So, who’s running this ship?

Hi! My name is Clarissa Hong and I’m 19 years old and yup, I must be insane trying to juggle running this clothing brand and a 19 unit course load for my fall semester at CSULB as a fashion student. Although that may be true, this is more than just some cash grab side hustle. In fact, this is the dream. For a long time, I felt like what I wasn’t being creatively fulfilled by what I was selling. I’ve been running my other clothing brand since I was 16, and it did NUMBERS. Like enough to keep my a** in college and pay rent, which is a lot to me okay, especially in this economy. But the items that were selling didn’t reflect the art I wanted to create. Not to say I’m not proud of what my other brand has done, I just know there is more to be done. I wanted more. I had always been afraid of “what if this doesn’t sell”, which stopped me from pursuing the idea of “what if this does sell?”. So, thus created the genesis of TOOTHANDGRAIL

Not only did I want my hoodies to be something you’d see in a crowded room and have to ask the person wearing it where they got it, I wanted my hoodies to start conversations. Some designs are a reflection of my struggle with mental health, such as the “this is not rock bottom i can always go lower”, a design where a person is seen digging their own grave and insisting that life does get worse (dark, yet humorous), while others is just a reminder to keep going (as cheesy as that sounds), such as the “the world is yours, so hold on tight” design.

Listen, this is not your bulk bought Gildan hoodie. No shame to those who use blanks, this just isn’t a company that does. Everything, and I mean everything, is custom cut and custom sewn and custom dyed and all that good sh*t. All designs coming straight from this 19 year old noggin.

Now back to why you clicked on this blog post: Who is Clarissa Hong? Well, a piece of me is in every hoodie. Not literally though, that’d be gross and probably some OSHA violation, but everything made here is a reflection of how I view life. All the hardships and glitter compacted into some doodle I probably drew at 3 am, and then turned into wearable art. I wanted to be proud of what I made, and make people feel extremely confident in what they choose to put on their body. Like wow, out of the bajillion clothing companies you could’ve chosen for today’s fit, you chose mine? You can’t tell me you don’t even feel 1% better when you’re in a cool fit. 

You are what you wear, and thank God it’s TOOTHANDGRAIL, because this stuff’s real damn good quality.