Fashion subscription brand Five Four Club CEO Andres Izquieta has a new exciting project premiering on Esquire Network October 29th at 10:00 PM EST/PST. Teaming up with CSI: Miami actor and friend Omar Miller, Izquieta is part of the travel show Weekend Fix. The six-part series follows Izquieta and Miller as they travel to various cities and use social networking to find the best restaurants and experiences that are often not in your typical travel book. The Fashionisto caught up with the designer turned adventurer for a Q&A session.
What appeals to you the most about traveling?
The most appealing thing about travel is the unknown. I love discovering the new and the experience that comes with it.
How did Weekend Fix come about?
Weekend Fix came about while Omar and I were in Tokyo back in March 2012. We were doing a Weekend Fix style trip, and after an unreal experience that we had one evening at a restaurant, we joked the next morning that it would be funny if we made a travel show based on our experiences, but integrating the use of technology into it in the same way that we used technology throughout that entire trip. I got back to LA, I google’d “how to create a TV show” and figured out some of the basics and approached Omar with the idea again. We then planned it out, along with his producing partner who is his brother, and we shot a reel in Seattle and sold the show to Esquire Network ourselves.
What was the most exciting place you visited?
The most exciting place I visited on Weekend Fix was Vancouver, mainly because I hadn’t been there before. All of the other places where we filmed I had visited at least once before. Back to my statement earlier of always wanting to discover the new, I had that same adrenaline rush when I first landed in Vancouver. The most exciting city for me outside of the show is Tokyo. It’s by far my favorite city in the world to visit time and time again…have been there six times now.
What are your top travel tips?
- Travel light; only travel what you can carry on
- Always use technology; when traveling, your phone and technology are your best friends. Let your phone be your compass.
- Go with no plans; I rarely travel with a set agenda if it’s for pleasure. Spontaneity always leads to the most memorable experiences.
- Don’t hesitate to try the unknown. Always step out of your comfort zone and learn from other things, taste new cuisines, be open to everything.
- Appreciate culture. I’ve done some of my most personal growth via travel, and experiencing other cultures.
What are the most versatile clothes to pack for a trip?
For Spring-Summer:
- shorts (light gray)
- lightweight raw denim
- white button down shirt
- lightweight nylon jacket (khaki, or blue)
- gray casual sneakers
For Fall-Winter:
- black raw denim
- dark button-down
- wool jacket, gray
- vest, black
- mock neck sweater, usually in gray color
How is Five Four going?
Five Four is going great. As of 2012, Five Four has become a membership service: Five Four Club. We didn’t know what to expect on day 1, and that day 1200+ people joined. We knew we were on to something. About 30 months later, we are at over 60,000 members in North America. What’s really great about the service, is that we are solving a huge problem: men don’t like to shop. We get emails daily from members who are huge fans of the service, and let us know how we’ve made their lives so much easier. Essentially, that’s one of the main goals of Five Four Club. The other one, is to help guys try new things and get out of their comfort zones. Fashion can be an uncomfortable thing for most guys to embrace and we’ve made it easy for our members to try new things while making them dapper at the same time.
What surprised you most about Five Four and what customers respond to?
The way that members have really gravitated towards the service was surprising. I felt real confident about the idea when we created it, but I didn’t think it would be this big this fast. Our intuition proved correct and now we have an amazing member base with a very exciting business. We’ve gone against the grain of what a typical fashion business should be like, and created our own niche. What’s interesting now about the Five Four business model is that there is no road to follow, we are the ones creating that road. That’s very exciting to me.
