Authors Note: I wrote this story for my feature writing class. This story was created to inform people who have an interest in fashion and want to get to know more about local designers in the OKC area. This story was completed on December 1, 2022. I wrote and photographed all content for this story. For this story I utilized my Sony digital camera, Adobe Lightroom, and Microsoft Word. I utilized my photography skills such as rule of thirds and interviewing skills to obtain the in-depth information about NASH Engineered Fashion. I learned more about the process of starting a brand, as well as strengthening my interviewing techniques.
This is Nash Engineered Fashion
Nestled at the corner of Walker Avenue and Northwest 11th Street in Oklahoma City is a local clothing store with big ambitions.
NASH engineered fashion is a 1000-square-foot clothing store and design studio. When you walk in, the left portion showcases all their latest designs. A rack stretching from the front to the back of the store contains hand-made sweaters, sweatpants, T-shirts, shorts and skirts. The other half of the store is an open workshop, rows of sewing machines are lined up behind a large white table covered by fabrics, tools and paper that will eventually serve as the patterns for the clothes. A shelf containing threads of every color imaginable sits above the workshop illuminated by overhead lights.
NASH was founded in 2020 when head designer and creative director, Tamra Gould-Aguilar, made a six-look collection for her school project at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.
“The concept of the brand as a whole started when I was a senior in college,” she said. “The name NASH comes from a family name; our great great grandfather Louis Nash started an engineering company in 1905. Ever since then he created an engineering legacy and everybody in our family is an engineer. I felt like the black sheep so I wanted to create a collection that showed people engineering, fashion and art all go together, and that engineers and designers should collaborate more.”
Following the completion of her project, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Gould-Aguilar and her partners, Tressa Gould, and Juan Aguilar decided to use their time by making clothing in the upstairs bedroom of her parent’s house and selling them online.
“I had a job in New York lined out, but it was 2020 so the pandemic happened so I moved back to Oklahoma with my parents,” she said. “Not knowing what to do I ordered a bunch of industrial machinery and started making clothes and perfecting designs. We launched on December 24, 2020, we started with basic sweat sets and active street wear. Ever since then we have been growing and expanding and now, we are in our own brick-and-mortar location, and we have been here for about a year.”
With a fashion brand that started online amid the pandemic, Gould-Aguilar said she thought they would stay that way. However, when restrictions began to loosen and business made that transition back to in-person, Gould-Aguilar was shocked by the community support.
NASH’s creative process is experimental. Getting inspiration from fabrics, Gould-Aguilar also says she likes to think of problems in the fashion industry when designing and base her designs around her take on possible solutions.
“I know I can’t solve all the issues in the world,” Gould-Aguilar said. “I was inspired by COVID so I made a garment that had a thermometer inside that could read body temperature and if it went over 100 degrees it would beep. It wasn’t a perfect design, but it was thinking of an issue and thinking, ‘what do we want to fix here.’”
One aspect that makes NASH engineered fashion stand out from other brands is the unique graphic designs featured on their clothing. Those graphics come from the mind of Trafford Gould, a designer with Down syndrome.
“I came up with this concept about having Trafford’s artwork on garments,” Gould-Aguilar said of her brothers work. “He did the coolest sketches, and it was always crazy, I went home for a break, and I stole his sketchbook—he was very upset with me—I was making repeat patterns on garments and experimenting with that and my professor said I should take this to the next step and have him design garments or take inspiration from his drawings to make a physical garment.”
It wasn’t hard to get Trafford on board with designing the graphics for the clothing items. He naturally adopted the role of graphic artist.
“We don’t want to push him because part of what I think is so genius about his work is it’s subconscious almost,” Gould-Aguilar said. “He doesn’t have any limitations… I see (Trafford’s) brain as an untapped true raw emotion, and I think that really shows in his drawings.”
Gould-Aguilar said her husband Juan Aguilar, the art director, and head of marketing at NASH, was the person who started to get Trafford on board with creating the designs.
“We sit down with him and talk about what it is (Trafford) is drawing,” he said. “A lot of times he is the one that sits down and draws, and we let him know by asking if he wants to design some stuff for the garments and he loves it. When he gets going, we just let him do what he wants, he mainly draws animals and robots.”
The moment they knew Trafford was truly on board was when he came to them with a drawing and told them to put it on a T-shirt.
“People will love it,” he said.
Aguilar wants to expand the brand to build a more inclusive community within the fashion industry.
“A lot of times clothing that’s inclusive is made for people instead of them actually being included in the process of making the clothing and that’s more of what we want to do,” Aguilar said.
In that vein, NASH also works with customers to design custom pieces.
“I was so anti-doing customs, I thought it was going to be so much work,” Gould-Aguilar said. “We did it and I realized that it wasn’t that bad and now it’s gotten to a point where we have a waitlist.”
They have also started to immerse themselves in the manufacturing world.
“We started to take on a few wholesale clients of people who come in here wanting to start their own brand,” she said. “We’re kind of that entry-level really high-quality small batch manufacturer for these people and I am really passionate about that, becoming a solution to what I think is a huge problem for designers because it’s really hard to get stuff made.”
Lexi Holden, a loyal customer, learned about NASH from working with Trafford at the store Not Your Average Joe.
“I walked down to (their store) to introduce myself and I fell in love with all of their personalities and their passion for making good quality and super fun clothing,” Holden said. “Trafford is easily one of my favorite humans and I adore his line of clothing they make too. Watching them grow has been so awesome.”
Holden has collected enough pieces from NASH to fill a corner in her closet. She has also been a returning client for custom garments.
“I have five (custom pieces),” she said. “They are the best, the comfiest clothes I own. I would honestly switch out all my closet for their clothes if I could. It ranges from things you can work out in, lounge in, sleep in, to things you can walk down the street in and feel confident.”
Holden’s relationship with the members of NASH runs deeper than the typical retailer-customer dynamic.
“On their year anniversary of being open I surprised them with getting ‘it’s weird’ tattooed on my arm,” she said. “It’s one of Trafford’s many fun quotes and you can find it on a lot of his clothes they have here! So, I really am a huge fan of them.”
Although NASH stays busy with creating custom clothing for clients and keeping up with inventory for their brand, NASH makes it a priority to work with the Down Syndrome Association of Central Oklahoma (DSACO) to create clothing for the annual 3.21 fashion show. The Gould family’s connection to DSACO through Trafford is what opened the door to the collaboration of an inclusive fundraising fashion show.
“3.21 is Trisomy 21 which is the technical term for Down syndrome,” Gould-Aguilar said. “They have 21 models; all the models have Down syndrome, which is super full circle symbolic.”
The upcoming fashion show will be the third fashion show NASH has collaborated with DSACO on. The 3.21 fashion show will be at the Criterion in Oklahoma City. All the proceeds will be donated to DSACO.