We talked with Zalli, the head behind anime clothing brand Ani-Mestiza! Here’s a peek into the process behind making designs, clothes, photography, and vending.
What is Ani-Mestiza?
Ani-Mestiza is a brand of alternative anime streetwear, aiming to mix heavy metal, rock, and other album covers with anime characters, merging their stories into one. The storefront mainly showcases shirts and jackets with interesting designs inspired by Judas Priest, Metallica, Megadeth, Queen, and other icons of the music industry meshed with Attack on Titan, One Piece, as well as many other widely known anime.
Their latest line, titled Ani-Punks Vol. 1, features a variety of well-known names, including Chainsaw Man, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, and even The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (2000). The other designs have a very similar grunge-esc style, with an iconic skater feel that Zalli was able to design. Her most popular product is the Demon Slayer x Queen, putting the beloved sound hashira, Tengen Uzui, and his three wives onto the notorious cover of Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s a nice combination of recognizable names while still having the anime feel.
As she’s said, Zalli isn’t afraid to mix two things that feel right together. She likes to say her 2000’s generation style helps define her store as “Anime AMV: the apparel,” with that similarly nostalgic and rebellious feel much of her generation grew up on. Though it is a very niche audience to reach out to, her perseverance and love for making apparel makes it all that much better. She knows people are trusting her with their money, so she wants them to have long-lasting and fashionable clothing of the highest quality.
Coming Up With Designs
Zalli, being an independent vendor, puts all of her effort into the clothing she holds to such a high standard. Running a total of 3 jobs, she designates her free time to expand the brand she holds dearly.
The process behind forming an idea first comes from her listening to a song, be it in the car or casually at home. Then, an idea will spark. It can be quick, or it can take hours. Yet a concrete connection between the storytelling of the music and an anime she’s up to date on will click. Then the vibe will describe itself.
Getting home and sketching the design is her favorite part. Blasting the song on repeat in her ears, jamming out to it, and watching that flow onto her iPad as a piece of art shines through really is motivating, and makes the concept hold more meaning. She makes sure to spend as much time as she can sitting down and perfecting it up until the moment it’s ready for printing.
“The joy of creating something. It’s what I love.” -Zalli
Some of her best designs come from these connections. She makes sure the connections aren’t just random. The Master of Puppets x Chainsaw Man design felt right, since both the song and anime follow the idea of someone becoming so blinded by addiction or love that you can’t see a thing, almost like a dog on a leash. With her Majora’s Mask design being focused on the end of the world, and the flamboyance of musical expression in both Freddie Mercury and Tengen Uzui, everything on Ani-Mestiza makes sense, and meshes in such a way that makes both the anime fan and rock fan happy.
Making a Storefront
While initially getting the store set up, it was a little stressful considering how niche of an audience she was aiming for. Not many people that know about Majora’s Mask may be an Iron Maiden fan, but the people who do love it. A crossover like Kobeni x Scott Pilgrim vs.The World (2010) may be easier due to the popularity of both franchises, but the core of the shop was more rock focused.
So how did she get her shop out there? Especially when more popular music genres like rap and pop are more in tandem with the anime community, she needed a style to make herself stand out but still relate to her audience. So she leaned into doing something completely different, and making the style of Ani-Mestiza much closer to that of modern streetwear.
Each vendor has their own style, and in a sea of cuter, more simplistic designs, Zalli thought it would be great to stand out with a darker, grunge-esc aesthetic. It’s paid off in a way that expresses the deeper side of anime with more devilish designs.
Cosplayers and Photoshoots
In terms of gaining an online audience, Zalli took a much more interesting approach: collaborating with cosplayers. Having studied film and television, she was able to appreciate the art and effort of cosplay, being blown away by the effort many people put into such a demanding hobby. And especially with love for the characters she draws already, she knew they’d be able to better express themselves in terms of her merchandise.
After attending some smaller events such as Sugoi Saturday and some Demon Slayer or Genshin Impact pop-ups, Zalli met Pop Umai, a now friend and fellow vendor focused on making anime-themed cookies. These two would quickly start attending events together.
At one of these Demon Slayer meetups, Zalli ran into an Inosuke cosplayer, who funny enough, was super in-character while doing push-ups in the rain. It was then she met Justin (_lowkey.jp), who would later come back to her shop in a full Chainsaw Man outfit. Inspired by the dedication he had, Zalli asked Justin if he was interested in working with her on her upcoming project. The rest is history. They have since worked together on many products, and have formed a group of cosplayer friends to help display her artwork.
To better show the extent of her brand, Zalli also wanted to get a female cosplayer on board, to exemplify how her merchandise is unisex. One interested soul was Mayah (uwumayah), who even expressed her love for Zalli’s artwork from the jump. She even went as far as to cosplay the “Illustrious Miss Makima” design. As an artist, Zalli said it was one of the most validating things to hear.
The process of photography for her brand is very organized, and Zalli makes sure to scout, prepare, and arrive with a clear idea of what she wants to shoot. It’s important to her to trust the cosplayers, and understand that they know what they’re doing, while implementing a personal spice for a rock and roll feel. Along with her photographer Derick (zzwderick), they map out shoot areas, rent hotels, and showcase that they’re people doing what they love. She has a tremendous amount of respect for the process of creating and displaying a cosplay, even to the point where the Ani-Mestiza Instagram page has expanded to a place for photoshoots outside of just advertising.
One of their latest photoshoots based off of the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise gained popularity from being one of the first standalone shoots on her page. Collaborating with Izzie (izziebellacosplay), one of the most talented modeling cosplayers Zalli has met, they were able to rent out dynamic sets, lights, and props to show off their variety of outfits. It came as an act of pure passion, and has paved the way for many more photoshoot projects coming in the future.
Where to Find Ani-Mestiza
Zalli believes that you’ve got to grow self-love, confidence, and perseverance along the way to get yourself out there. She also encourages everyone to just get out there and do the things you love, especially if you can do harder things working 9 to 5’s. She loves her clothing career so much she’s willing to spend her free time on the dream, and wants to promote that as much as possible (She is also currently watching Link Click and is loving the LGBT representation).
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