FilAm Designer Roemello Ugale and The Rise of Golden Age Thrift

Written By Nico Belasco

After tinkering with the idea of sharing his process online, FilAm Artist/Designer Roemello Ugale (owner of Golden Age Thrift, a screenprinting company that he runs out of his home in Los Angeles) decided to leave his doubts at bay and post videos about how he practices his craft. A few posts were all it took for him to take the internet by storm. Overnight, Roemello gained thousands upon thousands of followers, launching him into the radars of people across the globe. Today, his work can be found in stores worldwide. We’ve put together a few fun facts for you to get to know him and his incredible journey better. Happy reading! 

1. He grew up in Washington 

Roemello was born in Stockton, California to two loving parents, Kenny and Jenny. When he was 6 years old, his family moved to Washington State, where he spent the majority of his formative years. Roemello grew up in the woods, a little further out from town. His childhood consisted of lots of exploration in nature. 

2. He graduated from California Lutheran University

Roemello graduated from California Lutheran University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Production. Here, he started coming into his own and nurturing his entrepreneurial spirit. In his freshman year, he taught himself to cut hair and by his senior year, he worked in between his classes, cutting hair for teachers, faculty, students, and people from all over. 

“When I came out to Los Angeles for college, I went to California Lutheran University and got my Bachelor’s Degree in Music Production, it was kind of like a reverse culture shock. I was like ‘ah man, there’s a lot of brown people’. But it was kind of cool. It was interesting because I felt like when I grew up in Washington, I didn’t really fit in with a lot of people based on how I looked, and then when I came out here I didn’t really fit in with my people because I didn’t grow up around my people, so to speak. But I also feel like that was cool because it gave me a new perspective and like I don’t have to try to adhere to any kind of norms necessarily. I can just be me, and I like that.”

3. He loves to thrift

When Roemello was younger, his father would take him to Goodwill to kill time before his soccer practices. Here, his fascination with vintage clothes and thrifting came to life. In his high school years, Roemello made a business out of selling vintage clothes. “For me, the thing that I enjoy most about thrifting is the hunt and finding something. It’s like ‘ah man I found this crazy pair of pants and I paid six dollars for them’. I think that’s so cool, you know, like, you find really quality stuff,” he shared. 

His fascination with thrifting evolved into his passion for screen printing. It all began his junior year of college when he took a road trip to St. Louis with a friend. A quick visit to another screen printing friend’s house was all it took for him to be intrigued with the art. He went back to Los Angeles eager to learn more about the craft and how it worked. After three months of diving into research, he made his first shirt, and the rest is history. He built a working space in his garage and started on his journey to create clothes that reflected his style. 

4. He went viral overnight 

After careful thought and consideration, Roemello decided to create tutorial videos and post them on Instagram and Facebook. He kicked things off with a 4 video series on burning screen print screens by himself at home. His first video garnered over 15,000+ likes and racked in 315,000 views.The following videos consistently performed well, all of them went above 50,000+ in views. Roemello touched on his process and broke down coating, transparencies and exposure time, and burning and washing the screen out. His following went from a few thousand to over 30,000+ followers on Instagram. 

“What’s interesting is, before reels and Tiktoks were even a thing, I used to record process videos and put them on my Instagram stories on my personal page. I would do things one shot at a time. It was always about getting weird angles. I always thought that was the cool part about making videos. Once Tiktok and Instagram reels came around, my mom kept saying like ‘ah, you need to make Tiktoks and I was like ‘I’m not going to make corny Tiktoks’. At the time, all I knew was girls dancing. You know? Goofy videos. Then eventually I realized I needed to get my numbers up. I was like, I don’t want to make corny videos. I’m just going to do things that I think are cool. So then, numbers started going up more and more. What really cracked it off was I started making tutorial videos. That was the first time I went viral. I have a series of 4 that I did and they all have like several hundred thousand. On Instagram and Tiktok, those series did really well,” he shared. 

5. His work has been admired by remarkable artists in the industry

Since his start, Roemello’s clothes have been spotted on music icons like Juicy J, Pusha T and Vel Nine. Check them out below! 

“The Juicy J feature came about when I was at a market in downtown LA. Two women were looking through my booth when one of them told me that she was Juicy J’s stylist and would like him to wear some of my clothes for a video shoot that was happening four days from then. I told her that I could get her a few pieces if she sent me his sizing info. Luckily, I had a lot of already made clothes that would fit him and a few blanks in his size, and had the idea to make very abstract clothes combining multiple screens. She ended up choosing the pair of pants that I made specifically for him, which I was very happy about, and another t-shirt that I had made as a commission for another client. Ultimately I feel like continuing to put myself in different areas and showing my art in different and new environments,” he shared.

6. He created his own music 

Roemello grew up loving music. Hip Hop, in particular, played an instrumental role in his decision to create music of his own. Growing up, he performed a couple of times in high school and in college. He played at different venues in Los Angeles with the band “No Suits”.  

“I loved hip hop all my life. That is my first true love, and it still is because I feel like when I was growing up I felt like I really didn't have anything to relate to necessarily. So music was like all I had. I always had my headphones in. I really thought that it was so cool how all these other artists had their own style. They were so unique in their own right. When I first started making music, I wanted to be a dj so I saved up all my money and bought turntables. I tried mixing stuff but I was not good at it. Once I got to school, I started sampling. I was an audiovisual technician for a couple years. So I ended up getting a bunch of equipment that my school was donating. I figured out how to connect it to my laptop and sample vinyl just like the pioneers did,” he shared.

7. He collaborated with Levis 

Only two years into creating clothes of his own, Roemello was offered the opportunity of a lifetime. As he was selling at the Rose Bowl Flea Market one day, he was approached by someone who worked for Levis in San Francisco. About a year after connecting, Roemello hopped on a call with the Levis team and got to talking about exploring the possibilities of an exciting collaboration. In no time, he was hard at work designing pieces that would ultimately be admired by people all over the world. 

“It was never a dream of mine. But I do think the coolest thing was that I had nothing. I come from nothing. This was all based out of love, true love and passion for this thing that I do. Out of love for the craft and respect of printmaking. No ties, I just wanted to make the coolest stuff. I didn’t kiss anybody’s butt. I didn't ask for nothing. I get a lot of respect based off of that. Ultimately to me, art is paramount. It's always about making the best stuff. I think it's super cool that I can be a testament to that,” he said. 

Now, his work is available worldwide online and can be found in stores across the globe. 

8. He is a muay thai fighter 

Roemello’s love for martial arts started when he was moved to Washington. His parents discovered Zen Martial Arts, where he primarily trained in taekwondo, but also learned the ins and outs of boxing, muay thai, jiu jitsu, stick fighting, karate, and practically every form of martial arts. Roemello took the sport so far that he competed internationally in tournaments, winning the majority of the ones that he competed in. This went on for 5 years until he bid martial arts goodbye to focus on soccer. 

He recently dove back into the world of martial arts, training muay thai. After a year and a half of training, he took on his first match and won. 

9. He has words of wisdom for everyone

When asked if he had advice for those who’d like to follow in his footsteps, he shared, “Be yourself, number one. Put the work in. There’s no shortcuts in this. You might find one but if you are doing a short cut, you are also cutting short valuable lessons that you could have learned along the way. So you’re missing out on vital information by cutting corners. Have faith! I guess that’s number one. Have faith in yourself. Have faith in what you do. Have faith that it’s going to work out. Don’t give up. Just keep trying. Do you.”

10. He is proud of his Filipino roots

Growing up half Mexican and half Filipino in a predominantly white area of Washington, Roemello found himself the center of countless racist jokes. Throughout his life, he had faced discrimination and was talked down to a lot, simply based on the way he looked. Roemello made it a point to prove himself in every room he stepped into; sitting up straighter, talking more proper, on his best behavior in hopes of having the same respect given back to him. 

Despite the hate he experienced, he is proud of his roots. When asked what it meant to be Filipino to him, he shared, “To go off stereotype, I believe this wholeheartedly, I think being Filipino means being kind, friendly, open, and loving. I love that about our people. We are all so friendly and I love that. Just having a warm heart and being kind to everybody. That’s a message I can get behind one hundred percent. So I guess that’s what being Filipino is to me.”

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Written By Nico Belasco

Photographer, Writer, Speaker, Podcast Host, Creative

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