It's often said you should never go into business with friends or family-but when your best mate for the last 20 years or so is one Justin Timberlake, there may be an exception to that rule.
Let us introduce you to Trace Ayala, former personal assistant to Timberlake, now one half and chief designer of Los Angeles-based clothing label, William Rast. But, unlike a number of celebrity clothing labels we could mention. William Rast is not just another method of massaging the celebrity ego-fashion has been an important part of Ayala's and Timberlake's life for a long time.
Although never working in a professional fashion role, Ayala has been making clothes for his friends and selling to his local stores for a number of years, and clearly has a passion for it. This, coupled with Timberlake's genuine love of clothing, made for a perfect partnership to enter the fashion arena.
Named after Timberlake and Ayala's grandfathers-one called William and the other Rast-the label launched last year in the US to much critical acclaim, thanks to its high-end fabrications, designs and strict attention to detail. And it sees Ayala sharing the limelight with his buddy for the first time, too. "It's been an experience, I can tell you," says Ayala. "I'm so used to him being the main person, and it's strange not to be hovering in the background. But, I'm getting used to it, just."
The idea of William Rast has been on the backburner for some time, with both Timberlake and Ayala waiting for the right time to do it.
"Justin has a break in his career and we just thought, let's go for it." What followed were months of extensive research into the various levels of the market, and looking closely at brands the loved, J. Lindeburg, Gucci and Levi's among them, and eventually reaching the decision that they were going to target the high-end sector.
"We knew that we could not create and back a brand that we truly didn't believe in or that we wouldn't wear ourselves," he says. "So, we went to our closets and pulled out our favorite pieces and put everything together, and decided on what sort of pieces we liked. This included high-end denims and Italian suiting, as well as vest sweaters."
