Tag Archives: Infinite Archives

Charity Spotlight: Rebuild Foundation

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Founded and led by Chicago-artist and philanthropist Theaster Gates, the Rebuild Foundation is a series of programs designed to progress underserved communities by developing affordable housing, free arts-programming and more. 

Current projects include:

 

Dorchester Industries, where local contractors, master craftsmen and artists provide free, hands-on training in the building trades to local residents as they work to renovate and reimagine vacant properties in their community. 

 

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The Stony Island Arts Bank serves as a library, community center, art gallery and program archive. Collections on display here include Frankie Knuckles’ vinyl collection, books and periodicals donated by the Johnson Publishing Company, publisher of Ebony and Jet magazine, over 60,000 slides of art and architectural history from the Paleolithic to Modern eras, 4,000 objects of “negrobilia” – mass cultural objects and artifacts that feature stereotypical images of black people and more. 

 

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The Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative (DA+HC) is a rehabilitated public housing project, a block of 32 townhomes that provides housing for artists and community members with the intent of fostering dialogue and collaboration between both groups. The DA+HC is mixed income housing and features an even distribution of artist, public, affordable rate, and market rate housing.

 

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Proceeds from the sale of the Infinite Archives “END RACISM” tee will be donated to the Rebuild Foundation. We encourage you to learn more about the foundation and its programs here. 

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Product品

producthouse

 

Founded in 2015 by Permanent Wave and Dos Global, Product品 (pronounced Product or Product House) is an American multidisciplinary creative studio and clothing brand. With a heavy emphasis on cut-and-sew garments and locally-sourced production, the brands’ striking graphics and unique construction represent the founders’ personal journeys and experiences.

 

Read more below and stay tuned for their upcoming releases.



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‘Individually, what’s your personal history with fashion? Did you guys have brands before Product品?

 

PW: Yes for the both of us, but for me, as far as like, I guess, my journey in fashion, I’ve just worked retail and I’ve seen a bunch of different sides of the fashion industry from retail to production to buying and selling at trade shows. So I hadn’t really had a brand before but I feel like with a lot of what I was doing, I was almost creating sort of this visual brand for myself where people could kinda at least try to understand like to know who I was, just from different things I was doing. But the first thing that I did actually was under Permanent Wave, but it was like the first project me and Dos worked on in like 2013.

 

DG: Yeah, definitely Permanent Wave. Like I remember ‘09, 2010, that was my favorite Blogspot. We met each other prior, like 2009, at Columbia College in Chicago. I remember he was on some fresh stuff. I went to this spot he was working at and I remember copping like a Brooklyn Circus tee or something. That era was, I don’t know, different times. I fucked with his blog, because his blog was talking about Needles in like, 2009. You know what I mean, talking about Kapital, talking about these brands that are like household right now. Like back in 2009, 2010. When I was like, fresh out of high school kid not knowing shit about nothing, you know what I mean? That personal journey shit, I used to do t-shirts for some bogus-ass mall brands and shit, people who don’t need any credit or nothing. I used to do t-shirts for they ass and like little designs here and there and then it just made more sense to work with Najee because motherfuckers think the same way and it’s a better energy.

 

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Do you guys have set roles within Product品?

 

DG: You know, I mean, we both design the same in Product品. For me and Najee. It’s like, bounce idea, think tank, design.

 

PW: I feel like that’s pretty much how it works. I feel like if I wanted to be technical, Dos is classically trained as a graphic designer. So anything that you see from us, you know, on a graphic tee, the logo, Dos came up with that. Anything on the graphic end that you see is his handiwork, but as a result of like he said, a think tank.

 

DG: Oh, yeah, because a lot of times there’ll be graphics you come up with was like, Oh, shit, I’ll do that real quick. You know what I mean? But you’ll have a sketch. So I feel like it’s so back and forth. It’s so think tank. And we both kind of have like similar cultures. He’s from Chicago, I’m from Atlanta, and we both are like, just deep, black culture, you know what I mean? And I think a lot of those ideas, like the airbrushing and certain screen prints, some of the images we use, all come from that same energy. I think it makes the “think tank” environment work a little bit better.

 

Do you guys pull your references and inspiration from specific places?

 

PW: I mean, I don’t know. It sounds wild, but the inspirations literally come from everywhere. Not even like in a linear way, like sometimes like all at once. I think the Fantastic Planet tee was kind of an opportunity to be literal for a moment, even like the concept to freak that. That era of Jordan who was kinda like this fantastical athlete, for any time, but especially for that time. That was like our ode to streetwear, like the type of streetwear and those types of flips that we kind of grew up on and grew to love. But yeah, overall like the references, that stuff gets deep. I mean that’s literally that’s what we do all day, every day, analyzing those references and using references but not being referential in the final product. You don’t want to just bite and flip as much as we might want to because it’s like ‘damn, that would be bugging.’ We take a step back and think about, ‘What story do we want to tell overall, outside of this one drop?’

 

DG: Yeah, I feel like the cornerstone of the whole brand is just taste. Because when I think about it, it’s kind of like, I feel like a lot of our favorite movies are similar. We might have outliers and stuff but we have a lot of similar favorite movies and we have artists, I feel like are pretty obscure that we listen to. Like, I still listen to Santigold, I listen Japanese city pop in the morning to wake up, I listen to old funk, soul, blues, black spiritual music from like the early 1900s.

I feel like a lot of our references and our tastes come from obscure places and we kind of bring them together, even like our logo and everything is kind of like a reference, everything that we work on is from references. I think when NBA All-Star [Weekend] was coming up, we were like: ‘Oh, yeah, this idea works perfectly, let’s just run it’ and we got good reception on that tee. Even our new stuff we’re working on, as soon as that hits, I know a lot of people will instantly jump on them just because I feel like we’re just getting better and better.

 

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Aside from the references, what else are you consuming? What brands are you guys looking at?

 

DG: All black designers. Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner, Pyre Moss, their shoes are insane. A lot of kids out of London, Bianca Saunders. GutterTM. For music, anything that’s like some Atlanta hood-shit for me, then Japanese City Pop, I don’t know, I like waking up to that shit. But there’s so many brands, the culture is crazy.

 

PW: We focus a lot on homies. Even just in the shop, there’s ESCRO, Infinite Archives, you know, people that I actually grew up with, and to see that on this platform now… Guitar Boys, you know, it’s just kind of an insane time because it’s like we look around and in a very organic way, all of all our favorite shit, all the shit we share on a daily basis is like literally our peers, and a lot of times, close friends who we speak to regularly. So, we’re gonna do what we can use our platform to highlight those and work in a real way and see what we can do.

 

 

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Would you say that these references make up your brand identity? How else would you describe it?

 

PW: I feel like it is that, but also in respect to the fact that time is always moving, everything has to keep going. I don’t think a lot of times what actually comes out is like, our direct taste level. It takes us to be able to do it but I think that’s more on the back end. What’s brought to the world is at least trying to be more reflective of the world at large and the times we’re in and how we see it. As opposed to just trying to pour what we think is personally cool, out. Even though it’s a mixture of the two.

 

DG: I definitely think of tastes and energy. Those are like the two things. Like it’s shit that we like, shit that we feel like the world should know about and then like, the energy is just like: when I step out on the street, what the fuck do I look like? When I step out into the streets, I want you to really recognize me and recognize that Product品 is something that’s strong. It’s just really personal. Even our love for MA-1 jackets turned into chopped up MA-1 jackets. That was from his love of vintage and military and I just love MA-1 jackets because in Atlanta, mogs in the hood used to wear those and get their name printed on the back and get like their squad on the back or something.

 

PW: Before we even knew that, it was MA-1 jacket, it was just a staple. And then, like really learning the history behind it and of course just loving the silhouette. Like I said, the references come from all over because it’s like, just how we explained in that one piece, you know, it means something different to the both of us at different times in our lives. So it’s like, it’s just all part of kind just trying to keep the same flow.

 

DG: And there’s definitely like a cross-cultural element to it because that jacket can mean something totally different to a whole ‘nother person-

 

PW: Like my dad: he was in the military and he loves it for not even close for the same reasons that we like it. I think one thing is to use references as a way to build a visual identity that’s not necessarily so all over the place, more so more unifying. Just because things like that don’t really alienate people. Even the Fantastic Planet tee, if you’ve never seen that movie, the message wouldn’t necessarily be lost on you. So I feel like maybe that’s like the larger play at hand.

 

DG: Yeah, that tee for example, like, I feel like we talked about the [Fantastic Planet] tee a lot just because that’s like what’s out now and the new stuff will boil, but is there there’s kids I know who don’t know shit about basketball. Out here in New York, they’re like film buffs and they’re like, ‘Oh, I love that’ or there’s people who don’t know the basketball reference or the film reference but it’s like “I like the energy of that t-shirt. I like the colors, I like the composition, I like the vibrancy.” There’s so many layers that we try to hit.

 

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Are there certain people or entities you look(ed) to for guidance or to better inform you on running a brand?

 

PW: That’s more inspiration than anything but culture in general. That’s like pre-workout, when people take the shit so they get that extra jolt of energy, because don’t shit teach you about doing this except you actually doing it. There’s so many things, even throughout the similarities that you could point out, with every business, every successful business, failing business, things have these common threads but I feel like the lessons for that individual was in the shift that wasn’t a common thread. It was something that was unique to that story, like: ‘this is what taught us this or this is what taught us that.’ Even just going through shit in everyday life, good or bad, we internalized all of those lessons. If this brand is gonna be an extension of us and how we see things, you know all of that comes to the table because you can get caught up in the stories. You may know the industry, if it’s a fashion story or something music related or anything like that, art, design, so it’s already something that you’ve heard, people telling similar stories, like ‘man I was here and I experienced that same thing’ and that can be like an opiate, like that’s addicting, you’re getting juiced up on all the stories and seeing other people doing what they’re doing but at the end of the day, you still gotta go out and do this shit and find out. Somebody might have said something but if you didn’t try it, you don’t even know if it would have worked out for you. Like it didn’t work out for them but your shit might have been completely different.

I think we get inspiration from a ton of different stories. Even personal stories, like people that we know, like, I know both of our families are huge inspirations for us as far as how we move with Product品. He can talk more on this but his granddad was an artist, so there’s the art, his dad was a basketball player so it’s like all of our people kind of speaking through us.

 

DG: It’s definitely some ‘ancestors speaking through you’ energy for sure. It’s everything but I will definitely say Taz Arnold though. I just gotta throw that name out there because I feel like his name isn’t in the conversation enough. He’s probably one of the flyest humans ever to exist on this earth, like on some: ‘I don’t give a fuck and I-

 

PW: Alessandro Michele at Gucci is all Taz Arnold. Like when I saw what Alessandro was doing at Gucci, I was like ‘okay, Taz finally doesn’t look bugged out to people anymore. Not that Alessandro bit from bro, but that energy and that aesthetic. It’s like, okay, it’s finally caught up.

 

DG: He was so ahead, it don’t even make sense. The average fashion connoisseur dresses like him now, 10-12 years later.

 

PW: On a similar level, maybe one of the first people as far as like interviews, or even just learning about this guy, Reggie Know who was like, don’t know it’s a lot to say, I feel like people should do their research but Reggie, runs Fashion Figure Inc. and also the Killer Tape Network. But learning his story as a Chicago kid who went to the Art Institute, I think it was him and his crew Dem Dare, their hand in the Chicago hip-hop movement. I feel like seeing interviews from mostly Reggie because, you know, a lot of people weren’t really messing with cameras like that in Chicago, at least me during that time. Seeing how they were able to sort of like, synthesize all of these things from like, hip-hop to Polo to veganism… they had those hand-drawn crazy flyers, so I think that was super important because the story became that much more personal to me. Because it’s like, he was able to go super crazy and it was super ahead of his time. Go super crazy. Like hip hop is not something that’s native to Chicago at all, and for a long time, if you were deeply hip hop in the early ‘90s, you weren’t the super cool person. It was kind of weirdo-ish in Chicago, you know, so I feel I resonated with those guys, their story and how they moved.

I think that’s one of things and they’re one of the crews and reading up on them, that taught me about using fashion as a story, to maybe be more intentional.

 

DG: The figurines he made, it was such a story he told with how the figurines and the art that he made, how they dress, like he would make these people that were just like, as fly as possible and I feel like that’s something we kind of subconsciously strive for in making Product品. Like ‘yo, we want the kid who wears Product品 to virtually kind of dress like this.’ And then there’s the Shirt Kings energy that I feel like we throw into it too. Even Reggie Know, what was that movie he did? That’s really what caps the research, that short-

 

PW: THIS DAY anime is the name of the anime, if you search that, it should pop-up. THIS DAY is his thing. Again, that was inspirational to me because it just showed like, ‘okay I got all these references and different things that I’m pulling from, different things that influenced me, how can I package this into something that I can tell a story with?’

 

DG: That short was so prototype. If it dropped now, it would blow up because it would have been a pilot for a series now. Because the energy was super black culture but also super anime, fashion culture.

 

PW: The thing is, like even pulling through all of that, the root of everything , the basis is hip-hop.

Like, that’s super important because a lot of people will recognize like, ‘oh, hip hop is the most important or the most influential, boom, boom, boom.’ And it’s like, yes, but that kind of dilutes it into a standard. And sometimes that allows you not to really dig deeper and really see the beauty that may come with it. I think with him being able to pull from all those different references but still, the baseline is like, this is hip hop culture. ‘This is my culture, like, I’m trying to tell all these stories, but through this,’ you know, that’s a really cool thing as well.

 

What does the start-to-finish process look like for you?

DG: Man, we kind of do it all because we’re both in it from different angles. He’ll just be working on clothes, like he’ll make some jeans and add some stuff to it and I’ll go over to his crib like “what’re these?” and he’s like, ‘oh, it’s this and that’ I’m like, ‘oh, like that should be a short’ or I’ll send him random designs, He’s like, ‘I fuck with this one’ or ‘this will turn into this.’ It’s really random. There’s a lot of times we move with intention and then be like, ‘Oh, I have this idea for tees, or oh, that’s a banger.’ It’s just like a super open approach, I’m a super hippie-dippie human being, you know what I mean? So when it comes to approach, or whatever, I feel like I’m not hyper-rigid, like, not hating on nobody else but like, I feel like we’re not rigid. I feel like every piece is super-unique or from the heart, you know?

 

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What does it mean for you to have a brand/platform?

 

PW: I would definitely say it feels like a blessing. At the same time, sometimes it doesn’t even really feel like that because you’re just in it, it’s just this continual process. There’s no real endpoint that we can see or even one we’re aiming for. Not that there aren’t goals that we’ve set but, at least for me, it always feels like you’re still a rookie because we’re constantly just seeking out knowledge and even when you’re not seeking out knowledge, just learning. It’s like: you’re there and you just feel blessed to be there and just keep going. We’ll probably get a chance to look back and be like, ‘man I was really young’ but I think in the moment we’re just so focused on like, okay, this is a blessing me to be in this day and time because we both had older family members who were highly creative individuals, but those same opportunities weren’t privy to them, you know, to really pursue what they wanted to do from a creative standpoint. So I feel like that’s how it feels in this moment, it feels like a blessing to be able to wake up and do this, even when it’s not easy, it’s just like, this is dope. We study culture in general, a lot of times like fashion and aesthetic might move what we study, but we’re just lovers of life, so I think to be able to live it out in any capacity, in a way that you want, there’s no way to even really explain it or frame it. I think you just want to do more of it and be able to help your people and the people around you do that as well.

 

DG: Yeah, and it’s hyper beautiful to like, be able to, like how he said, wake up design some shit and drop it. It’s also this world that I love, that we love so much, fashion or media or just culture, this world that we grew up kind of being consumers or just fans of. It’s like, okay, now I can like put my imprint of ideas. I felt like Supreme did a lot for me. When I was younger, like, ’08, I remember the Miles Davis collection. Like those records were in my grandfather’s garage. I never picked them up until I saw them on the Supreme tee in 2008. And I’m like, ‘oh, what is On the Corner? Like what is Kind of Blue? Like what are these albums or who is Malcolm McLaren? I like the education factor when you have reference points in fashion and I feel like one thing we’re working towards, why we call it Product品 but why the IG is Product House and the website is Product House is because we see it as a house, we have cut and sewn garments.

 

We’re fans of Margiela, we’re fans of Raf, we’re fans of Walter Van Beirendonck, Rei Kawakubo, nameless other human beings that designed. Even Sean John, you know what I mean? We just kind of grew up on it all, Girbaud, you know what I mean? It’s beautiful to be able to be like, ‘okay, here’s our perspective.’ I feel like it’s very specific, like where we’re coming from. And we’re also like, fans of sport, which I feel like, that’s shown but in fashion, but is it really? We’re also big movie fans, big music fans, big just culture fans, you know what I mean? So yeah, I think it’s beautiful. It’s like having a voice.

 

 

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What’s the future look like for you guys?

 

PW: I feel like how we run the brand, we work a lot with small artisans and people that help us if it’s not something that we’re doing ourselves. I feel like the community is just a lot more spread out and less reliant on what’s going on in mainstream society. I feel like we really like built a network of individuals that are moving just like us. Even through all of this, I mean, we’ve still been able to get things done and continue to build on those relationships because it’s like once there aren’t so many these bigger entities to, I don’t want to say take up space, but once they aren’t supplying everything is like, you mean the world kind of becomes a system of just peers that are reliant on one another to get things done and it’s really good to be able to see the world work that way.

 

DG: Yeah I think COVID has made things move differently because we planned stuff in LA, we planned on doing some things in Paris, we were setting things up to kind of move in certain ways and when COVID hit, we had to regroup and dead a lot of shit but I think we’re still pushing forward, like what we’re doing is different. But I love that a lot of airbrush stuff is done by artists in Chicago who were like, ‘okay, we have these ideas. We got this simple airbrush, we can do the scripts, but you guys can do portraiture, and let’s get this done.’ And it’s like using that community that is on the south side to knock things out for us. That makes the product even more authentic because it’s like, if you get a $400 airbrush shirt from us, we’re paying these local businesses of color, we’re paying my boy who’s in New York who is doing chain-stitching for us on the jeans we’re making and that’s a young black dude who has his own brand and has his own company. And we’re building this network and we’re making sure everybody gets paid, so when you’re buying from Product品, you’re buying something from a bunch of artists that came together. Like, that’s why we’re a house because it’s like a creative director role on certain items where it’s like, ‘okay, you’ll sew this, I’ll graphic design that, he’ll do chain-stitch on this and then we’re gonna put it all together into a piece. So like, when I look at our pieces, this is more MoMA than it is Dover Street. So that’s how I want to keep thinking.

 

Instagram gonna tell y’all we got pieces on the way.

 

PW: Yeah, it’s just kind of like, stay tuned. You’ll enjoy.

 

DG: Oh, we got a photo book coming out. Maybe that’s something to promote? It’s a photobook on the way.

 

PW: Man, honestly, all of this stuff is one of those things, like, I don’t even watch Star Wars, but from what I know about it, it’s like you kind of gotta watch all of it to even get the full scope.

ESCRO MARKET

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Founded in 2018, ESCRO Market is a Chicago-based brand by Cornell “Nu” Green and Muizz Ogbara. Recently, you may have seen or stopped by their pop-up in our Chicago location, which ran for three days in February, alongside the release of their “Defunct Suits” collection. Learn more about the brand and the minds behind it below, and shop their recent collection online. 

 

How did ESCRO come together initially?

 

NU:  I feel like we were both posting little shit from both of our brands on Facebook, and I just DM’d him one day and was like ‘bro, let’s just link up together, and let’s both do this’.’ Because sometimes I’d see some designs that he’d make and I’m like ‘damn, I wish I could have made that, like damn, that would have made sense.’ And vice versa, so I’m like ‘look bro, let’s just start something fresh, me and you and we can make it work.’ 

 

MO: That’s really what it was, because at the time I was going through a crazy transitional period with living situations, so I was just kind of like, I don’t know, I wanted to give up on design. And I was like, nah, I’m definitely going for the kill because I knew how Nucci was gonna do it. 

 

NU: And then I feel like sometimes you need those certain friends that motivate you, you know, like everybody goes through their little spurts where you feel unmotivated at times. I feel like I was always that spark. Like, bro, come on. What you doing? Let’s make this shit happen.

 

MO: The brand came together late 2018, early 2019. Me and Nu had already been knowing each other prior to that. It was kind of just like, a timing thing, so it started 2018-19. We linked up and the brand was called something else prior to this. It was a situation that put us in a bind to switch the  name and one day, Nucci had something regarding the market already and I was trying to find another thing to add to make the name pop and I was reading some book and escrow popped up. It was some medieval italian book and I was like ‘oh, this is kind of nice’ because escrow means, if two parties, there’s a person that’s selling something and a person that’s buying something, there has to be the middle part where the money is being kept. I thought that was neat and I liked the play on the stock market and we also use this medium of textile and things to talk about socioeconomics and shit like that, so that’s really what ESCRO is about at this point. 
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What roles do you guys play within the brand?

 

MO: I would say I do most of the creative direction and design and Nucci does most of the business, but the thing is, when I do designs, we still have to go back and forth because sometimes, he’ll have an idea that makes sense that I was thinking too hard on. We both have our roles but we still intertwine both of the roles, it kind of has to be like that. 

 

With the brand name and ethos in mind, where are you guys pulling references and inspiration from?

 

MO: For the brand, I pull off, like I said, we talk about socioeconomics, so I’m looking at particular events that happen through our history, and going from there and taking that time and era and figuring out the pieces I might see. You know, we might see a vintage ad or something, and see something that we might want to incorporate into clothing and translate it and put it out so it’s not directly in your face. We like a bit more nuance with how we put out shit like that. 

 

NU: Like for the last collection, we did the jerseys, so we referenced the Paid in Full scene, like it was just a scene in a movie and a lot of people probably wouldn’t think that that’s where that came from but when you look back at it, you can see that’s where it came from. So, we just try to mix in things from the past that’s, you know, popular events. 

 

MO: To add to that, ENRON, the company would take dirt bike trips to Mexico. 

 

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Individually, what’s your history with fashion/having a brand?

NU: I probably had like 4 or 5 brands by myself. *laughs* He had a brand as well, so like he was saying earlier, it was just perfect timing. I was just trying to start something new, he was trying to start something fresh and new, and we teamed together and made it happen.

 

MO: We’ve been cliqued up for years though, that’s the crazy part. I feel like we’ve always been linked up as far as the art, especially with the art and all of that stuff. I think it’s pretty crazy to see how it all came back full-circle. Because it was like 2013- 

 

NU: Yeah, that was awhile. We actually met going to art school, coming from the south suburbs, catching the train. You know, just seeing each other fly, you know, flyness connects people lowkey, so we just ended up talking and mingling amd kept in contact over the years through social media and it’s just crazy, like he said, how it came full circle, now we both have a brand together. We always respected each other’s brands over the years, you know just hustling, trying to make it happen. 

 

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What does that evolution look like from those starting points to ESCRO?

 

NU: I feel like we both learned a lot of things having our own brands and going through similar struggles. Now we know what to do, what not to do, how much to order, you know, just trial and error.  I just feel like through that time to now, we just got the hang of things. 

 

MO: For me personally, that time period was figuring out what exactly I was trying to do. One of the first things I was trying to do was open a store, so I was trying to carry brands like KTZ and brands like that. This was a long time ago and I was like ‘alright, this is not really it,’ seeing how much this actually costs to produce and Nucci is on the other side seeing how much this shit costs to produce so it was like, ‘why am i even wasting my time doing this shit?’ And then it was just figuring out my design aesthetic, style aesthetic and then merging that shit together. Like, we know what to do now. It’s not like ‘oh, I don’t know how to do this,” nah, we got a operating machine between both of us right now. 

 

How would you describe the brands’ creative process from start to finish?

 

MO: Usually, how we start is I’ll probably already have something to speak on or communicate with and then me and Nu connect and build on it and make it make sense and then we put it out. Nucci knows, we go through and we have so many things we’ve thrown away. 

 

NU: We both just bounce ideas off each other and send each other references. Like he said, we go through so many ideas that don’t even make it to production. You know, it’s indecisive and we’re always changing our minds on things and so we just bounce ideas off each other all the time. He’s a demon at photoshop and illustrator so he definitely makes things come to life. 

 

MO: We know what we’re gonna put it out. Most of the stuff you see that’s cut and sew, we know we’re probably gonna do a low-number amount just because of cost and cost-effectiveness and brand awareness right now, it’s more so just a timing thing. I think what we’re doing right now, what we’re doing is trying to have a showcase. Once it fully rolls here and fully steams up, then we can maneuver. 

 

 

 

 

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Does the process for the creation of your lookbooks/video material differ? 

 

NU: I feel like we got a team full of creatives that are our friends, so we all work together and come with whatever plan or lookbook and roll it out. 

 

MO: We do the decks, the photo treatments, video treatments, all that shit. Photographers, lights, models and all of that stuff. 

 

NU: We got friends that do all of those things so we have a full production team. We’re kind of cheating but these are our friends at the same time so it works. 
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There’s been a lot of discussion around the fashion calendar and moving to something more efficient. Do you guys operate on the traditional schedule or your own?

 

NU: I would say we go at our own pace. We definitely tried to go with the calendar in the past and you know, sometimes it doesn’t work out because of production issues, shipping issues, you know, anything pops up. So now we make sure we have all of our stuff in a row. 

 

MO: Between Nucci and the plans, picking out designs and all that shit, we kind of got it down but trying to follow that calendar is a lot, especially when it’s like timing things, and now with COVID, things are getting slowed down with shipping. 

 

MO: And then I feel like sometimes the motivation isn’t there. So it’s just like we don’t want to rush anything. We don’t want to just put something out just because everybody else is putting stuff out. We want to make sure that you know, this is something that you know, it’s going to be a clean product they know you can give out to the public.

 

Was there anybody in specific that gave you the advice you needed along the way?

 

NU: No, not necessarily. I would say, when I saw certain people rocking the brand, that I know are really into fashion and that really knows what’s going on, and I saw them actually rocking it, that was that was the advice. Like, keep going, don’t stop. If he’s rocking it, then you know you’re doing something right. They didn’t have to say nothing. It was just off the strength, like ‘he got it on.’

 

What other brands are you guys looking at and buying right now?

 

MO: I personally have some people around that I fuck with, I know y’all fuck with Product, Najee and them, I fuck with their shit. One of my homies, Mars, has dorightdesigns, it’s pretty tight. 

 

NU: Oh, Infinite Archives, I’m rocking Easy’s shit for sure. Ron Louis too. 

 

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What does the future look like for ESCRO at this point? 

 

NU: We got a collection called Save Randy coming soon for Spring/Summer. It definitely ties in well with everything that’s going on right now. Especially post-COVID. We’re also getting together our fall collection, we’re getting together some actual leather jackets samples made up right now. 

 

MO: Some more lifestyle pieces, rugs, stuff like that. 

 

NU: Yeah we’re coming with some rugs, some homegoods, you know, just trying to tie-in with this whole quarantine and everything. 

 

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