Lanie Alabanza-Barcena, a San Diego native who moved to New York and got design gigs at places a lot of kids into street style would absolutely kill for (myself included), created Hellz Bellz when she saw how much street wear was lacking in the woman's market.
Since '05, Hellz Bellz has provided alternatives to the "cutsey" side of fashion, continuously pushing the envelope with in your face graphics, explicit imagery and bad girl attitude. The brand defies all the rules of conformity, since being heavily influenced by all thing subversive, from the streets of NY, '90s hip hop, to the sexploitation movies of the 1960s and '70s. Hellz Bellz is a movement on it's own, standing out amongst the many menswear brands in the industry. Progressive, hard, fast, rebels in society, and most importantly sexy, all describe what Lanie has accomplished with Hellz Bellz.
She would know since working at Rocawear as the ladies art director, is a pretty big load to carry & when you work for corporations like that, it's often rare that you actually design what you want. It's politics there as anywhere else, especially working in a corporate area.
Imagine having to answer to the design director, who had to answer to head of production and sales, who had to answer to the merchandiser, who answered to Jay-Z ( if he's truly involved). Regardless, I would understand that killing the creativity of an artist, and why bother to put the effort into someone else success?
AND prior to her working at Hellz Bellz, and Rocawear, she was the ladies graphic designer at Triple 5 Soul, while also working for various private labels. All these different aspects of designs, and Lanie's ideas and designs are never stale!
Bottom line, with her daily grind after work, creating Hellz Bellz, to her determination to constantly move forward in the streetwear market, Lanie Alabanza-Barcena is hands down in my top ten inspirational women.
"If it gives to the left, I'm sticking to the right."
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