(tense music)
- Two designers,
a pop superstar,
and one master of merch.
(upbeat music)
I'm Tefi Pessoa
and this is MTV's "Merch Masters,"
the badass competition show
where two designers go head-to-head
to create an original, must-have piece of merch
that every true Stan will wanna get their hands on.
Let's meet our contestants.
- Hi. - Hi.
- Battling it out today,
we have Sean, an illustrator from Philadelphia.
And we have Carly, a graphic designer from Long Island.
Are you guys excited to be here?
- Hell yeah. - Yeah.
- I'm gonna ask you again.
No, I'm just kidding.
One to 10?
- 10.
- 11.
- Okay, there we go.
- Oh, come on.
- Are you ready to find out who you're making merch for?
- Yeah.
- Today's artist smashed the airwaves
and took the world by storm.
She is the embodiment
of what it means to be a modern pop star.
The Senorita herself,
Camila Cabello.
- Camila Cabello is iconic.
She makes bops.
- I love it.
I'm excited.
I love her music and I just think she has an awesome style.
- Okay. So here's how this is gonna work.
You'll have two and a half hours
and access to anything in our design pantry
to design an original piece of merch
for our Latin pop princess.
That's Camila Cabello, not me.
It's very confusing, I know.
Then the judges and I will decide
which one of you will walk away
with the title of Merch Master
and a $1,000 cash prize.
- A thousand dollars is a lot of money.
I could buy myself a new pair of Prada boots.
- Judging this solo would be 0% funsies.
So I brought in some experts
from the fashion and design world to help me out.
We have the amazing Marcus Allen.
- What's up guys?
- A graphic designer and an illustrator
that has worked with some of today's coolest brands
and now "Merch Masters."
And rounding out the panel, we have Amy Pham.
- Hey guys.
- An actress, model, DJ
and one of my besties, I think.
- Yes.
- And to make things a little more interesting,
we're giving you both a secret design material
that you must incorporate into your work of art.
Today's secret design material is
(tense music)
rhinestones.
- I'm very excited.
I love anything that glitters
and I think I'm gonna crush it.
- Rhinestones,
feminine, edgy and almost as much shine
as the pop princess herself.
You'll both have to figure out
how to integrate rhinestones into your merch
and make it uniquely Camila.
Are you guys ready?
- Ready. - Ready.
- Feel capable? - Maybe.
- Confident? - Yeah.
- Crazy, sexy, cool?
- Sure. - All of the above.
- Okay. That's good news because your challenge starts
now.
Make it merch.
- [Sean] Oh, that is pretty.
- Oh, I'm really excited about today's challenge
because both of these designers
have really strong talents and really cool backgrounds.
So I'm wondering how they will approach
connecting with Camila Cabello Stans.
- Rhinestones everywhere.
I'm Sean Elmore. I'm 25 years old.
I am a full-time freelance illustrator.
I started drawing literally at age two.
I grew up in a small town
where a lot of things weren't accepted.
Art has always been comforting to me
because it was a way of escaping, in itself.
I specifically paint portraits with watercolor.
Everything that I do is extremely soaked
and saturated in pop culture.
I'm going to do a portrait of Camila.
My plan is to make a hand-painted concert T-shirt,
inspired by Camila Cabello
in her "Bam Bam" music video.
I'm gonna have her hair flowing nicely.
Put the song title in an earring.
Camila's video for "Bam Bam"
definitely resonates with me and my art style
because it has a little more grit
and a little more raw emotion.
(car horn blaring)
And I love that side of pop culture.
Let's hope that I can do this
in two and a half hours. (laughs)
- We've got an artist in the building.
Two of 'em.
- Amazing.
- I'm Carly Fleischer. I'm 26 years old.
I'm a custom sneaker designer from Long Island.
I have my own business, Kicks by Carly
and I currently do custom sneakers,
cleats, and equipment for professional athletes.
I've always loved sports growing up.
And I wanted to create my own apparel
that showed off how much I loved my teams.
My designs are visually appealing, exciting,
a lot of fun colors and bright neons,
something that makes you do a double take.
When I think of Camila,
I think of pop princess mixed with a little bit of edge.
So I'm making an airbrushed and hand-painted leather jacket
with rhinestone embellishments.
I'm gonna actually write her name on the back
to look like it's in neon lights.
Kinda resembling some of her music videos.
I wanna incorporate some of Camila's personality
into the design,
so I'm thinking a lot of bright colors.
I'm gonna do some florals.
And then I think down the sleeves,
I'm gonna do a sun shining, an earth, and a paw print.
- I feel like a leather jacket is, like,
a statement piece within itself.
- Making a statement on a statement already.
- Exactly. - Yeah.
- So I'm excited.
- First thing I have to do is prep my jacket.
I have to take off the sheen that's on the leather
so that the paint can actually adhere to it.
- Using an airbrush,
really smart choice she's making.
It definitely dries faster
versus standard paint.
- Airbrushing freehand is definitely risky
but it's the quickest thing to do
and my handwriting lends well
to the edgy yet feminine vibe that I'm going for here.
Like playful, girly fun,
which I think kind of resonates with Camila.
- We have two hours left.
- The pressure is on.
I'm very meticulous about my sketching
because I want the portrait to look
exactly like the person I'm trying to portray.
I start out my sketches extremely rough and messy
and then I start to fine tune it.
(upbeat pop music)
- Hi.
- Well, hello. How are you?
- Good. How are you?
- I'm sweating a little bit.
The stakes are high and so is the temperature.
I am literally boiling in here.
- It's also like the pressure.
It's very tense in here, I feel.
We're happy though. We're happy.
- I love this.
Is there gonna be a front back?
- I don't know. I'm still deciding.
- Oh my gosh.
Are you an avid listener of Camila?
- I have listened to a lot of her stuff.
I'm just like obsessed with the visuals
of this new era that's happening right now.
That's what's kind of inspiring this.
- So good luck.
- Thank you.
(upbeat pop music)
- Hello.
- Hi.
- Okay. So, walk me through it.
- So right now, I'm doing the color over the white.
So it looks like a colorful neon sign.
- Okay. Enough work talk.
Anyway, what started getting you interested
in like fashion, growing up?
- I studied sport management in school.
While I was in school,
I also started my business,
which was making custom cleats and sneakers.
- Did you grow up in a sports family?
- I've always loved sports. Yeah.
- I love sports.
Like every time a team makes like a point,
I'm like that was so sick in the field.
- Tefi, if you ever need help figuring out sports,
I'm your girl.
- Okay, cool.
I'm gonna let you get back to that.
What's your favorite sports team?
The Miami Heat.
Insane.
(whistle blows) (Carly laughs)
(upbeat funky music)
- I really want this neon look to pop.
So I'm adding a thinned out white line
on top of the text
to make it look like it's glowing.
I really hope her fans like this neon look.
- They're gonna love it.
- You're too nice.
- Someone call the press because I know who Banksy is.
It's Carly.
She's killing it.
(upbeat hip-hop music)
It's printing.
I'm printing on freezer paper
because it has a waxy finish
and ink will not absorb into it,
so I can transfer it directly to the shirt.
I am wetting the T-shirt,
the ink transfer on here.
It'll soak in and it'll lay in there nicely.
I've only used this method a few times,
so I'm a little nervous.
(upbeat pop music)
That is actually perfect.
Placement is exactly where I want it.
So it only shows a little cast of it, which is great.
- Concert T is like a quintessential must-have.
To do like a portrait on it, love it.
But I don't want it to look cartoonish.
I want it to look like this is tour merch.
- As I'm placing the second half of the print,
I realized the bottom half wasn't mirrored.
- Uh-oh, I printed the wrong thing.
- You guys have one hour and 30 minutes.
- At this point, I'm rushing.
Because I took longer on my sketch to be precise,
the clock, it's a tickin'.
(upbeat electronic music)
- Camila Cabello, she's very fashion forward.
Loves to show off her body,
loves to wear bold colors.
- Glamorous.
- Girly-girl. - Yeah.
- I feel like she's very proud to be Latin.
- Camila has Cuban and Mexican roots.
So I'm incorporating the white Mariposa and the Dahlia
because they are the national flowers of Cuba and Mexico.
They know she's very proud of her heritage.
And I think it's something
that's really important to incorporate into the design.
- Flowers make it more pop princess.
- It does give the feminine aspect to the leather jacket.
- I'm spending a lot of time
detailing Camila's face and her hair.
And I really want to get across
the feeling of heartbreak
but also a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
- Hey.
- Well, hello, hello.
- Oh my gosh. This looks sick.
- Wow.
- [Tefi] You can paint.
- I try. (laughs)
- Oh my God.
I love the pain in her eyes.
- [Sean] Thank you.
- What stage in the painting would you say you're at?
- I would say like 75% where I want to be.
It's a work in progress.
- So how do you feel about the time then?
Are you a little stressed out?
- I feel the pressure.
But you know what? I'm gonna ride it.
- How do you feel you're gonna get the rhinestones on?
- Um. (laughs)
Marcus, chill. They're coming.
- Good question.
- All right. So.
(Sean laughs)
I feel good. I feel good.
I'm gonna let you get back to it.
- Thank you. - Good luck.
- I'll see you soon.
- Yes, you will.
- I feel like we're watching
the Great American Paint Off.
- Yeah.
(whimsical piano music)
- Down the sleeve,
I'm painting the sun, earth, and a paw print.
Camila is very passionate about the environment
and she loves animals.
And I just, kind of, wanted to incorporate
a little bit about her influence on her fans.
- Like of course, there are things about an artist
that you know.
But is it strong enough to incorporate in their merch?
This isn't a jacket for Camila.
- Yeah.
- It's for her fans.
- Right.
- I'm using a gray paint
to look like tears of running makeup,
going down her cheek.
And I'm painting the background purple
because I think it will really draw the attention
to the emotion in her eyes.
Life's got struggles,
but if you make it pretty, it's fine.
The lyrics I chose to incorporate are,
"That's just life, baby."
I love the contrast between being heartbroken
and dealing with it and having fun and growing.
And I think that really ties together the piece.
- I am putting the rhinestones on the icons
on the sleeve of the jacket.
Having them on one concentrated area, really packs a punch.
- How are we doing?
- I'm feeling stressed.
- Like it's the fourth quarter.
- Yes.
Good reference.
- [Tefi] Yeah. Where are we with the jacket?
- Probably
80 to 85%.
Then I'm gonna finish the flowers,
then I'll rhinestone the sun.
- Okay. - We're getting there.
- Are you gonna put the rhinestones anywhere else,
you think?
- Not sure.
I might do a couple surrounding the flowers
and on the back a little bit,
but. - Okay.
- We'll see how much time I have left.
- We'll let you get back to it.
You're just busy at work there.
- Thank you. - See you later.
(intense music)
10 minutes.
We have 10 minutes left.
No pressure,
but pressure.
- I am feeling very pressed for time
but I always tend to do my best work under pressure.
Winning "Merch Masters" would validate me and my business
and prove to myself that I'm on the right path.
- I'm adding splatters of the gray paint
to really show my messy aesthetic on this clean white shirt.
Having some fun.
The messiness is really important to me
because it matches up
with the trashy pop culture that I like to do.
(upbeat hip-hop music)
I've had multiple people tell me
I cannot make a career painting celebrities
or pop culture moments.
So I wanna win "Merch Masters" to prove to them
that I can have a career doing whatever the hell I want.
- He hasn't even started on using rhinestones yet. Right?
- (gasps) I don't see rhinestones.
We can't give him the prize.
- If there's no rhinestones. - If there's no rhinestones.
- There's five minutes left
and I have not a single rhinestone on this shirt,
which is kind of the most important part.
And Carly has an entire sleeve of Rhinestoned patterns.
I'm like, come on,
this girl is crushing me in the rhinestone game.
- Okay. We got a rhinestone alert.
- There they are. - Rhinestone alert.
- Oh my God.
- I really want to glamorize the heartbreak
that she's going through.
So I'm putting the rhinestones on the Band-Aids.
The hot glue is messy. It's hot.
And I can't get these things to stay.
- Sean, I need the handies to move a little quicksies.
Let those fingers fly.
- I only have time to put one rhinestone on each Band-Aid.
Camila, you think you're going through something?
Cry all you want.
I'm the one struggling.
- One minute left.
(intense music)
Don't burn yourself.
(intense music)
Time is up.
Step away
from your merch.
- I'm happy with what I made.
I think it looks really good.
I'm glad that my vision materialized itself.
- I'm feeling confident in the portrait
because I think I captured this new era of Camila.
Oh, I'm proud of how this turned out
- Guys, that was incredible to watch.
I feel like I need to sit down.
(Sean laughs)
We can't wait to see your designs up close.
So meet us at the merch table.
Let's go.
(suspenseful music)
Hello.
- Hello.
Heading into judging,
I'm nervous because Carly's leather jacket looks incredible.
- So how insane was that two and a half hours?
Pat yourselves on the back.
One, two, three. Come on, let's do it.
One, two, three.
And the other shoulder.
Okay.
So Carly, tell us about your jacket.
- I made a airbrush and hand-painted leather jacket
with rhinestone embellishments.
I incorporated both the national flowers
of Cuba and Mexico,
made it look like it's glowing, like a neon sign.
Cause it kind of plays off
some of her different music videos
and performances that she's done in the past.
- Okay.
These rhinestones are so well done.
They look like patches.
It is cute season.
I can totally see a young fan wearing this.
I love the personal things that you thought about.
I just feel like there's nothing about
where she is like today,
but overall adorable.
Really, really cute.
And I totally get the pop princess vibe
that you were going for.
- So Carly, I absolutely love the choice you made
with the neon sign.
The contrasting white behind really makes the colors pop.
I do wish there was a little bit more rhinestone detail
in the actual name or the flowers
but I know you were on a time crunch.
Overall, really great job.
- Thank you.
- Love the flowers.
That's a really nice, subtle touch.
If you know, you know, kind of thing.
And the flowers add that femininity
to the masculine dark black leather jacket.
I kind of wish that there was something on the front,
even if it was maybe just a C or one of the flowers.
- I totally agree with the judges
in that the jacket would've been elevated
with something on the front,
but I am hoping that all of my work on the back is enough.
- Okay. Sean, tell us about the merch you made today.
- So this is a hand-painted, "Bam Bam" inspired T-shirt.
I really wanted to emphasize
her going through heartbreak and having to deal with it
and the beauty in the heartbreak.
- I love that it looks multidimensional.
You can feel the strength and the sadness in her eyes.
I feel like this speaks well to where she's at right now.
I also love that you included "That's just life,"
little things that only like Stans would know.
But I do wish there was a little something on the back.
- Yep.
- I love the details and the makeup.
I love how you use the song name in her earring.
I love the purple tone in the background.
I think it kind of brings out Camila's eyes.
Really nice job.
- You really can see her pained expression.
That's conveyed so beautifully.
The attention to detail
with her tears in her eyes,
with the Band-Aid, the splatters.
I love all those aspects.
But I know that the secret design element was rhinestones.
So I wish we could have seen a little bit more
maybe in the hoops, on the Band-Aids.
- This won't be easy.
Both pieces of merch hit many marks
and also missed a few.
So we have a lot to talk about.
And we'll be right over here.
- We'll be listening. Don't worry.
(suspenseful music)
Winning "Merch Masters" would definitely
advance my career and prove to musicians
that the fans in the stands
can definitely make the merch.
- This was difficult,
but do you feel we have a winner?
- Yes. - Yes.
- I am so close to potentially winning this competition.
I need to win.
And I wanna prove to myself
that I can beat anybody that I go up against.
(suspenseful music)
- Carly, really nice work.
I love the statement piece.
But I do wish that there was something on the front.
- Sean, you did a really great job
with the references to Camila and her current single.
We were all just wishing
there was a little bit more usage of the rhinestones.
- Carly,
Sean,
you both made merch fit for any Camila fan.
Unfortunately today, only one of you can walk away
with the "Merch Master" title and $1,000 cash prize.
The winner is
(tense music)
Sean.
- Me?
I won.
I actually didn't expect that, like.
- Sean, you absolutely killed it.
Like, this is a work of art.
I feel like any Stan would wear that proudly.
You are a Merch Master.
- I'm honored.
It feels so cool to win "Merch Masters"
because it gives me more of a drive to make more merch.
And for everybody out there
who said that I couldn't make a career painting celebrities,
I just got a thousand dollars richer.
- Carly, we love the jacket.
It's an adorable jacket,
in order for you to not think it's adorable,
one would have to not have, like, eyeballs.
- I am disappointed I didn't win,
but Sean's work was outrageous.
So I'm glad that he's getting the recognition he deserves.
- That was so much fun
and I wish we had time for an encore performance.
We'll see you next time on "Merch Masters."
(upbeat pop music)