Anthony DiGenova's Salvage-Punk, Skid Row, Urban Decay Clothing Line - Ant Anti

Fashion is constantly evolving, with sustainability becoming a key focus. Anthony DiGenova, the creator of Ant Anti, leads a brand dedicated to recycling materials into unique fashion pieces.

In this interview Anthony elaborates on his approach to fashion, his personal journey and the establishment of Ant Anti.

This discussion further explores the challenges in design, Anthony's goals and the influence of his surroundings. The insights shared provide a deeper understanding of Ant Anti and the future of this innovative brand.

Hello, readers. We're here with Anthony DiGenova, the upcycling connoisseur reviewing the A/A COLLECTION 1 “LINE”. Please guide us through this.

AD: My name is Anthony DiGenova, and my brand name is Ant Anti. We focus on recycling pieces.

So we have two styles. The Ant pieces are ready-to-wear pieces and then the Anti pieces all have some recycled aspect. You mentioned the upcycling connoisseur, well we actually use the term recycling. Because a lot of brands will take a perfectly good jacket or pants they will cut it up and then they make something new with it, and they call it upcycling. But for most of the pieces, we don't do that sort of a thing. It's more so we find fabric that is, already going to be thrown away, the waste from other brands. And we make the pieces from that.

Oh, alright. Are you aware of Swamp God?

AD: Yeah, he's really interesting because he gets all these Rick Owens pieces and he's able to make his own collections out of them. I wonder how their partnership came to fruition.

Would you say it's a good example of what collaborations should be between an established house and somebody who's quote-unquote coming up?

AD: Definitely.

The clothes you make genuinely show your passion and the part of fashion you want to show to the world. Therefore in your world, what is the most difficult aspect of designing? Maybe on a daily or collectional basis.

AD: Starting out I had a lot of trouble. Especially designing with a collection in mind. I would just have the idea for one piece and I'd want to make that piece, then maybe I'd make something else and then the two pieces would not fit together at all. I did that over and over again. I had like 10, or 20 pieces, but they were not a collection at all.

So this was kind of the first time we were able to one, make enough pieces and two, narrow it down enough to where it felt like it was actually a collection. Outside that, designing has never really been a trouble for me. Ideas come naturally.

It's not as complex, especially with the scrap-made pieces. We can just take the scraps that we already have and leave them as they are, we just put one on top of the other and build it out, with most of the design already done for us. In manufacturing, there's still at least one part of almost every garment that I have to do myself meaning we can't just take a design and send it to the factory, that takes a lot of time and is the hardest part.

That is probably the hardest struggle emerging designers face in the business. As we discussed off the record the minimum wage in LA is usually lower compared to Italian manufacturers. Does that make it an advantageous place for starting your career in fashion?

AD: Surely. Shortly before the interview, we were talking about LA a little. I was saying that in LA, there are a lot of really small manufacturers that are open to making however many pieces you want, even if you want to make four or five pieces they'll do it. The cost might be higher but they'll still do it for you and that's an advantage. It's harder to get that in France or Italy as the space is saturated with big factories that require you to order 50 or 100 pieces minimum.

Would you say that your upbringing and life in California had an impact on honing the skills of making clothes?

AD: Absolutely, well, I grew up in Laguna Beach, Orange County in California, a small surfer town.

There weren't too many people that were into the same stuff I was into. Because of that, I would drift away a bit to work on my ideas. Simply through perseverance and interest I eventually learned the skills. Being in LA probably two streets over from Skid Row and constantly seeing the homeless and what they wear, observing the worn-out, shabby streets made an impression on me.

I love graffiti walls and when they get painted over, followed by more graffiti and more painting over. I find those textures and layers of interest, as they make the time appear to pass faster than in other clean and polished areas like Beverly Hills or even Paris. We've been able to adapt that into our work and try and show this short bit of time. There are many creatives out there, many designers, and people with a passion for art in general.

In your collection you have lots of references to graffiti culture, could you please elaborate further on why it's of such importance to you?

AD: My introduction to clothing was through a friend of mine, his name is Rye. So me, Rye, and my brother, Alexander, would all write a bit of graffiti in our hometown. That was kind of like the inspiration for this collection. As this is our first real collection it only feels right to reference my introduction to clothing. Rye had like an uncle who's from New York and so he would go out there and his uncle showed him Supreme and so when he came back, like, he'd show us Supreme, then like we'd end up going up to LA, Fairfax.

 What's your favorite Supreme piece?

AD: Oh, wow. That's a tough question. I can't name a number one favorite, but I liked the Supreme Flag Patchwork Hoodies. It had China, Mexico, maybe the US, I don't know exactly. Ghana maybe? I had that hoodie in the snow camo colorway. Maybe nowadays I wouldn't wear the snow camo, but the black version instead.

Was it from 2014-15?

AD: Yeah, probably.

What was the definitive moment in time when you decided to establish your brand?

AD: In high school, I would make some screen print t-shirts here and there. It wasn't really a brand. I was never aware of what was going to happen, or what label would be put on me when I started. Nowadays I think I'm getting more confident, especially when people ask about my brand name. It's Ant Anti, essentially two names. I felt a little awkward and uncomfortable telling people. I say Ant Anti, they're like, what is that? Thinking I have a stutter. Hearing other people say it makes me more comfortable over time.

Being a designer, starting out there's a degree of shyness or awkwardness about presenting your creations.

Could you tell us more about your fashion education?

AD: Surely. When I was in high school, my school had a screen printing class.

There I started printing t-shirts, and for college, I went to Parsons. I went for one semester and later dropped out. I was not a fan of the program there and it felt like most people there weren't taking it seriously. A bit absurd considering how expensive it is. From there I didn't want to tell my parents that I dropped out of school so I enrolled in a sewing class at FIT. It was an after-school night class. So I told my parents that I transferred schools, rather than telling them that I dropped out. FIT was actually really good. I learned a lot of good sewing techniques there, that I was able to incorporate in my work. They allowed me to use their lab even after class.

FIT was more about honing your practical skills whereas Parsons gave more conceptual lectures?

AD: Yeah, definitely. Parsons was all theory. There was not one specific class where we were tasked with using a sewing machine. Some projects were broad enough to make clothes for them, but there was never a solely clothing-making project. FIT was straight to the point, here's this item, make it.

When designing a collection, how do you ensure that there is a common, prevalent theme? So that the final assembly of clothes looks cohesive, finished, and correlating.

AD: When we first started working on some pieces, we went along with a space theme. That led us into this abstract direction where the clothes didn't seem particularly wearable at all. After that, we would make pieces here and there without following much of a theme. And I think in the beginning, it is good to do that because as you're making what you want to wear. Clothes should be wearable, they should be something that you wanna see worn. Once you figure out how you want the clothes you wear to fit and look, you can start adding a theme or meaning to it.

With this collection, the focus was on the street, avoiding a pivot into complete abstraction, leaving that for the future.

Seeing how you made just a few abstract pieces, it's as if you went to space and came back, or never managed to take off from the raw streets you previously described. You mentioned that Skid Row is one of your sources of inspiration, where homeless people, facing the scarcity of resources are still conscious of how they look.

AD: Yeah, honestly why I think they have such good taste is because they're not considerate of other's perceptions. It's so natural for them. They put these things on because they have to survive, moving from one necessity to the next.

They live as the most primal human beings, as we did thousands of years ago. At this time we're so detached from the natural human being, having cars, being always on social media, watching movies, all these things that a human 2000 years ago wasn't able to do.

Their survival-oriented conditions are reflected in how they dress, leaving them with limited options.

Whereas the more privileged struggle by drowning in options, because of the internet and having infinite places to shop. Even with said over-saturation and trendiness of fashion, becoming a designer remains an untraditional career path. How would you describe the importance of a support system for an emerging designer/artist? A few decades ago, people would get a shady look of uncertainty from people around them for choosing said path.

AD: Yeah, definitely. We were lucky. Even in high school, I knew I wanted to make clothes, I didn't want to go to college. Despite that, my parents insisted on me furthering my education. My older brother also makes clothes, so he has helped me out a lot along the way. I haven't received as much pushback as I would have thought. I had some friends in the past who were skeptical of my work but as you get older, they get used to it. They're still your friends at the end of the day. Everyone has their preferences.

In any profession, you can overdo, overwork yourself, or remain caught up in a certain direction. How do you ensure balance in your life?

AD: Balance has been an important point for years. I had my office, my sewing studio in my apartment and it was all combined. Oftentimes you can't afford to have both separately. And so, there were many days where I'd wake up at 8, 9 o'clock and I'd work till 9, 10 o'clock and then pretty much go to bed. I think the important thing to do is to dedicate one day, maybe a Sunday to schedule your week. Recently I've taken up learning Japanese, so I'll schedule a lesson with a tutor at least once a week noting a time slot exclusively for that activity. I'll dedicate two hours to tennis and another two to table tennis on one day of the week. For me, it's hard to not be doing anything so I budget my time.

This week you must've been busy from morning till evening. How have you been spending your time? Did you manage to go out somewhere, visit a museum, or just go for a walk around Paris?

AD: I haven't been able to do too much. Last time we were out here we weren't as busy. Last night we were able to go to this good dim sum spot. It was, uh, it's called Steam Bar. Today we had a two-and-a-half hour, uh, break where there weren't any appointments so I rode one of the city bikes over there. That was nice. It's been like really cold though, so I feel like I haven't been like, out as much as last time.

Then lastly, what can people expect from you in the future? What's the vision?

AD: I mentioned the recycled pieces briefly before, we're going to continue steadily working on that. On our website, we have a little thing in the top right corner. It's a recycling symbol. If you click on it, a waste removal counter will pop up. So all the pieces we've made from materials that would be otherwise direct waste, we include in there. Something I would like to see is that number to keep on growing. I think we're at like 400 pounds so far, I'm hoping to get it into the thousands this next season.

Oh, we hope you do. It was a pleasure, thank you for your time.

AD: Thank you, I wish you a good evening.