Speaker 1: My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast
Speaker 1: is Joy. I talk to interest in people about what
Speaker 1: brings them happiness. Meet Coln de Lane, young emerging American entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: slash artists slash genius who's turning his fashion brand Kid
Speaker 1: Super into a global phenomenon.
Speaker 2: I have a listen to this kid.
Speaker 1: That's all right, you should collapse, you know, that would
Speaker 1: be hilarious fashion Week all that body corpses.
Speaker 2: That'd be awesome.
Speaker 3: I think it's a good idea. I just don't know
Speaker 3: how tasteful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I know it's it's kind of thing we're
Speaker 1: on and we're talking, but the just so as you know,
Speaker 1: we are now being recorded. Sorry, but you think then
Speaker 1: the idea of fashion all dead bodies, that's my idea
Speaker 1: that you just but you don't think it's gonna.
Speaker 3: Work on record if it comes from your idea. And
Speaker 3: then I just did it and I was like, well
Speaker 3: it was Craig, you know, it was so adamant about this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I don't get to bill you around.
Speaker 1: You're the You're the wonder Ken, You're the You're the face,
Speaker 1: the emerging face of American nay the world well fashion, yes,
Speaker 1: but as the face of American fashion is quite funny
Speaker 1: to even think about it.
Speaker 2: But if we propped up dead bodies and just like just.
Speaker 3: Oh you thought they were propped I thought they were
Speaker 3: just open casket, Well you just analyze the look.
Speaker 1: Well, how can you how can you look at them?
Speaker 1: I mean that, then it's not going to work.
Speaker 3: No, No, you like treat it truly like a funeral,
Speaker 3: where instead of like going up to see them and cry,
Speaker 3: you just like go up and be like, wow, it's
Speaker 3: a great outfit that.
Speaker 2: You know what see, this is why you are. You're
Speaker 2: who you are.
Speaker 1: Do people call you kid Super because the brand's called
Speaker 1: kid Super? Do like do you do people say hey,
Speaker 1: KD Super?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: And if they don't know me, right, and my first
Speaker 3: name is a little weird for Americans.
Speaker 2: Call them yeah, call them yeah. It's uh, I grew
Speaker 2: up with a little guy. It's called call them yeah.
Speaker 3: But so if you call me kid or kid Super,
Speaker 3: it's usually you don't know me super super.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Well, and here's the thing as well, though, you don't
Speaker 1: want people calling you kid for a long time because
Speaker 1: then you get into the kid rock scenario, which I
Speaker 1: actually I've thought about this. Right, there's Kid Rock, there's
Speaker 1: Kid Cuddy, right, and as they've grown older, you forget
Speaker 1: the meaning of kid.
Speaker 2: It just becomes the name.
Speaker 1: All right, I get it. So so, so your name
Speaker 1: is Kid. You're just like, oh, it's just a sound. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I think Colm's a lovely name. And I think
Speaker 1: your mom and dad were very proud to give you
Speaker 1: that name.
Speaker 2: Is Craig your real name. Weirdly, my real name is
Speaker 2: Kid show Business.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Craig is Craig is like the male version
Speaker 1: of being called Karen.
Speaker 2: I think it is a little bit. I don't know,
Speaker 2: not in America. Well maybe not.
Speaker 1: Okay, So let's let's just get a bit of background
Speaker 1: on you a little bit before we go in the
Speaker 1: Fashion Genius. Well, actually, let's go into fashion genius a
Speaker 1: little bit because I know, I know that you won
Speaker 1: the Carl Lagerfeld Prize.
Speaker 2: Do you ever meet Carl Lagerfeld? I did not. That's
Speaker 2: a shame. My wife met him and he was amazing.
Speaker 2: He was nice to her. Yeah, he said that. He said,
Speaker 2: you look beautiful, he said to her.
Speaker 3: I don't know if he said it like that, but well,
Speaker 3: he has some of the best quotes every where. It's
Speaker 3: like anyone who wears sweatpants doesn't care about their lives. Well,
Speaker 3: you know, I mean, look, guy, he's not wrong.
Speaker 2: He may have a point. I'm not saying he's right
Speaker 2: all the time. But I think my number one seller
Speaker 2: is sweatpants.
Speaker 1: You sell sweatpants, but they're fancy sweatpants with an odd
Speaker 1: design on them.
Speaker 3: They are cool sweatpants. Sweatpants took over I think, and
Speaker 3: you know, I'm a comfortable guy, but I do wish
Speaker 3: I lived in that era of fashion where you could
Speaker 3: say these kind of outlandish things.
Speaker 1: I think you can now, but I need the look
Speaker 1: you look. Do you know what I was thinking about
Speaker 1: you the other day because I was in Pittsburgh. Now,
Speaker 1: I was in Pittsburgh and I saw a lot of
Speaker 1: people in sweatpats. But I went to the Andy Warhol Museum,
Speaker 1: and I have you been to that met I haven't.
Speaker 1: It's really cool. You'd love it. But as I walked around,
Speaker 1: I thought, you know what I met? Somebody really recently
Speaker 1: reminds me. Are you influenced by Warhol?
Speaker 2: Do you think? I think?
Speaker 3: I mean, it's always funny because some people consider me
Speaker 3: an artist. Some people consider me a fashion designer, blah blah,
Speaker 3: blah blah. I never called myself either of the things.
Speaker 3: I was just at a young age trying to make
Speaker 3: things and trying to make them tangible and trying to
Speaker 3: make them that some could someone could purchase, right, And
Speaker 3: so that like kind of commercial aspect of it wasn't
Speaker 3: so much like, oh, I'm this business genius.
Speaker 2: It was like, Okay, I'm fifteen.
Speaker 3: I need to figure out how to like make something
Speaker 3: that can connect me with different people or turn into
Speaker 3: a little bit of sales. And so I was always
Speaker 3: really good at drawing, and I just started drawing on
Speaker 3: T shirts and then I got what I loved about
Speaker 3: fashion was it was like the easiest I mean, I
Speaker 3: don't know, for me, it was art form to meet
Speaker 3: new people, right, because it was like, oh, you might
Speaker 3: come from completely different backgrounds, completely different interests, but might
Speaker 3: both like the kids super T shirt.
Speaker 1: But that's why the kind of war whole thing is
Speaker 1: like Warhole collected people as well as art. And he
Speaker 1: was very you know, and he went across a whole
Speaker 1: lot of different areas and he had that kind of
Speaker 1: artist as capitalist, which I kind of like, I really
Speaker 1: like about you as well, man, you're quite unashamedly entrepreneurial,
Speaker 1: which I love. It's not like there's not like a
Speaker 1: phony rockn roll about it. It's real roken roll, Like, no,
Speaker 1: this is going to be successful. I wanted to be successful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think also I was so out of
Speaker 3: the art world and I was so out of the
Speaker 3: fashion world that it wasn't like it didn't even feel possible.
Speaker 3: So it wasn't like, oh, column if you're like, if
Speaker 3: you have more integrity about your art or blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: Like I was like, no one was treating me as
Speaker 3: an artist. I was a kid in Brooklyn who majored
Speaker 3: in mathematics and was a soccer player. So it was
Speaker 3: like I was like just trying to hustle and bustle
Speaker 3: for new opportunities, and like part of that was an
Speaker 3: entrepreneurial spirit. But the entrepreneurial spirit came also from like
Speaker 3: a little bit of the New York spirit is entrepreneurial.
Speaker 3: Like no one moves here to just sit around and
Speaker 3: move here to make it. You move here to enter
Speaker 3: and like if you didn't move here for that, your
Speaker 3: parents did, right, And so there is a push I
Speaker 3: think to like kind of create your own lane. And
Speaker 3: for me at a young age, I was very just entrepreneurial.
Speaker 2: Well cause your parents moved here.
Speaker 1: Your your mom's Spanish, right, yeah, and your dad's Irish. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's that's a fiery company.
Speaker 2: Do you have a bad temper? They do? They do
Speaker 2: it kind of in the game. It was like a
Speaker 2: doctor Phil growing up.
Speaker 1: Well, it's just like they always fight about everything, and
Speaker 1: so I had to be a little bit like, come on, guys,
Speaker 1: the cabinet door being open, isn't this big of a deal.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting. Do you think were you an only child? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's kind of interesting. So you are the you're the
Speaker 1: genetic experiment between your mom's was an artist.
Speaker 2: Your mom is an artist.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, but again they didn't realize and still
Speaker 1: is that Do you want to take the comic? I
Speaker 1: know you're busy. I muted it. Come on, it's just
Speaker 1: a loud vibrate yet you know what, you're an emerging artist.
Speaker 1: You're doing your thing in New York. If you need
Speaker 1: to take a call, okay, all right, So your mom
Speaker 1: is an artist.
Speaker 2: Yeah, your dad's not an artist.
Speaker 3: No, he's not, but I would give him a performance
Speaker 3: artist kind of energy. He's a crazy guy that like
Speaker 3: if we were here and competing over like who could
Speaker 3: climb to the building the quickest, or who will break
Speaker 3: that window, He'll do it.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, So he's he has an adventurous.
Speaker 3: Spirit, incredibly like to the point a super extreme sense.
Speaker 3: Like one story when I was I think I must
Speaker 3: have been thirteen, we went skydiving for our first time ever, okay, right,
Speaker 3: and I was like, I don't really want to go skydiving.
Speaker 3: He convinced the instructors that he was a professional and
Speaker 3: that he must go alone.
Speaker 2: What and you have to do like one hundred to
Speaker 2: two hundred's that's very dangerous, super dangerous, And we were.
Speaker 3: So he was like, I'm a professional. I've done this
Speaker 3: many many, many times. And I think he had done
Speaker 3: it once with someone on his back before, like five
Speaker 3: years prior. Right, Anyways, he convinces them, jumps off the
Speaker 3: plane completely alone.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: Then he's supposed to like pull it out a certain time,
Speaker 3: and he doesn't, and so they all fly to him,
Speaker 3: the instructors, they're like pull it, pull it, pull it,
Speaker 3: and so he pulls it and then they're supposed to
Speaker 3: land in like a soccer field size thing, right, and
Speaker 3: we don't see my dad when everyone lands, and we're like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, like did he blah blah. And then
Speaker 3: ten minutes later he walks in with the whole parachute
Speaker 3: and was like that was amazing and he's like banned
Speaker 3: from life from this ego band. Well, they were like,
Speaker 3: what the fuck did you feel? I would be kind
Speaker 3: of what the fuck is?
Speaker 2: Is it a crazy story? But did you did you
Speaker 2: feel kind of unsafe growing up? Or were you Okay, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: always felt safe?
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, so you grew up And it's a because
Speaker 1: I think of you, like we've had conversation before, and
Speaker 1: I think of you, is you have a kind of
Speaker 1: like a stable background. Yeah, and like your your your
Speaker 1: family is kind of together still, right, and they were
Speaker 1: just moving a lot and crazy thinkers.
Speaker 3: But what I always say to this, and obviously I'm
Speaker 3: not a parent, but I I think the best thing
Speaker 3: to do as a parent is that you and your
Speaker 3: kid have the same priorities. And I think when you're
Speaker 3: very little, you get in trouble for stuff that you
Speaker 3: can't really understand, where you're like, oh, like standing on
Speaker 3: top of this table, wasn't that bad while am I
Speaker 3: getting yelled at so much and then like getting.
Speaker 1: Telling the flight the instructors that you're a professional.
Speaker 3: Exactly, and then and then getting like a B in school,
Speaker 3: Like you don't get in trouble so much. So then
Speaker 3: you're kind of like, what's like when I was a kid,
Speaker 3: I could stand on the table no matter what. No
Speaker 3: one cares, orf my parents didn't care. But if I
Speaker 3: got to be in school, I was in a lot
Speaker 3: of trouble. So it kind of you a straight A student.
Speaker 3: I was a straight A student, but I felt like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I understand why you're being mean here and why you're
Speaker 3: not being mean here, and so I always felt like
Speaker 3: we were on the same team, right, So I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: this is I can take punishment because I understand when
Speaker 3: I'm wrong, and then when i'm when we're on the
Speaker 3: same side, it's like other people might think it's not
Speaker 3: the best acting, but I thought, like standing on table
Speaker 3: is fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think I think you turned out all right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you come out of school and when you
Speaker 1: drawing into fashion, was it through music because usually young
Speaker 1: people it's through music, right.
Speaker 3: So I had moved a ton growing up. So I
Speaker 3: went from like New York, Chicago, New York, Mexico, Wisconsin
Speaker 3: back to New York.
Speaker 2: And so it was because your parents work.
Speaker 3: My dad was just getting new jobs, okay, and so
Speaker 3: he and since he's Irish, she was like, fuck it. Yeah, Mexico,
Speaker 3: Mexico is the same as New York.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But Wisconsin when I was like eleven, was very very
Speaker 3: much like what was cool was sports.
Speaker 2: So if you're good at sports, you were a cool kid, okay.
Speaker 3: And then I moved right to Brooklyn at twelve, and
Speaker 3: what was cool was fashion, right, And I knew nothing
Speaker 3: about fashion, and I was like I couldn't really wrap
Speaker 3: my head around like young kids spending a lot of
Speaker 3: money on clothes to make themselves cool, right, And I
Speaker 3: was kind of like, well, I was like anti anti culture,
Speaker 3: where I was like, oh, this is stupid. Let me
Speaker 3: just make my own clothes, right, And so that was
Speaker 3: really why the clothing thing happened.
Speaker 1: So you started making your own clothes. How did the
Speaker 1: term professional? Who's noticed it? Did it come to me?
Speaker 3: It's funny, like there isn't a moment where it's like
Speaker 3: you are professional.
Speaker 2: I wish it was. Yeah, it would be very cool.
Speaker 3: But I think. I mean, so I started with T
Speaker 3: shirts in high school. I was spray painting. Then I
Speaker 3: started screenprinting, and then I manufactured my first hat that
Speaker 3: was with a factory that was like custom. Everything else
Speaker 3: was like I was buying a T shirt and I
Speaker 3: wish I could say that I had manufactured my first hat. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: There's nothing says you're going to be a billionaire like
Speaker 1: having a phrase in your life like that's what I
Speaker 1: manufactured my first hat. Yeah, but that was pretty big
Speaker 1: deal for me because I was like probably seventeen on
Speaker 1: Ali Baba, which is like, yeah, I know what it is,
Speaker 1: Chinese website where you can get anything made right, And
Speaker 1: so I was talking to all these factories and knew nothing,
Speaker 1: and I asked ten different factories for this one hat
Speaker 1: design and this one hat and they all sent me
Speaker 1: ten different ones. All most were horrendous, but one was incredible,
Speaker 1: and I was like, this is the start of me,
Speaker 1: like learning how to make things and produce things. And
Speaker 1: so that hat I dropped with like T shirts and
Speaker 1: a hoodie and I was like, this is a full collection.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I am a top tier designer.
Speaker 3: Did you ever watch Project Runway? Did you know? But
Speaker 3: Project Runway to me was like so fashion. I was
Speaker 3: like such a streetwear person at the time, and so
Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, I have a hat that's unique
Speaker 3: and I have T shirts and so I dropped the collection.
Speaker 3: And I was in college at the time, and a
Speaker 3: kid on my soccer team's roommate built the website and
Speaker 3: that was my huge like, oh man, I'm going to
Speaker 3: sell to people that I don't know, because at the
Speaker 3: time you're like, how do you find people that you
Speaker 3: don't know to buy your clothes?
Speaker 1: I think it's fascinating is you're very clearly a result
Speaker 1: of your time as well, like you use the resources
Speaker 1: of the internet.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean that's interesting that you were on a Chinese
Speaker 1: manufacturing website when you're a teenager.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And I'm sure there are other kids doing
Speaker 2: it now.
Speaker 3: I think it's even crazier because now there's all like
Speaker 3: there's Instagram's now devoted to finding manufacturing for young clothing
Speaker 3: brand designers.
Speaker 2: Is that good? Do you think? Does it help?
Speaker 3: It helps if you're young, but it also it just
Speaker 3: allows so many people to enter the field. Yeah, So
Speaker 3: you're like a young designer. For me, it took ages
Speaker 3: to make my own shoe right right now, you can
Speaker 3: make your own shoe quite easily if you do the research.
Speaker 3: And you're all of a sudden talking to a shoe
Speaker 3: manufacturer in Asia and you're like sixteen.
Speaker 2: So let's talk a little.
Speaker 1: Bit about shoe manufacturers in Asia a little bit, because
Speaker 1: there is you know, there is an ethical problem and
Speaker 1: you're industry about how negative connotation?
Speaker 2: Yeah, there is?
Speaker 1: Well, is that something that you're cognizant of, that that
Speaker 1: you're of course you're cognisant of. You does it plan
Speaker 1: how you make your staff? Well, there's two things. One,
Speaker 1: China makes everything.
Speaker 3: It's not just clothe whatever, so everything. They're the best
Speaker 3: manufacturers of things in general, right And it's not just pricing,
Speaker 3: it's just bare minimum. If you want the highest end thing,
Speaker 3: they could still make it the best. And it's just
Speaker 3: because they've had infrastructure for seventy years and we took
Speaker 3: off the past seventy years basically, like we basically just
Speaker 3: handed them all manufacturing and we stopped doing it in America.
Speaker 3: And so the idea that it's like worse or better
Speaker 3: or whatever. There are factories that are very bad. But
Speaker 3: there's also factories that are very good, okay, And like
Speaker 3: the factory that I work with, Like I visited and
Speaker 3: went to dinner with the whole like staff, oh, and
Speaker 3: like it was like, Okay, this is nice, but you
Speaker 3: checked it out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I checked it out.
Speaker 3: And it was like she's always complaining that her husband's
Speaker 3: playing too much basketball, right, so it's like she has
Speaker 3: the same problems and we're working at as well. But
Speaker 3: what I love about China and working with factories there
Speaker 3: is like, Okay, if you want to make a pair
Speaker 3: of denim jeans in America, you have to go find
Speaker 3: the fabric which is in from America. So maybe there's
Speaker 3: some from America, but usually it's not. So let's say
Speaker 3: you imported Japanese denim right now, you have to get
Speaker 3: a factory that cuts it right. Then you have to
Speaker 3: go find the factory makes the buttons. Then you have
Speaker 3: to have another factory that puts the buttons on the jeans.
Speaker 3: So like you've just touched ten factories and like tons
Speaker 3: of shipping and all this stuff to make one pair
Speaker 3: of pants. China's infrastructures it's all in the same area.
Speaker 3: It's all in the same block, so they don't even
Speaker 3: it's not even considered going to different factories. It's just
Speaker 3: all done in the house. So if you're talking about
Speaker 3: you know, there's other issues with shipping that comes in
Speaker 3: and you know, so, but.
Speaker 1: Let's we made a kind of a leap there because
Speaker 1: we got your high school and now your touring factories
Speaker 1: in China looking for the best deal for your jeans.
Speaker 1: But between there there is your relationship with Paris Fashion Week,
Speaker 1: which I think is fascinating because you kind of that
Speaker 1: that's kind of where you made your boones. Really, so
Speaker 1: you you applied to Paris Fashion Week, street fashion was
Speaker 1: that the way.
Speaker 3: You do So this is so basically to speed up
Speaker 3: the story. I was in college, I launched the brand,
Speaker 3: things start moving a little bit. I convert my sophomore
Speaker 3: year dorm into a store and so everyone's come into
Speaker 3: my dorm room and it looks like a storefront, and
Speaker 3: I got racks of clothing.
Speaker 2: And to be so rich, it's scary.
Speaker 1: And then and then I'm like, okay, I get in
Speaker 1: trouble with my dean of housing because they didn't like
Speaker 1: that this course. Yeah, and so I'm like I should
Speaker 1: have told them you were a professional parachutest.
Speaker 3: Something I was trying to say, like, how am I
Speaker 3: not the face of housing?
Speaker 1: It's like, give me a bigger room. I was like,
Speaker 1: you should be supporting me. You're right, I got it.
Speaker 3: And they have like twenty five thousand kids go to
Speaker 3: the school and I'll like tell them all about my story.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: I was like, if all of them buy one item,
Speaker 3: I'm super rich. Yeah, and so whatever I got, and
Speaker 3: they didn't believe in the vision. So I was like,
Speaker 3: I converted a dorm into a store. But what if
Speaker 3: I do the flip side? Okay, So I found this
Speaker 3: little store in Brooklyn on Craigslist.
Speaker 2: Okay, what you run I do?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I swear I made my mind, which would be
Speaker 1: an amazing side. Yeah. Yeah, you know it's a sight hustle,
Speaker 1: but you know it brings in a couple of billion
Speaker 1: of years.
Speaker 3: Was it. It is amazing that Craigslist never changed their name. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's super awesome.
Speaker 1: It's fantastic. You know the eBay was stuffed by a
Speaker 1: guy called eBay Noah, Yeah, but Yahoo Yahoo yeahoo's You
Speaker 1: always have other options, that's what yeahoo was. You always
Speaker 1: have other options. That's why they it's so good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's clever, all right. So you convey a store into
Speaker 1: a dorm.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So then I basically move into the back of
Speaker 3: a store in Brooklyn, and I have all my classes
Speaker 3: in junior year set up. So it's Monday Tuesday, I
Speaker 3: go to school, Wednesday through Sunday I work at the store.
Speaker 2: So what college are you having. I'm at NYU, right,
Speaker 2: and I'm studying mathematics.
Speaker 1: Right, But clearly it's not You're not going to be
Speaker 1: an academic mathematician.
Speaker 2: That's not clearly.
Speaker 3: And I think, I mean, it's a side conversation, but
Speaker 3: I think math is taught really horribly. I mean in
Speaker 3: the United States or wherever. But it's not seen as
Speaker 3: a creative field, I know, and that's wrong. It should
Speaker 3: be actually the most creative I agory. It's the language
Speaker 3: of the universe, and people think that it's a chore.
Speaker 3: And I don't know why or how it got converted
Speaker 3: to that, but I think it's like, if me and
Speaker 3: you are sitting here and there's a problem to be solved,
Speaker 3: me finding it out faster than you proved I'm more creative.
Speaker 3: Like it's the most easy way to prove I'm more creative, right,
Speaker 3: So I don't understand why. And it's like gamifying it too.
Speaker 3: Math is quite fun in a game. It's trying to
Speaker 3: figure things out. So yeah, I think it's taught really bad.
Speaker 3: But by my senior year of college, I had been
Speaker 3: what twelve years of math basically, and it had weeded
Speaker 3: out like all kind of sense of personality, right, And
Speaker 3: all the kids in that are very, very straight by
Speaker 3: the book, which sucks because it shouldn't be that you
Speaker 3: should have very unique thinkers in a room full of math.
Speaker 2: Well, but you clearly are that anyway.
Speaker 1: So you're taking those mathematics and you're applying it to
Speaker 1: a different area.
Speaker 2: I think what math really helped me.
Speaker 3: It obviously it was good at training the brain, but
Speaker 3: I think it made me fearless because everyone was like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, I can't believe you're doing math, like
Speaker 3: that's so like crazy, it must be so difficult, and
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, it is, but it's possible, right right.
Speaker 3: And I think that mindset was applied to fashion, where
Speaker 3: it's like, yeah, I don't know a lot about fashion now,
Speaker 3: but it's learnable, And so math was learnable. Everyone thought
Speaker 3: it was the scariest thing to major, and I did that,
Speaker 3: So why couldn't I apply that like mindset or mind
Speaker 3: practice to different mediums?
Speaker 1: Was it ever?
Speaker 2: Was it a social thing as well? Was that a
Speaker 2: way to meet girls?
Speaker 1: A way to kind of social I think I was
Speaker 1: the hottest girl in my math class.
Speaker 2: You can't say that, all right, you said it, but
Speaker 2: I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 1: So, but you're now moving into a very different world
Speaker 1: from academic mathematics, right, You're super different, right, And you're
Speaker 1: so you're in Brooklyn and you're living in a store,
Speaker 1: which is about the hippest thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 3: Well, what's even funnier about this is to make money.
Speaker 3: I'm airbing being a room in the store, okay, and
Speaker 3: I call it a Brooklyn studio. And if you're from Sweden,
Speaker 3: this is like the coolest shit ever. Nothing really works.
Speaker 3: You're kind of in this art studio. And then I
Speaker 3: would only try to get people there for like a
Speaker 3: day or two days, because by day three they'd noticed
Speaker 3: that there was hours and operations of the store that
Speaker 3: they were living in.
Speaker 1: So they were actually working there, so they'd like, yeah,
Speaker 1: and wait a minute, I came here, and good trace
Speaker 1: to have a hipster holiday and now I'm living in
Speaker 1: a store.
Speaker 3: But if you're like really foreign, that's the coolest New
Speaker 3: York experience ever.
Speaker 1: Well, you know when I when I lived in the
Speaker 1: East Village in the eighties, there was one or two
Speaker 1: of your type down there. Then the big thing at
Speaker 1: the time was stores became nightclubes. Okay, so there there
Speaker 1: was a furniture store called Space Gallery during the day
Speaker 1: and at night it was a it was a club
Speaker 1: called Space Gallery, and you would go in and it's like,
Speaker 1: I think that still happens.
Speaker 3: Actually, yeah, I mean that I would love to. I
Speaker 3: mean that would be a very fun thing for the kids.
Speaker 3: Super news store, very secretive club a club. Yeah, you
Speaker 3: should come see it. By the way, where is it.
Speaker 3: It's in Williamsbury.
Speaker 2: I don't go to Brooklyn, but come on, I'm too old.
Speaker 2: I'm too old. I can go. I'll try.
Speaker 1: You went to Lower east Side, it's like ten more minutes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm in the Upper east Side now. I go
Speaker 1: to the Daily, I get my bagel, I go back home.
Speaker 1: You got my day.
Speaker 2: Yes, But these tattoos, yeah, that's true. Yeah, do you
Speaker 2: have anything?
Speaker 1: I have super tattooed on my right butt cheek. Okay, committed,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to have kid, no kid? All right, Okay,
Speaker 1: I get it. Everyone always says the same thing, you know,
Speaker 1: or then get pooper or duper put on super duper
Speaker 1: or super pooper.
Speaker 2: Well the poopers there as well. Well you know if
Speaker 2: you label it as well.
Speaker 1: So listen, you do this. You're in the store in Brooklyn. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and now you're starting No, it's a business, right.
Speaker 3: Well this was the me getting the store was proved
Speaker 3: to everyone that it was serious, okay, because it was
Speaker 3: a physical entity that represented something real. And it's funny because,
Speaker 3: like you know, most businesses now start fully e commerce
Speaker 3: and they're like, I don't even need a store. We
Speaker 3: can just direct a consumer. We don't need to have
Speaker 3: a physical location. But for me, I guess the real
Speaker 3: thing that excited me about fashion, besides all the other stuff,
Speaker 3: was meeting people and having a place to Like again,
Speaker 3: my parents moved here in the seventies or eighties, and
Speaker 3: they were always talking about this energy that New York
Speaker 3: had and everyone was kind of working.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I probably ran into your parents, and certainly
Speaker 2: I think your dad. At some point. I probably ran
Speaker 2: away from your.
Speaker 3: Dad at some point in like erotic a club, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I've actually touched your father.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I touched your father. I touched your father
Speaker 1: in the eighties. So now you're my kid exactly. I
Speaker 1: could be you're my kid.
Speaker 2: That's it. So I need a cut.
Speaker 3: But I always heard about this and I was like, man,
Speaker 3: I wish I could live that era. And I was like,
Speaker 3: there isn't these there aren't these spaces where people are
Speaker 3: meeting up. There aren't these like these ideas of like
Speaker 3: buildings that you could kind of convert into art studios
Speaker 3: or like convert a stores slash club. Like you just
Speaker 3: needed so much money to do that. Nowadays, it was
Speaker 3: like my mom would always say Colin, like, why aren't
Speaker 3: you just focusing on painting? And I go, Mom, what
Speaker 3: was your rent? She goes seventy five dollars a month
Speaker 3: and I go, okay, what did you do? She was
Speaker 3: like I could work on Friday as a waitress in
Speaker 3: the Financial District and get tipped one hundred dollars. I'm like,
Speaker 3: so you're making your rent on tip one night? Like
Speaker 3: that freedom doesn't exist now, Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, that's kind of true. I remember that.
Speaker 1: I mean that time period as well, was because I
Speaker 1: worked in a building site in Harlem. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: get paid six hundred bucks a week in my rent
Speaker 1: with six hundred bucks a month. Yeah, I left in
Speaker 1: a very fancy place six bus a month. But you
Speaker 1: know that thing you're talking about the store is kind
Speaker 1: of because you remember were talking about the There was
Speaker 1: a store on Avenue, a furniture store run by an
Speaker 1: English guy, and we sold nineteen fifties furniture. And it
Speaker 1: was there that I met Andy Warhol and basket at
Speaker 1: because people used to go there to hang out during
Speaker 1: the day and drink beer and set on the furniture.
Speaker 2: That's all they did.
Speaker 1: And it was kind of a weird time and I
Speaker 1: see your hankering for that, yeah, and people it didn't
Speaker 1: feel like there was anything particularly fabulous going on at
Speaker 1: the time, but it was only in retrospect to going
Speaker 1: this was kind of an interesting time.
Speaker 3: Well even now, so like I had this physical space
Speaker 3: and then no one was coming to the store to shop.
Speaker 3: It was kind of in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2: That was the problem. That was the problem everybody else had.
Speaker 2: They weren't making any money.
Speaker 3: And I remember being like, damn, okay, so no one's
Speaker 3: coming to the shop. What if I converted into a
Speaker 3: place that people need to come. So I did a
Speaker 3: thing for converts. They paid for this recording studio in
Speaker 3: my basement. I bought like a sewing machine. I bought
Speaker 3: like seamless to take photos. And I was kind of like,
Speaker 3: anyone who wants to come can come use this place,
Speaker 3: right OK. And so I was like, the more people
Speaker 3: that come, I will see what happens. And in retrospect,
Speaker 3: as you're saying now, like we had so many cool
Speaker 3: and interesting people work and live out of there, and
Speaker 3: like my basement recording studio, I think a couple songs
Speaker 3: from it are like five times platinum.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 1: And so you're in retrospect you're like, Wow, this is fun,
Speaker 1: blah blah, and then you're like, whoa this we were
Speaker 1: really doing stuff and this is kind of like what
Speaker 1: my mom described.
Speaker 3: Do you still have the store now? I have a
Speaker 3: bigger one, but I stole all the walls. So I
Speaker 3: painted the walls of the store, and when I left,
Speaker 3: I ripped them all off and then I rebuilt them
Speaker 3: in my new store.
Speaker 2: You probably lost your deposit, Oh definitely.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I had previously lost my deposits, so this store
Speaker 1: is now happening place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the chronology, I'm trying to get to this. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to make the.
Speaker 1: Connection between you and Paris Fashion Week because I think
Speaker 1: that's when you go in New Clear, Yes, when it
Speaker 1: was at Paris.
Speaker 2: So what what happens? Did you decide you wanted to
Speaker 2: try that? Is that?
Speaker 3: So basically I was doing a lot of different things
Speaker 3: at that time, where I was like doing album arts
Speaker 3: for musicians, I was maybe doing merch, I was doing
Speaker 3: art shows. I was doing all this stuff, and I
Speaker 3: was dropping clothes like super erradically nothing to the schedule.
Speaker 3: How most people drop clothing, right, And so someone came
Speaker 3: into a store she and she was like two girls,
Speaker 3: a stylist and her friend, and they're like, what's next
Speaker 3: for you? And I jokingly said, Paris Fashion Week? Complete joke.
Speaker 3: But at the time you had heard about, you know,
Speaker 3: Virgil had gone to Louis Vauton and was doing Paris
Speaker 3: fashion shoo shows out there with Off White as well,
Speaker 3: and there was kind of an energy around Paris Fashion Week.
Speaker 3: To me, it seemed like completely out of the picture,
Speaker 3: Like it's.
Speaker 1: Like saying a night to Off Broadway. What's next Neo Superman? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll be playing Supermo yah yeah, or like yeah, like
Speaker 1: you're in high school. Well, it's so funny. So I
Speaker 1: went to This is a side note, but I made
Speaker 1: the jerseys for Barnsley, which is a third division soccer
Speaker 1: team in Yeah, that's amazing. So I made their jerseys
Speaker 1: and I went there. This is fast forwarding, but I
Speaker 1: went there and they were kind of wrapping their heads
Speaker 1: around what I was doing, and they were like, so,
Speaker 1: how important was Louis Vauton like calling you up? And
Speaker 1: I go, well, it's kind of like you're playing for
Speaker 1: Barnsley and real Madrid's exactly.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, and they all were like, oh, okay, all right,
Speaker 2: now we understand it. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3: So anyways, I'm back in the store and these two
Speaker 3: girls asked me what's next, and I jokingly go Paris
Speaker 3: Fashion Week and she goes, my boss is a French
Speaker 3: PR guy who helps people do Paris Fashion Week shows.
Speaker 2: I'm like, she's like, do you want to meet and
Speaker 2: I'm like sure, no problem.
Speaker 3: Again, meeting people was like that it was the goal,
Speaker 3: and so I'm in this meeting and he's like, so
Speaker 3: for venues.
Speaker 2: Are you thinking this one, this one, this one?
Speaker 3: And I didn't want to look stupid, so I just
Speaker 3: set like, well, my mom's from Spain, and'd be cool
Speaker 3: to do a bullfighting ring instead of the instead of
Speaker 3: the conventional catwalk, it would be cool if it was circular.
Speaker 2: He's like, what about this circus.
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, that's amazing, blah blah, and I leave
Speaker 3: and I'm like, what the fuck did I just plan
Speaker 3: a Paris fact?
Speaker 1: And he keeps calling me. He's like, hey, I've spoke
Speaker 1: to the venue. I suppose do you need money for exactly?
Speaker 3: And so I haven't agreed to any money, right, And
Speaker 3: I'm just kind of like this guy thinks I'm doing it,
Speaker 3: but I'm had no plans of doing it. But then
Speaker 3: I keep telling my friends and I'm like, hey, man,
Speaker 3: like this, should we do Paris faction? Just just feel
Speaker 3: how they'd say it? And everyone around me was like yeah, cool,
Speaker 3: Like I'm in, sign me up. And I remember being
Speaker 3: like I think I had created this like exaggerated persona
Speaker 3: of myself called kid Super that everyone believed in because
Speaker 3: I'd proven correct a couple times, and so they were
Speaker 3: all in. And I remember being like, all right, well
Speaker 3: I'm not going to be the one guy who doubts me.
Speaker 3: If everyone else is on I'm in. So I remember
Speaker 3: calling the guy. I'm like, okay, let's do this, Like
Speaker 3: how less there is this cost?
Speaker 2: Where do we like? Who models it? Blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: And so the cool thing about Paris Fashion Week is
Speaker 3: to get on the official calendar. You basically have to
Speaker 3: show up do a fashion show at the same time,
Speaker 3: same area, and they'll review it and if you're good,
Speaker 3: maybe next time or the next time or the next time. Right,
Speaker 3: But it's kind of like showing up to Sundance, renting
Speaker 3: a movie theater and it being judged by all the
Speaker 3: people at Sundance, or which was the.
Speaker 1: Way at the beginning, which yeah, I mean I won
Speaker 1: Sundance in nineteen ninety nine, yeah, I think, or two
Speaker 1: thousand and that was what used to kind of happen.
Speaker 2: You just took your movie to Sundance and physically you
Speaker 2: didn't have to talk to anyone.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, you very quickly became you know, well,
Speaker 1: this guy wants this movie here at this time and this,
Speaker 1: and so it became about really access to timeslow it right,
Speaker 1: more than anathon, but at the very beginning there was
Speaker 1: no It was like, yeah, bringing along.
Speaker 3: Which is such a cool and kind of inspire hiring
Speaker 3: or motivating concept where you're like, wait, I just have
Speaker 3: to show up. Like if that's it's like.
Speaker 2: The Edinburgh Festival or something, comedians just go there.
Speaker 3: If that's like all that it is, I'll show up
Speaker 3: for the rest of time. So anyways, I do this
Speaker 3: fashion show and I'm like, who to model it? So
Speaker 3: the first model on my fashion show is my mother,
Speaker 3: perfect choice, The second models my father, perfect choice. Yeah,
Speaker 3: third and fourth is like the rappers that had worn
Speaker 3: the kids super stuff the last person. And so it
Speaker 3: ended up getting this review from Vogue called breakout fashion
Speaker 3: show of Men's Paris Fashion Week show.
Speaker 1: All right, so that's to me, seems like a gear
Speaker 1: change right there.
Speaker 3: It was a gear change for sure, where I'm like, okay,
Speaker 3: And I had read about other fashion designers and I'm like,
Speaker 3: how did like Jeremy Scott turned to Jeremy Scott or
Speaker 3: Mark Jacobs turned to Mark Jacobs and these fashion shows
Speaker 3: were super integral to their life changing moments, and so
Speaker 3: I'm like, holy shit, my life's changed. And then nothing
Speaker 3: changes and I'm like, wait, and because we were in
Speaker 3: a weird time where like media doesn't matter as much
Speaker 3: as it wants, Like a good article doesn't change your
Speaker 3: life for sure, A good like one picture of a
Speaker 3: celebrity wearing your clothes doesn't change your life anymore. And
Speaker 3: so it really nothing changed. Besides, I couldn't uber home
Speaker 3: because I'd spent all my money. Wow, And so I
Speaker 3: was like, okay, this was I was like was this
Speaker 3: worth it? But what was really cool was I felt
Speaker 3: like it was this amazing like artistic challenge. And I
Speaker 3: don't know how like what our goal in life is,
Speaker 3: but mine was these artistic challenges. And what I also
Speaker 3: loved was that it was seen by and judged at
Speaker 3: the highest level. So I was at the highest time.
Speaker 3: I'm taken seriously just because I'm doing I'm trying it
Speaker 3: and it's every six months, and I'm already got to
Speaker 3: so I did that.
Speaker 2: I got a review. Wait wait, fashion Week is every
Speaker 2: six months. Yeah, so every six months you do autumn, winter, summer, spring, summer, spring.
Speaker 2: You have to keep doing this to conty once a year.
Speaker 3: I wish you once a year would be way less
Speaker 3: physically and mentally draining. But so when they review that,
Speaker 3: they reject me again from the official calendar. So I've
Speaker 3: got rejected twice or three times. I eventually get it
Speaker 3: rejected three times. But everyone's like, man, I'm so sorry
Speaker 3: Colin that you got rejected. I'm like, guys, they're reviewing me.
Speaker 3: I'm like this and it's literally called like the Federation
Speaker 3: on de haut Couture, and it's like the and it's
Speaker 3: like the most French and prestigious name. And I'm getting
Speaker 3: this email like thank you so much for like applying.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately you're not a blah blah, and I'm like, I
Speaker 3: was always afraid that I would never get in that room.
Speaker 3: I wasn't afraid of like that was my fear. But
Speaker 3: once I was in it that I was getting no
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, this is easy. This is only
Speaker 3: about amount of times you try, effort you put in
Speaker 3: and good ideas like medical equations.
Speaker 2: I'll beat math again, that's what you're doing.
Speaker 3: And I was like, I'll beat everyone in those like
Speaker 3: you're not gonna outwork me or out the idea of me.
Speaker 3: And so I just did it three times and which
Speaker 3: is more than the average brand has to do. But
Speaker 3: I was against such an outsider. And then on my
Speaker 3: third time, I get accepted to Paris Fashion Week, and
Speaker 3: which is fantastic.
Speaker 2: No, what show do you put on for your first
Speaker 2: This is great official?
Speaker 3: So this is great official things happened by the way,
Speaker 3: I've blown all my money, of course, and I get accepted.
Speaker 3: I'm like, fuck, I really don't want to. I don't
Speaker 3: financially can't do another fashion Week show. COVID hits and
Speaker 3: I'm like, thank god, which I might be the only
Speaker 3: person in the world.
Speaker 1: I think it was one or two people were like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: well yeah, I mean it's bad that people are getting sick,
Speaker 1: but this.
Speaker 2: Is not bad.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I was like, this stopped all fashion week
Speaker 3: shows and they all went virtual. Okay, So now virtual
Speaker 3: fashion shows were video fashion shows that had really no
Speaker 3: restriction because it had never been done before, and so
Speaker 3: you could do a catwalk that you filmed, you could
Speaker 3: do blah blah blah. But it kind of leveled the
Speaker 3: playing field because now you couldn't, like, rent a palace
Speaker 3: in Paris hire the top models like that. You couldn't
Speaker 3: do anymore because models can't move. Renting a place doesn't
Speaker 3: look that cool on camera, and so this was my chance.
Speaker 3: And before this, I had done all these music videos
Speaker 3: for artists, I had done all this stop motion stuff.
Speaker 3: So I thought, wouldn't it be funny to do a
Speaker 3: stop motion fashion show made out of Barbie dolls? And
Speaker 3: so I bought all these Barbie dolls. I ripped off
Speaker 3: the head of the Barbie dolls and I three D
Speaker 3: printed like fifty cent Jennifer Lopez, Stephen Hawking, Picasso, Salvador Dali,
Speaker 3: and I had all these doll versions of them and
Speaker 3: little miniature clothes, and I had them stop motion.
Speaker 2: Walk on a catwalk. That's genius.
Speaker 3: And in my mind, I remember telling my friends like
Speaker 3: we were this is our first and last time on
Speaker 3: Paris fashion because I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, there's no way to go.
Speaker 1: This is the most amazing all in my mind, I
Speaker 1: was like, they didn't even make clothes, like they're ten
Speaker 1: inches tall, and so I'm like, but I thought it
Speaker 1: was such a cool idea. And I also thought it
Speaker 1: was so authentic to the kids superstory because claymation had
Speaker 1: been a huge part of the success from doing music
Speaker 1: videos for different people. Right, these are ours that you're
Speaker 1: collaborating with, are in your store in Brooklyn to begin.
Speaker 3: With, yes, right, and so, and I was making their
Speaker 3: little stop motion videos and so I get this like
Speaker 3: amazing review from the pair and it's like a breakout
Speaker 3: hit in fashion world. And now everyone starts taking me
Speaker 3: seriously as this like original thinker. And because I was
Speaker 3: competing during Virtual Fashion Week, where everyone else kind of
Speaker 3: fucked up because they were they had all these plans
Speaker 3: for these giant fashion shows that they had to stop,
Speaker 3: so they were like last minuting making these videos where
Speaker 3: that's kind of my skill is these last minute no resources.
Speaker 2: Like all that helps me is.
Speaker 1: That when the big fashion houses start circling you about
Speaker 1: coming in and doing stuff for them.
Speaker 3: Not yet, but this is where the fashion world first
Speaker 3: takes an eye to me, right, And they had really
Speaker 3: not and so now I'm like once they supported that
Speaker 3: original thinking, I was like, oh, man, now I can
Speaker 3: do anything because I thought that was going to get
Speaker 3: kicked off and so I'm like, oh, if that's allowed,
Speaker 3: then I'll have And so there was probably five COVID
Speaker 3: fashion shows, so like yeah, two and a half years
Speaker 3: of COVID, and I did very unique ones.
Speaker 2: I did one that was a short film.
Speaker 3: I did one where I set a booth in Washington
Speaker 3: Square Park and I asked three hundred people what they
Speaker 3: want to do before they die, and then the video
Speaker 3: cut to them being like, I want a sky and
Speaker 3: it would cut to them skydiving and a kid's super
Speaker 3: look nice. And so I did skydiving. I did family reunion,
Speaker 3: blind date, climb a mountain, raft the river, and so
Speaker 3: it was oh, I fashion aside, it's a.
Speaker 2: Kind of beautiful. Yeah, it's a lovely thing to do show.
Speaker 3: And then the last fashion show, I'm like, I always
Speaker 3: thought there'd be a cool kid super television show.
Speaker 2: And I was just like, how do you do this?
Speaker 3: And so I had looked up The Entourage and how
Speaker 3: to make an America IMBD and I saw a name
Speaker 3: and I hit up Rob Weise from He's on both
Speaker 3: of them, and I was like, how do you get
Speaker 3: a TV show?
Speaker 2: Blah blah?
Speaker 3: And I got through him through Instagram and he was like, well, basically,
Speaker 3: you make a pilot and maybe someone buys it or
Speaker 3: not and blah blah blah blah, and like they fund
Speaker 3: a pilot. And I was like, what if we just
Speaker 3: do a pilot and call it a fashion show? I
Speaker 3: have to spend like, you know, fifty to one hundred
Speaker 3: or one hundred and fifty k every fashion show, let's
Speaker 3: just do it for this. He's like, wow, that's crazy,
Speaker 3: blah blah. And so I wrote a script, shot it
Speaker 3: blah blah. And I shot this like pilot episode, called
Speaker 3: it a fashion show all everyone was wearing the kid
Speaker 3: super clothes. But it feels really much like a decent
Speaker 3: pilot for.
Speaker 2: A TV show. So does the TV show get picked up?
Speaker 3: So then that's how I meet W E. C a
Speaker 3: UK because of this TV show concept. And again like
Speaker 3: super outside of the television world, and don't really.
Speaker 1: That's all changing so much anyway. I mean, everything is
Speaker 1: changing so much. You're really right in a wave. It
Speaker 1: seems to me that you're that you're very Stuart learning
Speaker 1: very quickly. The things are changing, and this is how
Speaker 1: it can do it, and you can adapt. They talk
Speaker 1: about Darwinism as the survival of the fast.
Speaker 2: It's not. It's the survival of the most adaptable.
Speaker 1: Sabertooth Tiger's pretty fucking you know fit, But it's if
Speaker 1: it's not going to fit the conditions, if it's not
Speaker 1: going to write it out, it's not going to survive.
Speaker 1: So you do that because the industry is changing, and
Speaker 1: I think all industries are changing, like TV is changing,
Speaker 1: fashion is.
Speaker 2: Changing, all everything the world is changing.
Speaker 1: Do you see a time that you can You can't
Speaker 1: really sail into a traditional kind of model. You can't say, well,
Speaker 1: at a certain point, I'll be Louis Vitone because well,
Speaker 1: it's changed.
Speaker 2: It's changing.
Speaker 3: And also it's really not my best strength, right, Like,
Speaker 3: if you compete head to head at like fashion infrastructure
Speaker 3: with one of these big guys, you're getting crushed, right.
Speaker 2: But because they have distribution and they have this, it's just.
Speaker 3: And that's their whole thing, and they have millions and
Speaker 3: billions of dollars backing. But original ideas and original ways
Speaker 3: of thinking and moving very quickly and nimble is a
Speaker 3: strength that I have that they don't have. So everyone
Speaker 3: was always kind of thinking like wow, Colin, like these
Speaker 3: are such amazing original ideas. It's like they are good ideas.
Speaker 3: But it was also like I was aware of what
Speaker 3: I could bring to the table and what I couldn't
Speaker 3: and the things that I could compete with. We're more
Speaker 3: ideas than it was like, you know, so you had
Speaker 3: a sense of you know yourself and you had a
Speaker 3: sense of your place in it. Yeah, so what happens
Speaker 3: when Louis Vuitton comes to you and says, right, we
Speaker 3: want you to be his guest designer, that's what we
Speaker 3: call it.
Speaker 2: Right, So they want you to do that for a year. No,
Speaker 2: we've taken you know, Sid.
Speaker 1: Vicious out of the pistivals and he's just joining the
Speaker 1: London Philharmonic Orchestra, and that it's a very it's a
Speaker 1: very different world. He does it, marry out well one.
Speaker 1: Sid Vicious never thought he was going to get to
Speaker 1: the well. It's a bad example somebody else, you know, I'm.
Speaker 3: Saying as the sid Vicous character, Right, it was as
Speaker 3: extreme as that scenario where I was like I never
Speaker 3: even thought because you know, there was rumors about who
Speaker 3: was going to be next after Virgil, and I wasn't
Speaker 3: even putting myself within like even joking with my friends
Speaker 3: you're right, and you know you joke like, oh I
Speaker 3: should play.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I never even went brought it up because that's how
Speaker 3: far fetched it was. And so when I get the
Speaker 3: ask or call to pitch, because you still, it wasn't
Speaker 3: like we need you, you're in.
Speaker 2: It was like would you like to apply.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It was at exactly so I think people think it
Speaker 3: was like they just called me and we're like, the
Speaker 3: time is now and my name.
Speaker 2: I would like you to come to my house and
Speaker 2: make a pair of trousers.
Speaker 3: It was very much like you have a first meeting
Speaker 3: and I was like, how much time do I have
Speaker 3: to prepare? They're like house two and a half weeks?
Speaker 3: I go perfect, So what do you make? You just
Speaker 3: make a bunch of different looks or stuff. So I
Speaker 3: made a five hundred page book okay of ideas, concepts, thoughts, clothes, pitches,
Speaker 3: shows everything. I three D printed shoes, I three D
Speaker 3: printed a belt buckle I built, I made a bag,
Speaker 3: I shot three.
Speaker 2: Commercials, really threw down. You know, you did the work.
Speaker 3: That's what I think people may or may not understand,
Speaker 3: was like I don't think I was the top of
Speaker 3: their list. I think once they got they saw how
Speaker 3: much work I was able to do in such a
Speaker 3: short period of time, they were like, oh, if we
Speaker 3: give this kid resources, like this guy's the limit.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: I was just again, it was about being in the room.
Speaker 2: Once I was in the room, I was like I
Speaker 2: can do.
Speaker 1: This, right, But here's the thing no, No, you have
Speaker 1: a situation where you have, up until this point unrestricted
Speaker 1: creative control. Now I feel like it would be naive
Speaker 1: for anyone that think you're going to walk into a
Speaker 1: giant fashion host late Vatona and they're going to say,
Speaker 1: would you like, you know, let us see a picture
Speaker 1: of the pants? So, is there is there an editor
Speaker 1: you're dealing with? Is there someone who's looking at is
Speaker 1: there a Tim Gunn? So that's hilarious.
Speaker 2: I love it, but I think it really should be
Speaker 2: just make it work.
Speaker 3: So this is what's interesting about fashion, I think is
Speaker 3: so these runway shows are kind of just an example
Speaker 3: of your creativity, and then what you see in the
Speaker 3: store is merchandised for production.
Speaker 1: Right, So it's a concept car versus a production like right,
Speaker 1: right exactly. And so during in the concept car you
Speaker 1: have crazy freedom. And I was pretty blown away by
Speaker 1: Louis Vutan's like acceptance to new ideas and very little
Speaker 1: like you can't do this.
Speaker 3: The whole thing was like, you can do this, this
Speaker 3: is great. We have a team here that makes it,
Speaker 3: takes all these ideas and turns it into.
Speaker 2: Oh that's very clever.
Speaker 1: So so what it does then is that you get
Speaker 1: the concept and there's a group of people who their
Speaker 1: skill is to take your concepts and make it racles
Speaker 1: things like that. Was that that must be a weird
Speaker 1: kind of I mean, you're the crazy. Thing is like,
Speaker 1: I mean, right now you can go to Louis Vuitton
Speaker 1: and you see like my handwriting on stuff and like
Speaker 1: kind of my drawings on pain my paintings on clothes.
Speaker 1: But what was really amazing about the experience is like
Speaker 1: it makes you dream so big. I mean, obviously you
Speaker 1: as well, like your life story. It's like once you
Speaker 1: get on national television, you're like, what can't I do?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's a little of that for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I understand it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's it's like it's for me.
Speaker 1: It was it was America, America, you can do anything
Speaker 1: because I'm an immigrant. That's my And it feels like
Speaker 1: you you have that from your parents that they were like,
Speaker 1: you can do anything here.
Speaker 2: The sky's limit in this place.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I mean definitely felt like I could try
Speaker 3: for anything. It definitely didn't feel like it was going
Speaker 3: to happen. No, there's no guarantees, but you get the
Speaker 3: opportunity and so yeah, but it was was also crazy.
Speaker 3: Is like Paris was way more open to me as
Speaker 3: a designer than America.
Speaker 2: That's interesting, I wonder why.
Speaker 3: I think because Paris knows they're good and knows that
Speaker 3: they're great, and knows they have history that they can
Speaker 3: take risks.
Speaker 2: America is constantly searching for like we can't be wrong, Like, oh,
Speaker 2: so it's a confidence. I think it's like from a
Speaker 2: fashion world perspective, Americans, I think.
Speaker 1: That that has that has residencies elsewhere, so they like
Speaker 1: are afraid to take risks necessarily on someone because if
Speaker 1: it doesn't hit the check check check, check check, they
Speaker 1: look stupid because they put all their eggs in a
Speaker 1: basket of an American whereas Paris or France, it's like
Speaker 1: they've proven themselves time and time again.
Speaker 2: If they have one that doesn't work, they're willing to
Speaker 2: test it out. What does what does it look like?
Speaker 2: Don't work? And is that like sales are bad? Is
Speaker 2: that is it simple as that? Like people just don't
Speaker 2: want to buy it or it gets a bad review
Speaker 2: from you know.
Speaker 3: I mean the reviews don't matter as much as they
Speaker 3: ever did. I mean, like I would love to see
Speaker 3: the numbers of how many people read the like your
Speaker 3: Vogue review many and and then so so that's not
Speaker 3: what's important.
Speaker 2: I think. I'm sure you've get more Instagram followers. Yeah
Speaker 2: it's Vogue.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The main thing is just like keeping the energy alive
Speaker 3: and like, because I come from a streetwear background where
Speaker 3: it's like, you know, you're either the hottest streetwear brand
Speaker 3: or everyone hates. It's like pretty hard to maintain the
Speaker 3: cool forever. You see it now with Supreme struggling a
Speaker 3: little bit.
Speaker 2: Ed Hardy. Yeah, but now the cool thing about that
Speaker 2: is like now ed Hardy could be cool, right, it
Speaker 2: comes back again. You got a wait, it's every twenty years, right.
Speaker 3: And you can wait that as a brand, and like
Speaker 3: there's a bunch of brands and like Stuicy or Stussy
Speaker 3: however people want to say it that was not cool
Speaker 3: for like ten years and now it's super super cool.
Speaker 1: Well I did that, went through that and stuff like
Speaker 1: that as well. So what now, because now you're an
Speaker 1: interesting point you are you're no longer street.
Speaker 2: I mean you look street, but you know you've been
Speaker 2: against that. I mean, number one thing, it's a weird.
Speaker 2: It's a weird position to be in.
Speaker 3: An earlier than I thought I was going to be
Speaker 3: into it, and I think like the Kid's Super business
Speaker 3: wasn't as like figured out when I got the LV thing,
Speaker 3: where I was like, Okay, now I know exactly like
Speaker 3: my price point and my distribution and all this stuff.
Speaker 2: But it's super exciting.
Speaker 3: I think also the stuff that I'm interested in, things
Speaker 3: that have opened up, as you said, like the TV
Speaker 3: series was always something I was really trying hard to do.
Speaker 3: Art was always something I was really trying hard to do.
Speaker 3: And I think I have to maintain myself as like
Speaker 3: an artist that's true to the craft while the kids
Speaker 3: super clothing business builds up.
Speaker 1: And so it's the balance of art and call maers again, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: because I think that's what worked for me.
Speaker 3: And I think added this like luxury standpoint to the
Speaker 3: kids super even though the prices aren't crazy.
Speaker 2: All right, So how does this figure out in your life?
Speaker 2: A way? What if I strip all of it that's
Speaker 2: away and go, okay, none of this this is all
Speaker 2: your work? Is there a person there who is not
Speaker 2: the work? Is there? Is there ambitions for a family?
Speaker 2: Is there ambitions?
Speaker 1: Is this a therapy session? A little bit at the moment. Now,
Speaker 1: I think that's okay. That's a very healthy and honest
Speaker 1: answer to say no, this is what I do, this
Speaker 1: is who I am. And I think that that there's
Speaker 1: a kind of interesting morality given to people who say no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I do this. I like this, Like I'm friends with
Speaker 1: I'm sure you know his name. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you know his work, but I'm friends with Jay Leno.
Speaker 1: The Jay's thing is I Yeah, I just like that.
Speaker 2: I just did my job. I did have my job.
Speaker 2: That's who he is.
Speaker 1: And if he didn't do it, I don't think he'd
Speaker 1: really I mean, he loves his cars and cars yeah
Speaker 1: car right, the count of right. But if you took
Speaker 1: a way doing stand up comedy for him, I don't
Speaker 1: think he would really understand what life was about.
Speaker 3: I think also, I've been really fortunate to brand things
Speaker 3: that I'm very interested as kid super, So it's like
Speaker 3: there isn't too many like for example, I did Barnsley's
Speaker 3: Third Division a third division soccer jersey football jersey and.
Speaker 2: Essentially because Barnsley are like it's an odd choice.
Speaker 3: It was a odd choice and amazing experience. But I
Speaker 3: called a kid super right, but I would do that
Speaker 3: as column right, And I was like, and I got
Speaker 3: to train with them, so I got to play.
Speaker 2: Oh, because you'd like to play song?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah? And I was like, okay, like right, and what
Speaker 3: point is that become a column thing or a kid
Speaker 3: super thing. It's a column thing, true and true, but
Speaker 3: I just branded it as kid Super. So I think
Speaker 3: my like moral dilemmas of that stuff, I don't have
Speaker 3: any because I'm really doing stuff that I would do
Speaker 3: if it wasn't a brand, or I would want to do.
Speaker 2: That's what I think.
Speaker 1: And I think the bottom line is this is that
Speaker 1: you know, I worked a little bit with the Rolling
Speaker 1: Stones at some point.
Speaker 2: It was actually I was working with my I don't
Speaker 2: know if I'm supposed to say this, but I'm doing
Speaker 2: their alternate cover. Are you really? Yeah? That's really fun.
Speaker 2: Are you working with Jagger? Well?
Speaker 1: I don't get to meet him, but he approved. I
Speaker 1: bet you, I bet you do, because he's really hands on.
Speaker 1: I was writing a script with him. We never made
Speaker 1: the movie. He's like, now, what we have put a
Speaker 1: full stop in there and do you know we have
Speaker 1: a sentence there and then have this black guy with that.
Speaker 1: But he's very hands on. But because I was kind
Speaker 1: of working with him, I was they were on tour
Speaker 1: at the time, so I was in that environment. This
Speaker 1: is where I get to you because Keith Richards is
Speaker 1: the guitarist in The Rolling Stones and I don't think
Speaker 1: he gives a rat's ass if it's a stadium or
Speaker 1: a pub.
Speaker 2: As long as he's playing the guitar, that's what it is.
Speaker 2: And he does it because he doesn't know how nought
Speaker 2: to do it. And I think that's you.
Speaker 1: I think what you're doing is you're smart enough and
Speaker 1: you're mathematical enough to know that I can make a
Speaker 1: lot of money doing this.
Speaker 2: But I think you would just do it anyway.
Speaker 3: And I think that's when you enjoy what you're doing, sure,
Speaker 3: and I think it's why you continue. I think a
Speaker 3: lot of people, you know, I started making clothing in
Speaker 3: high school where none of those and there's lots of
Speaker 3: kids that have brands in high school that didn't continue
Speaker 3: because they weren't hitting, like the success meter that they
Speaker 3: had in their head. But I never had the success meter,
Speaker 3: that's right, wasn't there because I was like one. I
Speaker 3: always felt that this was like I don't know if
Speaker 3: the words blessing. But I was always like, wow, I
Speaker 3: can't believe I'm doing this. Like it wasn't that I
Speaker 3: can't believe this is successful. I was like, I can't
Speaker 3: believe I get the opportunity to like make clothing or
Speaker 3: fuck around with my friends or whatever.
Speaker 2: And it's a business. And so I wasn't like, why
Speaker 2: am I not sales like this? Blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: And I always was like, okay, this is there's always
Speaker 3: a little bit of a door opening or a door closing.
Speaker 3: So I knew exactly what to do or not to do,
Speaker 3: because it wasn't like I knew the big vision of
Speaker 3: what I always wanted, but I had no idea how
Speaker 3: to get there. And then I just followed kind of
Speaker 3: like open or closed doors.
Speaker 1: It's it's funny. It's a very mathematical approach to it,
Speaker 1: like you know, this gate's closed, it's zero one zero
Speaker 1: one zero one go through. I am very much looking
Speaker 1: forward to seeing what happens with you next. I'm delighted
Speaker 1: that you came in and talked to us. You are
Speaker 1: a force of nature and a real American story, and
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by it.
Speaker 2: Calm you have to come to the store. I bought
Speaker 2: a moped. You can just get on the back. I'll
Speaker 2: get on the back. I'll be your moped bet. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much, z