The jacket is a really insane story,  I'll try to keep it short. So down in Atlanta, I was passing down the street, and there was just this guy there, I was like driving past. He was just walking on the sidewalk and I stopped him. I rolled down the window and I said, "Dude, like, I love your jacket." He said, "Everybody likes the jacket." I, I ended up like pulling off, uh, into a gas station and trying to buy it off him. Um, but I didn't have any money. And at the time I was, I was doing a music video. I was a videographer. I, I had, crept a Pelican case of other people's drugs in the back that I was supposed to be delivered to a party that night.  And there was, there was a gram of something. I won't, I won't say what. I ended up exchanging some of the drugs for this jacket. And, I've had it ever since. And the guy was absolutely right. Everyone likes the jacket. It's, it's worked out really well.  2021, I think, was when I remember first wearing this. And it's amazing, it's, it's amazing, I don't know, it's like a kind of sentimental piece to me. When I got it, it was, he had already worn it a lot, it was pretty dirty, smelled bad, it was, it was damaged. So I took it to a dry cleaner and I was just like, "Hey, please clean this. I need it to not smell bad anymore." They're like, "Well, you can't dry clean that." That's a really nice, it's a leather jacket, but I hadn't worn it. So I was just like, "Who cares, you know, go do it." And so they, they really, they did that. They did it, what I asked and it hurt the jacket. And now the jacket's kind of falling apart. Three years later and it's, it's meant a lot to me. It's my jacket that whenever I wear it, somebody will say, "Oh my God, that's the coolest jacket I've ever seen."  This isn't even an exaggeration. There's not a single time I've worn this out that somebody hasn't said that to me. So it's kind of like my lucky, my lucky talisman. It grew alongside me. I've, I've evolved with it from the moment I got it. It really felt like mine because it was like,  it was something that nobody else had like that story of getting. 

When you're, when you're wearing a piece,  you have to wear the piece. The piece can't wear you, right? This jacket never felt like it was wearing me. Despite the fact that it's like this insane big jacket. It's like a statement piece. You know, it's very loud. It's very, noticeable. It always felt like a second set of skin, like something I would put on almost like, not like armor, but kind of like armor, you know. This is, this is an extension of me. This is going to keep me safe, no matter what we do safe and cool, because you know your ego is also a huge part of your, your mental safety. So it protects my skin and it protects my ego, and it feels like a part of me.

I've always liked the dirty aesthetic, clothing that's like a little cut up, torn up, clothing that's drawn on, just stuff that feels very personal. In New York, there's a, there's a huge level of respect or, or appreciation given to very clean clothes, especially shoes. It's like a mark of how much you care or how much effort you put into taking care of your shoes that you're able to wear like a pair of white sneakers in a dirty city, and they're still like pure white, you know, they don't have any creases even, they don't have dirt on them. I was, I was the opposite. Growing up,  I've always really admired, traces of dirt and, and the wear that you see in your clothes, because for me, I mean, not to sound pretentious, because it's like a sign that you actually wear, it's a sign that you get use out of them, it's a sign of the life of the object alongside you.  I still like to clean my shoes. I clean my clothes. I try to take good care of them. But if they end up, getting old, I think that's, that's a beautiful part. That's maybe the most beautiful part of a piece of fashion life. It's when they've been repaired a few times when they've gone through like six cleanings in the washer, you scrubbing all the dirt off with like a magic sponge on your shoes when it's got that wear, when it's got that damage, that's when I  usually connect with it the most. And I think that heavily influences my style where it's like,  I wear the pieces that have a story that aren't just like straight off the designer rack.

So one of the big things for me is that I'm queer.  I've always been like bi, which I know it's like, "Oh wow, bi guy. That's so crazy." You know, it's not like, that's really a big deal, but growing up, it really was a big deal. I'm not cis either. I'm not trans, but I'm not, I'm not cis. Well, I'm kind of trans, but you know, it's, it's a very gender, something I'm figuring out. But the point is when I was growing up, I was forced to express myself in other people kind of expected or demanded from me. I was always, I always felt like something was, was wrong, right? It was, this isn't, this isn't who I am, the person that I have to be right now. I have to be somebody else in order to just survive and fit in, in these spaces. And even then I did a pretty bad job. You know, I was, I always felt very different for being queer and gay and all that. Getting closer to my, my real style has been part of my journey towards getting closer to my real self,  because there's, there's something about wearing a piece that. Most people you see will really dislike or think you're crazy for wearing or just, they'll see me wear it and they'll say like, that's, you know, that's ridiculous. "What the hell are you wearing? you look homeless, you look gay." A lot, a lot of, a lot of people dislike what I wear. But I think that's, that's what made it  most personal was the fact that they were pieces that I would get shit on for that other people wouldn't like, but because they felt like a part of me, they felt like wearing like this is wearing this, this is what I want to look like. But, if everybody liked what I wear every day, fashion probably wouldn't be a huge part of who I am. The fact that people say that negative stuff,  it allowed me to find this whole avenue to express myself. I don't think I really would have been as invested in if I just liked wearing what everybody wants me to wear.

I remember the, the first times that I would wear,  any type of women's clothes, people were like, "Oh God, this is so terrible." I remember actually when I was, was getting into fashion, like Supreme, Off-White, like the, the street wear hype brands. I remember I would go on street wear forums. Like hype beast, which was a big thing back in the day. And I would post pictures of myself, like, "What are you wearing today?" You know? And I would have like a skirt on or something and they would hate it. It would be like, "Oh God, this is so bad." A lot of kids like loved like Nike elite tech socks, or like, like highlighter, yellow, like athletic shirts, you know, like very, very sportswear, the jerseys, everything that like, Kobe Bryant would wear. And I wasn't wearing any of that. It, it really felt like, this wasn't something to be proud of. This is, this is something that's kind of underdeveloped about myself, my fashion. It was kind of a field that I didn't know how to explore yet. It was like there was a baseball field in front of me and there was a fence. I didn't know how to get through the fence. It's really easy to go through life and do everything that people want or expect from you.

​​I've never been like, just like a fully normal, like, put together person. This is a weird way to talk about it. I really hate talking about crime, but one of the things I do honestly think about, especially as, as a queer person and somebody who's been harassed a lot by, by people is like what I wear will affect who may approach me, who may, who may be violent or angry or aggressive. And when I'm wearing this or when I'm wearing that, I feel like a person that, it's really hard to explain, but I feel like my own person that maybe they don't have a read on, they don't understand, they don't know who I am. And when I, when I don't wear that, I feel like they see me for, not who I am, but just, they don't see as much of me. They don't see as much of me. They see a smaller version of myself. Because it's like what I was saying earlier, like clothing is like another arm for me. It's like my third arm, you know? When I'm not wearing that, I'm just like another person. And that, that,  any random person on the street is somebody who you could be aggressive to or like angry to. But somebody who is like willing to wear this, you know, you, you might not do the same.

Honestly, I wish it was more expression from the inside, but I think for me it is more protection. It always feels like armor, even like a frilly skirt and tights and, um, I don't know, like, you wouldn't expect like a skirt would feel like armor, but it really does a lot of times.