Senior Mike Freitag launched his fashion brand, Mad Scientist, last spring, with the support of many friends who could be seen wearing his custom-designed shirts around campus. With his recent second drop of t-shirts, I sat down with Freitag to discuss what building a fashion brand is like in 2024, both as a student and as a designer.

Freitag’s foundational goal with his brand was to sell clothes he would sew himself. He notes that he "learned how to sew last spring in the Costume Construction class," with Professor Katie Dowse. He decided to sell t-shirts he designed in order to fund his upstart, and purchase a sewing machine so he could start the work he was truly passionate about: custom, upcycle clothing.

"The idea behind Mad Scientist is to make patchwork t-shirts and hoodies, and have X-stitching, kind of messy … like a mad scientist put it together,” Freitag said. “Play with the colors, play with the fabrics."

His vision is for this to be fashion in the "Skater Streetwear" style. Freitag said that he gets inspiration for making clothing, and also his personal style, from just seeing people on the streets. Both San Francisco and New York fashion are influential to him, and he identifies his own style as "Formal Streetwear."

Freitag is currently designing the shirts, but ordering them from a company. However, his goal now is to move into thrifting items and upcycling them himself to sell: "I want to take two old hoodies, splash them together … make something new." He has plans to make hoodies, crewnecks and pants in this way, and eventually move into making women's clothing as well.

He emphasized how his goal was to build a community around clothing like how Tyler The Creator, Freitag’s greatest influence, treats his own clothing brand, Golf de Fleur. "The biggest thing with [Tyler The Creator] is the story and community he's built around his brand,” Freitag said. “That's what I'm really trying to focus on."

"Yeah, clothes are cool, but it's also the story behind it and what the clothes actually mean … The clothing industry is so saturated,” he continued. “It's nearly impossible to get big, especially for a young designer like myself. Money's cool, but that's not what I'm doing this for … I want to create art, create clothes, make something that people actually want to wear and feel good wearing."

Without the culture and meaning, Freitag said: "You're just selling a piece of cotton…a piece of fabric."

It's not only about the story of the clothes of Tyler The Creator, but his confidence in his brand. As Freitag said about the music artist and clothing designer, "[He] loves what he does, and doesn't care what other people think about him. I really aspire to be like that someday."

Freitag has much to be proud of in his clothing and design endeavors. In the age of fast fashion, labor exploitation and demand for cheap clothing is everywhere. Freitag is pushing back on this, both with his own clothing and in the University's fashion club. He co-founded Sustainable Fashion Club with Isabella Perlman in the spring of 2023.

"We promote upcycling, ending fast fashion and building a capsule wardrobe," Freitag said. "Our two pillars are sustainability and authenticity." He says creating a community around fashion was a significant motivator for him in creating the club, and helping people find their style. The club hosts upcycling and thrifting events for students. Freitag also noted that it was important to him to promote student designers with his club.

As for Mad Scientist, Freitag is now trying to build his company and is looking into hiring people to aid this goal: "I'm hiring a new videographer/photographer which I'm very excited for, to build a bigger Instagram and a bigger online presence." Eventually, he says he would like to have an interactive website where customers can look at the custom, patch-worked pieces he intends to create. This all goes into the story he's trying to build with his designs.

Freitag has dreams of moving to New York after graduation and continuing Mad Scientist: "I want to find a job…but if I'm able to actually continue with this brand, in full focus…that's what I would love to do."

“Imagining [the brand] growing really big, and working towards that, and the excitement it brings … when it comes to clothing, I know this is what I want to do … I want to design stuff," said Freitag. He talked about the uncertainty he used to have and the clarity he has in his passion for fashion now: "No matter what comes my way, this is what I'm gonna do."

You can find and buy clothing from Freitag's brand, Mad Scientist, on Instagram at @madscientist.apparel. To learn more about the University’s Sustainable Fashion Club, visit @scu.fashion on Instagram to find events and meeting times.