Virgil Abloh mentors up-and-coming streetwear brand St-Dié

what's up virgil i'm gab nice to meet you appreciate it so tell me about your brand um my brand is called sainzier it's a montreal-based brand i started this like a year ago my dna i'd say it's really about like the misunderstood that that gets carried through adulthood so it's like every single human has like this part of himself that that's like still part of the youth and uh i really think like people should like exploit this i don't know if you can say that in english but it's really like minimalistic you know there's not a lot of details on it i i put a lot of efforts more into like the the concept behind it more than the piece itself you know with the i do a lot of videos uh shootings and i it's really around like the idea that's behind it that's that's really what i'm pushing on right now that's pretty much it i really want i really like like the the aesthetic of the youth like childish drawings handwriting you know everything that's like sloppy or a bit like random or sketchy a lot of sketchy stuff you do it yourself uh yeah well most of the time pretty much everything i have right now it's from the cola if from a collab because everything i did last uh was sold out so i couldn't bring my my latest stuff but this is a collab i did with md it's a it's an artist from montreal such a it's a md like that such as the headbands oh so that's the collab piece yeah exactly so it's saint die san diego but you can't but i like it that people always think that it's same day is it like a name of that's the name of like streets and things in montreal no yeah how do you know that i've been there a couple times whoa that's sick that's yeah it's a it's the name of sriha who i was born which is a city in france too your brand is sort of like the network of your friends yes but well most of all because i only started this a year ago so right now i'm starting to get some recognition in montreal and they are always ripping it where it's like a crew thing gotcha the kids the djs and i started like giving stuff to dj's like i had the opportunity opportunity to meet louise evert and i that's the first artist i i gave something but like you know he's already like a superstar so i guess he he always gets some stuff so it's not i really like want to focus on upcoming artists right now because i think they give me more attention and they will appreciate it more than a guy who receives like stuff at every shows he does you know aside from the brand aside from the items and sort of like the physical product what are you doing to sort of make a halo around your brand i think my strongest media would be like the videos the concept that we started a year ago is uh like every time i drop a t-shirt i can show you it's like there's a simple drawing on it which is like taking this one like i posted you know it's just a gun with like a little smile it's it's really ironic but we we the idea is to like build a video which is not like most of the videos we we we're used to see which like features the the t-shirt my idea is really like we don't see it that much at t-shirt but we see like a scene of somebody getting shot or it's it's really about like the concept behind the drawings putting like in a visual way in a video so that's really what i want to exploit yes yes for sure well i'll show you this one the bang is the first one we made this is uh the bang for the bang t-shirts is my first video we did so this is basically the only time we see the t-shirt and it's [Music] foreign you know it's really like short short movies something like which is disturbing i really want to like disturb like i don't want people to look at my videos and be like oh these are some great clothes i want them to be like what the [ __ ] what the [ __ ] what was that like so it it stays in their mind so that's really the the whole concept behind it is really really that no it's super strong i like that a lot do you have other ones yes for sure um this one i think it's my favorite it's the late the the latest i did it's called silly face yeah it's less disturbing but it's visually [Music] appealing [Music] is that the same kid that was in the other one yeah exactly he's in these two the other ones are uh some other models how did you do that we we we took like a old computer chair and we just took off the like the the thing you you sit on it and put like a wooden piece on it and paint it all green with a yeah with a green cord too and there was a guy that was like super far and he was he was like pulling it and yeah it was rotating and then we we corrected it on the well i didn't correct it because i don't do that but yeah no it's fresh cool thanks man very striking i think that's what your you know it's a genre that everyone has like a point of view on it's like t-shirts and things like that but you're you're adding more to it by infusing your brand with creativity which i think is the future of streetwear you know from your concept to what you're producing it's all lining up so that's like that's the best start that you could ever have in comparison to most and when i'm like looking at brands and things like that's vision you know that's like forward so like already into like a new zone i would say now that you've reached that plateau bring that energy into the clothes because i know you sort of and i'm the same way like you know i feel like clothes can only do so much that's what i do around it but then that's sort of like a cop-out you know if you're that creative on the video like the same thing that you thought of to paint the chair green have another friend who's more of an expert do the technical side the community around you that made that piece everyone should just stare at a t-shirt and cut it up or paint it or look for ways to do what you do in the video onto the clothing then all of a sudden you have two things that are both progressive that's just if you feel the passion for it i think what got you here is your passion to sort of make this who's to say that the clothes can't be worse you know like it could be less clothes it could be the only thing that i want to hear more about is where are you selling and how is it like are kids wearing it that are like not your friends well this t-shirt here is the latest i did and before that it was like most of people who rocked it i knew him but like when i dropped these i i was i wasn't ready for that uh online yeah only online so montreal you ship it yeah montreal or to everywhere yeah mostly in montreal i shipped one in california and one in toronto i have a website yeah i started this this year but before i on the instagram how many followers on your instagram yeah 680 or something like that and do those people like if you post something are they the ones that mostly buy it or not really um i couldn't tell no not really not necessarily yet there's a lot of people that follow me because like they really like the aesthetic i'm putting on my instagram but won't necessarily buy i think the way that you could also you know see more traction is if you close the loop on your community you know i like your instagram basically being like your website the instagram is your community where they can come experience like regular basis like experience and then they find out like oh a new video dropped then the t-shirt drops this day then i'll go online and buy it but they should feel like they're almost buying it on your instagram that way you just have like a better handle a destination point like if people go to your website you know you never they don't follow you you never know they're just typing in and going but if people are like into your brand then they start following you on your instagram then your followers go up and then you have a better metric and then they can wear the items and tag you back and then you can sort of create a dialogue you know more about like putting the people that that support me like yeah you just want to like create a community yeah like rather than the garments just going out and having a life of their own it makes me think you should be doing like a movie screening every time you do it not just putting it online anything to get people physically in the same place that are around your brand okay screening is like yeah like an event yeah yeah like it could be in someone's apartment be like yo we're dropping you yeah once every month you know or once every so people know you know parties are great in current culture because it brings people together and they do what they normally do is just hang out so if you can intersect that with your brand but you know facilitate it as well like you know there's no reason that you shouldn't be like find like an up-and-coming artist or an established one and be like oh i want to i want to do a t-shirt and a film in a short in a non-traditional way for you let's collaborate like you shouldn't be collaborating necessarily i don't know you might be already but like not even the t-shirt but like collaborate with other directors and things you know use your platform and sort of break the mold don't even like distill it down to trying to be traditional to make a headband or a t-shirt if it's not really about that you know it could be a camera strap would be cooler product from you than a headband in a way to me because it like you know it can be still both cheap and not really well thought out but at least it's as progressive as where your brain's at you know it's important too lastly that you know streetwear was always just meant to be a lifestyle thing it just happened to be t-shirts because those were like the first waves of streetwear it was like yeah of course we all wear t-shirts it's never going to go away you know that comes from like a longer lineage of street wear and i tell kids all the time like you know your brand's one year old but it's a different era now you know for me who's inherently like older in this sort of mix it's like there is no streetwear without community and now that there's like the latest waves of like younger bra you could be like a brand that's like eight months old but be having revenue that's like you know 10 times more than a brand that's been around for eight years but what you can't exchange is like the community that's my first question was like are your friends wearing it like because you know whatever it can exist but for it to be like a a tried and true sort of like brand like i think you want it and like i think most streetwear brands attempt to be it has to have roots back in the actual something that was like a community of people so i think it's important that your brand doesn't like just live like in your apartment with a few people that you know should be out there like yeah other people should be fined like it represents them because it can be your concept but unless there's like you know you're finding ways to do community things where that just means like four people getting together because four people turns into ten and then you do a party and then there's 30 people and then there's the line and all these people post pictures yeah exactly that's like yeah and it's you know when it's more like this is your community you know you should like in your pitch you should be like i want to represent kids that want to be filmmakers instead of rappers or dj you know everyone wants to be a dj now but if you said like there is a group of kids that are like hey i don't dj but i'm either stylist or my art director i want to make films like if you came to me and you were like i want to represent the next generation of like spike jones you know he is yeah you should look him up he did like those beasts he's his legendary species yeah beastie boys video he's a streetwear kind of skate guy who you know just didn't like where the wild things are like hollywood director but like everyone wants to be a skater ever wants to be a creative director there's got to be a kids you know every kid that's rolling around with a camera and like you know like film camera or whatever like that they might not skate you know they need a brand too yeah yeah like from what i've seen from those videos whoever those kids are that made that you know they should be i would translate how every kid wants to be like a skater or a dj or a rapper or a thug and i would just be like hey this is the first streetwear brand that's just for the filmmakers and the cinematograph the next wave of art directors could you imagine like if it was like flips on like the canon you know nikon like every you know that's how you get the product better is when this like this for me like this is great too you know it's like the imaginative side of your brain but it also you could make a community around and that's also by concept like your community as soon as you if you did that like you did camera straps this whole getup all of a sudden kids in france who don't even know you know because right now it's just montreal like cancel the t-shirts imagine they don't exist or do this this is good for the film too good for the mastered class the kids at home that's how you should have presented it like you know what's back here was supposed to be with the focal point and then over here was just about to be like it's just a laptop just like hey there's some probably like weird porn on there earlier or whatever you know like oh and then here's my super content like you know it's just whatever but i feel you like you're selling to me what your product is is these videos you know that video looks like it's like eight thousand dollars you know like this t-shirt like you could go somewhere and someone will charge you that much to do to do that and the t-shirt is just like whatever you know and that's even how you pitched it to me yeah you know yeah so when you put this as the focal point like this is new i haven't seen it there's not every kid running down the street saying oh i got another t-shirt you know like there's millions of t-shirts like it's almost impossible it's the most oversaturated time of the human existence of a graphic t-shirt you know so it's like it's gonna have to check like so many boxes and i go through like i can't even design a t-shirt anymore because it's like where's the open space to me it's like oh these you know kids can't like i can do that anyone can do this but i can't do that you know i wouldn't even know where to start but then when you put this out it's gonna like kids in paris kids in you know tokyo be like damn like i've been learning cinema 4d i love streetwear but that you know t-shirts and all that [ __ ] wasn't my wave i need to get on my film [ __ ] you know i just don't like that this is so great what's on the computer that it's sort of seen as just a promo device i think it should be the part of it like it's it's it's the product tool yeah do the all your friends wear your brand yeah most of them yeah mostly cool but yeah yeah i'm a really like sociable person so it's easy for me like to to get people together and like to yeah let's all go here look at my stuff like where it is yeah when i was dropping these videos i was like i was looking at him and i was like then like it's it's quality project but not not enough people see him like i really just want to be out there and i i was trying to find ways like to get some recognition from press and it didn't work so i i i got informed and i really want to work like on making maybe editorials to uh because i like these videos are cool but i have like some photo shoots that are a bit like the the same aesthetic maybe and i really want to like work on an editorial just to correct me if if i'm yeah i think it's a good way like to get recognition from photos editorials like with stylist and oh yeah well-known styles yeah you should be an art director you know you should be i would do two careers at once you know like do this but use this as your resume for other people to see your work and like do music videos do fashion films for essence you know something like that like my one my major piece of advice is do six projects at one time you know this is like one you should be doing five other things otherwise you're not doing anything or you're limiting your opportunity for people to see this if you're just focused on this you know and you're you're not expanding your creativity because people just get lazy and i think back in the day it was like hey work a 9-5 you know what you're talking about like the young misfits and how they like get older i'm that but i'm the opposite of a misfit i'm like ultra responsible and i'm interested in doing things in a sequence not being more successful you're still a mis well how old are you yeah 35 25 most of people of 35 don't live the life you live oh yeah you're kind of a mystery yeah no that's what i mean like and the only way like why i'm doing this course is so that like two or three right piece of his advice and the whole scene of streetwear is gonna last longer than all of us the current generation which is the opposite of our generation which is like hey it took us 20 years and a bunch of our friends brands failed and got screwed over by bigger corporations and bought out and you know like what's left of rivington street is like only like a graveyard really where it should be the capital of streetwear still is the advice from an older set to like a younger set is do six do six times more stuff while it's young like if you do six times more things in your year one to two then you're going to create something new like you make more of a fire you'll figure out new sort of evolutions of street wear well you say like direct for essence like so things like that it's not it's not that easy to me you know see that it's literally that's i'm glad you brought that up because it's literally that easy but if in your brain you're like it's not then of course it's not like you could literally go there like soon as you got back to montreal like dry get in the car you push the button and you're there at the point in which you're there it's like not it can't be that hard it's not impossible you know what i mean and it's like have the right work and show the right people and like the key is to talk about it if you're in your brain you're like nah it can't happen then you won't even like speak on it or think it'll happen but i'm sure i go to montreal all the time i run into those kids or they're you know i'm going to see them later today they're they're around they're super aware i think it's a matter of you know that's as well why you have to do six because like anyone who sees that and has taste is going to be like you know it's modern networking it forces you to bounce around with six different sets of people that can always refer you and always shape your vision yeah yeah it's like more large yeah i just get scared when i see things that are this great and that are just like or i get same way i get scared at like a kid that's really talented and doing zero projects what is it going to add up to you know you have no tangible project you don't have one video t-shirt photo shoot product but your thinker you're like way advanced it's like it's a waste then because it's literally like not getting up and doing the work the only way for of course you can have an impressive concept after one year but if you're trying to do it for like to get to where i'm at you know like 35 years old off the same energy it might not be this brand it might be the six things that you started now and you went super hard on you know you could be the next spike jones what i'm planning to do right now is i really want to work on an editorial since uh i think it's a good way like to get some recognition from press here i did a little mood board no this is just a mood board of what i stuff i i think are inspiring like see this is a lazy oaths editorial like how they how they got out of the mold you know they break very i've never seen anything like that like chopped pictures like that i really want to do something not that but something that's the same way as my videos you know it's it's different from what what we're used to to see like who's this maybe this is new regime from montreal yeah and yes uh the thing i really want to explore is like the in the same way as my video like don't show literally like the the t-shirt featured but more like an action i really want to do this through my editorial or look books or whatever like really show an action something that get like a vibe you know not just about a picture of somebody posing with a nice styling you know i really wanted like like a storytelling stuff it's really about that scientific is really about storytelling i think that you should force yourself to never do still images or if you do stills there's stills from video i have a general theory that i can't even look at any more fashion imagery even images that try not to be fashionable because with instagram i think again in civilization we've never had to look at so many images in a day so it's like almost impossible to see a still image and be like it's i think it's a standard so you'll always have a still image but i think video it's like you should study the work of like nick knight you know like see how deep you know who that is yeah these nick knight spike jones is your homework yes because when i see editorial even when i see this this is great it's new but if i saw that on instagram i would see it and i just keep going yeah you know no matter what we say editorial it's basically a fashion image it dumbs it down immediately because you're looking for something to make it look like every fashion image you've ever seen that's your checkbox when in the world we're already over it like that's more of what you describe for the film is what i would want to see from a still and i think if you go to still it's going to go the opposite direction because you haven't learned enough from these like masters i would say not as a knock it's just like when you take a still image and you try to evoke emotion what you described in your video is like that's it you know that's what the most progressive are doing in film is like you're like i just want people to feel [ __ ] up i don't want it to look like this it's not about the t-shirt guy can i translate this through like an editorial you can but i think it's like saying like hey you're a conductor for an orchestra i want you to use this laptop to make a song like you're beethoven okay i want to give you know what fruity loops is it's like the program that they make all the traps music to be like hey beethoven you're awesome use this laptop and make a trap you have to be of course it's going to be good like he's going to it's going to be a different maybe an amazing but you're going to know every nuance you're going to come up with something that's going to you know choose to say which one's better but that analogy is exactly what i'm saying and you'll come up with great you should still do it not saying that you shouldn't do it i'm just telling you like out of everything you've presented what is more striking to me is if that's that's why i put the laptop up here it's like video is your thing like you crush everyone but i i don't i don't even film i don't i just have anything yeah yeah i don't do i do a lot but i'm the same way as a creators you don't have to be you don't have to actually film or edit it's your vision if you're driving the team to make that content and that's you it's coming from you yeah yeah yeah and it's a smart lastly i'll leave it on that it's like the modern world that's where old people get hung up it's like oh if you don't do it yourself it's not you doing it the modern world is like if you're able to sort of you're conducting an orchestra whatever kid you called up you had the vision you know or even if someone else had the idea for the film the fact that you put it together in a box and put it under your brand name means that you're a visionary you know that's what that's the new name it's not a designer stylist art director whatever who knows who the title is but just lastly you understand that a look book is going to happen you know the still but what i'm basically saying is still images from a moving video that's your that's your photograph it's gonna to me it's gonna be like a ten percent difference anyways unless you come up with some you should prove me wrong unless you come up with like say it was this splice thing like that's cool but if you make this amazing video and i watch the video and my takeaway is like oh these stills from that that communicate that then it's amazing but how can i get some recognition like from the from the press from like you you say the only way you get a still is if i shoot a video do you know what i mean think about it it's going to be hard for you to like digest it in this process but i'm like the last piece of advice i keep saying the last but this is the real take home for everyone watching this and looking at their own brand put yourself in a box force yourself to be using limited tools like that's why i keep saying force yourself to only lock yourself only into video because that's what makes you different already and if you can do that what makes you different for longer then you become the new version you become the first at it by limiting yourself to what you're strongest at is going to actually you know allow you to duplicate what you're doing all right thanks a lot man i really appreciate that i'm excited to see where you go from here yes

Channel: The Agostinho Zinga Show

Views: 95,929

Rating: 4.9384842 out of 5

Keywords: streetwear, podcast, podcasts, Virgil Abloh, St-Dié, streetwear course, streetwear brand, education, educational, online streetwear course, how to launch a streetwear, streetwear for dummies, clothing, fashion, hypebeast, online fashion course, online fashion school, high snobiety, highsnobiety, Virgil Abloh Off-White, Virgil Abloh Louis Vuitton, Louis Vuitton men's, Off-White men's, Vogue, business of fashion, Nick Knight, Spike Jonze

Id: U3g43_zaTZM

Length: 27min 4sec (1624 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 06 2020