WORDS: Yahdon Israel PHOTOGRAPHS: Christian Torres

Because we at MakersFinders find joy in shedding light on independent Makers who inspire us, we embarked on an eventful expedition to the Agenda, Capsule, and Liberty Fairs trade shows in NYC!

Agenda, Capsule, and Liberty each accomplished the two-fold task of curating their respective spaces with Makers who best reflected their unique aesthetics without clashing with the others. While they each branched off in their own directions, there was still the sense it was all rooted in the same thing: (1) presenting forward thinking brands to the public consciousness; (2) providing visibility for brands that need help cutting through the clutter of a competitive and, not to mention, congested industry; and most importantly for the Makers, (3) having a space where they can connect with Buyers who will hopefully stock and sell what they, the Makers, create. All of this has positioned these three trade shows as a nexus for culture, creativity, clothing, and commerce to convene.

The inherent challenge posed to every Maker trying to fit-in is finding a way to stand out. From wearing their cultural and political hearts on their sleeves to throwing wicked whisky curveballs, here are 12 Makers who stood out to us at Agenda, Capsule and Liberty!

Our first Maker2Know is MAYA, the creative director behind Fried Rice NYC, an apparel brand based in Lower East Side of Manhattan, dedicated to "the global minds, creative souls, and multi-sub-culturally mixed up that live in their neighborhood and inspire them." We met her in the Capsule Show, "the premiere gathering of the finest apparel and accessories brands from around the world."

On Fried Rice:

MAYA: Well first, I love fried rice. Secondly, we're from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. LES historically is a center for the whole world of immigrants. Fried Rice is a sort of metaphor for the cultural and artistic diversity of the LES that has risen from that. All these simple ingredients mixed up together to become greater than their parts. That's who we are. We want to incorporate different kinds of urban cultural elements to make clothes that represent that diversity out in the world. We really try to look at the emotionally familiar patterns and fabrics in urban fashion but also try to add a globalist perspective to that.

On what she makes:

MAYA: I'd say our biggest focus is on outerwear. It's the kind of thing you can take interesting fabrics or interesting silhouettes and do the kinds of mash ups that we do. You're taking something Asian, African and street from New York and mixing it together. Along with outerwear we do really interesting shirts. We try to take some of the familiar heritage elements and twist them in an interesting way in terms of the global influences and our quirky asymmetrical thinking.

On the story behind their "Festival" Faux Fur Coat:

MAYA: We do a [faux] fur almost every season so we always pick the most eccentric fur. We're not super eccentric, but we want to have range as far as where we can go. This piece is called “The Festival Fur” because you can wear it to a festival or you can be the festival! It's a statement piece.

On where Fried Rice can be found:

Website: www.friedrice-nyc.com

Instagram: @friedrice_nyc

Twitter: @friedrice_nyc

Facebook: @FriedRiceNYC

Country of Origin booth at the Capsule Show.

Another wonderful Maker we met at the Capsule show was Ben Taylor, the founder of the London based knitwear company, Country of Origin. Everything they make—from scarves to sweaters—is of remarkable quality, the color blocking is brilliant, and it's all made in their workshop. No factories; just a team of six with Ben as the leader.

On Country of Origin:

Ben: Because we make everything ourselves, Country of Origin is about provenance. It's this intersection between the traditional methods of how to make knitwear and contemporary design.

On knitwear:

Ben: Rather than do a full garment brand—where there's jeans, jackets and all this other stuff—we focus on one thing and do it really well.

On color-blocking:

Ben: It's kind of inspired by modernist design and painting. You see things that are painted within the early 1900s with primary colors and they look like they could have been made yesterday. It's about timelessness and modernism. Things that will always look fresh.

On where Country of Origin can be found:

Website: www.countryorigin.co.uk

Instagram: @country.of.origin

Twitter: @countryorigin

Rodney Patterson is a Chicago born, New York City based, accessory designer who created Esenshel (pronounced: "essential"), an accessory brand designed to be an extension of the wearer, reflecting his or her lifestyle. While hats are Esenshel's beginning, they're certainly not the end. Future collections will include other accessory items that add to the wearer's sense of self.

On Esenshel:

Rodney: Esenshel is about classic men's style hats being reinterpreted. Instead of the hat being 3-4 inches, my hats are 5-6 inches sometimes. Sometimes they're wider, sometimes they're narrower. It's just about playing with proportions.

I started the business because I purchased a hat online and had it manipulated, cutdown and removed the feathers. It got a huge amount of response to it on the streets. People were like, "Where is the hat from?" "Where'd you make it?" "Where'd you get it?" I tried to take it to a hat maker to make more but it costed too much. So I started making the hats myself.

On Capsule:

Robert: It's a great place to meet stylists, buyers, and other small boutiques. And that's sort of thing: they come looking for new talent and brands.

On the story behind the Sombrero:

Each hat has a shape. The hat shape I used for the sombrero called a "Gus," which is actually a classic men's Western-style hat. Then I added the larger brim that turns up to feel more like a Sombrero. What's unique about that is, typically a Sombrero is a summer hat usually made of straw. This is felt.

I always want to do things that are really classic. But then I want to do something that's just truly creative and inspiring.

On where Esenshel can be found:

Website: www.esenshel.com

Instagram: @esenshel

Facebook: @esenhsel

The Incorporated stood out to us in more ways than one. They're a Seattle based contemporary menswear line—and Maker collective—created by Mark McGinnis, that blends high, low, old, new, vintage, and everything that influences him to remind us that there is no reward without risk. Risk-taking allowed Mark and The Incorporated clan to be named by Highsnobiety as "The Best Under the Radar Brand of 2016."

On The Incorporated:

Mark: The clothes are inspired by the different subcultures I was into when I was growing up. So this is just a reinterpretation of everything I saw in the 90s. I'm the kind of a kid who never found his group so I made my own. The Incorporated is everything I've ever seen in one.

On Clothes:

Mark: I have to create. And with clothes it's a better, more useful, way of creating. It's more applicable. When I was painting and drawing, people would say "I love this piece" or "This is awesome" but they'd also say: "There's no way I can use this."

My thing is to try and apply my ideas and creativity to be useful in people's lives. Rather than just be a fine artist like I thought I wanted to be, I decided to start making clothes as a better means of sharing my art.

On the story behind the tearaway denim:

Mark: I wanted to make a pair of tearaway pants but they had of been done already by other brands. So I just wanted to figure out a different way to do it. My production manager, Clinton, actually had a pair of pants that had a zipper down the front, and he's got his own brand and they were for that. So we did it on the side, kind of like a basketball pull-off motif.

On where The Incorporated can be Found:

Website: www.theincorporatedclothing.com

Instagram: @theinc0rp0rated

Jilleen Liao of ONTO NYC in her booth at Capsule.

Jilleen Liao is the founder and designer of ONTO NYC, the NYC based sneaker company that is rooted in the dynamism of its international community, focusing on accessible and effortless style that can handle the everyday. Her sneakers pleasantly state the not so obvious to help us see what's right in front of us so we're able to move forward.

On ONTO NYC:

Jilleen: ONTO NYC is a footwear brand that draws inspiration from the downtown skate culture of the 1990's. The name "ONTO" comes from the saying, "On to the next" because our shoes capture that energy of movement. All of the sneakers are made in limited volume using globally sourced, premium materials. This imparts an individual look to each pair of shoes and offers a softer hand feel compared to most men's sneakers on the market that generally favor heavier, harder leathers with more pigmenting.

On why she makes sneakers:

Jilleen: Growing up skateboarding, I have always had a connection with footwear and I have huge containers of sneakers at my mom's house to prove that. One of my first jobs in retail as a teenager, I worked at a store in San Francisco that carried deadstock Adidas from the 80's and 90's. When I moved to NYC in 2005, I somehow found myself working in another shoe store. But it wasn't until I learned to make shoes by hand during an internship that "creation" became a part of my narrative. Over the last ten years, I've had a wide array of opportunities both in domestic factories as well as factories abroad to gain experience in how to handle my ideas from start to finish. So the "why" for me is more like the "why not?"

On Capsule:

I picked Capsule because the community of other designers and brands are very parallel to what Onto NYC represents.

The story behind the Barbees:

This season's collection was inspired by Ellsworth Kelly's 'Atlantic' piece. As an artist he was known for playing with contours of both geometric and organic nature which I find is a balance that I've tried to strike with ONTO in terms of classic silhouettes combined with unexpected details.

I am personally a fan of patent leather and I found that combining the patent with this glossy, varnished outsole lent an eye catching visual appeal to the sneaker overall. I like how profoundly black the sneaker is. When you hold them in your hands, you do feel like you are looking at something truly special.

On where ONTO NYC can be found:

Website: www.ontonyc.com

Instagram: @ontonyc

Twitter: @ontonyc

Facebook: @ontonyc

Describing itself as "the most diverse and creative lifestyle fashion trade show in the world," the Agenda show definitely fulfilled that with its inclusion of Paakow Essandoh (pictured in the Ghana jersey, sitting down). The Ghanaian-American Texas-based Maker is behind the culturally-conscious, MIZIZI. A lifestyle brand dedicated to representing various aspects of the African and Caribbean Diaspora; and using this representation as a means to uplift the pride and self-esteem of those who are effected and identify. Paakow understands that representation, like black lives, will always matter.

On Mizizi:

Paakow: My current roommate, who I first met as a freshman at the University of South Florida, would walk around school with the dopest clothing. It would just have African fabric stitched into the clothes we wear in America. When I saw what he was doing, I realized I could market it back in Texas, where there were all these different African communities with various roots, which is what "Mizizi" means in Swahili: roots.

On why he makes clothes:

I make clothing because it's language. We wanted to make pieces that people can speak through and show how proud they are of their roots without having to speak a word.

On Agenda:

It's one of the top street-wear trade shows in America. Of course we had to be here.

On the story behind the Black Lives Matter jersey:

So the Black Lives Matter jersey was originally released February of 2016. We wanted to unite the African side of the diaspora with the African-American side in one piece. On the front of the jersey, under Black Lives Matter, we have the "Sankofa" symbol. The Sankofa symbol is an old Ghanaian symbol that represents just reflection and looking back on the past and learning so that you can make moves towards the future. Then on the bottom of our jersey, we have the black fist in unity. On the back we have 1865, which is the year the very last slaves in Galveston were notified that slavery had ended. This is what Juneteenth celebrates.

On where MIZIZI can be found:

Website: www.mizizishop.com

Instagram: @mizizishop

Facebook: @mizizishop

Twitter: @mizizishop

As a trade show, Liberty Fairs is sincere in its vision that space can exist "without boundaries." One of the key ways to get rid of boundaries is to go beyond them. Push them to their limits. Innovate. Marc Bruder (left) and Ben Zerbe (right) are doing this by sticking to the basics; literally working from the ground up with Worldboots. Based in Southern California, Worldboots is as dedicated to comfort as they are to luxury. While Marc, the founder, blazes the trail for the direction of the company it's Ben, with a background in prosthetics and orthotics, who's tasked with creating a shoe that can withstand the journey.

On Worldboots:

Marc: I started the company in 2015 because I got tired of wearing shoes that didn't feel as good as they looked. Especially for the price. The brand is called Worldboots because we're taking the highest quality materials from all over the world and bringing them to one shoe. And unlike any shoe company around here, an orthotic expert, is the partner, owner, designer, and maker of these shoes.

Ben: We have a luxury upper and we're breeding it with an athletic mid sole base. The athletic mid sole base is a proprietary EVA sole that we came up with ourselves. Phylon gives you that dynamic rebound, so if you have a problem walking and you're a heavy heel striker, it gives you a nice bounce back to the shoe. There's a lot of high end shoes that people but they can't wear for too long because they're uncomfortable. You can literally stand and walk all day in these. It gives you the support you need.

On why he makes Worldboots:

Ben: I want to bring something different to the table in terms of style, look, frame, and really build off the comfort aspect. I'm really tired of buying expensive shoes that are uncomfortable. I want people to feel good, look different, and show that creativity and uniqueness don't have to cost you an arm or a leg. If you got foot problems, that support is there.

Marc: Plus Worldboots allows us to give back. That was why we started. For every purchase of the Spanish Pink Lees, for example, $5 goes to breast cancer research.

On Liberty Fairs:

Marc: Liberty fits us because they're bringing high quality stuff that is not in that fast paced, retail track. It's more about the products. I think Liberty Fairs really shows that creativity, but the quality of the product is definitive here.

On the story behind the "Number 4s":

Ben: Clarks has been my brand since I was in middle school. And I always wanted a shoe that had the desert boot frame with the height of a high top boot but the comfort of a sneaker. And beyond what it looks like, the comfort is amazing as well. As I said before, this type of crystallized rubber's a little bit different, a little bit firmer, but you can wear these every single day and they will wear really nicely too.

On where Worldboots can be found:

Website: www.worldboots.com

Instagram: @worldboots

Facebook: @worldboots

Twitter: @worldboots

Posted in the back corner of Liberty was Ryo Ishikawa, the maker who started the Japanese street luxury brand, Vanquish in 2004. Based in Shibuya, Japan, Ryo allows the spirit of the city, namely the youth culture there, to lead him. As Ryo's main language is Japanese, we spoke to him through his translator. In regards to the brevity of his answers: they're the soul of wit.

On Vanquish:

Vanquish started in 2004. And it's based on Shibuya culture. It's a part of Tokyo. This brand is for the youth of Shibuya.

On why he makes clothes:

When I was young, my father and I would go shopping for clothes together, a lot. It's a big part of who I am.

Ryo pulls the Shibuya jacket from the collection.

On Liberty Fairs:

It's great!

On the story behind the Shibuya bomber jacket:

I wanted to make a piece that showcases Shibuya culture.

On where Vanquish can be found:

Website: www.vanquish.jp

Instagram: @vanquishjp

Facebook: @vanquish.jp

Twitter: @vanquishjp

Margarita Voultsos has been designing outerwear for the past 13 years. She was the head designer at Canada Goose for five of those years and now the Canadian-based Maker is braving the brutal winters, in Canada and elsewhere," with her new outerwear line Navante, which is set to release this August.

On Navante:

"Avante" is a French word that means "to lead." We put an "N" in front of avante because we're the Northern leaders. We have industry firsts within the collection. The way that our three-in-ones have been built to function together. The way that you can access your interior liner from your shell. Doing a camouflage, and tiger styled quilt on a down-filled garment is an industry first. We're quite proud to be leading in innovation and technology.

On why she makes outerwear:

Well, I'm Canadian. It's cold. The cool part about outerwear is the end use. I really enjoy building collections that have a purpose. Either to keep you dry, to keep you warm, to keep you sheltered from the sun, the innovation behind that, it really just interests me. I like fashion with a purpose. My expertise lies in outerwear because of that.

On Liberty Fairs:

I mean this is the right look, the right feel and the right people!

On the story behind the camouflage fur vest:

I've been hugely into military surplus for decades and it's because of the function and purpose. The way that things are designed, the innovation behind it and the end use fascinates me. It's very thought out, so even the detail of being able to access your inner liner pocket comes from a military function so that soldiers could access their weapons even if they had outwear on. Taking that and putting it into an urban setting, the whole innovation behind military surplus and the functionality behind it has always intrigued me. I've been collecting camouflages for a while and I figured out a way to present fur that looks like camouflage with our patchwork fur vest.

On where Navante can be found:

website: www.navantecanada.com

Facebook: @navantecanada

Twitter: @navantecanada

Instagram: @navantecanada

If we are to always dress like we're going to meet our worst enemies, Daniel Mofor is a man without friends. That's how stylish he and his menswear line, Don Morphy is. The company started five years with the idea to bringing "Italian quality and flair to discerning customers in the USA and abroad." While Don Morphy is based in Texas, their operations are worldwide.

On Don Morphy:

We take more of the really old stuff and we reinvent it in a trendy fashion. We go to all the top fashion shows in the world, look at the trends, from there we get our inspirations to and see how we can bring something unique.

On why he makes clothes:

Fashion is what I've always been passionate about. I'm very passionate about trying to get the young and working class guys to look really, really good.

On Liberty Fairs:

I came to Liberty because I wanted to reach a new audience and encourage people to step their suit game up.

On the story behind the Double Monks:

This one is all hand crafted and hand painted. I'm usually reserved but every once in a while I like a little color.

On where Don Morphy can be found:

website: www.donmorphy.com

Facebook: @donmorphyclothing

Twitter: @donmorphy

Instagram: @don_morphy

Matt Rho and Anthony Lupesco of Shockoe Atelier.

Presentation is most definitely everything, which is why we had to talk to Matt Rho (left) and Anthony Lupesco (right) of Shockoe Atelier, the raw selvedge denim company based in Richmond, Virginia. Matt works the business; Anthony works the denim. Together they work to create, like their Revenant-esque set up at Liberty, an experience that's one of a kind.

On Shockoe Atelier:

Anthony: We do raw selvedge denim in our showroom that resembles an art studio more than a traditional retail store, where anyone can watch the product come to life.

On why they make clothes:

Matt: We just love it. It's just something we're fascinated by. Denim, especially. Our brand, Anthony and I. Anthony's the designer, I'm on the business side of it. The characteristics of the fabric allow you to sort of see a garment evolve over time and with flair, and that process fascinates us.

On Liberty Fairs:

Matt: We love Liberty because of the people involved. Ouigi [Theodore] always been amazing to us. He's been such a huge supporter of the brand and so we want to be where he is.

On the story behind the field shirt:

Matt: What I'm wearing is our field shirt. It's a 10 ounce denim out of Japan. It's super light, very easy to wear. I love this shirt because it' super versatile. You can wear it as a shirt. You can wear it as an overshirt. You can wear it as a light jacket. It also just looks great on everybody who wears it.

On where Shockoe Atelier can be found:

Website: www.shockoeatelier.com

Facebook: @shockoeatelier

Instagram: @shockoe_atelier

Cooperstown Distillery booth at Liberty Fairs.

In the far back end of Liberty Gavin Harris, a maker and brand ambassador for Cooperstown Distillery, handed out sample shots of whiskey, gin and bourbon like Cy Young throwing changeups at the mound. We stopped to get a taste, the rest is history.

On Cooperstown Distillery:

Gavin: We're a family run distillery up in Cooperstown, New York. We've been open for three years. 80% of our ingredients come from New York state soil. We do vodka. We do gin. We do two times the bourbon. White whiskey, cinnamon whiskey. Rum. We do a lot of different things and we're really excited about the future of distilling in New York State and look forward to building a legacy.

On Liberty Fairs:

Well, Ouigi and Nicole of the Brooklyn Circus actually invited me to partake in the event . I've done some lifestyle promoting and cross branding with them in the past and they've been really good to me. Our aesthetics kind of work really nicely with each other and I'm really happy to be here.

On the story behind the Doubleday bottles:

Gavin: For us Cooperstown has a huge significance to baseball as this is where the National Baseball Hall of Fame is. We wanted to incorporate that history and significance into the design of our Abner Doubleday bottles. Babe Ruth used to drink whiskey in the dugouts. There's always been that connection between spirits, Coooperstown and baseball. It was an opportunity that no one else was taking and we thought who better to do it then us.