About Us ☻
Welcome to Acid House Apparel! Our brand is inspired by the acid house culture derived during the late 80’s in Chicago. Acid house raves were thrown in warehouses that played electronic music, house music, techno. People recall these events as a “surge of energy” and a judgment free zone. Many say they felt beautiful experiences of a community full of happiness and comfort in dancing freely while truly feeling the music.
Acid House Apparel takes heavy inspiration from this culture’s fashion in oversized shirts, smiley faces, vibrant colors, tie-dye and more! Our brand wants to recreate a similar environment through apparel. We want you to feel comfortable with each piece we make.
Meet Lenisa
Hi! I’m Lenisa and I’m cofounder of Acid House Apparel. This brand was in the works for so long and I’m proud to say it’s finally here! I love to say our brand represents many things like individuality and comfortability, but more importantly to me it represents dismantling a system that doesn’t care about us and shining light on what real acid houses were. Acid house essentially became a youth movement that let people experience different states of consciousness through music, dancing and apparel. In Britain they were illegal and shut down quite often because of misinformation through the media that they were heavily used for drug use. Yet many acid houses were a free space where people were allowed to show their true identity. Similarly, today we hide behind societal norms of what we should be wearing, listening to, dancing like, and doing when going out to social events. Our identities work on multiple levels and this inspiration came from Kimberlé Crenshaw (american civil rights activist and scholar). She came up with this intersectional framework which derived around the same era. Our identity is beyond our sexual orientation, race, gender and included multiple overlapping factors. We will never be society's form of perfection and that to me is beautiful. Dig deep into what makes you unique and think beyond the basic identity factors. I truly hope you can feel my true meaning behind our brand. Thank you for shopping with Acid House Apparel!
Meet Yaya
Hellooo, I’m Natalia/Yaya cofounder and graphic designer of Acid House Apparel. I’m so excited to finally share our brand with you! In starting this business, I knew I wanted to be a part of something that would allow me to express myself artistically while also promoting confidence by being your truest self without the worry of judgment. I have struggled with finding confidence within myself over the past few years for not having the typical body type all girls have. It wasn’t until I began to dress for myself and not for others in which I felt extremely confident! Our clothing is meant to be eye-catching to induce confidence in oneself. In the article, A second summer of love by Luke Bainbridge, Pete Tong who was a part of the Acid House movement, he expressed the scene of how it felt to be in a Shoom, “It was all one love, everyone together. Anyone can dance suddenly, freedom of expression. Dress down, not up. Converse trainers, smiley T-shirts- a sort of Tribalism took over. Everyone was happy to be the same.” (Bainbridge, 2008, para.15). Seen as equals, all together while everyone was different, and united by the music. The Acid Houses were the muse to the apparel used in the late 80s early 90s hence the “smiley t-shirts”. This vibe is what heavily paved the way to create the vibrancy of our colors, style of smiley and the main influence of our story/ creation. We believe our apparel is comfortable and fashionable allowing you to feel confident in what you wear! Thank you so very much for supporting our brand!