Making an Impact in the Fashion Industry with Rich Fresh

This week, host Louis Carr speaks with celebrity tailor Rich Fresh.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Louis Carr post to the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of the Blueprint Men Summer,
where we have consistently given men a prescription footbo not
just for themselves, but also for their families and their communities.
During these podcasts, we will educate and motivate our listeners

(00:22):
about entrepreneurship, careers, finances, health and wellness, and relationship. And
on today's episode, we have the privilege of talking to
Mr rich Fresh, my very very good friend and the
person who keeps me fresh. Rich the world knows you

(00:44):
as Rich Fresh. What is your birth given name and
how did you come up with rich Fresh? So, my
birth name is Patrick Henry. Um. My dad's name is
Patrick Henry Summon Jr. Oh, And so that's my name.
I'm I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm. Two first names, Okay, And

(01:07):
so you know it was, you know, pretty born. You know,
my nickname was Patrick. I ain't have a nick names
Patrick or Pat, but that was it. So. Um, when
I got to San Diego, I I didn't know anyone
in San Diego, and I figured I could tell people
my name is whatever I wanted to be. So I

(01:28):
told people that my name was Philip just to mess
with people. So I feel like two years everyone called
me Philip just because I told him that was my name. Um.
And then and before I moved to Los Angeles, I
decided to change my name to rich Um because I
liked I liked the idea of saying it to the

(01:50):
universe enough so that it becomes true. If I say
I'm rich, and I'm rich, I'm rich. Eventually, I just
reason that the universe won't be able to decide for
between it being the name but being my you know,
economic status. So I started calling myself rich Um, and
it just made me kind of move a little different.
So that's where the rich part came from. Um. The fresh,

(02:14):
the fresh is more so like the brand, Like the
brand is rich fresh is because that's fresh is like
where I'm from. Um, if you're fresh, it's like the highest,
that's the highest that you can't you can't be better
dressed than fresh, Like it's fresh as like you can
add lots of things on the end of fresh, but
fresh is higher than well dressed or stylish or sharp?

(02:38):
Fresh is it? That's that's that's the pinnacle. So rich fresh,
So I just combined the two together build as a brand. Now,
actually I go by Fresh. I don't even really call
myself rich anymore, go about Fresh because it's more of
a character. Like I know people name rich. You know.
I was talking to a girl and names. She's like, oh, yeah,
my uncle's name is Rich. I was like, yeah, but

(03:05):
I bet you don't know anyone named Fresh, do you know?
Like you know what I need to be more of
a character and this is this is what I represent
when you look at me. If I tell you my
name is Rich, it doesn't tell you what I do.
It doesn't tell you what I represent. I'll tell you
my name is Fresh. You get it, You understand what
I'm about? Got it? Great? So the world has described

(03:28):
you as a celebrity style is designer to the stars.
How do you describe yourself? I've got it in my bio.
I've gotta uh fashion mega star celebrity Taylor drip god. Um.
I saw someone in an article UH quoted me as

(03:50):
a fashion mega star. I thought it was so cool,
so I took that. Um I called. I started. You know,
I'm a Taylor. You know I'm a Taylor more so
than I'm a fashion design. I'm just a Taylor who
understands fashion because I'm a fashion design consumer. So, UM,
I just decided with Rich Fresh, like I could have
done it as a normal custom tailoring thing, I just

(04:12):
decided I wanted to have a designers aesthetic but still
do custom clothing, UM, but have something that's recognizable. UM.
And so you know that's what UM, that's what that's

(04:33):
that's the way that I decided to move different with
with UM, with the brand, UM, you know, starting off
and making the custom and doing it that way. So
I still consider myself a celebrity tailor. And I also
used that term to get celebrities. I didn't have any
celebrity tailors, and I called myself a celebrity Taylor, and
I got the celebrity Taylor, So I mean the celebrity clients.

(04:56):
So I like that title of celebrity Taylor. UM. But
I'm an entrepreneur, you know. I'm a guy that just
I landed in l A, didn't really know anyone, and
I said, I'm gonna figure out how to make some
money and provide a service a product. And I've been
able to build two companies just off of that type
of mindset not. Traditionally, most fashion designers are designers and

(05:22):
someone else is the tailor. Right, so you sort of
done it the reverse. Where did you learn tailoring from?
It's self taught. It's just something I wanted to do.
I taught myself how to sell. When I was thirteen,
I just found a sewing machine and real covertly, like
I couldn't tell my family that I'm sewing because they

(05:43):
would not have got it. Um. I taught myself how
to use a machine, and I fell in love with
the process of making something from nothing. And then, um,
just in my early you know, like when I was twenty,
I decided I called myself a tailor so I could
do alterations, um and make money with the song machine,

(06:05):
you know, again just being an entrepreneur. Um. And I
just taught to myself how to do all the things,
how to do him, how to take in the ways,
how to changes it or how to do this. And
as I got better, you know, I started just getting
more jobs. Like I never went to school, I never
did any apprenticeship. I would just challenge myself. I would
teach myself how to do something. Um And I mean

(06:28):
I've never gone to fashion school. I've never looked at
a fashion book. I just I think I know what
it takes. So, um, yeah, all of this is self taught.
So most people look at you sort of as an
overnight sensation, but it was that really true? No, I mean,
it seems like it all happened overnight because you know, again,

(06:51):
you know, as as as as a legend has it.
You know, one day I'm picking myself about the street,
I got a few hundred dollars in a pocket, and
you know, a year later, I've you know, made a
million bucks. So to a lot of people, that seems
that's pretty damn overnight. But it took eighteen years of

(07:15):
struggle without quitting to finally have a formula that got
me that kind of result in a year's time. So
it's not it's definitely not overnight success. It's I'm a
twenty years success, um. But people are just not catching
onto it. I met you via social media. I happened

(07:37):
to you popped up on my timeline and I looked
through and you know, I'm a fashion horse, and I
saw some things that are like so I inboxed you,
and you inboxed me back, and everything else has been history.
So what social media your strategy to sort of drive

(07:58):
business and awareness of who you were? Was that intent?
And did that just happened by accident? That was my
entire intent. So I'm an introvert, like I'm a super introvert. Um.
I absorb energy and I'm an impact so I don't
really deal with a lot of people. UM. So I

(08:18):
can't like go into office buildings and slang cards around
and go to all the mixers and do all the stuff.
It doesn't work for me. Um. And like you know,
I used to I used to have alcohol problems, so
you know, I'm sober, so like being in those environments.
It's like, no, that's that's not gonna work for me.
How can I put this out here consistently? I got

(08:38):
to use social media because I can be very out
there because I'm not really dealing with people physically, So
I can put myself out there on social media. Let
me figure out a formula and I can use social
media to actually contact people who I want to get
in contact with. So that was my entire strategy. Let
me use Instagram and see if I can build uh

(09:00):
fashion brand. I think when I first met you, you
probably had maybe ten thousand followers and now you're close
to up on Instagram over a hundred, right something close
to it any one or eighty two eighty one eighty
two followers. So you're on social media several times a day.

(09:21):
Do you like social media? Since you just told us
you're introverted, all right, do you like social media? Or
you look at it when you get on and like,
I gotta go to work. Yeah, I mean it's worked, like,
I don't mind it. I like it, you know, I
like what I do, so, um, you know, I like
I like the formulas at work. When something works, I

(09:41):
don't need to change it. And I know the more
that I put my stuff out there, the more I'm
continuing the narrative that I'm a luxury fashion house. So
I can't stop doing that. I do. People always ask like, man,
you do all these lives all the time. Why do
you do these lives? And I do that as someone
like a ministry like you know, um people, I mean,

(10:03):
I'm very transparent with my stories and people know they're
like I gotta somewhat of a rags to richest tail
and just like you know, just having to overcome some
ship and make like mental changes so I like to
go on and and and like just talk to people
about you know, mental progress and you know, shaping the

(10:23):
reality and manifestation as a form of ministry, because there's
someone who needs to hear that, like how the bleak
best scenario is. There's a whole community of people who
are dealing with bleak scenarios and we're finding ways to
pass through it. Because if you don't know that there's
someone like you, or there's someone who's been where you're going,
sometimes you don't even want to go through he just

(10:44):
like my look, I ain't even know other side. Sometimes
you need to see what the other side might possibly
look like. So I use it as a ministry to
just help people like bro. We will be right back
with more of my interview after this quick break. When

(11:07):
you started out, did you intend to drive culture or
you were just doing your thing and it just happened
to sort of be the hottest thing out or what's
culture on your mind? Uh? And the reason I asked
you that question is because I follow you and I

(11:27):
look at your posts. I mean it's cars, it's houses,
it's it's all aspirational. So what's culture part of that
strategic strategy. Yeah, I mean, I don't think it was
all right. Honestly, there was no real strategy. It was

(11:48):
really just like just get started and don't mess up. Um.
But I know, like who I am. I know, I'm
a real I'm a real type person. When I have conversations,
I don't talk about like silly things. Um. I'd like
to talk about things that are fruitful or just have
some some substance. So even though I'm showing clothes, it's like,

(12:10):
you know, and I'm from mckinneths called era. You know,
Kenneth Cole would always have some type of social message
like something's he's taking some social responsibility and he's ingraining
it in his marketing and his messaging. So it's all right, cool,
I got social media. Let me let me make sure
that people know I'm not just like a pretty face
that makes close like I've got something going on up here. Um.

(12:33):
So I don't think it was intentional. Um, I think
you know. I mean, that's just how I communicate. It's
just how I am. Like if you hang around me,
I'm not the friends talking about the TV shows and
the bullshit. I'm talking about a book I man read
or a trip I'm playing on taking or just a
breakthrough that I've I've just broken through. Um. But I

(12:54):
think the whole thing showing like the lifestyle, that was
more intentional because part of what I'm doing, you know,
I made this promise to myself, like a long time
ago when I first got in Taylor, because there was
no one I could look to. It was like a model,
like damn, I want to do that. It was either
wrapping or hooping or maybe you'd be a movie star. Um,

(13:15):
but if not that, you better take you out as
to college. You better get a good job. Otherwise you stuck.
And I was like, man, but you know if men
weren't so they and macho. They take the saw machine.
They figured out how to get in the game. They
can make some money, and I'm saying they can take
care of their families and even women like just knowing
that it's more than just doing little things. So on

(13:36):
buttons like no, how can you take this machine and
really turning into something? So I wanted to take Taylor
and make it look so cool that other people would
aspire to do that, like they would just see it
as another option like oh damn. I could also figure
out how to do something in fashion because it's a dude.
He's young, and he's cool and he's he's got a

(13:57):
lifestyle just like the ball players. Um, and I don't
have to be six more. I can just apply myself.
So in regards to your overall business vision, are you
on track to what you envisioned the day? Or? Uh?
Do you keep raising the bar for yourself? Uh every

(14:21):
couple of weeks or every month? Where are you in
that journey right now? Um? I mean I'm definitely on track,
Like I'm on track, but the bar is always raising,
you know, it's always I have not hit my like
big I mean I have hit my big goal yet.
I hit a lot of small goals, but they're just

(14:41):
small and they lead up to a big one. And
if I hit the bigger one, then I just raised
it even higher. Um. I don't like to get comfortable, um,
because this is fun for me, Like this is my
sport and I'm very competitive, so I have to compete
with myself. I don't have anyone challenging me to be better.
So it's just like it's how I'm It's how I'm wired,
you know all do I alwaysn't want to outdo myself

(15:03):
when you look in the rear view mirror. And I
say that because I know you like cars. What were
some of the critical decisions that you made that you
really had to think about, Like, you know, if I
do this, I blow up. If I do this, I boss.
What were some of those decisions that you had to

(15:24):
deal with. I think it was more so it was
two things, like who I work with? For sure, I
was very I was very careful about who I work with. UM.
You know, I would just research people, like there were
some athletes that had some big, you know, stings on them.

(15:46):
It's like, now I can't, I can't work with you. Um.
And it's just people who like I just didn't feel
we're gonna go in the right direction. Um, you know,
just energy just to like reading people said that was
one thing that would be really mindful of this Who
am I associating myself with as a early brand? Um.
And the second thing was just you know, uh, I

(16:09):
did not do any of this the traditional way. I
didn't do this the business plan way, and I kind
of didn't want to, you know, I was like, I
can't I can't explain what I want, So I just
have to make sure that I stayed true to it.
You know, I'm gonna spend a lot of money to
make clothes, then I'm not gonna even sell just to
show them. But like it doesn't make sense, But I

(16:32):
have this inner compass that bets big and it usually wins.
And I just had to make sure that, like I
stayed true to the impractical voice, because there's so many
people trying to give you lots of logical, practical advice,
and sometimes you have to like listen to that thing
that's not practical, that's still in the dream world. You know,

(16:53):
they can make magic happen. You have a lot of
celebrity clients, from Kevin Are to John Legend, uh lean
A Wade, Anthony Anderson, Dwayne Wade. How did that happen?
Did they seek you out of you sort of just
put yourself in front of them. I put myself in

(17:15):
front of I think I put myself in front of
all of them. Um. I had a lot of their
names on like uh sort of vision board. You know.
I put people's names on the list, and I usually
get those names. Um. I know Kevin's name was on
the list, John Legend's name was on the list. Um
Obama's name was on the list. I just had some

(17:35):
really big names on this wish list, and so I
went after their stylists, you know, at least for Kevin
and John, I went after their stylist and just put
myself in front of them like, Hey, I'm this person,
I can do this amazing thing. I think it might
be a resource. Keep checking me out. And I just
stayed present when you could keep like seeing me, um
And then you know, with others, I just and some

(18:00):
of my dealings. You know, if I came in contact
with the stylus and I found out that her client,
you know, it's Anthony Anderson, I'm gonna ask for Anthony.
You might not want to give me Anthony right now,
because you know you've got another relationship. But I want Anthony.
And I'm gonna keep asking you for Anthony because I
know I should have Anthony. I have a product that
Anthony would love. I should have Anthony. Hey, what's up

(18:20):
with Anthony? You got Anthony? Hey, how's Anthony? Anthony? Good?
Where's Anthony? You know, and eventually you're gonna give me Anthony.
And then when I get Anthony, I got Anthony. You know,
stuff like that Lena the same thing. It was on
social media. I saw she was watching my stories and
I just sent her DM like yo, what's up? You know,
I see you doing your thing, you know, respect And

(18:43):
she was like, yo, I love your clothes and she
was like what. I was like, what's up? Are you at?
Like I'm in l A. I'm like if you like,
and then you should have put a pen on it,
put a pin on it where you ad drop me
a pen And I pulled up on it the next
day and we just hung out and it's been there's
been a i've ever since. So when the pandemic hit

(19:04):
last year, you made this major pivot to mass, the
Henry Mass that clearly has been extraordinarily successful for you.
How did you make that decision? What was that day
like or what was that week like that you said

(19:25):
I'm making this turn right here and to focus on mass. Uh.
It was wild because you know, rich Fresh business has
really come to like a standstill because nobody's going anywhere, Like,
no one's ordering expensive clothes to stay at home. So

(19:45):
and you know, I didn't have a product to sell online,
so all my you know, in contact business was up
um and you know What we didn't do was panic.
We never panicked, like we never we never panic. We
didn't stop paying any of the rent I had expensive
uh house in the hills. I never stopped any of

(20:07):
the thing. How I bought another car. You know, I
just kept moving as if God was still God. Um.
You know, I'm very faithful. So I'm like, no, I
can't move in a panic state and talk like I
ain't panicking. You know, I gotta move like I expect
a solution. Um. And so I just kept moving and uh,

(20:29):
you know, to the dismay of everybody around me. But
you know, I'm making moves. And like, you know, my
family was there with me. My brother was at the house,
my mom was at the house. So we're all calm
because I'm not frantic. I'm not frantic, and I'm I'm
making sure that all these things are taken care of.
So since we calm, you know, we're just going on hikes.
We're chilling, you know, we're enjoying our time. And my

(20:51):
brother would always ask me, like, yo, bro, you need
to make a mask. Bro, you need to make a rich,
fresh mask. And I was like, I'm not gonna do
that because I don't want to make the expensive mask,
and at the same time, I don't want to seem
like rich fresh just really need some money, somebody I
just make UM. So I was like, Nah, this is
not that's not for me. Then one day we needed

(21:14):
to make an order form, like a bunch of clothes.
So I own my factory. I got you know, I
had thirteen tailors, and so I was like, all right, cool,
we need to get all tailors and we need to
get them working. Cool, we got this work, let's sneak
him in. We weren't even supposed to get him in,
but I need to find face masks for them, and
we couldn't find any. We looked everywhere and we couldn't
find anything. It was like it was months. It was

(21:36):
back up for months and made no sense to me,
Like are you serious, Like I'm gonna hey, I can
make a mask. So I went down to the factory
and I just made a mask for my tailors. Um.
Later that night came up to the house and I'm
buddy of mine from Memphis face time me and asked.
He's like, hey man, you know, how's your day been.
I showed him the mask, and within two weeks he

(21:58):
bought like six thousand of him to resell because he
that he was out of them too. I'm gonna flip
these real quick. And so after that, you know, we
were just going down to the factory, just doing something,
keeping our staff working. We wanted to keep people working.
That was our mindset. Let's just keep the people working. Um.
And then I just looked at my brother one day

(22:19):
and I told him, let's not hustle this. Let's turn
this into a business. You know, our last name is Henry.
Let's turn this into like a family thing. Let's call
this brand Henry. Let's make this a subscription model. Like,
let's do this for real, for real. We're gonna do this, like,
let's do this for real, for real. I got some
money set aside. Listen me, and you build this out
turn into something. Wow. Congratulations. Uh, clearly you have established

(22:45):
yourself as one of the premier masks, uh during this pandemic.
And uh you're in You're in North Stroom stiff at
thinkt Nordstrom, Amazon, anybody to be in Target like we Yeah, wow,
Uh that's great. So tell us about your style philosophy.

(23:09):
You see documentaries on Tom Foard. You see documentaries on
Ralph Lauren and they all talk about their style philosophy.
And you know Tom Ford has has a very rigid
style creative, but it's very rigid. Uh tell us about
uh fresh style philosophy. Um, my style philosophy. Surprisingly, I'm

(23:34):
a minimalist. Um. I just like color. Like I like
color because you can feel color, Like color emits emotions.
For me, one of those people, Um, it's this thing. Um,
I'll remember the word for it. But like I can
look at colors and I can feel them, you know,

(23:54):
like they can make you feel happy or sad or
hungry or um, and it's just like it's just how
you mix your color. So I like using that, um,
using colors to that purpose. But I just like to
keep it simple. I like things that are simple, that
are comfortable, and then the tailor and timeless. You know,
I don't want things to keep you stuck in a

(24:15):
certain last season. You know, you can't wear it again.
Like I like the idea of just having pieces you
don't have to think about. You can just grab it,
put it on, feels great, looks great. And I'm huge
on quality. So that's just my thing. Um. You know,
I don't have rfs all over the place, because that's

(24:37):
not tasteful to me. I like to find more creative
ways to brand my stuff. So I used the stripes
of yellow tab because it makes me, makes me work
for it. We're here way maker community. We believe that
every successful person has had a way maker along the way. Uh.

(24:58):
Tell us about some of your wait maker. I will
say my father for certain, like he's he's my number
one way maker because he was a self made guy.
You know, he grew up boy, he put himself through
school guys n b A, you know, build itself up
as a salesman. Um. You know too very very very

(25:19):
good care of us. Uh and just showed us like
what that was like, what hard work was like. You know.
So I got to start. I got to see his
way of being and what he instilled in me. He
always instilled greatness. He was always like, you have to
be greater than me. Here's how here's some resources. He
was big on on that. So, UM, I have to

(25:40):
commend my father for that. Um. Also, you know, there
was a guy Michael Thomas. I gotta shout him out.
He was a young Taylor in Memphis. He maybe ten
years older than me. But he was the youngest flyerst
guy I'd ever seen as a tailor and he made suits,
you know, and at one point he was making a
minutes factory and I just thought was the coolest thing.

(26:00):
And he would just let me come and hang out.
Like I had my own alternation of business at the time,
I was doing it for a bunch of cleaners, but
just like on my chill days, just going and being
around that energy and just seeing how like their charism
and how they dealt with each other, and it was
just really cool. Um. And it kind of set a
bar for me. It's like, Okay, if you're gonna do what,

(26:22):
you gotta do it flat like this, or you can't
do it at all. Um. And he just always, you know,
always put me up a game. Like to this day,
you know, I go back to Memphis. He's one of
the people I'm able to connect with and you know,
still get some game from. That's great. So as you
were building your business, man, you went from a small

(26:42):
business to a medium sized business now to a large business,
which is kind of similar to the path that BT.
You know, from a very small business to a medium
sized business to a big business. What were some of
the adjustments and what were some of the things that
you had to do different me at each of those
stags that sort of made you sort of come out

(27:04):
of your comfort zone and say, hey, I've got to
do this now based on the size of my business,
and these are the type of things I've got to consider.
Uh for all of our listeners who are entrepreneurs out there,
m hm um, I think phase one. You know, like
rich Fresh is only three and a half years old

(27:25):
and Henry's like a year and uh a couple of months. Um,
so they're still, you know, both in the early stages.
But I know when rich Fresh first kicked off, UM,
my biggest hurdle, the thing I had to like do
mentally was I had to be cool to the idea
of hiring people to do the things that I should

(27:46):
not be doing, um and paying them you know what
I'm saying, Like, because it puts me in a state
of okay. That means you have to consistently make money
because you have people who are relying on you to
pack uh, So you know it. That was one of
the first hurdles for me. And once I once I

(28:08):
got that one, it became it just became a responsibility,
and it became fun for me, like, Okay, cool, this
is your responsibility to just go do the thing you're
responsible for, and they'll do the thing they're responsib before.
And you actually cover more ground because you make more
money doing the thing you're responsible for. You don't make
money doing the thing they're responsible for. Hmm wow, Okay,

(28:30):
let me hire someone else. Well, let me find other
areas of things I should be doing. Okay, let me
hire someone else for that too. And I got real
comfortable with that, and just like you know, you hear
it all the time, it costs to be the boss,
like it does. You gotta pay the rents, you gotta
pay the things. You gotta pay the fees, the taxes,
the the insurances, all this stuff. And it's like, you know,

(28:50):
I think growing up certain people would view that as
like a negative. Oh, now you don't want all that
and all that overhead. You don't want all that stuff,
and look, you want to keep it just you just
do everything yourself. When you keep all the money yourself,
you don't grow that way. So that that was the
thing Number one had to get come to with, like
paying the costs to be the boss, hire people and

(29:13):
pay the costs to be the boss. Um. The second thing, Um,
it was just like you know, you gotta pay more
costs now. Now you gotta pay like pr and advertising,
and you gotta like have bigger goals, you know. Um,
I couldn't have done Henry without having a partnership mentality,

(29:34):
you know, I did rich Fresh by myself, but like
to do Henry, I had to be able to relinquish
a certain amount of control to my brother, you know,
and trust his ability to do his thing. So sometimes,
you know, when when you grow to certain phases, you
have to align with someone else. My brother is a
genius when it comes to production. He can build things.

(29:56):
You know, I'm really good at creating things. If I
had t to do his thing, I would have failed.
And if you try to do my thing, he would
have failed. But us utilizing each other's strengths and respecting
each other and like respecting the partnership, we were able
to grow into phase two. And our phase three is
just like you know, understanding our responsibility not just to

(30:18):
ourselves as a company, but to the community that we fostered.
Like we've built the community that's relying on us for something.
So This is more than just make some money, pay
some bills. This is like we have to consistently provide
a product, in a in a level of service to
our customers, and then more products that we feel they're

(30:39):
gonna need, Like we're evolving uh into a CpG brand
to just provide more of the products that we know
our customers are gonna need consistently. They're gonna consume them,
They're gonna need them. So I think the the just
the third phase is just like how do you grow
from where you're at and not get comfortable? Like it's
easy to make a million dollars. Oh my god, have

(30:59):
made million dollars. I'm sad if I just make a
million dollars every year the rest of my life. WHOA,
but not really? But not really, you know, it's like,
but why if I could double that next year? And
then it's just a game like to just not getting comfortable,
you know, or lethargic in your growth, Like enjoy the

(31:21):
process of challenging yourself. Keep growing great. We'll be right
back with more of my interview after this quick break.
Who are the fashion designers that you most admire? I

(31:44):
most admire? I mean my top three is Ralph loren Um,
tom Ford, and Oswald botang Um. You don't hear Botany's
name too bunch in the States, but those of us
who know no and you know, the thing I admire

(32:04):
about I'm gonna start with botang Um is, Hey, he's black.
He's he's a black man. He's an African man who
did something unprecedented in a non black environment. He was
the first black tailor to have a shop with his
name on several row in an era where black tailors
would barely even get occupation and a white establishment. You

(32:28):
got your own establishment. And he was a young man.
He was like what even thirty years old, I onnt thing?
So he did something like was just completely unprecedented. Um,
and just his swagger, like him being like you know
the type of man, hey, you know just like I
I didn't see that. So just seeing a cool dude
in this space was different than seeing what I was

(32:51):
used to seeing. So it was very it was very
necessary for me to have that experience. Um, it helps
shape like, well then that is possible in this space.
Is I don't have to conform. I can't actually like
you know what I'm saying, move like I moved UM
Ralph Lauren because he built the biggest fashion empire UM

(33:15):
from a necktie and from being different. He made his
next ties wider, and he refused to make them smaller.
They initially said, we'll buy these, but you have to
make them smaller, make them skinnier and take that take
that logo off of it. And he said no and
left and they calling back, he said, you know what,

(33:35):
we'll we'll take him. Like he stuck to his guns
and he he took that and he built an empire
on it. And this kid was an immigrant, he was
a Jewish immigrant. So I don't think there was really
just an environment like well not like he was just
known for doing fashion, so he had to go out

(33:55):
there and hustle and just do some things that weren't expected. UM.
And he's single handedly he's crafted what American fashion is like.
Ralph Lauren has crafted American fashion UM. So like he's
just it's a visionary like you can't you can't not
admire Ralph. I feel, uh, Tom Ford because I remember

(34:20):
Tom four when Tom foard a Gucci. I remember Tom
four when Tim four was a Perry Ellis. But when
Time four went over to Gucci. He started really seeing
Gucci look like something. Um and we all know I'm
not a huge fan of the brand now, but we
saw him make it sexy, and so I liked Tom
Ford's ability to make clothing sexy. He has a sexy,

(34:44):
upscale mentality, but it's not staunch and like unapproachable. He
makes it sexy and like man uh And you know,
I met Tom four and when I met him, the
thing I noticed about him was he was his brand.
He didn't design something that was off base with who

(35:06):
he is. He designed clothes that he wanted to wear
and build a whole universe around that. So when it
was time for me to roll out Rich Fresh, I said,
I'm gonna do it the way Tom Ford did it.
I want to build a brand based off stuff I
want to wear and what I generally want to see
the people around me wearing. That's that's great, great answer. Now,

(35:26):
speaking of time forward, he says that he takes the
bath whenever he needs to make critical decisions. What there's
a rich Fresh to do when he has to make
critical decisions? Rich Fresh, Rich Fresh mooks some blunting and
SIPs some tea. Um, Yeah, I just you know, I'll
go for a walk. You know, I got a really

(35:47):
nice view um in the hills, so I look at nature.
I go talk to a tree. Um. You know, I
smoked some weed perhaps, uh, drink some tea like I
just I like to really acts, you know, because everything
comes to me so easily, like when I'm just in
the space of receiving. Um. So yeah, when I need
to tap into something, I just get cool. I throw

(36:11):
in some jazz, something to match the environment that I
want to I want to create for a certain time
frame or a certain vibe, I just turn on something like,
you know, create that element in the sense and just
just let it, just let it happen. Okay, let's go
into what we call its lightning around. All right. Well,

(36:33):
I'm looking for quick, quick answers to these questions. All
right ready, favorite card brand mans already, favorite hotel, Um,
damn it, I had this one. Uh the model Waldor,

(36:59):
favorite rapper, O little Baby Okay, top actor Brad pet,
top actress Angel the Baskett Okay. Favorite city in the

(37:23):
world Los Angeles, California. That's shocking, business suit track suit tracks,
favorite hair, collar blue, The song that best describes you. Um, Thundercat,

(37:52):
Dragon Ball, d rag Okay favorite meal um Crossroads their calamari.
They got a mushroom calamaria. It's delicious, but any vegan meal,
but if you had that mushroom columaria, that's just icing
on the cake. All right. Final question, rich Um, you've

(38:20):
talked about waymakers that have helped you your father. Who
are some of the people of organizations that you are
trying to impact as a waymaker. I know as Henry
is going to be doing a lot. We want to
really get involved with combating hunger. That's always been a

(38:42):
thing for us. UM. I think philanthropically that that's how
we even got started wanting to do philanthropy. It was like,
I want to make sure that kids had meals, Like
I just hate the idea of people not being able
to eat food in the US. UM. So I know
we want to really get involved with organizations that are

(39:04):
heavily invested in making sure that America eats food and
healthy food, particularly our kids. UM. But I know me personally,
I want to inspire you know, the next generation of entrepreneurs,
not just fashion entrepreneurs or fashion designers, but people who
want to contribute to society. You know and make a

(39:27):
change and provide for their family. You know, I want
to inspire black people to like defy the norms. I
want to inspire black men to be themselves and not
dumb it down or cut it off. Like be who
you are, provide the value provided service, be yourself, be authentic. Um,
let's it. You know, the next generation of people who

(39:48):
are going to lead the next generation. I like, I'd
like to do something to inspire them. That's great, Thank
you for that one. Fine a question, man, And I
see you kind of easing into a women's life. Where
need you gonna go? Just full blasts? You know, that's
a big market out there, and I know they're waiting,

(40:11):
they are waiting. Um. I'm actually, um um debuting the
women's line the beginning of September, okay, past a week
just before Yeah, no is uh first weekend September first
or second? Okay. I was saying, well, yeah, I'm debuting

(40:32):
first Okay, the first week in September. So I think
it's gonna be around September six. Very excited. I've already
I've got I'm looking at some of the pieces now
and they're very special. Okay, Well, uh my wife got
a birthday on September ten. All right she uh she

(40:56):
started her career in the fashion industry. That's a whole
another story, all right. She she used to be a
model and used to be a buyer and all of that.
So y'all would have a whole lot and in common.
So I'm gonna make that introduction and then tell you
to be easy on my wallet. All right. You know,
I got you rich fresh. This has been amazing. Uh

(41:19):
you clearly uh leading culture. Uh you're making an impact
on entrepreneurs who are following your success. You are making
an impact on the fashion industry and so proud of you.
Uh so excited to be a part of your universe.
And uh we here at Waymaker. I want you to

(41:42):
know that we appreciate you having this conversation with us,
and we look forward to you being on the cover
of the winter issue of way Maker. Thank you, my brother.
That's so excited, Lewis. I appreciate you man. From day one,
You've just been Um. I was like is this guy
really like this? Because you just popped about them nowhere,

(42:03):
Like is this guy really real? And you were so
cool and like such um, you know, like Away Maker yourself,
you know, someone them definitely look up to, like this
guy carries himself in a manner that that commands respect.
You know what I'm saying, Like everyone anyone who has
ever encountered they're spoken your name, speaks it as if

(42:26):
they're speaking about a king, like so they revere you
so highly. So you know, it's it's it's been. It's
been honor getting to know you and being part of
your space as well, and in this cover as a
as a huge m it's a really big deal to
us here way making man. And you know, I called

(42:48):
myself a student of successful people, and you clearly our
teacher because you happen to fall in that space that
I have a passion for, as you know. And you
know when you put that lining, and I saw your
response on social media about that line, you know that
told me you pay attention to the smallest details, because

(43:08):
the line it could have just been brown. All right,
thank you,