brand.

Was the shrink blankets always in your plan for CP's brand identity or something you started out as part of a series?

The very first pieces I made and even sold on my own were from denim and the fabric that I use is a scrap fabric called shrink blankets. I was working for a denim brand at the time that manufacturers directly out of a factory and when you test the shrinkage of a roll of denim you need to do this thing called shrink test. I noticed that after the production and the tests the fabrics all kinda just sat there, the factory I was working at had this whole separate building filled with them that was just sitting there. From what the warehouse manager told me some of them have even been sitting there for over ten years, and a lot of them end up getting discarded and thrown away. So I started out with those fabrics practicing and sewing with them, so for my first collection, I want to make something out of these pieces of denim. My intent for the design was to start out with the shrink blankets and move on to different fabrics like cotton, knits, and leather, as most brands do.

Actually, it was when I moved out here to Dallas in 2018, Hance Taplin, the first few people I met through Instagram after seeing his brand By Way Of Dallas encouraged me to keep doing what I do as it is something most denim brands aren’t doing and this is a niche that can be a clear lane for the brand to develop in.

He is someone I admire and am inspired by, after our conversation about the brand, I believe I could keep on doing my design with this choice of fabric. The limitation that comes with putting myself in the box of just creating with denim and these scrap fabrics really pushes creativity, you explore as much as you can within that boundary and I think sometimes when your options are limitless you get lost on where to start and what to do. Working within these material boundaries is easier to hone in and see what I can do and what I can create within.

**Touching on a bit more on your journey, a transplant too?! When did you get here? Why did you choose Dallas?**

October 2nd, 2018 was when we drove into town. I was born in DC and grew up in Maryland, left when I was 19 for college in Virginia, dropped out after a year, and lived in LA for 13 years. I never thought I would ever leave there after living in La for a long time, everything I want was there and I never wanted to leave either. My career, my community, and my friends were in LA and both my wife and I loved it there. We were visiting Erica’s family here for Christmas, and it was like a spiritual experience, like, I don’t quite know how to explain it. I believe in god and I call myself a christian, when I was looking at the Wilson building, admiring the architecture while grabbing coffee with Erica’s dad and I had this moment and got so excited about the city. Something took over me and I became super curious like “What goes on in this city, what’s the rent here, what is that building, can I live there, what is the cost to live here”; everything about this city seems so exciting to me, like what’s happening?
My wife and I felt like we were supposed to be here and we just moved. We didn’t have a plan, a job, don’t know anybody outside of her family and I’m so happy we did it, I love it here.

It has been three years since the pandemic hit and I’m glad to see you rose up and did many incredible things during and after. I vividly remember knowing you and your work around that time too! What did you do to stay centered and sane during that time? Did any of those new habits carry over now that things are back to normal?

Man as far as mentally I just continued what I practice daily, I pray and meditate each morning, and read scriptures, it was part of my routine and it carried over into the pandemic which was really helpful during that time. Within the first week, I saw this brand Greg Lauren start making masks out of scrap fabrics, and with the shortage going on I thought “Yo I can make masks too!”. I started making tons of masks, not even to sell, I was making sure my family, friends, and community are covered. I remember ordering elastics and I made so, so, so many of them. The remaining parts still haunt me when I was digging through supplies and came across those mask patterns.

Activityiwise, during that time I think everyone was just tuning into different films and TVs that they haven’t before but I was just sawing a lot, not just masks but other pieces as well. People still wanted to buy stuff and are asking around for custom pieces or if I’m selling anything at all. So a huge part of my daily routine was to get up - pray - meditate - saw.

throughout the pandemic, I was able to just go with my ideas like, let's just do it, no pressure and I wasn’t trying to do it for anything in particular. We tried making content for our brand that relates to the times of staying indoors and being really creative about it. My wife and I are grateful that we didn’t have to think too much about surviving as both of our professions weren’t heavily affected by the pandemic, knowing not many people have the privilege to create freely during those times, makes practicing gratitude a huge part of our habit too.

As an entrepreneur and successful creative, I’m sure you are no stranger to traveling, even more so now being exposed to so many different genres working at Dickies and all. My question for you is, what do you think sets Dallas’ art/fashion scene apart from all the other huge art hubs like NY or LA?

The community out here is really great. It’s not too saturated and I think Dallas is a sponge eager to soak up all that creativity the city has to offer and is still hungry for it. Especially creativity being birthed from within, I’ve noticed from my experience that people here really want to rally behind it, every creative I’ve met quickly connects people with another fellow creative like “you’ve gotta meet this person” or “Oh you’re doing this too let’s talk more about it”. I believe It’s a city where people show up for other folks.
I haven’t experienced any gatekeeping or hate being thrown around, I’m sure it happens because people are people but out here it seems so welcoming and it’s such a huge platform for people to grow from. The soil here is great for planting roots and forming their creativity business from here. While LA and NY are still great to do these things in I think there is a community out here who are ready to rally behind anyone who wants to get their own thing started. This city is home and it’s where my heart is.

As a creative transplant being in Dallas for quite some time and finding your creative identity throughout, what do you think of this city?

Man, it’s really hot out here. *laughs

I think we have great and terrible history here, but there’s also a history of honest, great people on this land that is plentiful, enough for everybody. It is a place of community, a friendly town and this is the first place I lived in where I actually knew my neighbors. I think it’s a great home base for people who are jet set and travel all around, and I think this town has a lot to offer, I don’t think people outside realize the level of art and creativity coming from here.

A hidden gem? There are a lot of people who still think we only ride horses and stuff, but Dallas is like a major metropolitan city and it’s really really big. I like it out here and I think it’s a great city and community to be a part of.

Today, I have the pleasure of being inside the place you call home, where inspiration strikes and where your idea machine comes to rest. As I look around this amazing space, can you share with me what is the most valued possession you have in your place? Show it off to me good sir.

This is probably one of the most sentimental pieces in the place, it’s called Sungka and I think the rest of the world calls it Mancala. Sungka is a game I grew up playing, we had it in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian cultures also have a variation of this game. Essentially you play against someone else with little shells, dropping them in and the goal is to get as many in as possible at the end. This piece isn’t the one I grew up with but it was from my parent’s house, I liberated this Mancala set from their home. It’s carved from a singular piece of tree trunk so you can’t see any seam anywhere. I love it cause I like having things representing my culture, growing up in a huge Filipino community on the east coast, it’s grounding to have things like this close to me and I pull a lot of inspiration from my culture and upbringing as a Filipino American. This is a family heirloom that would be passed down the family for me.

Another piece is this pillow over here. My grandmother made this pillow from scratch. It was one of her hobbies when she was alive, when she passed away in early 2020 this was what I grabbed from her. I sit here often during my morning prayers and this is also another piece close to my heart that got passed down in the family. I like sitting here to chill, read magazines, light incense, and play some video games.

And we are almost at the bottom of my list of Qs for today. Before we wrap this up, my question is: For those who are interested in getting into this business or starting something of their own. What suggestions or advice you would like to give them or wish you should’ve known sooner?

Know yourself and know exactly what you want to say before starting your business, brand, or whatever it is, have your perspective and know what YOU want to do. Lots of time would be wasted if you don’t know yourself enough starting out. On top of that, you’re probably going to be copying a lot, Yoji Yamamoto has this quote” Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy, you will find yourself.” and I really resonate with that. When I started out I was always copying what I liked at the time and looking back oh it was terrible, but you will find your own identity and look eventually.
so yeah, I’d say starting out you’ll need to learn who you are and what you want to say, then you start.

Now that is a wrap! Thank you so much for your time. I know I said it’s a wrap but also because I am curious myself, what’s on the horizon for you or Crescente? Are there any “Big things coming” in the works for you? What would you like the world (whichever random soul stumbled upon this article) to know about?

There are things we are putting out for F/W! We have some pants coming out, we haven’t done pants before so I redesigned some of the old ones and I’m really happy with the ones we have now ready to launch. We are trying to scale up a bit more, I’d love to do more wholesale and increase the reach of the brand, maybe get into some of the boutiques I like around the world.

Making these steps to achieve those goals and get into the shops I dreamt of being in. So in general, more products to come. We’ll get there.