Tell me briefly what your line is all about, how you got
started, and what you think makes you stand out from the rest of the
streetwear scene.
 
5733: We're just a little company doing what we feel like. That's the
main ingredient. If we don't feel like doing something we don't. If we
have some goofy idea we like, we do it. This is supposed to be fun. I
assure you there are no demographic charts at the studio. That's what
keeps it all genuine. Occasionally we do something that sucks, but we
take great pride in the fact that it "genuinely" sucks. This all
happened by accident. We were just playin' around screen printing stuff
for our friends. We knew some of the guys at Hieroglyphics in Oakland
and they had a screen printing set up in their warehouse, from there,
everything just escalated.

Actually there is no "streetwear" scene, this is a common
misconception. See a long time ago there were people doin things, being
creative, having fun, wearing clothes, expressing themselves, you know,
living. Then another group of people with smart phones and BMW's needed
a word to describe what the first group of people were doing to
marketing execs and investors. So they came up with the term
"Streetwear" to describe a plethora of creative and often incongruous
styles that they didn't know anything about.

Where did you get 5733? My math is terrible.

5+7=12. 12 is the square root of 144 which is commonly the quantity T-shirts are purchased in. 33 is the square root of 1089. 1098, in
addition to being both a nonagonal number and a centered octagonal
number, is also the year the Byzantine Empire conquered Crete. 5733 is
also our street number.

Your designs are part political statement, part street art. What inspires your designs?

Life, NPR, cinema, all the information that floats around out there.
Ideas about achievement, society, perception and such. Some things just
stick, they stay with us. We carry them around. The things that stick
are what make us who we are. We're just expressing who we are. We all
write our own histories. Through emphasis and omission we create our
identities. This is just us, being us. That said I think we also have a
definite agenda, but that would be a long and tedious explanation.

What about the various Asian allusions? What's up with that? May I
ask also about the seemingly LGBT thread also hinted at in your work?

I can answer both really simply. We live in the Bay Area. Lots of
Asians, lots of LGBT, lots of LGBT Asians. To that end I think we
reflect what's around us.

Oakland plays big into your designs and concepts. Why Oakland? How
would you describe the fashion scene there? It's not exactly Milan.

There's a fashion scene in Oakland? It's not Milan for sure, cuz Milan
doesn't have a major league baseball team yet. It's more like Rome,
particularly East Oakland, where the Coliseum rises in grandeur amidst
the bustle of the city reminding us of our former greatness i.e. the
72,73,74 A's. Honestly, we hella heart Oakland and we also pay hella
less rent here. Oakland is super diverse and has a lot to offer it's a
good place work and live and focus. There is no facade to it. It is
what it is.

Why did you decide to sponsor Mr. Hyphen this year? In your opinion, who makes a good Mr. Hyphen?

Mr. Hyphen should have an air of confidence and a certain understated
sophistication. He should be a man who can hold his own,
intellectually, in any forum and at the same time know how to throw
back a few at the neighborhood dive. Mostly though, the decision should
be contingent on the size of his penis.

This question is for Loretta. As a Vietnamese American, what do you
parents think of this?  Is there no end to the shame we have brought to
our families?

They were strict but it helped being the seventh child out of eight because to
some degree, I think they were done with parenting when I came along. I
was scrutinized more for my moral character, but when it came to career
I was left alone to do what ever I wanted. I studied design and art and
worked odd jobs and they never cared. Right now, I think they are so
relieved that I'm "no longer" a lesbian.

What's next for 5733?

I don't know. What did you have in mind?
 

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Mr. Hyphen 2009 will take place on Saturday, November 14 at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Buy tickets here!