Senior balanced school work with launching his own clothing line while at Campbell
Abraem “A.R. Mauriella” Rose is a Campbell business administration senior and the design mind behind Arturo Rose Clothing Co. His inspirations for his clothing brand intertwine with the inspiration behind his unusual name.
Professionally, he goes by A.R. Mauriella — A.R. for his own name and the initials he shares with his father, Arturo Rose, and Mauriella after his uncle, a man known for his fashion sense and eccentric personality. His brand combines that family influence into a unique brand that emphasizes self-expression and family legacies.
Rose earned an associate’s degree at Wake Tech before coming to Campbell on the recommendation of a professor who knew of his interest in entrepreneurship. His father was a businessman, and Rose knew that best practices for management and economics would trickle down into any industry he chose to focus on.
That industry was fashion, and the idea for his brand was born from sketches that helped Rose through his father’s death when he was a teenager. As a sophomore in high school, he spent two months in a psychiatric hospital dealing with severe depression and complications with his bipolar disorder. Sketching abstracts helped him express himself in the hospital, and he continued the practice once he resumed his schooling.
He quickly became infatuated with design. He explored graphic design as a possible college major, wanting to use clothing as his canvas, and the idea stuck with him from high school to Wake Tech, through his mother’s cancer diagnosis and his own journey to business school. Those years were spent refining his skills and learning new ones, such as screen printing and embroidery, and in 2018, he had settled on a brand: Arturo Rose Clothing Co.
“Balancing my workload with school and running a business was sometimes an obstacle,” Rose told Spark blog this year, “but I take on obstacles with a full head of steam.”
Despite the challenges of building a company while studying, Rose says his business studies have positively influenced his start-up company experience.
“I have a particular advantage to receive the knowledge I do as a business major and be able to apply it directly after I leave class or finish a lesson. As an entrepreneur, I see real-time results and outcomes of those practices. I highly urge other entrepreneurs to study business while refining their specific craft/passion, because it’s essential information for surviving within the economy, progressing your start-up and understanding which direction to take your brand.”
Rose released his first collection, “the Alpha Collection” on April 14, 2019 — on his father’s birthday. His spring 2020 “Impetus Collection” continued celebrating his father’s life and exploring the inspiration behind his art — particularly the influence of his parents.
“My mother was a funk singer and dancer in the 1970s, and she definitely inspired my love of and passion for fashion,” Rose says. “My father was the coolest guy I ever met. He wasn’t into fashion like I am, but he made his personality his outfit and his own fashion. And it could light up a room.”
Up next for the brand is the “Reawakening Collection,” coming this spring as Rose begins marketing his company on a global scale.
“We are showing that we can be consistent with our work and continually progress. But most importantly, this collection shows that we are now longer just the new kids on the block, we’re here to stay, and we’re here to be the best we can possibly be as a brand.”
— by Kate Stoneburner