It’s been a minute, man…but i’m back. It’s been a while since I last typed something, ANYTHING out. I felt the need today though…to sit down & speak, reflect, and prophesize what’s next in my world..my new world…the world of MAKER. Creative Studios.
LEVEL UP. is dead. MAKER. is here. Since I “started” LEVEL UP. in 2016 (I put it in quotations because to be real, i was just bullshitting the first few years) I knew that it would be a placeholder. The name itself was “childish”/unoriginal/below average, but really I knew that I wanted that time & that project to stand as a period where I was just getting my bearings into creating a brand. Fast forward to February 25th of 2022, through multiple days of frustration, days of hard work, days of sadness, days of excitement, days of revelations, days of reflection & I finally got to a point where I felt like I “graduated”. A foundation had been set. Many lessons had been learned, both in the books & in life itself. I really felt like I had gotten to a point where I really knew what I was doing in terms of running a brand. So it was time to turn it up a notch, take on the responsibility, and do just that.
MAKER. Creative Studios is a brand with one thing in mind: Creating, Not Competing. This brand is built around being unapologetically you, bringing forth the sense of creating whatever whenever with whoever. This being a brand that really focuses on community, we aim to develop a space for creatives of all aspects to come together to let their imaginations run wild, creating whatever comes to mind. Clothing is at the forefront, but not the end goal. A community of individuals unifying to create anything: film, clothing, music, art, events, and everything in between is the goal we strive to eventually achieve. I’m tryna Walt Disney this shit if we being honest. We create without limits. We create what we want with no pressure. And in turn, we push each & every one involved upward towards our own definitions of success. This is about empowerment. This is about building for the future. This is about longevity.
To build longevity, you have to establish a basis. That’s exactly what I aimed to do with this 1st collection that was released under MAKER. I wanted to really explore all of my personal interests & let them speak through, establishing what inferences & influences I might be pulling from. My job, Sports, Music, Film, Penguins…I wanted it to be established early that all of these play a huge part in me & will be central to what it is I create. I felt like I needed my first collection to really feel like a fresh start too, which is why there were so many pieces. Every drop I’ve told myself that I want to improve in the eyes of myself, and putting out a full on collection felt like the next big step for me. I cant lie, sometimes i felt like i made too big of a jump, but the lessons it taught me I will never forget. I started working on the collection about a year ago when I was messing around making the letterman jacket. At that point, i didn’t even know that that was my starting point, but it boiled off into so many ideas & how i can tie all of them together into making one cohesive collection fit for an inaugural setting.
it was a lot of nights of frustration. The WAR jackets, the Penguin sweatshirts, the cropped hoodies, the MUSIC hoodie…I had to redo all or most of those garments at one point. Patience was something I really had to tap into (shoutout to my small lil meditation sessions I try to have consistently in the AM) to make it. I had to learn to work with other people & let people in. My reluctance to letting others help was holding me back. Thats why I worked w/ someone (shoutout ByJack) for the cropped hoods & WAR jackets. I would’ve preferred doing them another way (my own way) but I made a healthy compromise, something I learned that is crucial if you want to keep your sanity. Timing…I learned a lot about that. As a result of some mistakes & just not being mentally locked in at some points, I wasn’t able to release my collection the day, or even month, that I wanted to. I pushed it back 2 full months, & while I was happy to get it out it always makes me think how I could improve on meeting my deadlines better in the future. You know how you do that? Never stop working on your dream.
Having that setting for the shoot was something I had been planning for longer than the collection. Working around the set everyday at my job at Left Hand (which I will go into more one day) gave me much time & consideration to conceptualize a vision of how I wanted the clothing to come off. Who should model? Framing of the shots? Vibrancy of the shots? Does this all tie back into the language I am trying to portray through MAKER? The vision I am trying to let free? My wandering brain had many things to consider, but I just knew I wanted to use those ink walls someday for a dope shoot.
The photoshoot of the collection was one of my favorite parts. Usually post-production stuff can aggravate me (mainly because i just want to put the clothes out) but this was such a dope experience (shoutout Izzy /Anwar /Chelsea /Globe). I was nervous forreal, all because I just hoped & prayed that the shoot would come out how i envisioned. I picked out all of the outfits, so I was hoping that they would look good on camera. Considering this is exactly how I dress, this was the easy part. Every look is just an outfit that I’ve worn. This entire experience made me sit back and just think how dope it is to be in the space that I am in now. Working with other extremely talented individuals to help bring part of my dream to life…I couldn’t ask for anything better. I love this.
As I’ve stated before, I want this brand to be much more than clothes. I want MAKER. to eventually represent the embodiment of what it means to truly create without agenda. MAKER. will be a source of creation as a product of personal nourishment. Hanging on to this thought process, there are things I want to focus on in the near future to help expand upon this goal:
I want to start creating compelling visual art. Whether it be in relation to promotion of the clothing or not, I want to begin creating and/or capturing art that you want to return to.Visual art that sticks with you, that means something, that evokes a certain feeling. I have always been so fascinated by the way that photographers / videographers / directors are able to depict their vision and their perspective. I want to find ways to do that for myself. Promoting clothing outside of the normal lookbook, but with “stories” attached to them. Capturing the life as I see it in the city that I call Home. Capturing the life of other individuals that I intertwine with. To get this brand to where I want it to be, I must begin expressing myself freely 100% through all avenues.
I want to start bringing people together. I want to do things in the community, for the community, that make me look back and say “this is what this is all for”. And this could be a number of things! There are some ideas that have been stuck in my mind that I want to get to. A skate party / fashion show at a skating rink. A screen printing class. A holiday giveaway for parents & kids in less than ideal situations. I want to do things that matter. Things that not only are enjoyable but things that put other people in positions to win as well. Give to others more than the value they expect to receive, & each of you will be forever grateful. Beyond everything else, THIS is what it’s about.
As for the clothes, I want to start expanding. I have been doing basic t shirts & shorts for too long. I want to tap into my inner self & let its thoughts & excitements speak out unfiltered, allowing me to create what I truly want to put into existence. I’m challenging myself to not sell myself short because I know I can create the things that I visualize. There will just be more learning to do. More trial & error. But isn’t that life anyways? I don’t plan on dropping Collection 2 until March – May of 2024, but the conceptualization starts now. And it will be bigger & better than Collection 1. It must be.
As I reflect on what life has been and what the future holds, I can say confidently that I am in a good place. I have a wonderful, amazing, outstanding girlfriend who has been there with me for everything. Good friends, old and new, that have been amazing to connect with. The family is good. Work is good. Life is…..good. I was in a bad, bad place for a few years in the past but I think that I am finally releasing the armor that was keeping me from being who I am supposed to be. And I think my future work in all avenues is going to reflect that. If you stuck with me through all of this writing, I can’t even come up with words to describe the appreciation. Seriously. Doing this is nerve-wrecking & therapeutic at the same time. I had a lot to say today, but that’s because it’s been so long. Big pop ups on the way soon; Chicago on June 24th & Art, Mimosas, & Pancakes on July 8th. Let me get back to game-planning for that. Until next time! It won’t be as long as a wait either. I Love You always, and remember,
Create, Don’t Compete.
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