We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Julian Rios a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Julian , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

United Rivers is a luxury lifestyle denim brand founded by my Brother Camilo Rios (@Riocam) and my self in 2016. The brand modernizes the traditional American western lifestyle through superior tailoring and craftsmanship. 

We were born in Colombia, and very much inspired by our childhood upbringings with American movies and spaghetti westerns. After moving to America from Medellin during our youth, we ventured into the world of luxury fashion. Our surname, “Rios,” translates to “Rivers” in Spanish, which influenced the brand’s name. We created our personal lifestyle to iconic western denim shirts, blending our heritage with our passion for western aesthetics. 

Manufactured in Los Angeles, but based in Miami, United Rivers merges expert craftsmanship with high-quality materials to create a luxury everyday brand grounded in the Western American lifestyle. Some of our pieces include relaxed Western shirts and tailored denim goods that feature a modern nostalgic motif. 

The brand embodies the spirit of western modernism, with elegance and design, offering products such as denim shirts, t-shirts, and accessories made in the USA.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a Colombian-born men’s fashion stylist and co-founder of the luxury lifestyle denim brand United Rivers. Alongside with my brother, fashion photographer Camilo Rios (@riocam) we established the brand to modernize traditional American western street style through superior tailoring and craftsmanship. 

Before launching United Rivers, i worked as a men’s fashion stylist. I’m very passionate about men’s style and aim to help individuals gain confidence and explore fashion changes. Notably, I have collaborated with Colombian artist like Maluma, J Balvin, Sebastian Yatra, Ozuna, Piso 21 and many more, serving as their fashion stylist. I started my fashion career while working at The Webster, a luxury shopping destination in Miami Beach. I worked with them through partnerships and collaborations, Videos, World Tours and Fashion weeks.

Julian’s work with United Rivers reflects his dedication to blending cultural heritage with modern fashion trends, creating unique pieces that resonate with a diverse audience.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding a small clothing brand has been a major challenge and learning process of my career. But it can be done in several ways, depending on your resources, risk tolerance, and business model.

We started with self-funding for our first collections. It was an incredible experience and feeling to dive in with everything we had. But most of all we believed in our ability and passion to make this happen.

We managed to keep the brand going for several years, after we decided to stopped due to our fashion careers taking off and little time for the brand.

When the pandemic hits, we found ourselves with a bit more time and experience. We then worked on a new business model that would allow us to create more and expand the business. And then we found the right business partner.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When we started with our self-funding collections, after working with several manufacturers in LA, we decided to work with a Production company that had a bigger presence and was recommended to us by people in the industry. We started working with them and everything was going great, at the same time we had been working on a manufacturing agreement for our future, while working on it with then and our lawyers we continue to work on production as we were eager to get the brand going but while all of this was happening we found ourselves being scammed, with several thousand dollars invested in and zero product. We flew to LA to encounter the problem only to find the factory closed and no one to speak to or even to help. We lost all of our money, time and effort. It was a hard reality to be in but we only wanted the brand and our dream to continue. We found our resilience and we continue no matter what. You learn and you grow. Never ever work without a legal agreement period.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.unitedrivers.com
• Instagram: @unitedrivers // @julsrw
• Linkedin: @julsrw // Julian Rios

Image Credits

1) @julsrw and @riocam
2) me and @maluma
3) @rudygay and model
4) me
5) @unitedrivers pop-up