Pascal Alouidor, left, and Derek Smith, both natives of Rockland County, wear clothing from their Alador & Smith clothing line.

Ever dreamed about creating your own wildly successful t-shirt brand, but didn’t know where to start?

Check out this article from The Journal News (via Complex) about two young men from New York who are really making it happen:

Stylish 30-somethings Pascal Alouidor and Derek Smith met as design students at New York City Technical College, where they bonded over their shared passion for fashion.

When everyone else was wearing Guess and Girbaud, the friends went for the more high-end Moschino and Versace. And when they couldn’t find the specific kind of graphic T-shirts they wanted, they decided to create their own.

“We had a lot of criticism of other (designers), so we figured we might as well try it ourselves,” Alouidor said with a laugh.

Now, their Alador & Smith line is off and running. (Alouidor, an Orangeburg native of Haitian descent, tweaked his surname’s spelling to aid customer recognition.)

Less than a year old, the fledgling label officially made its debut in August at the biggest venue for fashion buyers: the MAGIC trade show in Las Vegas. There, the newbies showcased their $35 fitted tees for men, emblazoned with streetwise slogans like “Rags to Riches” and “Every Dog Has Its Day.”

The T-shirts were such a hit, Alouidor and Smith booked $80,000 in sales in three days. Within months, the line had been mentioned in Entertainment Weekly, XXL and the Source magazines and spotted on actor Tyrese, rapper Saigon, R&B artist Trey Songz and hip-hop DJ Cipha Sounds.

This fall, the collection will expand to include $60 collared shirts, $85 hoodies and $85 jeans.

“We want to be able to build a brand,” says Smith, who grew up in Nyack. “I don’t want us to be hot now and gone tomorrow.”

To help stay alive in the fickle fashion world, the men have taken on additional partners to handle marketing, branding and promotional duties. The new partners – Steve Cover, Jamal Reid and Phil Shung – are all their longtime friends from Brooklyn.

Alouidor and Smith are realistic, too, about how long it might take until the clothing line pays the bills.

Both still have full-time jobs outside the business: Alouidor does multimedia design for marketing projects at The Journal News, and Smith is an art director for Marquis Jet.

Yet with projected sales for next year expected to hit $500,000, Alador & Smith might soon be the pals’ only enterprise.

The shirts are sold in 50 boutiques worldwide, including Platform in the Bronx, Brooklyn’s The Closet and Wealthy Hostage, and seven other shops in New York City.

“They’re one of our best-selling T-shirts,” says Jacob Parris, co-owner of Vinnie’s Styles in Brooklyn. “If the graphic is nice, people will track to it. And they have pretty cool graphics.”

Though T-shirts are a wardrobe staple for most men, regardless of age or size, Alador & Smith tees aren’t for pudgy pre-teens interested in oversized shirts hanging to their knees.

The line’s target customers are 18- to 35-year-olds who Alouidor says “are into their style, into their physique.”

Certainly, their styles aren’t for the out of shape. These tees are cut closer to the body, and Alouidor notes “an extra large to us would be a large on normal people. We want our line to be sexy.”

Alouidor, who is the label’s chief designer, also favors hues that more traditional guys might shy away from, such as pink and seafoam green.

“People shouldn’t be afraid of color,” he says.

He avoids some T-shirt trends, too, like all-over prints by brands like A Bathing Ape and Parish. And instead of “just plastering the name Alador & Smith on everything,” he comes up with an individual concept for each shirt.

Often, that means an off-center design that focuses the graphic on the shoulder or the hips, like the label’s “Daydreamin’” tee. A pixilated couple kissing covers the lower half of the shirt, leaving blank space near a wearer’s shoulders and chest.

“Everyone places things in the center,” says Alouidor. “I try to place art that’s not always in the center of the canvas.”

But whatever a shirt’s design, Alouidor and Smith make sure it adheres to the company’s motto: “Fly Like We.”

“That’s what we try to get across,” says Alouidor. “If you want to be fly, maybe this is for you.”

The next MAGIC fashion show taks place in Las Vegas from August 27-30.

Image: Elizabeth Orozco/The Journal News

Bookmark to: