I have interviewed [Rhuigi Villaseñor](https://www.instagram.com/rhuigi/?hl=en) various times throughout his come up. From his early beginning tapping into the valley boy steeze, that has always been a guiding voice to his design aesthetic, to his now in his second season collaborating with Puma with his line [RHUDE](https://rh-ude.com). His triumphant immigrant story is the epitome of modern success and a great tale of inspiration for an any hustler with a dream.
For his latest collection with Puma Villaseñor delves deeper into the central codes of Motor-cross and Formula 1 racing, utilizing retro graphics and patchwork emblems and also inspired by 80s streetwear which informs the bold and minimalist color pallet. Dosed with reflective material details, this new collection serves as a great vehicle for streetwear to get a bit faster. We spoke to Rhuigi at his dinner to celebrate the launch chatting about nightclubbing, future of thrift, and Puma.
**Yeah I just wanna know like, Valley Life and everything. You rep it hard in the clothing still?**
Yeah, I think the story is repped harder than ever, you know? It’s still the same kid that took the bus that was dreaming to be luxury and the more I find out luxury is about the storytelling, the experience.
**Yeah it’s a culture.**
The culture.
**Exactly how is the second season coming along, what is the central theme of this?**
The first one was a prelude sort of like if this was a book, it was a synopsis and then the second version is chapter 1. I think it’s slightly expanded and more precise with the color palette, and speaking more into this is our language rather than just like reinterpreting a silhouette.
**Yeah, There’s definitely like a Motor-cross kid.**
Yes! It’s about that motor cross, it’s about formula one, it’s about racing. Something that I think every kid growing up has a dream of riding in really really nice sports cars.
**Another thing we’re always pushing is the fact that you’re really self-made and the way you built your culture and brand around your family, how has that been?**
It’s been great. It’s been great that I am able to tell the stories of what I felt were hardships, which are now just like building blocks. It’s funny because I look back at it with my friends and the hardest part of my life has become the stepping stone for me to really get to greater things.
**Being part of a new generation of American designers, do you feel like there’s a specific through**\-**line you guys all represent and that has come to represent your success?**
Yes, of course. It’s this new digital era but it’s about storytelling. It’s about our personal journeys and how we’re able to really tell it to the new consumer, to the new age that is completely kind of clueless in what history was prior to the internet. They can’t really back date anything to that. So in a way, we take advantage of it and we tell a story through our own lens and you know, it’s great to be perceived as luxury.
**What do you see this PUMA collaboration expanding to?**
Yeah, an expansion. So we have outerwear, we have introducing all the design language I built through Rhude. I see this more of a way for me to communicate in the larger, global aspect with the design. As I was speaking about earlier, it’s more of an exploration with design and a stronger say with the color palette. It’s really fully introducing things that I fully fully care about but you know, I always look back at this kid that couldn’t afford something like when I was growing up and I wanted to be apart of Yves Saint Laurent or Hermes or Nigo or Pharrell and I couldn’t really afford it, so I look back at the story that that was and how can I bring that kid forward.
**I mean, let’s talk about when you used to sneak into my nightclubs and all that stuff with Niko the Ikon, what did you wear back then?**
What I wore? I wore thrifted things.
**We all did.**
We all wore thrifted.
**Thrifted little designer stuff.**
Yeah, little designer thrifted things. It’s about the energy of like finding something vintage and finding something worn through time, but I think that it tells a story.
**How do feel like it has informed your design aesthetic? I do feel like there is this streamlined view of things that we would have found at a thrift store. I feel like I had that bomber.**
Yes. So for me another thing that I taught within the design sessions was looking deeper in their archives and just slightly tweaking it to modernize it but still telling the same story that you’ve said when you were in the 80s. Because now more than ever is very important for me to reinterpret heritage.
**I definitely think a lot of the shit we did pick through in that nightclub era was 80’s trash.**
But none of that is happening now.
**Now it’s gonna be Forever 21 in the thrift stores.**
Yeah I feel like kids are not concerned about that. But for me it’s about re-ushering heritage and retelling the story just like the native americans, they need to have someone that keeps telling the younger generation what the story was. And this to me this is the most important thing.
**What other upcoming projects are you working on?**
Monaco Formula 1. Basketball. Puma. A lot of massive stuff. I think this whole 2020 has been mapped out for me to gradually grow into it.
**Anything else you want to mention?**
I’m looking forward to building and growing with Puma.
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