Vaquera

Vaquera is a New York fashion collective established in 2013, founded by Patric DiCaprio and expanded through a collaborative structure that has included Bryn Taubensee, David Moses and Claire Sully. Emerging from a downtown, art-adjacent context, the label became known for an unruly, referential approach that treats American dress codes as material for remix, parody and “fan-fiction” play.

Vaquera operates between art project and fashion line, using exaggeration, repurposed elements and taste disruption to critique status, celebrity and the fashion system itself. Over time, coverage has tracked a move into more Paris-facing contexts and a sharper commercial strategy alongside the subversive stance. The brand remains defined by collective authorship and a willingness to treat clothing as both costume and commentary, while still engaging the realities of production and market through increasingly structured collections.

Vaquera’s philosophy centres on destabilising hierarchy. Humour, distortion and reference function as tools to question who fashion is for, how value is assigned and why certain codes are treated as “serious”. The label’s fan-fiction reputation reflects a method of rewriting familiar uniforms—luxury, Americana, status dressing—into something both affectionate and critical.

Collaboration is central, rejecting the myth of the solitary auteur and foregrounding community as a truthful model of how fashion is made. The work argues that rebellion can coexist with craft, but refuses polish as the only marker of legitimacy. In this framework, style becomes cultural text: playful, messy, sometimes confrontational, yet driven by the belief that fashion can be reimagined to reflect the present, with sincerity expressed through risk, wit and refusal of easy respectability.