The Cuban urban fashion brand Clandestina has opened its first freestanding retail store, Metavelso, at The Westfield World Trade Center in Latest York, operated by The Canvas.

“The Canvas is the right match for Clandestina. We’ve been working with them for a number of years now and every milestone is more exciting and rewarding. We see our partnership as a really organic way of expanding Clandestina within the USA,” said Leire Fernandez, founder and chief executive officer of Clandestina.

The shop features Clandestina’s T-shirts, caps, bags, keychains and other sorts of streetwear, all marked by the brand’s signature Cuban touch of humor, irony and eclecticism. The gathering works with NFT and digital art that’s present throughout the three,500-square-foot space on the bottom floor at 185 Greenwich Street.

Prices are $30 for small bags/accessories, $50 for T-shirts, $160 for cargo pants and skirts and $225 for jumpsuits.

“It’s incredible and good for our community,” said Fernandez, in a telephone interview Monday. She said the brand has followers in Latest York and Miami (where the brand is an element of The Canvas, a multibranded store within the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami and Westfield Shops on the Oculus in Latest York).

Other cities Fernandez is eager about expanding Metavelso are Los Angeles and Seattle.

Idania del Rio, founder and artistic director of Clandestina, added that the “Metavelso store is situated in a really inspiring and emblematic constructing. For us and for our community to be in Latest York is all the time amazing and joyful, an excuse to have a good time life and fashion.”

As Fernandez explained, “It’s not too common to have a fashion brand in Cuba. Life in Cuba is sort of different than the remaining of the world. She [del Rio] has a very high humorousness. As an alternative of complaining, we created Metavelso, which is a joke about all of the difficulties we’ve got — the economic crisis, the political crisis, the budget crisis.”

The shop, which is having a soft opening this week, features live Cuban music and showcases the corporate’s ethical fashion.

In line with the brand, Clandestina is the primary ethically sourced fashion brand in Cuba. Founded by del Rio and Fernandez in 2015, it has two physical stores in Old Havana and has been marketing its products globally since 2017. That 12 months, Clandestina began exporting items to the U.S. for the primary time and started selling through its website, clandestina.co., being the primary Cuban brand to market products made in Cuba globally. In 2019, it began to market its products in physical stores in Latest York and recently opened a recent store in the guts of Wynwood in Miami.

Last 12 months, they established a subsidiary, clandestinaglobal.com, to distribute their products within the Basque Country in Spain and elsewhere in Europe. Today, they export products designed and manufactured in Cuba to Europe and the U.S.

Devin Gilmartin, founder and CEO of The Canvas, said, “Clandestina and The Canvas have been partnering for years on experiences and activations that bring together our respective communities. The Metavelso store on the Westfield World Trade Center is the latest adventure, one that mixes reality and the metaverse in a spot where the worldwide perspectives of art and design are cherished and celebrated. To have Cuba’s first independent fashion brand present on the World Trade Center on this format is a testament to the resonance of the Clandestina brand and the strength of worldwide collaboration and community.”

The Canvas is amongst the most important retail tenants by square feet on the Westfield Shops at The Oculus.