Iris Alonzo

When I finished high school at fifteen, my mom asked what I wanted to do with my life. I said I wanted someone to pay me to have good ideas. She said she didn't think that was a job. I went looking for it anyway in publishing, music, film, photography and fashion.

It took me years to realize the job had a name — creative director — and that I'd been doing what I loved all along. Having ideas. The medium just kept changing.

Now I'm interested in what an idea can actually do. How it might change the way we connect, help each other and live together.

Which is how I find myself building iris.market around the oldest idea in commerce: we're neighbors, I have this, you need that, let's trade. Somewhere along the way we automated the people out of it. iris.market is my attempt to bring them back.

iris.marketFounder 2026—

iris.market is my trust-based, friends-of-friends marketplace for stuff, skills, space and time — cash optional. I started it after a storage unit full of things I couldn't name or price made me realize how much idle resource sits untracked in everyone's life. iris helps you use what you have to get what you need.

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ENORMECo-founder and CEO 2025— · Ettore Sottsass, 1985

ENORME began in 1985 as a postmodern telephone designed by Ettore Sottsass with David Kelley and backed by Jean Pigozzi. In 2026, we resurrected the original 1985 Delaware corporation — now six partners — continuing its mission of merging technology with radical design, led by Memphis Group member Marco Zanini. We also just stewarded the acquisition of Masanori Umeda's Tawaraya Ring, originally owned by Karl Lagerfeld, by the Museum of Modern Art. ENORME has been featured in Artnet, Hypebeast, Flaunt, Dezeen and the Los Angeles Times.

ENORME telephone sketches by Ettore Sottsass — Ettore Sottsass's sketches for the ENORME telephone

Karl Lagerfeld on the Tawaraya Ring — Karl Lagerfeld on Masanori Umeda's Tawaraya Ring

Masanori Umeda's Tawaraya with Memphis Group designers, 1981 — Masanori Umeda, Tawaraya, 1981, with designers from the Memphis Group — photograph by Studio Azzurro, 1981

Ettore Sottsass at Stanford University, 1985, photograph by Jean Pigozzi — Ettore Sottsass at Stanford University, 1985 — photograph by Jean Pigozzi

Marco Zanini, David Kelley, Ettore Sottsass and Jean Pigozzi in Cap d'Antibes, 1985 — Marco Zanini, David Kelley, Ettore Sottsass and Jean Pigozzi, Cap d'Antibes, 1985

Three ENORME telephones, sealed since 1985 — photograph by Maya Fuhr

ENORME telephone on a design magazine — The telephone, on the magazine that first ran it

ENORME posters, 2026, built on Ettore Sottsass’s 1985 logo

Statement by Marco Zanini, 2025 — Marco Zanini on the revival, 2025

How I Got Here

2026—Building iris.market, a needs and resources matching platform
2025—Founder, 1000, LLC — interdisciplinary idea incubator
2025—CEO, ENORME
2016–2025Co-Founder, Creative Director, Everybody.World
2004–2015Global Creative Director, American Apparel
2003Discovered post-modern design, Ettore Sottsass and the Memphis Group
2002Discovered Buckminster Fuller and Andy Kaufman
2000Discovered Tibor Kalman
1999–2004Early career — intern at Nylon; producer and agent for Estevan Oriol, Mister Cartoon, Kevin Kerslake, Patrick Hoelck; Creative Director, Freshjive
1997–1998American Rag Cie — worked at their massive warehouse, going through endless bales of true vintage. A 17 yo's dream.
1996–2004Self-directed education across Art Center, UCLA, LACC, SMC, Pierce
1996Studio Wardrobe Dept, iconic LA vintage archive
1995–1998Repped by Dragon Talent Agency; formative cultural immersion
1995Graduated SOCES, a GATE high school, at 15
1988Discovered Benjamin Franklin
1986Entered GATE; learned to code, communicate, create
1985–1989Read every Choose Your Own Adventure book and ending
1979–1997Raised on an 1880 family homestead, Angeles National Forest. Now a public park under the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.
10/31/1979Born at sunset in LA on Halloween. Named “Siri” backwards.
ParentsSelf portrait
GrandparentsMexican and Californian

Past Work

Everybody.WorldCo-founder and Creative Director 2016–2025

Carolina Crespo and I co-founded Everybody.World in November 2016, launched on $100k my mom loaned us and 11 years at American Apparel. I'd been let go twice and used the time to help the garment workers organize a union, then went back to what actually inspired me: old Colors magazines, Memphis Group design, manufacturing, turning trash into treasure. The New York Times told the story.

The idea: invite everyday extraordinary people to design the pieces missing from their lives, and pay them 10% of every sale. Jean Pigozzi sketched an eight-foot snake-shaped body pillow. Prakash Gokalchand, who I'd watched play chess in MacArthur Park for years, designed an easy long-sleeve shirt and the softest sweatpants. We made the Trash Tee — 100% recycled cotton, an industry first — and built out basics in recycled fleece, jersey and wovens, all made in the Americas. Lorde, André 3000, the Whitney, Google, Twitter and half of tech later used our blanks for their own merch.

No institutional money, no debt, no ad spend — just word of mouth and press, and it grew to $6 million a year. Carolina still runs it today, profitably, bills always paid, 55 cents of every dollar going back into local manufacturing and textile recycling.

There Is Life After American Apparel, The New York Times — There Is Life After American Apparel — The New York Times, 2016

Bales of discarded cotton — Baled cotton waste — the raw material for Trash Tee yarn

Jumpsuit, dollar store — The jumpsuit, in a dollar store

Jumpsuit and its sketch — The jumpsuit flat, next to the drawing it came from

The Everybody reusable bag — The reusable bag

Yellow bag against the sky — The yellow bag, held up against the sky

Informal shop at The Standard, downtown LA — The informal shop at The Standard, downtown LA

The photo wall — The wall — every shoot, pinned up

American ApparelGlobal Creative Director 2004–2015

I spent eleven years at American Apparel, ending up Global Creative Director in my twenties — high-waisted jeans, tube socks, the disco pant, the deep V-neck. “I single-handedly destroyed West Hollywood,” I like to joke; you'd see a guy at La Cienega and Santa Monica with his shirt pulled down to his belly button and think, what have we done. I joined when it was 1,000 employees and two stores, and helped grow it into the largest sewing factory in North America — Made in USA, vertically integrated, nearly 300 stores in 13 countries, 10,000 employees worldwide. It defined a generation, in advertising and in culture, for better or worse, and it taught me everything I know about building things at scale.

Made in Downtown LA — the factory entrance

Paper bags — The paper bag — every city we were in

The Deep V. — The Deep V — the t-shirt that defined a generation of chest exposure

Work Out. — Léa Seydoux, who I scouted on the streets of Paris before her big break

Legalize LA march — Legalize LA, May Day march downtown

Made in USA, Sweatshop Free — the full-page ad

Lindsay Lohan in the Flex Fleece hoodie — Lindsay Lohan in the Flex Fleece zip hoodie

Justin Bieber in the purple Flex Fleece hoodie — Justin Bieber and the purple Flex Fleece hoodie

Editorial, shot on the factory floor downtown

At a party — Petra Collins and I at her opening

Viva Radio tee in the fabric warehouse — A Viva Radio tee, worn in the fabric warehouse

The Viva Radio mark

Mexico City Monthly, May 2006 — our free newspaper

Jeans ad — Jeans — manufactured with pride in the USA

Factory Tour — the website, department by department

American Apparel store, Los Angeles — Made in Downtown Los Angeles — the store

Billboard — We're not politically correct — but we have good ethics

American Apparel, Paris — Place du Marché-Saint-Honoré, Paris, 2012

Billboard, Houston Street — The Houston Street billboard, New York

American Apparel is an Industrial Revolution — the factory, downtown

FreshjiveCreative Director 2001–2003

I raved through the mid-'90s in Freshjive tees and JNCOs, so landing a job there in 2001 was surreal. Rick Klotz — the brand's founder, a radical creative and gifted artist with a sick sense of humor — called me Irie. Andrew Hogge, later DJ Lovefingers, was a graphic designer there alongside me. It's where I got my first Creative Director title, producing The Freshjive Propagandist, and where I met Dov Charney, who slept on Rick's floor when he first moved to LA.

I put everything I had into that publication: Danielle Levitt, the late Shawn Mortensen, a painter working from inside a French prison, a prolific crochet artist I found on Craigslist. We launched the issue at MOCA's Geffen space before it was even built out, and hired a Richard Ramirez lookalike to do portraits with guests. Those years were a blast.

The Freshjive Propagandist — the label's own publication

The Freshjive Propagandist, spread — The Propagandist, inside

The Freshjive Propagandist, complete — The Propagandist, complete in its case

Collaborations

Hit Me Hard And Soft, upcycled tee — Hit Me Hard And Soft — upcycled from unsold tour stock

Everybody for Luaka Bop label — Everybody for Luaka Bop — costs printed on the label

Everybody for Luaka Bop tote — Everybody for Luaka Bop — the tote

Everybody.World by Felix Burrichter — 100% recycled cotton

Nathalie Du Pasquier for American Apparel, poster — Nathalie Du Pasquier for American Apparel — the collaboration poster

Nathalie Du Pasquier at work — Nathalie Du Pasquier laying out prints by hand

VB72 — Vanessa Beecroft invitation — VB72 — Vanessa Beecroft's performance in Miami, 2013

BUTT Magazine beach towel — BUTT Magazine × American Apparel beach towels, Interview, 2010

Sébastien Tellier, Sexuality, American Apparel pre-release — Sébastien Tellier — Sexuality, pre-released through American Apparel, 2008

Civics

As a fourth-generation Angeleno and fifth-generation Californian, I love this city and this state. I'm especially interested in communication, technology and design as they shape how we reach all citizens, so needs get met and resources don't go to waste.

MacArthur Park

In 2007 I moved into the American Cement Building and started the MacArthur Park Preservation Society, documenting Westlake — a neighborhood at the geographic and historical heart of LA, and one of its most under-resourced. Its character comes through anyway.

In 2018 I joined the board of Levitt Los Angeles, the free public bandshell in MacArthur Park founded by the late Liz Levitt. We booked mainstream and obscure acts alike, and the stage brought out every kind of Angeleno.

Chess in the park — Chess, every afternoon

The Westlake Theatre, 1926, still standing

State PoliticsRestricted folder

In December 2024, California's Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday invited me to write a white paper for Governor Newsom's office, from the perspective of a small business owner and brand builder. That led to a pro-bono Creative Director role for the then-frontrunner in the California governor's race. I still volunteer and stay in the conversation on local and state politics, bringing what I've learned running businesses into the room.

iris@1000.world

Los Angeles, California.