IOTA HAUS:

A Coachella Valley design & fashion collective by siblings Isauro & Silvia Meza
text + photography LUNAFORA

Tell us about Iota Haus?
ISAURO: We are a fashion collective which started with my sister (Silvia Meza) designing clothes, and me being in the art world. Iota Haus stands for the smallest significance of existence, and then Haus is the ultimate design team that could ever exist. Together, it merges the two ideas. We’re local Coachella Valley designers.

What inspired you to get into fashion?
SILVIA: I think at a young age we both knew that it was something we were both fascinated by. Even though we were young, we would dress up in outfits and have photo shoots. Once I got older, I noticed that I didn’t really like the style that is portrayed through stores and I knew that wasn’t what I wanted to wear. So I created my own outfits and people were always interested in what I had to make.

ISAURO: Growing up, we always spend time together, thinking of all these different ideas. It wasn’t until we executed the idea to have a fashion show that we said let’s make something substantial out of this.

Is there a story or narrative that you want to tell through your fashion brand?
ISAURO: The identity of IOTA HAUS itself was born from our experience attending Coachella festival together. Every year, we would think, “What are we going to wear to this festival?” We’d try shopping and we would never find what we truly wanted to wear. One year we just decided to make our own outfits and realized, this is something we want to share with people. We decided to make an entire fashion line, instead of just designing for ourselves.

SILVIA: Essentially, when you go to a certain place you have an outfit that makes you feel a certain way for that purpose. We want everyone to be able to express exactly what they’re feeling through our clothing.

ISAURO: At many times when we’re designing, we’re thinking of how it’s going to look in the desert or where we’re going to be, or what we’re going to be doing. Essentially, all of the clothes that we make are to celebrate a utopia that is life, art, and music. Coachella is a grand source of inspiration because it is our home. We drive down for five minutes and it’s the backyard of our house. I would say, growing up with that series of memories, and experiences with all the different artist that come every year, definitely took a role in shaping our identity and what we found inspiring. It certainly is a different scene than L.A., or New York, or all these other music festivals around the world. Coachella undeniably has a particular style, drawing from a range of distinctive influences. I would say that it most positively inspired us to design our line.

When you attend festivals, what’s one of the main things that stuck to your mind?
SILVIA: I think diversity has to be one of the main ones. I really enjoyed, and kind of something that we also tied in with models as well. We want it to be diverse, we want to select diversity between our models. It’s something that I think is very important, because we come and we bring styles from all over the world. People all come together in one area to express what we feel about music. I really enjoyed being able to look at everyone’s outfits and people as well, and kind of bring it all together.

ISAURO: The experience always evolves, because the first time I went to Coachella fest, I think I was about 15 years old, it sort of takes a part in our life, that sort of evolves with time. Seeing everybody live their lives ecstatically, it’s definitely an inspiration. People putting their best looks forward, and fully expressing themselves without having to commit to a particular style, and conform to like, “I’m going to go to work. I have to wear the classic tie suit and look this certain way for somebody else.” People pick certain outfits and certain looks, because that’s who they want to embrace. For some, it’s their alter ego, for instance. We really enjoy that about the fashion. When we see people coming to our hometown, it’s like this astonishing world, because it’s a liberating yet an exhilarating atmosphere. For these three days that we get to be at this event (Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival), it’s full of people and full of life and color. We hope that through our fashion, we are preserving that noise and artistic creativity, so that it’s here forever.

web iotahaus.com