Before he was captured, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán was photographed wearing a paisley shirt from the Barabas boutique. Now ‘sales are skyrocketing’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Vito Corleone had a tuxedo, Al Capone a cigar and overcoat, and Pablo Escobar a white blazer and blue tie. Their spiritual successor in organized crime, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, has chosen a style inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt and Coco Chanel, and designed by two Jewish Iranian brothers from Los Angeles.

El Chapo, a Mexican cartel lord so wealthy that he landed on Forbes’ list of billionaires in 2009, was recaptured last week in part because actor Sean Penn visited him for the magazine Rolling Stone.



The shirt was, apparently, a design from the Barabas boutique in Los Angeles’ Fashion District.



“It’s not about that he’s an international criminal,” store owner Shawn Esteghbal told the Guardian. “But we’re excited because he could buy anything, he could buy Versace, any other brand, but to choose our brand, our designs!

“We noticed on Saturday night,” he said, when friends and customers started calling. The brothers discovered that two Rolling Stone photos showed Guzmán in shirts of their design. The Esteghbals wasted no time. They advertised.

“MOST WANTED SHIRT” quickly appeared on the website of their store, Barabas, below the famous photo of Penn and Guzmán shaking hands, the drug lord in a shirt striped silver and light and coated with a black cobweb design. The fabric – silk, according to Penn – gleams with a metallic sheen. Esteghbal explained, unprompted: “He’s a most-wanted man!”

In a video for the magazine, Guzmán appears in a shirt with a similar paisley print, but in two shades of neon blue. He could be incognito only hiding in a forest of glowsticks and discoteca strobe lights, or at the scene of a particularly hideous detergent accident at the laundromat.



Esteghbal said he did not know why Guzmán would have been drawn to the shirt – “probably the design”.

The brothers’ website describes their “philosophy of fashion” with a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, the former first lady and civil rights activist, that reads: “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes.”

“Good words, good thoughts, good deeds” is the brothers’ mantra.

Asked about the risks of his advertising – that people might associate Barabas clothing with the brutal murders, cartel wars and legacy of corruption and addiction that Guzmán’s name suggests – Esteghbal paused to think. “No no, we’re just making clothes.

“I cannot say anything right now on that. They can think however they want to think, but reality is reality.”

For now, he said he’s content to sell the shirt, $128 a pop. “And sales are skyrocketing.”