Casper and Billow: using T-shirts as art
By Lindsey Rivait
Arts Editor
January 16, 2008
 One of the most common questions that plague Justin Forbes and Jake Witalec, founders and owners of LaSalle-based clothing company Casper and Billow, concerns the origin of their unusual name. The pair picked out company names individually only coming up with half of a good name each, “Casper” for Forbes and “Billow” for Witalec. “Needless to say they are both equally proportional in awesome, so we didn’t need much convincing to combine them together,” explains Forbes.
Casper and Billow is a customizable clothing line that promotes individuality, something, which the creative duo definitely personifies.
“We want people to start having a level of interaction with the things they wear. It brings a new sense to individualistic trendsetting. As of right now, we do custom anything, and in the future, we are also planning a lot of new and fantastic features around this concept,” promises Forbes.
“We not only give excellent quality and rocking designs, we give the customers the chance to choose, as much and as in a wide of a range as to their liking,” Forbes continues. “We grow with the consumers’ wants all while maintaining our original style and self-awareness.”
“We naturally work toward a more organic feel for our company, representing various facets of our own individuality within a framework that allows for the combination of many, often clashing, modes,” explains Witalec. Casper and Billow’s general theme in their clothing items is randomness, which allows for heavy customizing and the promotion of individuality.
Forbes and Witalec have considered themselves artists from a very young age. “For some reason, we have always been isolated from each other’s influences,” says Forbes. “This is important to us because it allows for our contrasting design styles and basic design philosophies,” adds Witalec.
While Forbes cites their imagination and sleep deprivation as avenues from where their ideas sprout, Witalec says their “artistic influences also tend to come from various art and dress styles. European ‘high-fashion,’ pop art, Japanese hip-hop culture, Eastern traditional arts, as well as a mixture of European-inspired and North American pop culture trends and the international rave scene,” just to name a few.
For Forbes, his designs represent his individualism, personality, and the opportunity just to be random. Witalec’s designs tend to reflect his emotional state, concept of self, and the need to express himself.
For Witalec, clothing design is so much more than just something to wear. “Clothing to me is not only cloth strung together merely to keep away the wind and the hungry eyes of passers by, but it is a very tangible and practical application of art,” he says.
Witalec believes that art is an extension of the self and self-image. “Clothing, as art, allows us as a human collective to express certain aspects of our personalities, our lives, and attitudes. Fashion is not simply whatever the current fad is, as to be fashionable is to be able to choose, put together and to wear clothing that fits one’s body type while meeting several other very important criteria,” adds Witalec.
As for the future of Casper and Billow, the team promises a new website, catalogue, fashion shows, and new commercials.
“We will continue to work toward finding more and more people of passion who may be interested in getting involved with Casper and Billow. This can mean anything from models to writers,” teases Witalec.
Casper and Billow clothing is available at Dressed to a Tee and Hot Spot in LaSalle, as well as on their own website. “We are currently working on a catalogue to give a taste of our style to those who haven’t heard the word or those without enough time or access to a computer,” says Forbes.
New for Casper in Billow in 2008 is the expansion into accessories. The team is planning to release scarves in February, as well as belt buckles later on in the year.
For more information on Casper and Billow and to check out some of their designs, visit them online at http://www.casperandbillow.com.
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