January 23, 2024 • 55 mins
Meet Colm Dillane, an American artist, fashion designer, and musician. He is the founder of KidSuper, a streetwear clothing brand based in Brooklyn, New York. Besides many accomplishments, Dillane's collaborated with the luxury fashion house, Louis Vuitton, part of the LVMH conglomerate. EnJOY this brilliant mind of Colm and check out www.kidsuper.com!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast
is Joy. I talk to interest in people about what
brings them happiness. Meet Coln de Lane, young emerging American entrepreneur,
slash artists slash genius who's turning his fashion brand Kid
(00:21):
Super into a global phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I have a listen to this kid.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's all right, you should collapse, you know, that would
be hilarious fashion Week all that body corpses.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
That'd be awesome.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I think it's a good idea. I just don't know
how tasteful.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah, yeah, I know it's it's kind of thing we're
on and we're talking, but the just so as you know,
we are now being recorded. Sorry, but you think then
the idea of fashion all dead bodies, that's my idea
that you just but you don't think it's gonna.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Work on record if it comes from your idea. And
then I just did it and I was like, well
it was Craig, you know, it was so adamant about this.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, but I don't get to bill you around.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
You're the You're the wonder Ken, You're the You're the face,
the emerging face of American nay the world well fashion, yes,
but as the face of American fashion is quite funny
to even think about it.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
But if we propped up dead bodies and just like just.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Oh you thought they were propped I thought they were
just open casket, Well you just analyze the look.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Well, how can you how can you look at them?
I mean that, then it's not going to work.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
No, No, you like treat it truly like a funeral,
where instead of like going up to see them and cry,
you just like go up and be like, wow, it's
a great outfit that.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
You know what see, this is why you are. You're
who you are.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Do people call you kid Super because the brand's called
kid Super? Do like do you do people say hey,
KD Super?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And if they don't know me, right, and my first
name is a little weird for Americans.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Call them yeah, call them yeah. It's uh, I grew
up with a little guy. It's called call them yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
But so if you call me kid or kid Super,
it's usually you don't know me super super.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Well, and here's the thing as well, though, you don't
want people calling you kid for a long time because
then you get into the kid rock scenario, which I
actually I've thought about this. Right, there's Kid Rock, there's
Kid Cuddy, right, and as they've grown older, you forget
the meaning of kid.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
It just becomes the name.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
All right, I get it. So so, so your name
is Kid. You're just like, oh, it's just a sound. Yeah,
but I think Colm's a lovely name. And I think
your mom and dad were very proud to give you
that name.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Is Craig your real name. Weirdly, my real name is
Kid show Business.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, yeah, Craig is Craig is like the male version
of being called Karen.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I think it is a little bit. I don't know,
not in America. Well maybe not.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Okay, So let's let's just get a bit of background
on you a little bit before we go in the
Fashion Genius. Well, actually, let's go into fashion genius a
little bit because I know, I know that you won
the Carl Lagerfeld Prize.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Do you ever meet Carl Lagerfeld? I did not. That's
a shame. My wife met him and he was amazing.
He was nice to her. Yeah, he said that. He said,
you look beautiful, he said to her.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I don't know if he said it like that, but well,
he has some of the best quotes every where. It's
like anyone who wears sweatpants doesn't care about their lives. Well,
you know, I mean, look, guy, he's not wrong.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
He may have a point. I'm not saying he's right
all the time. But I think my number one seller
is sweatpants.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
You sell sweatpants, but they're fancy sweatpants with an odd
design on them.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
They are cool sweatpants. Sweatpants took over I think, and
you know, I'm a comfortable guy, but I do wish
I lived in that era of fashion where you could
say these kind of outlandish things.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I think you can now, but I need the look
you look. Do you know what I was thinking about
you the other day because I was in Pittsburgh. Now,
I was in Pittsburgh and I saw a lot of
people in sweatpats. But I went to the Andy Warhol Museum,
and I have you been to that met I haven't.
It's really cool. You'd love it. But as I walked around,
(04:30):
I thought, you know what I met? Somebody really recently
reminds me. Are you influenced by Warhol?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Do you think? I think?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
I mean, it's always funny because some people consider me
an artist. Some people consider me a fashion designer, blah blah,
blah blah. I never called myself either of the things.
I was just at a young age trying to make
things and trying to make them tangible and trying to
make them that some could someone could purchase, right, And
so that like kind of commercial aspect of it wasn't
(05:01):
so much like, oh, I'm this business genius.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It was like, Okay, I'm fifteen.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I need to figure out how to like make something
that can connect me with different people or turn into
a little bit of sales. And so I was always
really good at drawing, and I just started drawing on
T shirts and then I got what I loved about
fashion was it was like the easiest I mean, I
don't know, for me, it was art form to meet
new people, right, because it was like, oh, you might
(05:28):
come from completely different backgrounds, completely different interests, but might
both like the kids super T shirt.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
But that's why the kind of war whole thing is
like Warhole collected people as well as art. And he
was very you know, and he went across a whole
lot of different areas and he had that kind of
artist as capitalist, which I kind of like, I really
like about you as well, man, you're quite unashamedly entrepreneurial,
which I love. It's not like there's not like a
(05:57):
phony rockn roll about it. It's real roken roll, Like, no,
this is going to be successful. I wanted to be successful.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yeah, And I think also I was so out of
the art world and I was so out of the
fashion world that it wasn't like it didn't even feel possible.
So it wasn't like, oh, column if you're like, if
you have more integrity about your art or blah blah blah.
Like I was like, no one was treating me as
an artist. I was a kid in Brooklyn who majored
in mathematics and was a soccer player. So it was
(06:23):
like I was like just trying to hustle and bustle
for new opportunities, and like part of that was an
entrepreneurial spirit. But the entrepreneurial spirit came also from like
a little bit of the New York spirit is entrepreneurial.
Like no one moves here to just sit around and
move here to make it. You move here to enter
and like if you didn't move here for that, your
parents did, right, And so there is a push I
(06:47):
think to like kind of create your own lane. And
for me at a young age, I was very just entrepreneurial.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Well cause your parents moved here.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Your your mom's Spanish, right, yeah, and your dad's Irish. Yeah,
so that's that's a fiery company.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Do you have a bad temper? They do? They do
it kind of in the game. It was like a
doctor Phil growing up.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Well, it's just like they always fight about everything, and
so I had to be a little bit like, come on, guys,
the cabinet door being open, isn't this big of a deal.
That's really interesting. Do you think were you an only child? Yeah, yeah,
that's kind of interesting. So you are the you're the
genetic experiment between your mom's was an artist.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Your mom is an artist.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah yeah, yeah, but again they didn't realize and still
is that Do you want to take the comic? I
know you're busy. I muted it. Come on, it's just
a loud vibrate yet you know what, you're an emerging artist.
You're doing your thing in New York. If you need
to take a call, okay, all right, So your mom
(07:55):
is an artist.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, your dad's not an artist.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
No, he's not, but I would give him a performance
artist kind of energy. He's a crazy guy that like
if we were here and competing over like who could
climb to the building the quickest, or who will break
that window, He'll do it.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Okay, all right, So he's he has an adventurous.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Spirit, incredibly like to the point a super extreme sense.
Like one story when I was I think I must
have been thirteen, we went skydiving for our first time ever, okay, right,
and I was like, I don't really want to go skydiving.
He convinced the instructors that he was a professional and
that he must go alone.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
What and you have to do like one hundred to
two hundred's that's very dangerous, super dangerous, And we were.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
So he was like, I'm a professional. I've done this
many many, many times. And I think he had done
it once with someone on his back before, like five
years prior. Right, Anyways, he convinces them, jumps off the
plane completely alone.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Then he's supposed to like pull it out a certain time,
and he doesn't, and so they all fly to him,
the instructors, they're like pull it, pull it, pull it,
and so he pulls it and then they're supposed to
land in like a soccer field size thing, right, and
we don't see my dad when everyone lands, and we're like,
oh my god, like did he blah blah. And then
ten minutes later he walks in with the whole parachute
(09:20):
and was like that was amazing and he's like banned
from life from this ego band. Well, they were like,
what the fuck did you feel? I would be kind
of what the fuck is?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Is it a crazy story? But did you did you
feel kind of unsafe growing up? Or were you Okay, no, no, no,
always felt safe?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Right, Okay, so you grew up And it's a because
I think of you, like we've had conversation before, and
I think of you, is you have a kind of
like a stable background. Yeah, and like your your your
family is kind of together still, right, and they were
just moving a lot and crazy thinkers.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
But what I always say to this, and obviously I'm
not a parent, but I I think the best thing
to do as a parent is that you and your
kid have the same priorities. And I think when you're
very little, you get in trouble for stuff that you
can't really understand, where you're like, oh, like standing on
top of this table, wasn't that bad while am I
(10:16):
getting yelled at so much and then like getting.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Telling the flight the instructors that you're a professional.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Exactly, and then and then getting like a B in school,
Like you don't get in trouble so much. So then
you're kind of like, what's like when I was a kid,
I could stand on the table no matter what. No
one cares, orf my parents didn't care. But if I
got to be in school, I was in a lot
of trouble. So it kind of you a straight A student.
(10:44):
I was a straight A student, but I felt like, Okay,
I understand why you're being mean here and why you're
not being mean here, and so I always felt like
we were on the same team, right, So I was like, okay,
this is I can take punishment because I understand when
I'm wrong, and then when i'm when we're on the
same side, it's like other people might think it's not
(11:04):
the best acting, but I thought, like standing on table
is fun.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I think I think you turned out all right.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, So you come out of school and when you
drawing into fashion, was it through music because usually young
people it's through music, right.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
So I had moved a ton growing up. So I
went from like New York, Chicago, New York, Mexico, Wisconsin
back to New York.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
And so it was because your parents work.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
My dad was just getting new jobs, okay, and so
he and since he's Irish, she was like, fuck it. Yeah, Mexico,
Mexico is the same as New York.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
But Wisconsin when I was like eleven, was very very
much like what was cool was sports.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So if you're good at sports, you were a cool kid, okay.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And then I moved right to Brooklyn at twelve, and
what was cool was fashion, right, And I knew nothing
about fashion, and I was like I couldn't really wrap
my head around like young kids spending a lot of
money on clothes to make themselves cool, right, And I
was kind of like, well, I was like anti anti culture,
where I was like, oh, this is stupid. Let me
just make my own clothes, right, And so that was
(12:09):
really why the clothing thing happened.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So you started making your own clothes. How did the
term professional? Who's noticed it? Did it come to me?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
It's funny, like there isn't a moment where it's like
you are professional.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I wish it was. Yeah, it would be very cool.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
But I think. I mean, so I started with T
shirts in high school. I was spray painting. Then I
started screenprinting, and then I manufactured my first hat that
was with a factory that was like custom. Everything else
was like I was buying a T shirt and I
wish I could say that I had manufactured my first hat. Yeah,
it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
There's nothing says you're going to be a billionaire like
having a phrase in your life like that's what I
manufactured my first hat. Yeah, but that was pretty big
deal for me because I was like probably seventeen on
Ali Baba, which is like, yeah, I know what it is,
Chinese website where you can get anything made right, And
so I was talking to all these factories and knew nothing,
(13:02):
and I asked ten different factories for this one hat
design and this one hat and they all sent me
ten different ones. All most were horrendous, but one was incredible,
and I was like, this is the start of me,
like learning how to make things and produce things. And
so that hat I dropped with like T shirts and
a hoodie and I was like, this is a full collection.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I'm like, I am a top tier designer.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Did you ever watch Project Runway? Did you know? But
Project Runway to me was like so fashion. I was
like such a streetwear person at the time, and so
I was like, Okay, I have a hat that's unique
and I have T shirts and so I dropped the collection.
And I was in college at the time, and a
kid on my soccer team's roommate built the website and
(13:47):
that was my huge like, oh man, I'm going to
sell to people that I don't know, because at the
time you're like, how do you find people that you
don't know to buy your clothes?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I think it's fascinating is you're very clearly a result
of your time as well, like you use the resources
of the internet.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I mean that's interesting that you were on a Chinese
manufacturing website when you're a teenager.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yeah. Yeah, And I'm sure there are other kids doing
it now.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
I think it's even crazier because now there's all like
there's Instagram's now devoted to finding manufacturing for young clothing
brand designers.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Is that good? Do you think? Does it help?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
It helps if you're young, but it also it just
allows so many people to enter the field. Yeah, So
you're like a young designer. For me, it took ages
to make my own shoe right right now, you can
make your own shoe quite easily if you do the research.
And you're all of a sudden talking to a shoe
manufacturer in Asia and you're like sixteen.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
So let's talk a little.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Bit about shoe manufacturers in Asia a little bit, because
there is you know, there is an ethical problem and
you're industry about how negative connotation?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, there is?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, is that something that you're cognizant of, that that
you're of course you're cognisant of. You does it plan
how you make your staff? Well, there's two things. One,
China makes everything.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
It's not just clothe whatever, so everything. They're the best
manufacturers of things in general, right And it's not just pricing,
it's just bare minimum. If you want the highest end thing,
they could still make it the best. And it's just
because they've had infrastructure for seventy years and we took
off the past seventy years basically, like we basically just
(15:29):
handed them all manufacturing and we stopped doing it in America.
And so the idea that it's like worse or better
or whatever. There are factories that are very bad. But
there's also factories that are very good, okay, And like
the factory that I work with, Like I visited and
went to dinner with the whole like staff, oh, and
like it was like, Okay, this is nice, but you
(15:50):
checked it out.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, I checked it out.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
And it was like she's always complaining that her husband's
playing too much basketball, right, so it's like she has
the same problems and we're working at as well. But
what I love about China and working with factories there
is like, Okay, if you want to make a pair
of denim jeans in America, you have to go find
the fabric which is in from America. So maybe there's
(16:14):
some from America, but usually it's not. So let's say
you imported Japanese denim right now, you have to get
a factory that cuts it right. Then you have to
go find the factory makes the buttons. Then you have
to have another factory that puts the buttons on the jeans.
So like you've just touched ten factories and like tons
of shipping and all this stuff to make one pair
of pants. China's infrastructures it's all in the same area.
(16:36):
It's all in the same block, so they don't even
it's not even considered going to different factories. It's just
all done in the house. So if you're talking about
you know, there's other issues with shipping that comes in
and you know, so, but.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Let's we made a kind of a leap there because
we got your high school and now your touring factories
in China looking for the best deal for your jeans.
But between there there is your relationship with Paris Fashion Week,
which I think is fascinating because you kind of that
that's kind of where you made your boones. Really, so
you you applied to Paris Fashion Week, street fashion was
(17:14):
that the way.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
You do So this is so basically to speed up
the story. I was in college, I launched the brand,
things start moving a little bit. I convert my sophomore
year dorm into a store and so everyone's come into
my dorm room and it looks like a storefront, and
I got racks of clothing.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And to be so rich, it's scary.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
And then and then I'm like, okay, I get in
trouble with my dean of housing because they didn't like
that this course. Yeah, and so I'm like I should
have told them you were a professional parachutest.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Something I was trying to say, like, how am I
not the face of housing?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
It's like, give me a bigger room. I was like,
you should be supporting me. You're right, I got it.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
And they have like twenty five thousand kids go to
the school and I'll like tell them all about my story.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
I was like, if all of them buy one item,
I'm super rich. Yeah, and so whatever I got, and
they didn't believe in the vision. So I was like,
I converted a dorm into a store. But what if
I do the flip side? Okay, So I found this
little store in Brooklyn on Craigslist.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Okay, what you run I do?
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, I swear I made my mind, which would be
an amazing side. Yeah. Yeah, you know it's a sight hustle,
but you know it brings in a couple of billion
of years.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Was it. It is amazing that Craigslist never changed their name. Yeah,
it's super awesome.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
It's fantastic. You know the eBay was stuffed by a
guy called eBay Noah, Yeah, but Yahoo Yahoo yeahoo's You
always have other options, that's what yeahoo was. You always
have other options. That's why they it's so good. Yeah,
it's clever, all right. So you convey a store into
(19:03):
a dorm.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yeah, So then I basically move into the back of
a store in Brooklyn, and I have all my classes
in junior year set up. So it's Monday Tuesday, I
go to school, Wednesday through Sunday I work at the store.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
So what college are you having. I'm at NYU, right,
and I'm studying mathematics.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Right, But clearly it's not You're not going to be
an academic mathematician.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
That's not clearly.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
And I think, I mean, it's a side conversation, but
I think math is taught really horribly. I mean in
the United States or wherever. But it's not seen as
a creative field, I know, and that's wrong. It should
be actually the most creative I agory. It's the language
of the universe, and people think that it's a chore.
And I don't know why or how it got converted
(19:48):
to that, but I think it's like, if me and
you are sitting here and there's a problem to be solved,
me finding it out faster than you proved I'm more creative.
Like it's the most easy way to prove I'm more creative, right,
So I don't understand why. And it's like gamifying it too.
Math is quite fun in a game. It's trying to
figure things out. So yeah, I think it's taught really bad.
(20:08):
But by my senior year of college, I had been
what twelve years of math basically, and it had weeded
out like all kind of sense of personality, right, And
all the kids in that are very, very straight by
the book, which sucks because it shouldn't be that you
should have very unique thinkers in a room full of math.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Well, but you clearly are that anyway.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So you're taking those mathematics and you're applying it to
a different area.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I think what math really helped me.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
It obviously it was good at training the brain, but
I think it made me fearless because everyone was like,
oh my god, I can't believe you're doing math, like
that's so like crazy, it must be so difficult, and
I was like, yeah, it is, but it's possible, right right.
And I think that mindset was applied to fashion, where
it's like, yeah, I don't know a lot about fashion now,
but it's learnable, And so math was learnable. Everyone thought
(21:03):
it was the scariest thing to major, and I did that,
So why couldn't I apply that like mindset or mind
practice to different mediums?
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Was it ever?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Was it a social thing as well? Was that a
way to meet girls?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
A way to kind of social I think I was
the hottest girl in my math class.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
You can't say that, all right, you said it, but
I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
So, but you're now moving into a very different world
from academic mathematics, right, You're super different, right, And you're
so you're in Brooklyn and you're living in a store,
which is about the hippest thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Well, what's even funnier about this is to make money.
I'm airbing being a room in the store, okay, and
I call it a Brooklyn studio. And if you're from Sweden,
this is like the coolest shit ever. Nothing really works.
You're kind of in this art studio. And then I
would only try to get people there for like a
day or two days, because by day three they'd noticed
(22:06):
that there was hours and operations of the store that
they were living in.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
So they were actually working there, so they'd like, yeah,
and wait a minute, I came here, and good trace
to have a hipster holiday and now I'm living in
a store.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
But if you're like really foreign, that's the coolest New
York experience ever.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Well, you know when I when I lived in the
East Village in the eighties, there was one or two
of your type down there. Then the big thing at
the time was stores became nightclubes. Okay, so there there
was a furniture store called Space Gallery during the day
and at night it was a it was a club
called Space Gallery, and you would go in and it's like,
I think that still happens.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Actually, yeah, I mean that I would love to. I
mean that would be a very fun thing for the kids.
Super news store, very secretive club a club. Yeah, you
should come see it. By the way, where is it.
It's in Williamsbury.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I don't go to Brooklyn, but come on, I'm too old.
I'm too old. I can go. I'll try.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
You went to Lower east Side, it's like ten more minutes. Yeah,
but I'm in the Upper east Side now. I go
to the Daily, I get my bagel, I go back home.
You got my day.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yes, But these tattoos, yeah, that's true. Yeah, do you
have anything?
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I have super tattooed on my right butt cheek. Okay, committed,
you're gonna have to have kid, no kid? All right, Okay,
I get it. Everyone always says the same thing, you know,
or then get pooper or duper put on super duper
or super pooper.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Well the poopers there as well. Well you know if
you label it as well.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
So listen, you do this. You're in the store in Brooklyn. Yeah,
and now you're starting No, it's a business, right.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Well this was the me getting the store was proved
to everyone that it was serious, okay, because it was
a physical entity that represented something real. And it's funny because,
like you know, most businesses now start fully e commerce
and they're like, I don't even need a store. We
can just direct a consumer. We don't need to have
a physical location. But for me, I guess the real
(24:16):
thing that excited me about fashion, besides all the other stuff,
was meeting people and having a place to Like again,
my parents moved here in the seventies or eighties, and
they were always talking about this energy that New York
had and everyone was kind of working.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, and I probably ran into your parents, and certainly
I think your dad. At some point. I probably ran
away from your.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Dad at some point in like erotic a club, like, yeah,
I've actually touched your father.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, yeah, I touched your father. I touched your father
in the eighties. So now you're my kid exactly. I
could be you're my kid.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
That's it. So I need a cut.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
But I always heard about this and I was like, man,
I wish I could live that era. And I was like,
there isn't these there aren't these spaces where people are
meeting up. There aren't these like these ideas of like
buildings that you could kind of convert into art studios
or like convert a stores slash club. Like you just
needed so much money to do that. Nowadays, it was
(25:15):
like my mom would always say Colin, like, why aren't
you just focusing on painting? And I go, Mom, what
was your rent? She goes seventy five dollars a month
and I go, okay, what did you do? She was
like I could work on Friday as a waitress in
the Financial District and get tipped one hundred dollars. I'm like,
so you're making your rent on tip one night? Like
(25:38):
that freedom doesn't exist now, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
No, that's kind of true. I remember that.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I mean that time period as well, was because I
worked in a building site in Harlem. Yeah, and I
get paid six hundred bucks a week in my rent
with six hundred bucks a month. Yeah, I left in
a very fancy place six bus a month. But you
know that thing you're talking about the store is kind
of because you remember were talking about the There was
a store on Avenue, a furniture store run by an
(26:05):
English guy, and we sold nineteen fifties furniture. And it
was there that I met Andy Warhol and basket at
because people used to go there to hang out during
the day and drink beer and set on the furniture.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
That's all they did.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
And it was kind of a weird time and I
see your hankering for that, yeah, and people it didn't
feel like there was anything particularly fabulous going on at
the time, but it was only in retrospect to going
this was kind of an interesting time.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Well even now, so like I had this physical space
and then no one was coming to the store to shop.
It was kind of in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
That was the problem. That was the problem everybody else had.
They weren't making any money.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
And I remember being like, damn, okay, so no one's
coming to the shop. What if I converted into a
place that people need to come. So I did a
thing for converts. They paid for this recording studio in
my basement. I bought like a sewing machine. I bought
like seamless to take photos. And I was kind of like,
anyone who wants to come can come use this place,
right OK. And so I was like, the more people
(27:05):
that come, I will see what happens. And in retrospect,
as you're saying now, like we had so many cool
and interesting people work and live out of there, and
like my basement recording studio, I think a couple songs
from it are like five times platinum.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
And so you're in retrospect you're like, Wow, this is fun,
blah blah, and then you're like, whoa this we were
really doing stuff and this is kind of like what
my mom described.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Do you still have the store now? I have a
bigger one, but I stole all the walls. So I
painted the walls of the store, and when I left,
I ripped them all off and then I rebuilt them
in my new store.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
You probably lost your deposit, Oh definitely.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah. I had previously lost my deposits, so this store
is now happening place.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, the chronology, I'm trying to get to this. I'm
trying to make the.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Connection between you and Paris Fashion Week because I think
that's when you go in New Clear, Yes, when it
was at Paris.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
So what what happens? Did you decide you wanted to
try that? Is that?
Speaker 3 (28:06):
So basically I was doing a lot of different things
at that time, where I was like doing album arts
for musicians, I was maybe doing merch, I was doing
art shows. I was doing all this stuff, and I
was dropping clothes like super erradically nothing to the schedule.
How most people drop clothing, right, And so someone came
into a store she and she was like two girls,
(28:27):
a stylist and her friend, and they're like, what's next
for you? And I jokingly said, Paris Fashion Week? Complete joke.
But at the time you had heard about, you know,
Virgil had gone to Louis Vauton and was doing Paris
fashion shoo shows out there with Off White as well,
and there was kind of an energy around Paris Fashion Week.
To me, it seemed like completely out of the picture,
(28:50):
Like it's.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Like saying a night to Off Broadway. What's next Neo Superman? Yeah,
I'll be playing Supermo yah yeah, or like yeah, like
you're in high school. Well, it's so funny. So I
went to This is a side note, but I made
the jerseys for Barnsley, which is a third division soccer
team in Yeah, that's amazing. So I made their jerseys
and I went there. This is fast forwarding, but I
(29:13):
went there and they were kind of wrapping their heads
around what I was doing, and they were like, so,
how important was Louis Vauton like calling you up? And
I go, well, it's kind of like you're playing for
Barnsley and real Madrid's exactly.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Right, yeah, and they all were like, oh, okay, all right,
now we understand it. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
So anyways, I'm back in the store and these two
girls asked me what's next, and I jokingly go Paris
Fashion Week and she goes, my boss is a French
PR guy who helps people do Paris Fashion Week shows.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I'm like, she's like, do you want to meet and
I'm like sure, no problem.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Again, meeting people was like that it was the goal,
and so I'm in this meeting and he's like, so
for venues.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Are you thinking this one, this one, this one?
Speaker 3 (29:56):
And I didn't want to look stupid, so I just
set like, well, my mom's from Spain, and'd be cool
to do a bullfighting ring instead of the instead of
the conventional catwalk, it would be cool if it was circular.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
He's like, what about this circus.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I'm like, oh, that's amazing, blah blah, and I leave
and I'm like, what the fuck did I just plan
a Paris fact?
Speaker 1 (30:14):
And he keeps calling me. He's like, hey, I've spoke
to the venue. I suppose do you need money for exactly?
Speaker 3 (30:20):
And so I haven't agreed to any money, right, And
I'm just kind of like this guy thinks I'm doing it,
but I'm had no plans of doing it. But then
I keep telling my friends and I'm like, hey, man,
like this, should we do Paris faction? Just just feel
how they'd say it? And everyone around me was like yeah, cool,
Like I'm in, sign me up. And I remember being
like I think I had created this like exaggerated persona
(30:42):
of myself called kid Super that everyone believed in because
I'd proven correct a couple times, and so they were
all in. And I remember being like, all right, well
I'm not going to be the one guy who doubts me.
If everyone else is on I'm in. So I remember
calling the guy. I'm like, okay, let's do this, Like
how less there is this cost?
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Where do we like? Who models it? Blah blah blah.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
And so the cool thing about Paris Fashion Week is
to get on the official calendar. You basically have to
show up do a fashion show at the same time,
same area, and they'll review it and if you're good,
maybe next time or the next time or the next time. Right,
But it's kind of like showing up to Sundance, renting
a movie theater and it being judged by all the
(31:25):
people at Sundance, or which was the.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Way at the beginning, which yeah, I mean I won
Sundance in nineteen ninety nine, yeah, I think, or two
thousand and that was what used to kind of happen.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
You just took your movie to Sundance and physically you
didn't have to talk to anyone.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Well, you know, you very quickly became you know, well,
this guy wants this movie here at this time and this,
and so it became about really access to timeslow it right,
more than anathon, but at the very beginning there was
no It was like, yeah, bringing along.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Which is such a cool and kind of inspire hiring
or motivating concept where you're like, wait, I just have
to show up. Like if that's it's like.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
The Edinburgh Festival or something, comedians just go there.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
If that's like all that it is, I'll show up
for the rest of time. So anyways, I do this
fashion show and I'm like, who to model it? So
the first model on my fashion show is my mother,
perfect choice, The second models my father, perfect choice. Yeah,
third and fourth is like the rappers that had worn
(32:28):
the kids super stuff the last person. And so it
ended up getting this review from Vogue called breakout fashion
show of Men's Paris Fashion Week show.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
All right, so that's to me, seems like a gear
change right there.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
It was a gear change for sure, where I'm like, okay,
And I had read about other fashion designers and I'm like,
how did like Jeremy Scott turned to Jeremy Scott or
Mark Jacobs turned to Mark Jacobs and these fashion shows
were super integral to their life changing moments, and so
I'm like, holy shit, my life's changed. And then nothing
changes and I'm like, wait, and because we were in
(33:03):
a weird time where like media doesn't matter as much
as it wants, Like a good article doesn't change your
life for sure, A good like one picture of a
celebrity wearing your clothes doesn't change your life anymore. And
so it really nothing changed. Besides, I couldn't uber home
because I'd spent all my money. Wow, And so I
was like, okay, this was I was like was this
(33:24):
worth it? But what was really cool was I felt
like it was this amazing like artistic challenge. And I
don't know how like what our goal in life is,
but mine was these artistic challenges. And what I also
loved was that it was seen by and judged at
the highest level. So I was at the highest time.
(33:48):
I'm taken seriously just because I'm doing I'm trying it
and it's every six months, and I'm already got to
so I did that.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
I got a review. Wait wait, fashion Week is every
six months. Yeah, so every six months you do autumn, winter, summer, spring, summer, spring.
You have to keep doing this to conty once a year.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
I wish you once a year would be way less
physically and mentally draining. But so when they review that,
they reject me again from the official calendar. So I've
got rejected twice or three times. I eventually get it
rejected three times. But everyone's like, man, I'm so sorry
Colin that you got rejected. I'm like, guys, they're reviewing me.
I'm like this and it's literally called like the Federation
(34:30):
on de haut Couture, and it's like the and it's
like the most French and prestigious name. And I'm getting
this email like thank you so much for like applying.
Unfortunately you're not a blah blah, and I'm like, I
was always afraid that I would never get in that room.
I wasn't afraid of like that was my fear. But
once I was in it that I was getting no
(34:51):
I was like, oh, this is easy. This is only
about amount of times you try, effort you put in
and good ideas like medical equations.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
I'll beat math again, that's what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And I was like, I'll beat everyone in those like
you're not gonna outwork me or out the idea of me.
And so I just did it three times and which
is more than the average brand has to do. But
I was against such an outsider. And then on my
third time, I get accepted to Paris Fashion Week, and
which is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
No, what show do you put on for your first
This is great official?
Speaker 3 (35:23):
So this is great official things happened by the way,
I've blown all my money, of course, and I get accepted.
I'm like, fuck, I really don't want to. I don't
financially can't do another fashion Week show. COVID hits and
I'm like, thank god, which I might be the only
person in the world.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
I think it was one or two people were like, yeah, okay,
well yeah, I mean it's bad that people are getting sick,
but this.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Is not bad.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
No.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
Yeah, but I was like, this stopped all fashion week
shows and they all went virtual. Okay, So now virtual
fashion shows were video fashion shows that had really no
restriction because it had never been done before, and so
you could do a catwalk that you filmed, you could
do blah blah blah. But it kind of leveled the
(36:09):
playing field because now you couldn't, like, rent a palace
in Paris hire the top models like that. You couldn't
do anymore because models can't move. Renting a place doesn't
look that cool on camera, and so this was my chance.
And before this, I had done all these music videos
for artists, I had done all this stop motion stuff.
So I thought, wouldn't it be funny to do a
(36:30):
stop motion fashion show made out of Barbie dolls? And
so I bought all these Barbie dolls. I ripped off
the head of the Barbie dolls and I three D
printed like fifty cent Jennifer Lopez, Stephen Hawking, Picasso, Salvador Dali,
and I had all these doll versions of them and
little miniature clothes, and I had them stop motion.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Walk on a catwalk. That's genius.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
And in my mind, I remember telling my friends like
we were this is our first and last time on
Paris fashion because I'm.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Like, there's no way to go.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
This is the most amazing all in my mind, I
was like, they didn't even make clothes, like they're ten
inches tall, and so I'm like, but I thought it
was such a cool idea. And I also thought it
was so authentic to the kids superstory because claymation had
been a huge part of the success from doing music
videos for different people. Right, these are ours that you're
(37:23):
collaborating with, are in your store in Brooklyn to begin.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
With, yes, right, and so, and I was making their
little stop motion videos and so I get this like
amazing review from the pair and it's like a breakout
hit in fashion world. And now everyone starts taking me
seriously as this like original thinker. And because I was
competing during Virtual Fashion Week, where everyone else kind of
fucked up because they were they had all these plans
(37:48):
for these giant fashion shows that they had to stop,
so they were like last minuting making these videos where
that's kind of my skill is these last minute no resources.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Like all that helps me is.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
That when the big fashion houses start circling you about
coming in and doing stuff for them.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Not yet, but this is where the fashion world first
takes an eye to me, right, And they had really
not and so now I'm like once they supported that
original thinking, I was like, oh, man, now I can
do anything because I thought that was going to get
kicked off and so I'm like, oh, if that's allowed,
then I'll have And so there was probably five COVID
(38:29):
fashion shows, so like yeah, two and a half years
of COVID, and I did very unique ones.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
I did one that was a short film.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
I did one where I set a booth in Washington
Square Park and I asked three hundred people what they
want to do before they die, and then the video
cut to them being like, I want a sky and
it would cut to them skydiving and a kid's super
look nice. And so I did skydiving. I did family reunion,
blind date, climb a mountain, raft the river, and so
(38:59):
it was oh, I fashion aside, it's a.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Kind of beautiful. Yeah, it's a lovely thing to do show.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
And then the last fashion show, I'm like, I always
thought there'd be a cool kid super television show.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
And I was just like, how do you do this?
Speaker 3 (39:14):
And so I had looked up The Entourage and how
to make an America IMBD and I saw a name
and I hit up Rob Weise from He's on both
of them, and I was like, how do you get
a TV show?
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Blah blah?
Speaker 3 (39:24):
And I got through him through Instagram and he was like, well, basically,
you make a pilot and maybe someone buys it or
not and blah blah blah blah, and like they fund
a pilot. And I was like, what if we just
do a pilot and call it a fashion show? I
have to spend like, you know, fifty to one hundred
or one hundred and fifty k every fashion show, let's
just do it for this. He's like, wow, that's crazy,
blah blah. And so I wrote a script, shot it
(39:47):
blah blah. And I shot this like pilot episode, called
it a fashion show all everyone was wearing the kid
super clothes. But it feels really much like a decent
pilot for.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
A TV show. So does the TV show get picked up?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
So then that's how I meet W E. C a
UK because of this TV show concept. And again like
super outside of the television world, and don't really.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
That's all changing so much anyway. I mean, everything is
changing so much. You're really right in a wave. It
seems to me that you're that you're very Stuart learning
very quickly. The things are changing, and this is how
(40:34):
it can do it, and you can adapt. They talk
about Darwinism as the survival of the fast.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
It's not. It's the survival of the most adaptable.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Sabertooth Tiger's pretty fucking you know fit, But it's if
it's not going to fit the conditions, if it's not
going to write it out, it's not going to survive.
So you do that because the industry is changing, and
I think all industries are changing, like TV is changing,
fashion is.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Changing, all everything the world is changing.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Do you see a time that you can You can't
really sail into a traditional kind of model. You can't say, well,
at a certain point, I'll be Louis Vitone because well,
it's changed.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
It's changing.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
And also it's really not my best strength, right, Like,
if you compete head to head at like fashion infrastructure
with one of these big guys, you're getting crushed, right.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
But because they have distribution and they have this, it's just.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
And that's their whole thing, and they have millions and
billions of dollars backing. But original ideas and original ways
of thinking and moving very quickly and nimble is a
strength that I have that they don't have. So everyone
was always kind of thinking like wow, Colin, like these
are such amazing original ideas. It's like they are good ideas.
(41:53):
But it was also like I was aware of what
I could bring to the table and what I couldn't
and the things that I could compete with. We're more
ideas than it was like, you know, so you had
a sense of you know yourself and you had a
sense of your place in it. Yeah, so what happens
when Louis Vuitton comes to you and says, right, we
want you to be his guest designer, that's what we
(42:15):
call it.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Right, So they want you to do that for a year. No,
we've taken you know, Sid.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Vicious out of the pistivals and he's just joining the
London Philharmonic Orchestra, and that it's a very it's a
very different world. He does it, marry out well one.
Sid Vicious never thought he was going to get to
the well. It's a bad example somebody else, you know, I'm.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Saying as the sid Vicous character, Right, it was as
extreme as that scenario where I was like I never
even thought because you know, there was rumors about who
was going to be next after Virgil, and I wasn't
even putting myself within like even joking with my friends
you're right, and you know you joke like, oh I
should play.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
I never even went brought it up because that's how
far fetched it was. And so when I get the
ask or call to pitch, because you still, it wasn't
like we need you, you're in.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
It was like would you like to apply.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
It was at exactly so I think people think it
was like they just called me and we're like, the
time is now and my name.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
I would like you to come to my house and
make a pair of trousers.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
It was very much like you have a first meeting
and I was like, how much time do I have
to prepare? They're like house two and a half weeks?
I go perfect, So what do you make? You just
make a bunch of different looks or stuff. So I
made a five hundred page book okay of ideas, concepts, thoughts, clothes, pitches,
shows everything. I three D printed shoes, I three D
(43:43):
printed a belt buckle I built, I made a bag,
I shot three.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Commercials, really threw down. You know, you did the work.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
That's what I think people may or may not understand,
was like I don't think I was the top of
their list. I think once they got they saw how
much work I was able to do in such a
short period of time, they were like, oh, if we
give this kid resources, like this guy's the limit.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
Right.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
I was just again, it was about being in the room.
Once I was in the room, I was like I
can do.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
This, right, But here's the thing no, No, you have
a situation where you have, up until this point unrestricted
creative control. Now I feel like it would be naive
for anyone that think you're going to walk into a
giant fashion host late Vatona and they're going to say,
would you like, you know, let us see a picture
(44:36):
of the pants? So, is there is there an editor
you're dealing with? Is there someone who's looking at is
there a Tim Gunn? So that's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
I love it, but I think it really should be
just make it work.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
So this is what's interesting about fashion, I think is
so these runway shows are kind of just an example
of your creativity, and then what you see in the
store is merchandised for production.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
Right, So it's a concept car versus a production like right,
right exactly. And so during in the concept car you
have crazy freedom. And I was pretty blown away by
Louis Vutan's like acceptance to new ideas and very little
like you can't do this.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
The whole thing was like, you can do this, this
is great. We have a team here that makes it,
takes all these ideas and turns it into.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Oh that's very clever.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
So so what it does then is that you get
the concept and there's a group of people who their
skill is to take your concepts and make it racles
things like that. Was that that must be a weird
kind of I mean, you're the crazy. Thing is like,
I mean, right now you can go to Louis Vuitton
and you see like my handwriting on stuff and like
(45:57):
kind of my drawings on pain my paintings on clothes.
But what was really amazing about the experience is like
it makes you dream so big. I mean, obviously you
as well, like your life story. It's like once you
get on national television, you're like, what can't I do?
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yeah, well, it's a little of that for sure. Yeah,
I mean, yeah, I understand it.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
You know.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
It's it's like it's for me.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
It was it was America, America, you can do anything
because I'm an immigrant. That's my And it feels like
you you have that from your parents that they were like,
you can do anything here.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
The sky's limit in this place.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
Yeah, And I mean definitely felt like I could try
for anything. It definitely didn't feel like it was going
to happen. No, there's no guarantees, but you get the
opportunity and so yeah, but it was was also crazy.
Is like Paris was way more open to me as
a designer than America.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
That's interesting, I wonder why.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
I think because Paris knows they're good and knows that
they're great, and knows they have history that they can
take risks.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
America is constantly searching for like we can't be wrong, Like, oh,
so it's a confidence. I think it's like from a
fashion world perspective, Americans, I think.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
That that has that has residencies elsewhere, so they like
are afraid to take risks necessarily on someone because if
it doesn't hit the check check check, check check, they
look stupid because they put all their eggs in a
basket of an American whereas Paris or France, it's like
they've proven themselves time and time again.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
If they have one that doesn't work, they're willing to
test it out. What does what does it look like?
Don't work? And is that like sales are bad? Is
that is it simple as that? Like people just don't
want to buy it or it gets a bad review
from you know.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
I mean the reviews don't matter as much as they
ever did. I mean, like I would love to see
the numbers of how many people read the like your
Vogue review many and and then so so that's not
what's important.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
I think. I'm sure you've get more Instagram followers. Yeah
it's Vogue.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
The main thing is just like keeping the energy alive
and like, because I come from a streetwear background where
it's like, you know, you're either the hottest streetwear brand
or everyone hates. It's like pretty hard to maintain the
cool forever. You see it now with Supreme struggling a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Ed Hardy. Yeah, but now the cool thing about that
is like now ed Hardy could be cool, right, it
comes back again. You got a wait, it's every twenty years, right.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
And you can wait that as a brand, and like
there's a bunch of brands and like Stuicy or Stussy
however people want to say it that was not cool
for like ten years and now it's super super cool.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
Well I did that, went through that and stuff like
that as well. So what now, because now you're an
interesting point you are you're no longer street.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
I mean you look street, but you know you've been
against that. I mean, number one thing, it's a weird.
It's a weird position to be in.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
An earlier than I thought I was going to be
into it, and I think like the Kid's Super business
wasn't as like figured out when I got the LV thing,
where I was like, Okay, now I know exactly like
my price point and my distribution and all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
But it's super exciting.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
I think also the stuff that I'm interested in, things
that have opened up, as you said, like the TV
series was always something I was really trying hard to do.
Art was always something I was really trying hard to do.
And I think I have to maintain myself as like
an artist that's true to the craft while the kids
super clothing business builds up.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
And so it's the balance of art and call maers again, right, yeah,
because I think that's what worked for me.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
And I think added this like luxury standpoint to the
kids super even though the prices aren't crazy.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
All right, So how does this figure out in your life?
A way? What if I strip all of it that's
away and go, okay, none of this this is all
your work? Is there a person there who is not
the work? Is there? Is there ambitions for a family?
Is there ambitions?
Speaker 1 (50:13):
Is this a therapy session? A little bit at the moment. Now,
I think that's okay. That's a very healthy and honest
answer to say no, this is what I do, this
is who I am. And I think that that there's
a kind of interesting morality given to people who say no, no, no,
I do this. I like this, Like I'm friends with
(50:36):
I'm sure you know his name. I don't know if
you know his work, but I'm friends with Jay Leno.
The Jay's thing is I Yeah, I just like that.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
I just did my job. I did have my job.
That's who he is.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
And if he didn't do it, I don't think he'd
really I mean, he loves his cars and cars yeah
car right, the count of right. But if you took
a way doing stand up comedy for him, I don't
think he would really understand what life was about.
Speaker 3 (51:06):
I think also, I've been really fortunate to brand things
that I'm very interested as kid super, So it's like
there isn't too many like for example, I did Barnsley's
Third Division a third division soccer jersey football jersey and.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Essentially because Barnsley are like it's an odd choice.
Speaker 3 (51:30):
It was a odd choice and amazing experience. But I
called a kid super right, but I would do that
as column right, And I was like, and I got
to train with them, so I got to play.
Speaker 2 (51:39):
Oh, because you'd like to play song?
Speaker 1 (51:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (51:41):
Yeah? And I was like, okay, like right, and what
point is that become a column thing or a kid
super thing. It's a column thing, true and true, but
I just branded it as kid Super. So I think
my like moral dilemmas of that stuff, I don't have
any because I'm really doing stuff that I would do
if it wasn't a brand, or I would want to do.
Speaker 2 (52:01):
That's what I think.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
And I think the bottom line is this is that
you know, I worked a little bit with the Rolling
Stones at some point.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
It was actually I was working with my I don't
know if I'm supposed to say this, but I'm doing
their alternate cover. Are you really? Yeah? That's really fun.
Are you working with Jagger? Well?
Speaker 1 (52:19):
I don't get to meet him, but he approved. I
bet you, I bet you do, because he's really hands on.
I was writing a script with him. We never made
the movie. He's like, now, what we have put a
full stop in there and do you know we have
a sentence there and then have this black guy with that.
But he's very hands on. But because I was kind
of working with him, I was they were on tour
(52:41):
at the time, so I was in that environment. This
is where I get to you because Keith Richards is
the guitarist in The Rolling Stones and I don't think
he gives a rat's ass if it's a stadium or
a pub.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
As long as he's playing the guitar, that's what it is.
And he does it because he doesn't know how nought
to do it. And I think that's you.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
I think what you're doing is you're smart enough and
you're mathematical enough to know that I can make a
lot of money doing this.
Speaker 2 (53:10):
But I think you would just do it anyway.
Speaker 3 (53:12):
And I think that's when you enjoy what you're doing, sure,
and I think it's why you continue. I think a
lot of people, you know, I started making clothing in
high school where none of those and there's lots of
kids that have brands in high school that didn't continue
because they weren't hitting, like the success meter that they
had in their head. But I never had the success meter,
(53:34):
that's right, wasn't there because I was like one. I
always felt that this was like I don't know if
the words blessing. But I was always like, wow, I
can't believe I'm doing this. Like it wasn't that I
can't believe this is successful. I was like, I can't
believe I get the opportunity to like make clothing or
fuck around with my friends or whatever.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
And it's a business. And so I wasn't like, why
am I not sales like this? Blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 3 (53:58):
And I always was like, okay, this is there's always
a little bit of a door opening or a door closing.
So I knew exactly what to do or not to do,
because it wasn't like I knew the big vision of
what I always wanted, but I had no idea how
to get there. And then I just followed kind of
like open or closed doors.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
It's it's funny. It's a very mathematical approach to it,
like you know, this gate's closed, it's zero one zero
one zero one go through. I am very much looking
forward to seeing what happens with you next. I'm delighted
that you came in and talked to us. You are
a force of nature and a real American story, and
I'm fascinated by it.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
Calm you have to come to the store. I bought
a moped. You can just get on the back. I'll
get on the back. I'll be your moped bet. Thank
you so much, z
My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast
is Joy. I talk to interest in people about what
brings them happiness. Meet Coln de Lane, young emerging American entrepreneur,
slash artists slash genius who's turning his fashion brand Kid
(00:21):
Super into a global phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I have a listen to this kid.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
That's all right, you should collapse, you know, that would
be hilarious fashion Week all that body corpses.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
That'd be awesome.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I think it's a good idea. I just don't know
how tasteful.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah, yeah, I know it's it's kind of thing we're
on and we're talking, but the just so as you know,
we are now being recorded. Sorry, but you think then
the idea of fashion all dead bodies, that's my idea
that you just but you don't think it's gonna.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Work on record if it comes from your idea. And
then I just did it and I was like, well
it was Craig, you know, it was so adamant about this.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, but I don't get to bill you around.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
You're the You're the wonder Ken, You're the You're the face,
the emerging face of American nay the world well fashion, yes,
but as the face of American fashion is quite funny
to even think about it.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
But if we propped up dead bodies and just like just.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Oh you thought they were propped I thought they were
just open casket, Well you just analyze the look.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Well, how can you how can you look at them?
I mean that, then it's not going to work.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
No, No, you like treat it truly like a funeral,
where instead of like going up to see them and cry,
you just like go up and be like, wow, it's
a great outfit that.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
You know what see, this is why you are. You're
who you are.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Do people call you kid Super because the brand's called
kid Super? Do like do you do people say hey,
KD Super?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And if they don't know me, right, and my first
name is a little weird for Americans.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Call them yeah, call them yeah. It's uh, I grew
up with a little guy. It's called call them yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
But so if you call me kid or kid Super,
it's usually you don't know me super super.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Well, and here's the thing as well, though, you don't
want people calling you kid for a long time because
then you get into the kid rock scenario, which I
actually I've thought about this. Right, there's Kid Rock, there's
Kid Cuddy, right, and as they've grown older, you forget
the meaning of kid.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
It just becomes the name.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
All right, I get it. So so, so your name
is Kid. You're just like, oh, it's just a sound. Yeah,
but I think Colm's a lovely name. And I think
your mom and dad were very proud to give you
that name.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Is Craig your real name. Weirdly, my real name is
Kid show Business.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, yeah, Craig is Craig is like the male version
of being called Karen.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I think it is a little bit. I don't know,
not in America. Well maybe not.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Okay, So let's let's just get a bit of background
on you a little bit before we go in the
Fashion Genius. Well, actually, let's go into fashion genius a
little bit because I know, I know that you won
the Carl Lagerfeld Prize.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Do you ever meet Carl Lagerfeld? I did not. That's
a shame. My wife met him and he was amazing.
He was nice to her. Yeah, he said that. He said,
you look beautiful, he said to her.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I don't know if he said it like that, but well,
he has some of the best quotes every where. It's
like anyone who wears sweatpants doesn't care about their lives. Well,
you know, I mean, look, guy, he's not wrong.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
He may have a point. I'm not saying he's right
all the time. But I think my number one seller
is sweatpants.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
You sell sweatpants, but they're fancy sweatpants with an odd
design on them.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
They are cool sweatpants. Sweatpants took over I think, and
you know, I'm a comfortable guy, but I do wish
I lived in that era of fashion where you could
say these kind of outlandish things.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I think you can now, but I need the look
you look. Do you know what I was thinking about
you the other day because I was in Pittsburgh. Now,
I was in Pittsburgh and I saw a lot of
people in sweatpats. But I went to the Andy Warhol Museum,
and I have you been to that met I haven't.
It's really cool. You'd love it. But as I walked around,
(04:30):
I thought, you know what I met? Somebody really recently
reminds me. Are you influenced by Warhol?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Do you think? I think?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
I mean, it's always funny because some people consider me
an artist. Some people consider me a fashion designer, blah blah,
blah blah. I never called myself either of the things.
I was just at a young age trying to make
things and trying to make them tangible and trying to
make them that some could someone could purchase, right, And
so that like kind of commercial aspect of it wasn't
(05:01):
so much like, oh, I'm this business genius.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It was like, Okay, I'm fifteen.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I need to figure out how to like make something
that can connect me with different people or turn into
a little bit of sales. And so I was always
really good at drawing, and I just started drawing on
T shirts and then I got what I loved about
fashion was it was like the easiest I mean, I
don't know, for me, it was art form to meet
new people, right, because it was like, oh, you might
(05:28):
come from completely different backgrounds, completely different interests, but might
both like the kids super T shirt.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
But that's why the kind of war whole thing is
like Warhole collected people as well as art. And he
was very you know, and he went across a whole
lot of different areas and he had that kind of
artist as capitalist, which I kind of like, I really
like about you as well, man, you're quite unashamedly entrepreneurial,
which I love. It's not like there's not like a
(05:57):
phony rockn roll about it. It's real roken roll, Like, no,
this is going to be successful. I wanted to be successful.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yeah, And I think also I was so out of
the art world and I was so out of the
fashion world that it wasn't like it didn't even feel possible.
So it wasn't like, oh, column if you're like, if
you have more integrity about your art or blah blah blah.
Like I was like, no one was treating me as
an artist. I was a kid in Brooklyn who majored
in mathematics and was a soccer player. So it was
(06:23):
like I was like just trying to hustle and bustle
for new opportunities, and like part of that was an
entrepreneurial spirit. But the entrepreneurial spirit came also from like
a little bit of the New York spirit is entrepreneurial.
Like no one moves here to just sit around and
move here to make it. You move here to enter
and like if you didn't move here for that, your
parents did, right, And so there is a push I
(06:47):
think to like kind of create your own lane. And
for me at a young age, I was very just entrepreneurial.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Well cause your parents moved here.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Your your mom's Spanish, right, yeah, and your dad's Irish. Yeah,
so that's that's a fiery company.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Do you have a bad temper? They do? They do
it kind of in the game. It was like a
doctor Phil growing up.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Well, it's just like they always fight about everything, and
so I had to be a little bit like, come on, guys,
the cabinet door being open, isn't this big of a deal.
That's really interesting. Do you think were you an only child? Yeah, yeah,
that's kind of interesting. So you are the you're the
genetic experiment between your mom's was an artist.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Your mom is an artist.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah yeah, yeah, but again they didn't realize and still
is that Do you want to take the comic? I
know you're busy. I muted it. Come on, it's just
a loud vibrate yet you know what, you're an emerging artist.
You're doing your thing in New York. If you need
to take a call, okay, all right, So your mom
(07:55):
is an artist.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, your dad's not an artist.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
No, he's not, but I would give him a performance
artist kind of energy. He's a crazy guy that like
if we were here and competing over like who could
climb to the building the quickest, or who will break
that window, He'll do it.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Okay, all right, So he's he has an adventurous.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Spirit, incredibly like to the point a super extreme sense.
Like one story when I was I think I must
have been thirteen, we went skydiving for our first time ever, okay, right,
and I was like, I don't really want to go skydiving.
He convinced the instructors that he was a professional and
that he must go alone.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
What and you have to do like one hundred to
two hundred's that's very dangerous, super dangerous, And we were.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
So he was like, I'm a professional. I've done this
many many, many times. And I think he had done
it once with someone on his back before, like five
years prior. Right, Anyways, he convinces them, jumps off the
plane completely alone.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Then he's supposed to like pull it out a certain time,
and he doesn't, and so they all fly to him,
the instructors, they're like pull it, pull it, pull it,
and so he pulls it and then they're supposed to
land in like a soccer field size thing, right, and
we don't see my dad when everyone lands, and we're like,
oh my god, like did he blah blah. And then
ten minutes later he walks in with the whole parachute
(09:20):
and was like that was amazing and he's like banned
from life from this ego band. Well, they were like,
what the fuck did you feel? I would be kind
of what the fuck is?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Is it a crazy story? But did you did you
feel kind of unsafe growing up? Or were you Okay, no, no, no,
always felt safe?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Right, Okay, so you grew up And it's a because
I think of you, like we've had conversation before, and
I think of you, is you have a kind of
like a stable background. Yeah, and like your your your
family is kind of together still, right, and they were
just moving a lot and crazy thinkers.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
But what I always say to this, and obviously I'm
not a parent, but I I think the best thing
to do as a parent is that you and your
kid have the same priorities. And I think when you're
very little, you get in trouble for stuff that you
can't really understand, where you're like, oh, like standing on
top of this table, wasn't that bad while am I
(10:16):
getting yelled at so much and then like getting.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Telling the flight the instructors that you're a professional.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Exactly, and then and then getting like a B in school,
Like you don't get in trouble so much. So then
you're kind of like, what's like when I was a kid,
I could stand on the table no matter what. No
one cares, orf my parents didn't care. But if I
got to be in school, I was in a lot
of trouble. So it kind of you a straight A student.
(10:44):
I was a straight A student, but I felt like, Okay,
I understand why you're being mean here and why you're
not being mean here, and so I always felt like
we were on the same team, right, So I was like, okay,
this is I can take punishment because I understand when
I'm wrong, and then when i'm when we're on the
same side, it's like other people might think it's not
(11:04):
the best acting, but I thought, like standing on table
is fun.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I think I think you turned out all right.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, So you come out of school and when you
drawing into fashion, was it through music because usually young
people it's through music, right.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
So I had moved a ton growing up. So I
went from like New York, Chicago, New York, Mexico, Wisconsin
back to New York.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
And so it was because your parents work.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
My dad was just getting new jobs, okay, and so
he and since he's Irish, she was like, fuck it. Yeah, Mexico,
Mexico is the same as New York.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
But Wisconsin when I was like eleven, was very very
much like what was cool was sports.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
So if you're good at sports, you were a cool kid, okay.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
And then I moved right to Brooklyn at twelve, and
what was cool was fashion, right, And I knew nothing
about fashion, and I was like I couldn't really wrap
my head around like young kids spending a lot of
money on clothes to make themselves cool, right, And I
was kind of like, well, I was like anti anti culture,
where I was like, oh, this is stupid. Let me
just make my own clothes, right, And so that was
(12:09):
really why the clothing thing happened.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So you started making your own clothes. How did the
term professional? Who's noticed it? Did it come to me?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
It's funny, like there isn't a moment where it's like
you are professional.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I wish it was. Yeah, it would be very cool.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
But I think. I mean, so I started with T
shirts in high school. I was spray painting. Then I
started screenprinting, and then I manufactured my first hat that
was with a factory that was like custom. Everything else
was like I was buying a T shirt and I
wish I could say that I had manufactured my first hat. Yeah,
it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
There's nothing says you're going to be a billionaire like
having a phrase in your life like that's what I
manufactured my first hat. Yeah, but that was pretty big
deal for me because I was like probably seventeen on
Ali Baba, which is like, yeah, I know what it is,
Chinese website where you can get anything made right, And
so I was talking to all these factories and knew nothing,
(13:02):
and I asked ten different factories for this one hat
design and this one hat and they all sent me
ten different ones. All most were horrendous, but one was incredible,
and I was like, this is the start of me,
like learning how to make things and produce things. And
so that hat I dropped with like T shirts and
a hoodie and I was like, this is a full collection.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I'm like, I am a top tier designer.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Did you ever watch Project Runway? Did you know? But
Project Runway to me was like so fashion. I was
like such a streetwear person at the time, and so
I was like, Okay, I have a hat that's unique
and I have T shirts and so I dropped the collection.
And I was in college at the time, and a
kid on my soccer team's roommate built the website and
(13:47):
that was my huge like, oh man, I'm going to
sell to people that I don't know, because at the
time you're like, how do you find people that you
don't know to buy your clothes?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I think it's fascinating is you're very clearly a result
of your time as well, like you use the resources
of the internet.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I mean that's interesting that you were on a Chinese
manufacturing website when you're a teenager.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yeah. Yeah, And I'm sure there are other kids doing
it now.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
I think it's even crazier because now there's all like
there's Instagram's now devoted to finding manufacturing for young clothing
brand designers.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Is that good? Do you think? Does it help?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
It helps if you're young, but it also it just
allows so many people to enter the field. Yeah, So
you're like a young designer. For me, it took ages
to make my own shoe right right now, you can
make your own shoe quite easily if you do the research.
And you're all of a sudden talking to a shoe
manufacturer in Asia and you're like sixteen.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
So let's talk a little.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Bit about shoe manufacturers in Asia a little bit, because
there is you know, there is an ethical problem and
you're industry about how negative connotation?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, there is?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, is that something that you're cognizant of, that that
you're of course you're cognisant of. You does it plan
how you make your staff? Well, there's two things. One,
China makes everything.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
It's not just clothe whatever, so everything. They're the best
manufacturers of things in general, right And it's not just pricing,
it's just bare minimum. If you want the highest end thing,
they could still make it the best. And it's just
because they've had infrastructure for seventy years and we took
off the past seventy years basically, like we basically just
(15:29):
handed them all manufacturing and we stopped doing it in America.
And so the idea that it's like worse or better
or whatever. There are factories that are very bad. But
there's also factories that are very good, okay, And like
the factory that I work with, Like I visited and
went to dinner with the whole like staff, oh, and
like it was like, Okay, this is nice, but you
(15:50):
checked it out.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, I checked it out.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
And it was like she's always complaining that her husband's
playing too much basketball, right, so it's like she has
the same problems and we're working at as well. But
what I love about China and working with factories there
is like, Okay, if you want to make a pair
of denim jeans in America, you have to go find
the fabric which is in from America. So maybe there's
(16:14):
some from America, but usually it's not. So let's say
you imported Japanese denim right now, you have to get
a factory that cuts it right. Then you have to
go find the factory makes the buttons. Then you have
to have another factory that puts the buttons on the jeans.
So like you've just touched ten factories and like tons
of shipping and all this stuff to make one pair
of pants. China's infrastructures it's all in the same area.
(16:36):
It's all in the same block, so they don't even
it's not even considered going to different factories. It's just
all done in the house. So if you're talking about
you know, there's other issues with shipping that comes in
and you know, so, but.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Let's we made a kind of a leap there because
we got your high school and now your touring factories
in China looking for the best deal for your jeans.
But between there there is your relationship with Paris Fashion Week,
which I think is fascinating because you kind of that
that's kind of where you made your boones. Really, so
you you applied to Paris Fashion Week, street fashion was
(17:14):
that the way.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
You do So this is so basically to speed up
the story. I was in college, I launched the brand,
things start moving a little bit. I convert my sophomore
year dorm into a store and so everyone's come into
my dorm room and it looks like a storefront, and
I got racks of clothing.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And to be so rich, it's scary.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
And then and then I'm like, okay, I get in
trouble with my dean of housing because they didn't like
that this course. Yeah, and so I'm like I should
have told them you were a professional parachutest.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Something I was trying to say, like, how am I
not the face of housing?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
It's like, give me a bigger room. I was like,
you should be supporting me. You're right, I got it.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
And they have like twenty five thousand kids go to
the school and I'll like tell them all about my story.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
I was like, if all of them buy one item,
I'm super rich. Yeah, and so whatever I got, and
they didn't believe in the vision. So I was like,
I converted a dorm into a store. But what if
I do the flip side? Okay, So I found this
little store in Brooklyn on Craigslist.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Okay, what you run I do?
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Yeah, I swear I made my mind, which would be
an amazing side. Yeah. Yeah, you know it's a sight hustle,
but you know it brings in a couple of billion
of years.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Was it. It is amazing that Craigslist never changed their name. Yeah,
it's super awesome.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
It's fantastic. You know the eBay was stuffed by a
guy called eBay Noah, Yeah, but Yahoo Yahoo yeahoo's You
always have other options, that's what yeahoo was. You always
have other options. That's why they it's so good. Yeah,
it's clever, all right. So you convey a store into
(19:03):
a dorm.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yeah, So then I basically move into the back of
a store in Brooklyn, and I have all my classes
in junior year set up. So it's Monday Tuesday, I
go to school, Wednesday through Sunday I work at the store.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
So what college are you having. I'm at NYU, right,
and I'm studying mathematics.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Right, But clearly it's not You're not going to be
an academic mathematician.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
That's not clearly.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
And I think, I mean, it's a side conversation, but
I think math is taught really horribly. I mean in
the United States or wherever. But it's not seen as
a creative field, I know, and that's wrong. It should
be actually the most creative I agory. It's the language
of the universe, and people think that it's a chore.
And I don't know why or how it got converted
(19:48):
to that, but I think it's like, if me and
you are sitting here and there's a problem to be solved,
me finding it out faster than you proved I'm more creative.
Like it's the most easy way to prove I'm more creative, right,
So I don't understand why. And it's like gamifying it too.
Math is quite fun in a game. It's trying to
figure things out. So yeah, I think it's taught really bad.
(20:08):
But by my senior year of college, I had been
what twelve years of math basically, and it had weeded
out like all kind of sense of personality, right, And
all the kids in that are very, very straight by
the book, which sucks because it shouldn't be that you
should have very unique thinkers in a room full of math.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Well, but you clearly are that anyway.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So you're taking those mathematics and you're applying it to
a different area.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I think what math really helped me.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
It obviously it was good at training the brain, but
I think it made me fearless because everyone was like,
oh my god, I can't believe you're doing math, like
that's so like crazy, it must be so difficult, and
I was like, yeah, it is, but it's possible, right right.
And I think that mindset was applied to fashion, where
it's like, yeah, I don't know a lot about fashion now,
but it's learnable, And so math was learnable. Everyone thought
(21:03):
it was the scariest thing to major, and I did that,
So why couldn't I apply that like mindset or mind
practice to different mediums?
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Was it ever?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Was it a social thing as well? Was that a
way to meet girls?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
A way to kind of social I think I was
the hottest girl in my math class.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
You can't say that, all right, you said it, but
I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
So, but you're now moving into a very different world
from academic mathematics, right, You're super different, right, And you're
so you're in Brooklyn and you're living in a store,
which is about the hippest thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Well, what's even funnier about this is to make money.
I'm airbing being a room in the store, okay, and
I call it a Brooklyn studio. And if you're from Sweden,
this is like the coolest shit ever. Nothing really works.
You're kind of in this art studio. And then I
would only try to get people there for like a
day or two days, because by day three they'd noticed
(22:06):
that there was hours and operations of the store that
they were living in.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
So they were actually working there, so they'd like, yeah,
and wait a minute, I came here, and good trace
to have a hipster holiday and now I'm living in
a store.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
But if you're like really foreign, that's the coolest New
York experience ever.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Well, you know when I when I lived in the
East Village in the eighties, there was one or two
of your type down there. Then the big thing at
the time was stores became nightclubes. Okay, so there there
was a furniture store called Space Gallery during the day
and at night it was a it was a club
called Space Gallery, and you would go in and it's like,
I think that still happens.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Actually, yeah, I mean that I would love to. I
mean that would be a very fun thing for the kids.
Super news store, very secretive club a club. Yeah, you
should come see it. By the way, where is it.
It's in Williamsbury.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I don't go to Brooklyn, but come on, I'm too old.
I'm too old. I can go. I'll try.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
You went to Lower east Side, it's like ten more minutes. Yeah,
but I'm in the Upper east Side now. I go
to the Daily, I get my bagel, I go back home.
You got my day.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yes, But these tattoos, yeah, that's true. Yeah, do you
have anything?
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I have super tattooed on my right butt cheek. Okay, committed,
you're gonna have to have kid, no kid? All right, Okay,
I get it. Everyone always says the same thing, you know,
or then get pooper or duper put on super duper
or super pooper.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Well the poopers there as well. Well you know if
you label it as well.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
So listen, you do this. You're in the store in Brooklyn. Yeah,
and now you're starting No, it's a business, right.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Well this was the me getting the store was proved
to everyone that it was serious, okay, because it was
a physical entity that represented something real. And it's funny because,
like you know, most businesses now start fully e commerce
and they're like, I don't even need a store. We
can just direct a consumer. We don't need to have
a physical location. But for me, I guess the real
(24:16):
thing that excited me about fashion, besides all the other stuff,
was meeting people and having a place to Like again,
my parents moved here in the seventies or eighties, and
they were always talking about this energy that New York
had and everyone was kind of working.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, and I probably ran into your parents, and certainly
I think your dad. At some point. I probably ran
away from your.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Dad at some point in like erotic a club, like, yeah,
I've actually touched your father.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, yeah, I touched your father. I touched your father
in the eighties. So now you're my kid exactly. I
could be you're my kid.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
That's it. So I need a cut.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
But I always heard about this and I was like, man,
I wish I could live that era. And I was like,
there isn't these there aren't these spaces where people are
meeting up. There aren't these like these ideas of like
buildings that you could kind of convert into art studios
or like convert a stores slash club. Like you just
needed so much money to do that. Nowadays, it was
(25:15):
like my mom would always say Colin, like, why aren't
you just focusing on painting? And I go, Mom, what
was your rent? She goes seventy five dollars a month
and I go, okay, what did you do? She was
like I could work on Friday as a waitress in
the Financial District and get tipped one hundred dollars. I'm like,
so you're making your rent on tip one night? Like
(25:38):
that freedom doesn't exist now, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
No, that's kind of true. I remember that.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I mean that time period as well, was because I
worked in a building site in Harlem. Yeah, and I
get paid six hundred bucks a week in my rent
with six hundred bucks a month. Yeah, I left in
a very fancy place six bus a month. But you
know that thing you're talking about the store is kind
of because you remember were talking about the There was
a store on Avenue, a furniture store run by an
(26:05):
English guy, and we sold nineteen fifties furniture. And it
was there that I met Andy Warhol and basket at
because people used to go there to hang out during
the day and drink beer and set on the furniture.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
That's all they did.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
And it was kind of a weird time and I
see your hankering for that, yeah, and people it didn't
feel like there was anything particularly fabulous going on at
the time, but it was only in retrospect to going
this was kind of an interesting time.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Well even now, so like I had this physical space
and then no one was coming to the store to shop.
It was kind of in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
That was the problem. That was the problem everybody else had.
They weren't making any money.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
And I remember being like, damn, okay, so no one's
coming to the shop. What if I converted into a
place that people need to come. So I did a
thing for converts. They paid for this recording studio in
my basement. I bought like a sewing machine. I bought
like seamless to take photos. And I was kind of like,
anyone who wants to come can come use this place,
right OK. And so I was like, the more people
(27:05):
that come, I will see what happens. And in retrospect,
as you're saying now, like we had so many cool
and interesting people work and live out of there, and
like my basement recording studio, I think a couple songs
from it are like five times platinum.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
And so you're in retrospect you're like, Wow, this is fun,
blah blah, and then you're like, whoa this we were
really doing stuff and this is kind of like what
my mom described.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Do you still have the store now? I have a
bigger one, but I stole all the walls. So I
painted the walls of the store, and when I left,
I ripped them all off and then I rebuilt them
in my new store.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
You probably lost your deposit, Oh definitely.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah. I had previously lost my deposits, so this store
is now happening place.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, the chronology, I'm trying to get to this. I'm
trying to make the.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Connection between you and Paris Fashion Week because I think
that's when you go in New Clear, Yes, when it
was at Paris.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
So what what happens? Did you decide you wanted to
try that? Is that?
Speaker 3 (28:06):
So basically I was doing a lot of different things
at that time, where I was like doing album arts
for musicians, I was maybe doing merch, I was doing
art shows. I was doing all this stuff, and I
was dropping clothes like super erradically nothing to the schedule.
How most people drop clothing, right, And so someone came
into a store she and she was like two girls,
(28:27):
a stylist and her friend, and they're like, what's next
for you? And I jokingly said, Paris Fashion Week? Complete joke.
But at the time you had heard about, you know,
Virgil had gone to Louis Vauton and was doing Paris
fashion shoo shows out there with Off White as well,
and there was kind of an energy around Paris Fashion Week.
To me, it seemed like completely out of the picture,
(28:50):
Like it's.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Like saying a night to Off Broadway. What's next Neo Superman? Yeah,
I'll be playing Supermo yah yeah, or like yeah, like
you're in high school. Well, it's so funny. So I
went to This is a side note, but I made
the jerseys for Barnsley, which is a third division soccer
team in Yeah, that's amazing. So I made their jerseys
and I went there. This is fast forwarding, but I
(29:13):
went there and they were kind of wrapping their heads
around what I was doing, and they were like, so,
how important was Louis Vauton like calling you up? And
I go, well, it's kind of like you're playing for
Barnsley and real Madrid's exactly.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Right, yeah, and they all were like, oh, okay, all right,
now we understand it. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
So anyways, I'm back in the store and these two
girls asked me what's next, and I jokingly go Paris
Fashion Week and she goes, my boss is a French
PR guy who helps people do Paris Fashion Week shows.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I'm like, she's like, do you want to meet and
I'm like sure, no problem.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Again, meeting people was like that it was the goal,
and so I'm in this meeting and he's like, so
for venues.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Are you thinking this one, this one, this one?
Speaker 3 (29:56):
And I didn't want to look stupid, so I just
set like, well, my mom's from Spain, and'd be cool
to do a bullfighting ring instead of the instead of
the conventional catwalk, it would be cool if it was circular.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
He's like, what about this circus.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I'm like, oh, that's amazing, blah blah, and I leave
and I'm like, what the fuck did I just plan
a Paris fact?
Speaker 1 (30:14):
And he keeps calling me. He's like, hey, I've spoke
to the venue. I suppose do you need money for exactly?
Speaker 3 (30:20):
And so I haven't agreed to any money, right, And
I'm just kind of like this guy thinks I'm doing it,
but I'm had no plans of doing it. But then
I keep telling my friends and I'm like, hey, man,
like this, should we do Paris faction? Just just feel
how they'd say it? And everyone around me was like yeah, cool,
Like I'm in, sign me up. And I remember being
like I think I had created this like exaggerated persona
(30:42):
of myself called kid Super that everyone believed in because
I'd proven correct a couple times, and so they were
all in. And I remember being like, all right, well
I'm not going to be the one guy who doubts me.
If everyone else is on I'm in. So I remember
calling the guy. I'm like, okay, let's do this, Like
how less there is this cost?
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Where do we like? Who models it? Blah blah blah.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
And so the cool thing about Paris Fashion Week is
to get on the official calendar. You basically have to
show up do a fashion show at the same time,
same area, and they'll review it and if you're good,
maybe next time or the next time or the next time. Right,
But it's kind of like showing up to Sundance, renting
a movie theater and it being judged by all the
(31:25):
people at Sundance, or which was the.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Way at the beginning, which yeah, I mean I won
Sundance in nineteen ninety nine, yeah, I think, or two
thousand and that was what used to kind of happen.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
You just took your movie to Sundance and physically you
didn't have to talk to anyone.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Well, you know, you very quickly became you know, well,
this guy wants this movie here at this time and this,
and so it became about really access to timeslow it right,
more than anathon, but at the very beginning there was
no It was like, yeah, bringing along.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Which is such a cool and kind of inspire hiring
or motivating concept where you're like, wait, I just have
to show up. Like if that's it's like.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
The Edinburgh Festival or something, comedians just go there.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
If that's like all that it is, I'll show up
for the rest of time. So anyways, I do this
fashion show and I'm like, who to model it? So
the first model on my fashion show is my mother,
perfect choice, The second models my father, perfect choice. Yeah,
third and fourth is like the rappers that had worn
(32:28):
the kids super stuff the last person. And so it
ended up getting this review from Vogue called breakout fashion
show of Men's Paris Fashion Week show.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
All right, so that's to me, seems like a gear
change right there.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
It was a gear change for sure, where I'm like, okay,
And I had read about other fashion designers and I'm like,
how did like Jeremy Scott turned to Jeremy Scott or
Mark Jacobs turned to Mark Jacobs and these fashion shows
were super integral to their life changing moments, and so
I'm like, holy shit, my life's changed. And then nothing
changes and I'm like, wait, and because we were in
(33:03):
a weird time where like media doesn't matter as much
as it wants, Like a good article doesn't change your
life for sure, A good like one picture of a
celebrity wearing your clothes doesn't change your life anymore. And
so it really nothing changed. Besides, I couldn't uber home
because I'd spent all my money. Wow, And so I
was like, okay, this was I was like was this
(33:24):
worth it? But what was really cool was I felt
like it was this amazing like artistic challenge. And I
don't know how like what our goal in life is,
but mine was these artistic challenges. And what I also
loved was that it was seen by and judged at
the highest level. So I was at the highest time.
(33:48):
I'm taken seriously just because I'm doing I'm trying it
and it's every six months, and I'm already got to
so I did that.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
I got a review. Wait wait, fashion Week is every
six months. Yeah, so every six months you do autumn, winter, summer, spring, summer, spring.
You have to keep doing this to conty once a year.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
I wish you once a year would be way less
physically and mentally draining. But so when they review that,
they reject me again from the official calendar. So I've
got rejected twice or three times. I eventually get it
rejected three times. But everyone's like, man, I'm so sorry
Colin that you got rejected. I'm like, guys, they're reviewing me.
I'm like this and it's literally called like the Federation
(34:30):
on de haut Couture, and it's like the and it's
like the most French and prestigious name. And I'm getting
this email like thank you so much for like applying.
Unfortunately you're not a blah blah, and I'm like, I
was always afraid that I would never get in that room.
I wasn't afraid of like that was my fear. But
once I was in it that I was getting no
(34:51):
I was like, oh, this is easy. This is only
about amount of times you try, effort you put in
and good ideas like medical equations.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
I'll beat math again, that's what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And I was like, I'll beat everyone in those like
you're not gonna outwork me or out the idea of me.
And so I just did it three times and which
is more than the average brand has to do. But
I was against such an outsider. And then on my
third time, I get accepted to Paris Fashion Week, and
which is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
No, what show do you put on for your first
This is great official?
Speaker 3 (35:23):
So this is great official things happened by the way,
I've blown all my money, of course, and I get accepted.
I'm like, fuck, I really don't want to. I don't
financially can't do another fashion Week show. COVID hits and
I'm like, thank god, which I might be the only
person in the world.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
I think it was one or two people were like, yeah, okay,
well yeah, I mean it's bad that people are getting sick,
but this.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Is not bad.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
No.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
Yeah, but I was like, this stopped all fashion week
shows and they all went virtual. Okay, So now virtual
fashion shows were video fashion shows that had really no
restriction because it had never been done before, and so
you could do a catwalk that you filmed, you could
do blah blah blah. But it kind of leveled the
(36:09):
playing field because now you couldn't, like, rent a palace
in Paris hire the top models like that. You couldn't
do anymore because models can't move. Renting a place doesn't
look that cool on camera, and so this was my chance.
And before this, I had done all these music videos
for artists, I had done all this stop motion stuff.
So I thought, wouldn't it be funny to do a
(36:30):
stop motion fashion show made out of Barbie dolls? And
so I bought all these Barbie dolls. I ripped off
the head of the Barbie dolls and I three D
printed like fifty cent Jennifer Lopez, Stephen Hawking, Picasso, Salvador Dali,
and I had all these doll versions of them and
little miniature clothes, and I had them stop motion.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Walk on a catwalk. That's genius.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
And in my mind, I remember telling my friends like
we were this is our first and last time on
Paris fashion because I'm.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Like, there's no way to go.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
This is the most amazing all in my mind, I
was like, they didn't even make clothes, like they're ten
inches tall, and so I'm like, but I thought it
was such a cool idea. And I also thought it
was so authentic to the kids superstory because claymation had
been a huge part of the success from doing music
videos for different people. Right, these are ours that you're
(37:23):
collaborating with, are in your store in Brooklyn to begin.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
With, yes, right, and so, and I was making their
little stop motion videos and so I get this like
amazing review from the pair and it's like a breakout
hit in fashion world. And now everyone starts taking me
seriously as this like original thinker. And because I was
competing during Virtual Fashion Week, where everyone else kind of
fucked up because they were they had all these plans
(37:48):
for these giant fashion shows that they had to stop,
so they were like last minuting making these videos where
that's kind of my skill is these last minute no resources.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Like all that helps me is.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
That when the big fashion houses start circling you about
coming in and doing stuff for them.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Not yet, but this is where the fashion world first
takes an eye to me, right, And they had really
not and so now I'm like once they supported that
original thinking, I was like, oh, man, now I can
do anything because I thought that was going to get
kicked off and so I'm like, oh, if that's allowed,
then I'll have And so there was probably five COVID
(38:29):
fashion shows, so like yeah, two and a half years
of COVID, and I did very unique ones.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
I did one that was a short film.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
I did one where I set a booth in Washington
Square Park and I asked three hundred people what they
want to do before they die, and then the video
cut to them being like, I want a sky and
it would cut to them skydiving and a kid's super
look nice. And so I did skydiving. I did family reunion,
blind date, climb a mountain, raft the river, and so
(38:59):
it was oh, I fashion aside, it's a.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Kind of beautiful. Yeah, it's a lovely thing to do show.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
And then the last fashion show, I'm like, I always
thought there'd be a cool kid super television show.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
And I was just like, how do you do this?
Speaker 3 (39:14):
And so I had looked up The Entourage and how
to make an America IMBD and I saw a name
and I hit up Rob Weise from He's on both
of them, and I was like, how do you get
a TV show?
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Blah blah?
Speaker 3 (39:24):
And I got through him through Instagram and he was like, well, basically,
you make a pilot and maybe someone buys it or
not and blah blah blah blah, and like they fund
a pilot. And I was like, what if we just
do a pilot and call it a fashion show? I
have to spend like, you know, fifty to one hundred
or one hundred and fifty k every fashion show, let's
just do it for this. He's like, wow, that's crazy,
blah blah. And so I wrote a script, shot it
(39:47):
blah blah. And I shot this like pilot episode, called
it a fashion show all everyone was wearing the kid
super clothes. But it feels really much like a decent
pilot for.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
A TV show. So does the TV show get picked up?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
So then that's how I meet W E. C a
UK because of this TV show concept. And again like
super outside of the television world, and don't really.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
That's all changing so much anyway. I mean, everything is
changing so much. You're really right in a wave. It
seems to me that you're that you're very Stuart learning
very quickly. The things are changing, and this is how
(40:34):
it can do it, and you can adapt. They talk
about Darwinism as the survival of the fast.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
It's not. It's the survival of the most adaptable.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Sabertooth Tiger's pretty fucking you know fit, But it's if
it's not going to fit the conditions, if it's not
going to write it out, it's not going to survive.
So you do that because the industry is changing, and
I think all industries are changing, like TV is changing,
fashion is.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Changing, all everything the world is changing.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Do you see a time that you can You can't
really sail into a traditional kind of model. You can't say, well,
at a certain point, I'll be Louis Vitone because well,
it's changed.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
It's changing.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
And also it's really not my best strength, right, Like,
if you compete head to head at like fashion infrastructure
with one of these big guys, you're getting crushed, right.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
But because they have distribution and they have this, it's just.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
And that's their whole thing, and they have millions and
billions of dollars backing. But original ideas and original ways
of thinking and moving very quickly and nimble is a
strength that I have that they don't have. So everyone
was always kind of thinking like wow, Colin, like these
are such amazing original ideas. It's like they are good ideas.
(41:53):
But it was also like I was aware of what
I could bring to the table and what I couldn't
and the things that I could compete with. We're more
ideas than it was like, you know, so you had
a sense of you know yourself and you had a
sense of your place in it. Yeah, so what happens
when Louis Vuitton comes to you and says, right, we
want you to be his guest designer, that's what we
(42:15):
call it.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Right, So they want you to do that for a year. No,
we've taken you know, Sid.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Vicious out of the pistivals and he's just joining the
London Philharmonic Orchestra, and that it's a very it's a
very different world. He does it, marry out well one.
Sid Vicious never thought he was going to get to
the well. It's a bad example somebody else, you know, I'm.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Saying as the sid Vicous character, Right, it was as
extreme as that scenario where I was like I never
even thought because you know, there was rumors about who
was going to be next after Virgil, and I wasn't
even putting myself within like even joking with my friends
you're right, and you know you joke like, oh I
should play.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
I never even went brought it up because that's how
far fetched it was. And so when I get the
ask or call to pitch, because you still, it wasn't
like we need you, you're in.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
It was like would you like to apply.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
It was at exactly so I think people think it
was like they just called me and we're like, the
time is now and my name.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
I would like you to come to my house and
make a pair of trousers.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
It was very much like you have a first meeting
and I was like, how much time do I have
to prepare? They're like house two and a half weeks?
I go perfect, So what do you make? You just
make a bunch of different looks or stuff. So I
made a five hundred page book okay of ideas, concepts, thoughts, clothes, pitches,
shows everything. I three D printed shoes, I three D
(43:43):
printed a belt buckle I built, I made a bag,
I shot three.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Commercials, really threw down. You know, you did the work.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
That's what I think people may or may not understand,
was like I don't think I was the top of
their list. I think once they got they saw how
much work I was able to do in such a
short period of time, they were like, oh, if we
give this kid resources, like this guy's the limit.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
Right.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
I was just again, it was about being in the room.
Once I was in the room, I was like I
can do.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
This, right, But here's the thing no, No, you have
a situation where you have, up until this point unrestricted
creative control. Now I feel like it would be naive
for anyone that think you're going to walk into a
giant fashion host late Vatona and they're going to say,
would you like, you know, let us see a picture
(44:36):
of the pants? So, is there is there an editor
you're dealing with? Is there someone who's looking at is
there a Tim Gunn? So that's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
I love it, but I think it really should be
just make it work.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
So this is what's interesting about fashion, I think is
so these runway shows are kind of just an example
of your creativity, and then what you see in the
store is merchandised for production.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
Right, So it's a concept car versus a production like right,
right exactly. And so during in the concept car you
have crazy freedom. And I was pretty blown away by
Louis Vutan's like acceptance to new ideas and very little
like you can't do this.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
The whole thing was like, you can do this, this
is great. We have a team here that makes it,
takes all these ideas and turns it into.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Oh that's very clever.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
So so what it does then is that you get
the concept and there's a group of people who their
skill is to take your concepts and make it racles
things like that. Was that that must be a weird
kind of I mean, you're the crazy. Thing is like,
I mean, right now you can go to Louis Vuitton
and you see like my handwriting on stuff and like
(45:57):
kind of my drawings on pain my paintings on clothes.
But what was really amazing about the experience is like
it makes you dream so big. I mean, obviously you
as well, like your life story. It's like once you
get on national television, you're like, what can't I do?
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yeah, well, it's a little of that for sure. Yeah,
I mean, yeah, I understand it.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
You know.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
It's it's like it's for me.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
It was it was America, America, you can do anything
because I'm an immigrant. That's my And it feels like
you you have that from your parents that they were like,
you can do anything here.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
The sky's limit in this place.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
Yeah, And I mean definitely felt like I could try
for anything. It definitely didn't feel like it was going
to happen. No, there's no guarantees, but you get the
opportunity and so yeah, but it was was also crazy.
Is like Paris was way more open to me as
a designer than America.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
That's interesting, I wonder why.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
I think because Paris knows they're good and knows that
they're great, and knows they have history that they can
take risks.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
America is constantly searching for like we can't be wrong, Like, oh,
so it's a confidence. I think it's like from a
fashion world perspective, Americans, I think.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
That that has that has residencies elsewhere, so they like
are afraid to take risks necessarily on someone because if
it doesn't hit the check check check, check check, they
look stupid because they put all their eggs in a
basket of an American whereas Paris or France, it's like
they've proven themselves time and time again.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
If they have one that doesn't work, they're willing to
test it out. What does what does it look like?
Don't work? And is that like sales are bad? Is
that is it simple as that? Like people just don't
want to buy it or it gets a bad review
from you know.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
I mean the reviews don't matter as much as they
ever did. I mean, like I would love to see
the numbers of how many people read the like your
Vogue review many and and then so so that's not
what's important.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
I think. I'm sure you've get more Instagram followers. Yeah
it's Vogue.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
The main thing is just like keeping the energy alive
and like, because I come from a streetwear background where
it's like, you know, you're either the hottest streetwear brand
or everyone hates. It's like pretty hard to maintain the
cool forever. You see it now with Supreme struggling a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Ed Hardy. Yeah, but now the cool thing about that
is like now ed Hardy could be cool, right, it
comes back again. You got a wait, it's every twenty years, right.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
And you can wait that as a brand, and like
there's a bunch of brands and like Stuicy or Stussy
however people want to say it that was not cool
for like ten years and now it's super super cool.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
Well I did that, went through that and stuff like
that as well. So what now, because now you're an
interesting point you are you're no longer street.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
I mean you look street, but you know you've been
against that. I mean, number one thing, it's a weird.
It's a weird position to be in.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
An earlier than I thought I was going to be
into it, and I think like the Kid's Super business
wasn't as like figured out when I got the LV thing,
where I was like, Okay, now I know exactly like
my price point and my distribution and all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
But it's super exciting.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
I think also the stuff that I'm interested in, things
that have opened up, as you said, like the TV
series was always something I was really trying hard to do.
Art was always something I was really trying hard to do.
And I think I have to maintain myself as like
an artist that's true to the craft while the kids
super clothing business builds up.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
And so it's the balance of art and call maers again, right, yeah,
because I think that's what worked for me.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
And I think added this like luxury standpoint to the
kids super even though the prices aren't crazy.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
All right, So how does this figure out in your life?
A way? What if I strip all of it that's
away and go, okay, none of this this is all
your work? Is there a person there who is not
the work? Is there? Is there ambitions for a family?
Is there ambitions?
Speaker 1 (50:13):
Is this a therapy session? A little bit at the moment. Now,
I think that's okay. That's a very healthy and honest
answer to say no, this is what I do, this
is who I am. And I think that that there's
a kind of interesting morality given to people who say no, no, no,
I do this. I like this, Like I'm friends with
(50:36):
I'm sure you know his name. I don't know if
you know his work, but I'm friends with Jay Leno.
The Jay's thing is I Yeah, I just like that.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
I just did my job. I did have my job.
That's who he is.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
And if he didn't do it, I don't think he'd
really I mean, he loves his cars and cars yeah
car right, the count of right. But if you took
a way doing stand up comedy for him, I don't
think he would really understand what life was about.
Speaker 3 (51:06):
I think also, I've been really fortunate to brand things
that I'm very interested as kid super, So it's like
there isn't too many like for example, I did Barnsley's
Third Division a third division soccer jersey football jersey and.
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Essentially because Barnsley are like it's an odd choice.
Speaker 3 (51:30):
It was a odd choice and amazing experience. But I
called a kid super right, but I would do that
as column right, And I was like, and I got
to train with them, so I got to play.
Speaker 2 (51:39):
Oh, because you'd like to play song?
Speaker 1 (51:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (51:41):
Yeah? And I was like, okay, like right, and what
point is that become a column thing or a kid
super thing. It's a column thing, true and true, but
I just branded it as kid Super. So I think
my like moral dilemmas of that stuff, I don't have
any because I'm really doing stuff that I would do
if it wasn't a brand, or I would want to do.
Speaker 2 (52:01):
That's what I think.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
And I think the bottom line is this is that
you know, I worked a little bit with the Rolling
Stones at some point.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
It was actually I was working with my I don't
know if I'm supposed to say this, but I'm doing
their alternate cover. Are you really? Yeah? That's really fun.
Are you working with Jagger? Well?
Speaker 1 (52:19):
I don't get to meet him, but he approved. I
bet you, I bet you do, because he's really hands on.
I was writing a script with him. We never made
the movie. He's like, now, what we have put a
full stop in there and do you know we have
a sentence there and then have this black guy with that.
But he's very hands on. But because I was kind
of working with him, I was they were on tour
(52:41):
at the time, so I was in that environment. This
is where I get to you because Keith Richards is
the guitarist in The Rolling Stones and I don't think
he gives a rat's ass if it's a stadium or
a pub.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
As long as he's playing the guitar, that's what it is.
And he does it because he doesn't know how nought
to do it. And I think that's you.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
I think what you're doing is you're smart enough and
you're mathematical enough to know that I can make a
lot of money doing this.
Speaker 2 (53:10):
But I think you would just do it anyway.
Speaker 3 (53:12):
And I think that's when you enjoy what you're doing, sure,
and I think it's why you continue. I think a
lot of people, you know, I started making clothing in
high school where none of those and there's lots of
kids that have brands in high school that didn't continue
because they weren't hitting, like the success meter that they
had in their head. But I never had the success meter,
(53:34):
that's right, wasn't there because I was like one. I
always felt that this was like I don't know if
the words blessing. But I was always like, wow, I
can't believe I'm doing this. Like it wasn't that I
can't believe this is successful. I was like, I can't
believe I get the opportunity to like make clothing or
fuck around with my friends or whatever.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
And it's a business. And so I wasn't like, why
am I not sales like this? Blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 3 (53:58):
And I always was like, okay, this is there's always
a little bit of a door opening or a door closing.
So I knew exactly what to do or not to do,
because it wasn't like I knew the big vision of
what I always wanted, but I had no idea how
to get there. And then I just followed kind of
like open or closed doors.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
It's it's funny. It's a very mathematical approach to it,
like you know, this gate's closed, it's zero one zero
one zero one go through. I am very much looking
forward to seeing what happens with you next. I'm delighted
that you came in and talked to us. You are
a force of nature and a real American story, and
I'm fascinated by it.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
Calm you have to come to the store. I bought
a moped. You can just get on the back. I'll
get on the back. I'll be your moped bet. Thank
you so much, z
Popular Podcasts
1. The Podium
The Podium: An NBC Olympic and Paralympic podcast. Join us for insider coverage during the intense competition at the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the run-up to the Opening Ceremony, we’ll bring you deep into the stories and events that have you know and those you'll be hard-pressed to forget.
2. In The Village
In The Village will take you into the most exclusive areas of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games to explore the daily life of athletes, complete with all the funny, mundane and unexpected things you learn off the field of play. Join Elizabeth Beisel as she sits down with Olympians each day in Paris.
3. iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2024 Olympics.