professor that said I didn’t have the
pedigree or ideas or skillset to sort of
work in a sort of important context
don’t just go to where you think you
want to work and just say hey I want to
work there you have to do something that
they see value in so that the
conversation is shorter comments I don’t
read reviews I don’t read anything
positive to me I the 17-year old version
myself didn’t think that this was
possible need motivation what’s the top
10 believe nation what’s up it’s Evan my
one word is believe and I believe in you
I believe you have an amazing gift
inside you that I want to see exploded
onto the world so let’s get your
motivation to attend and get you
believing in you grab a snack and chew
in today’s lessons from a man who went
from wanting to be an architect to
eventually switching his focus to
fashion collabing with Kanye West and
then becoming an artistic director at
Louis Vuitton for their men’s line he’s
Virgil a blow and here’s my take on his
alright let’s kick things off with rule
number one my personal favorite prove
yourself when I used to buy Jordan or
like look at an Air Max 90 that tinker
did I was like I want to be the intern
that sits in the room I want to be a
designer I just wanted to be in the same
room that because somebody does that
like where does that happen I was such a
fan like if you know there’s real people
in that room how do I get and so that’s
what I did and they’re like you know
getting a project of Nikes and they
almost impossible but I did it in my own
way I did another price the same way I
advocate other people do too don’t just
go to where you think you want to work
and just say hey I want to work there
you have to do something that they see
value in so that the conversation is
shorter rule number 2 thrive often oh I
was like an average
sort of suburban kid that was
skateboarding listening with Nirvana
Beastie Boys rap wu-tang
like you say the music you can think of
a look and so as I started thinking
about clothing I was always like drawn
to what my initial interest was and that
was t-shirts as an architecture student
like I had a professor that said I
didn’t have the pedigree or ideas or
skillset to sort of work in any sort of
important context so every now is
perfect for me I thrive often Oh rule
number three just do it
heron and I were just amongst a spirit
that wouldn’t leave it at like a bar
conversation you know we wouldn’t be
like so we want to go start a boy band a
deejays call it been drill run around
the world and make t-shirts you know
like we the next morning we just do it
and often that I get a lot of questions
about hey like I want to do what you do
it’s not even about anything else but
just doing it you know it sounds like a
motivational speech or it sounds like
very figurative but nine times out of
ten we all have ideas that you sort of
just get gratification off of like
saying it but you know we’ve sort of
translated that into doing it because
the generation older than us doesn’t
believe that we can do it or doesn’t
believe that we have the intellect so
now I’m in a phase of just like proving
to myself but also like proving to a
generation that not only I exist but
there’s like tons of kids in every city
just like all of us that that believe
that we can create as as the things that
we idolize rule number four disrupt the
status quo yeah you know I’m not sort of
like comfortable with like a status quo
you know it’s important to note –
originally I was just you know consumer
I was the person that was just buying
things that were interesting
I came from an era where some Street
we’re in New York in Los Angeles in
Japan that there was sort of like great
vibrance but it was new and sort of an
independent market and then obviously
times are different so instead of when
those brands are designer those things
weren’t sort of able to continue
I saw a void you know picking up the
conversation where they left off and so
for me it’s just about you know
expressing ideas and sort of building a
project that sort of tangible in a way
rule number five craft your own path
can you walk this isn’t always what I
wanted to do you know and no one does it
a couture meet Street but people say it
all the time I’ve had the fortunate
ability to sort of craft my own path you
know people ask me all the time do you
feel some sense of like achievement or
fulfillment and the answer is zero
I have no there’s no feedback loop
that’s like yes
[Music]
I’m only interested in like making new
things like getting to this place of the
next idea rule number six don’t chase
perfectionism perfectionism doesn’t
advance anything ironically as a
creative and as a designer there’s no
wrong way to go about the future of your
career the only the only failure is not
to try you know and I think that
designers we all have like a creators or
artists we have a natural convention to
sort of be maybe tormented or a little
bit of like an inner struggle is is the
work living up to its fullest potential
or is it you know is it as great as the
work that you adelies from your your
design idols but at the end of the day
it’s your body of work and it’s the
amount of work and the refinement of
that work that will define who you are
as a creative rule number seven have
mentors who is your Yoda and why I have
a ton you know okay
like and it’s a picture like a mood
board or something it’s everyone from
Kanye West of course you know Pharrell
Williams like Marcel Duchamp Damien
King cruel you know Radiohead the idea
of that that wouldn’t be you know into
fashion design if it wasn’t for Marc
Jacobs so I think mentors Yoda is for
everyone is important and it has a
distinct impact on my work rule number
eight be critical you mentioned like
before that there are lots of brands
that didn’t work you know then they’re
like 20 that you know whether what it’s
really hard question for you to answer
yourself but what is it about off-white
that you think resonated was it timing
was it what was it that worked it’s the
same piece of advice that I give you
know cuz I want to mentor I want more I
want third to be more of us showing and
it’s
it’s really about being critical at the
end of the day when I if you see it come
out it’s going through like a rapid it’s
going through a rapid sort of like
algorithm of people that hate it or
think that I’m not a designer you know
it’s so what it is is when I think of
something or propose an idea I’m like 20
times like nay saying it refining it and
then it’s out and so and now it’s after
time you’re able to I’m building a
vocabulary so that’s that but I like Kim
said it’s like I don’t read comments I
don’t read reviews I don’t read anything
positive to me I the 17 yield version
myself didn’t think that this was
possible so every day that I’m able to
sort of like make an idea and see it
come out that’s enough fulfillment rule
number nine define the world I’m from
Chicago I didn’t go to like a fashion
school or you know particularly like a
design school to sort of like sort of
feel where the shallow end is unlike is
this credible or not
so I’ve wrestled with that like are
these ideas that resonate in the public
that we were doing making these graphic
t-shirts is that fashion you know it
doesn’t I know that it’s not traditional
and so what I’ve come to realize is that
the modern world is us to define you
know the definition of credibility will
change inherently as our generation adds
ten years onto itself and I think that’s
super important in a way where it’s just
understanding that this idea of offering
an update to classic things is it’s what
we’re it’s postmodern you know exactly
it’s like but I see the freedom in that
and I think that that’s can influence
and make more impactful work just sort
of an honesty with what’s the sort of
foundation and where it’s going from
there and rule number ten the last one
before some very special bonus clips
think ahead you know my brain that’s
like a whole like a hundred percent of
like a a pie-chart
only like 15% is actual product you know
or clothing the rest of that you know
85% it’s like there’s marketing there’s
business there’s build-out this pop-up
shops there’s website design that’s
digital you know there’s culinary
there’s furniture you know all these
other things that could serve that same
ingenuity that we brought to t-shirts
you know and that’s more of what I think
is like I think in the next three four
or five years that these like sort of
like street wear and quotes way of
thinking about cell phones can give us a
different type of cell phone you know
I’ve been focused on this that like
Street where it might be an art movement
that we just don’t know we might have
just sort of like short did it the short
end of the stick and called it you know
a state brand and that’s what my work is
focused on it’s not not necessarily
limiting myself to this way of thinking
in sort of having a dialogue with
fashion fashion history it’s like how
can it relate to how we can make
now I’ve got three very special clips of
virgil on how to hustle connect the dots
and practice genre less thinking but
before that I want to know what did you
learn from this video today what was the
single most important lesson and how are
you going to apply it to your life or to
your business write it down in the
comments below you’re making a
commitment to yourself when you write it
down you’re much more likely to follow
through so leave in the comments thank
you guys so much for watching I believe
in you I hope you continue to believe in
yourself and whatever
your one word is much love I’ll see you
I just moved to this newer space because
the the concept is growing how’s it
going new office nice in here but I have
I traveled probably like 320 days a year
eight flights a week
Chicago Frankfurt Milan London Berlin
Stockholm Rotterdam Amsterdam biggest in
LA it’s a lot I work on the street
literally like phone and hand I feel
like off white might be one of the truly
first sort of like a luxury brands it’s
been just built from social media it
behaves in this sort of hybrid
in-between a traditional system and a
new system less than Street where that
closed just come out at different times
they’re posted on Instagram and
consumers can buy them and I’m
interested in that hybrid in between
them both you know I’m directly pointed
at this generation that hasn’t been
messaged luxuries you yet so many
references of your art and your work
point to explicitly or indirectly
artists and philosophers from the past
what’s your obsession with time in
history about well one of the main sort
of focuses of my work is to make sure
that it’s necessary and important you
know make sure that our generation is is
valid you know that street wear is a
valid fashion movement and it’s simply
that what you’re saying
contemporary art has this movement in
community that keeps those four walls
together and at the very educated system
you you make a reference everyone who’s
viewing the art generally knows the
reference in fashion I want to take that
street wear mentality and put it on the
fashion timeline as that same respect
that that industry gets the same
creativity and sort of join those two
things together so I think it’s it’s
about understanding the two or three
generations that presided our idea in
fashion and once you have a foundation
of that and so art is a sort of
think-tank
of different ideas that are translated
through painting sculpture you know and
I think fashion i blatantly show that to
this
demographic so that other people can
learn who their favorite artist is in
some ways we’re just finishing something
that’s been started you’re just
connecting different dots and I think
that that’s the beauty of complex gun to
me is that we’ve outside of the industry
of fashion or the art world we on this
stage have decided to plug those two
things together in an unabashed way I
would go so far as to say that you know
like this might be the best time in the
existence of the world to be young you
know our generation distinctly like came
up in a time where you either had to be
an artist you had to be a fashion
designer you had to be a chef etc and I
feel like were Shan realest you know we
wouldn’t be sitting in this room if
someone wasn’t like there was a need for
this event to be in Stockholm you know
that that nudge right there already
cracked a little bit of a system so what
I’ve been focusing on is like genre list
thinking you know I think that’s
something that like our parents might
have been sort of like adopting to and
that might have been why they fit into a
box but I have a feeling that this
congregation of people here don’t fit
into an exact box that they were
supposed to be whether it’s gender race
sexual orientation you know so for me
you know I’m thinking about it like from
a level up but like fashion is just a
sum sum box that somebody made for
someone to feel like they should be in
it or not or art is something that and
and what I see is that all those like
four walls of every different genre or
being threatened by kids like us just
thinking that they can participate in
them raise your standard Apple at the
cool
it’s core value is that we believe that
people your passion can change the way
people not one drop of myself work
depends on Europe it’s supposed to mean
I don’t ever give up I’d have to be dead
or living for fast day hey believe
nation if you want to see my all-time
favorite top ten most of success I have
a very special secret video for you
these are the individual clips that I
have personally learned the most from
and applied to my life and my business
check the link in description for details