When I ask Spanish duo Manu Ríos and Marc Forné about their toughest moment in the first year running their brand CARRER, Forné is quick to reply: “Everything. I don’t even know where to start,” he says on our Zoom call, a slight smirk visible on the other side of the screen.
He is, of course, being blunt for comedic effect. However, I can tell he isn’t exaggerating.
In any business, the first year is often the hardest. And in the case of CARRER, Ríos and Forné have made a conscious decision not to take the easy route.
Ríos is an actor known for his role in the Netflix series Elite and prominent social media presence (10.2 million Instagram followers and counting) while longtime friend and collaborator Forné is a model and online fashion creator turned accomplished stylist (recently, he styled Troye Sivan for his sold-out Sweat tour with Charli XCX). The duo is not blind to the head start their profiles provide them; in fact, they’re acutely self-aware that plastering their faces all over their brand’s marketing photos would cause a spike in sales, however, they’re not looking for a quick cash grab. And they want their designs to speak for themselves.
“It would be so much easier to shoot ourselves all the time and have those images on our Instagram. It would make it easier to sell [to people] and cheaper to produce, but it’s our goal to make it work the other way around,” Says Forné. “We’re in a time where brands are everywhere, you’ve got millions of them, and there is a business strategy that works really well on social media. We decided not to take that route. Let’s see if we can make it.”
For its founders to actively avoid the spotlight breaks the mold of typical celebrity-run labels: “We want the brand to hold its own and in the future, it’s going to give it much more power if people are buying because they like the pieces, not because we are the image of the brand,” adds Ríos.
Under the tagline of “reworked classics,” the duo, with no formal design experience, has been busy perfecting the small details behind quintessential menswear staples. Their two bestselling items, for example, are a boxy harrington jacket with workwear-inspired pockets, and ripstop cargo pants with reinforced panels and a two-tiered hem detail.
Dressed in muted color schemes — various shades of brown, green, and navy — every item is a recognizable workwear silhouette or menswear essential given subtle alterations: a twisted seam here, layered fabrics there.
“CARRER is a contemporary workwear brand. It’s a brand inspired by comfort and long-lasting fabrics,” says Forné. “Our goal is to create a new take on a timeless wardrobe, a slightly new version of what we already love. We are big fans of very casual ready-to-wear brands like Carhartt or Levi’s, timeless brands that are part of our daily wear.”
By the founder’s own admission, CARRER is not trying to be flashy. It is utilitarian, casual, and wearable, simple clothing executed with carefully considered alterations — an approach to design honed over two years while preparing to launch the brand. But the story of CARRER stretches back far further.
While they’re both fuzzy on the exact year, it’s been around a decade since Manu Ríos and Marc Forné first traded messages on Instagram before meeting IRL at a party in Northern Spain, two teenagers from small Spanish towns.
They immediately clicked, lighting a spark that’s led to years of creative partnership.
Outside of CARRER, the two often work together. Forné has styled Ríos since his early days as an actor, culminating in him picking out Ríos’ Met Gala outfits, twice — “For both of us, it was a dream to work on that,” says Forné.
Their genuine friendship is the backbone of CARRER. This is, for both of them, a highly personal endeavor: their most worn vintage pieces are the template for their designs and their practical, pragmatic design language reflects their personal needs when traveling regularly and working as creatives.
Two self-confessed perfectionists, their hands-on approach means pouring over every decision and only expanding the brand when the time feels right.
“It’s nice to be ambitious and we see CARRER going to amazing places, but it’s very important to enjoy every phase, not to rush things. That’s very much our personality and it’s our brand,” says Ríos. “There’s a lot of us reflected in the brand and we wanted to make things as perfect as possible.”