We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Angelo Diaz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Angelo below.

Angelo, appreciate you joining us today. Do you have any key partners or vendors – if so, how’d you find them and start working with them?

Man, what a crucial step in the process. For PRETTY FLY SOCIETY and our flagship event, BOVTIQVE FASHION WEEK (pronounced: Boutique), our business model revolves around this step. As the NCAA of the fashion and entertainment and beauty industries, a big part of what we offer the culture is being able to leverage relationships and partnerships with big brands, so that the creatives we feature can benefit from the exposure. The cross branding is the core of BVFW.

As a touring fashion week focused on featuring top emerging designers and models, with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion, it is imperative that we partner with brands that find immense value in standing by these core values.
It does us no good to stray into hollow “sponsorships” that is typical in the world of event production.
So, as we’re fielding corporate relationships, we pay attention to whether or not they see the value in what we bring to the table.
As the “face” and Global Ambassador of BVFW, I carry most of this responsibility.
And, I’m paying attention to every step of the process during the courting of partnerships.
The emails, the follow-up, the intent, the focus.
All of these are evidence of whether a partner sees the value exchange in what you’re propositioning, whether it’s a venue, a persona, or brand.

The best example I can think of is our partnership with Goorin Bros Hat Co.
As the #1 Hat Company in America, and the oldest most established hat company in America, Goorin Bros sought top expand their footprint in the fashion industry. Known among it’s following for as a safe haven for every type of individual, and it’s allegiance with alternative lifestyles, they immediately felt a kinship with our brand identity.
A family owned business, led by Ben Goorin, who built a friendship with our Creative Director Franck Mille.
Franck had been working with Goorin Bros for some time, beginning his relationship with the brand as an influencer, providing “UGC”: User Generated Content. UGC is a staple for many brands in various industries, saving them millions of dollars in marketing and branding overhead.
And then came the most important step in our process: the escalation. After executing a transaction with a company, it’s important to let it be known that we are interested in escalating the partnership to the next level. Tactfully, of course.
Often times, this can be turning point, in a negative way or a positive way. Intimidation can be a factor, if your contact within the company has concerns about being outshined or out maneuvered. Fortunately for us, our request for escalation were heard with open ears.
And then, came timing.
A regime change occurred within the company: the Social Media Manager who Franck was working with left the company, and Goorin promoted from within. Around the same time, we created BVFW, and we were preparing for VOL II of BVFW in Atlanta.
The new Social Media Manager, received our desires to escalate our relationship and launched a title partnership with us, providing financial support, as well as hats for our runway shows, and provided our Opening Night venue: their beautiful store front location in the famous Ponce City Market.
With Opening Night a raging success, and the social media metrics higher than expected we moved forward with Goorin Bros, as we prepared for BVFW Vol III in Houston, a market they did not have brick and mortar in. We broke them into the Houston market with a number of pop-ups during the promo run for Vol III as well as Vol III itself, all of which proved profitable for the company.
Then, came more timing.
Unbeknownst to us, Ben Goorin caught wind of the successes we were having in our partnership, and at the same time was experiencing a turning point in his career in which we intended to take Goorin Bros to the next level. He befriended Franck Mille, and began picking his brains on a number of issues his company was facing. Franck created some bold proposals and pitched Ben on several of them. In response, Ben hired Pretty Fly Society to create Goorin Bro’s Fall 2021 campaign, something that is far outside of their normal business model, since they function mainly off of UGC.
And then, Ben created his own bold proposal.
He wanted to hire Franck Mille as the first ever Creative Director of Goorin Bros Hat Co. with the main goal of expanding Goorin Bros into a full fashion house.
Through this partnership, we were able to hire BVFW designers, models, and photographers.
Better yet, we were able to debut the world’s first glimpse of the first ever Goorin Bros fashion line at BVFW VOL IV in Las Vegas. This created tremendous momentum that we were able to leverage to our emerging designers.

This partnership and the escalation of it, is the perfect example of what BVFW provides for the fashion industry. Everything about it from the nature of it’s inception to the final stages of it, is exemplary of what we achieve, and we’re thankful for the opportunity, and every chance we get we spread word of it to industry professionals in hopes that they can learn from it and pull value from it.

Angelo, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a Writer by birthright, it’s in my blood since Mi Mama was a writer, and she passed that passion on to me at an early age. As an Actor, I use this passion for storytelling as a vessel. As the President of Pretty Fly Society, I leverage my celebrity and persona into wide scale opportunities for creatives of all types, including our touring fashion week experience, BVFW. ‘

More information is available at imdb.me/AngeloDiaz

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

For me, it’s all about creating more opportunities for other creatives, and disruptors. I’m really inspired by the lifeworks of Harry Belafonte and Muhammad Ali, so in my journey, I look to emulate the way they transcended their crafts by using their platform to stand up for themselves and others.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

It’s called hustle, to put it simply, lol. At the beginning of my acting career, I did a number of part-time gigs to fund my career and my ventures with Pretty Fly Society, like working in the food & beverage industry, freelance writing, tutoring, construction labor jobs, and Ubering. While you’re working these gigs, it’s important to keep your Faith at the center of what you’re doing, and understand why this gigs are feeding your long-term vision. I couldn’t tell you how many creatives get caught up in the grind to make ends meet through their 9-to-5 jobs and not have much left to feed into their creative process at the end of the day.
This is partly why Pretty Fly Society exists: to provide the platform to give these creatives the boost and encouragement they need to continue on their journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bovtiqvefashionweek.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/cubathegawd
• Other: imdb.me/AngeloDiaz

Image Credits
@1GlanceATL x Urban Gorillas