Fashion for Good

03/01/2025
By Ed Brennen

Designer/DJ Lance Rego ’24 Revels in Underground Fashion

Some high school sports teams fundraise by holding car washes. When business alum Lance Rego ’24 and his esports teammates at Somerville High School needed to raise money so they could travel to Counter-Strike video game tournaments around the country, they launched a clothing brand called Big Chillin.

It was pretty basic gear: hoodies, T-shirts and hats featuring a picture of a frog. But by leveraging the livestreaming platform Twitch, it went viral with the Counter-Strike gaming community. Rego says they would announce a live sale to thousands of people in the chat and sell over $30,000 in merch on Shopify in a day.

“This is what made me obsessed with clothing,” Rego says. “It was just a hat with a little frog on it, and it sold out in two minutes every single time. It had an intangible aura that people were just attracted to. I learned how this perceptive thing happens to people that makes them loyal, even addicted, to a movement.”

Rego continued with Big Chillin until his sophomore year in the Manning School of Business before pivoting to start a new street-wear label of his own, Masquerade Lance Rego.

“Everyone is part of the masquerade, the fronts that you have to put up in life to create your character in different environ- ments,” he says of the brand name, which represents “pulling that mask off on purpose and changing people’s perception of you.”

As the brand has caught on—boosted by his other creative endeavor as a “minimal tech house” DJ in the Boston area—he has scaled the business and outsourced production to manufacturers.

“A lot of different DJs are wearing it, and sometimes I’ll see people in the club wearing it, which is pretty cool,” says Rego, whose fall/winter 2025 collection includes new short-sleeve button-downs (“Those have been some of my bestsellers, especially down in Miami”), hoodies, a long-sleeve soccer jersey and an acid-washed corduroy work jacket.

Rego hopes to grow the label to the point where he could throw runway events, but he doesn’t want to see it become mainstream.

“Brands actually die very quickly after they are mainstreamed. You always want to stay slightly underground,” he says. “I’m not Procter & Gamble; I’m not selling soap, you know what I mean?”

In other words, don’t expect to see Masquerade Lance Rego T-shirts or pants at Target anytime soon.

“Oh, please no. Riccardi first,” he says with a laugh, referring to the luxury streetwear boutique on Newbury Street in Boston.

Dressed for Success

Jeurys Santiago ’23 Turns Passion for Fashion into a Platform for Community and Creativity

Jeurys Santiago ’23 wasn’t named to the Boston Business Journal’s annual BostInno 25 Under 25 list this fall for how he dresses. But fashion does factor in.to the business alum’s identity.

“I love fashion because it’s how people view you. It’s your image; it’s your brand,” says Santiago, founder of Minds With Purpose (MWP), a multicultural-focused marketing and networking agency that he developed through UML’s Rist DifferenceMaker program. “How I dress is how I want to communicate with people. If I’m wearing a Minds With Purpose hoodie and slacks, I’m chilling. But if I’m in a suit, just know I’m coming with that ‘let’s do business’ energy.”

Santiago was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York City, “which is big on fashion, drip and staying fly.” When he moved to Lawrence, Massachu- setts, before his senior year of high school, he noticed there were “a lot of amazing designers, fashionistas and fashion enthusiasts,” but there wasn’t a way for them to get together and showcase their talents, like at the fashion weeks in New York or Boston.

So, Santiago decided to create one. Working with MassDevelopment’s Transformative Development Initiative, he organized the MWP Massachusetts Fashion Week Tour. Held over five days in November 2023, the whirlwind tour made stops in the Gateway Cities of New Bedford, Revere, Worcester, Lowell and Lawrence, drawing more than 1,200 people.

“We chose those cities because there’s not enough media exposure there highlighting their communities’ creativity and entrepreneurship,” says Santiago, who followed up the tour with a three-day MWP Fest this fall in Lawrence.

He has also created a MWP curriculum that he is teaching to young adults at UTEC in Lowell.

“I’m looking for Minds With Purpose to become a household name statewide,” Santiago says. “I want our movement, our sense of style and sense of expression, to be communicated within our culture and communities.”