Bạn đang xem: Fear of god designer jerry lorenzo debuts new lookbook on teen vogue
Celebrities like Selena Gomez, Kylie Jenner and Kanye West turn lớn the Los Angeles-based line for '90s-inspired staples that fit seamlessly into their everyday wardrobe. Jerry spoke with Teen Vogue about his latest collection, his plans to expand into shoes, womenswear và even furniture, & the one thing fans might be surprised to lớn learn about Justin Bieber.
Click through the slideshow for his interview, & get an exclusive first look at the new Fear of God lookbook, photographed by Lane Stewart (with assistance from Manash Das), styled by Holly Jovenall & starring mã sản phẩm Mackenzie Jones.
Teen Vogue: What made you name your line "Fear of God"?
Jerry Lorenzo: I was doing a devotion with my parents. And we were talking about clouds and darkness around the kingdom of heaven. Và for the first time, I saw God as this really cool & dark figure — not dark in a devilish or demonic way but dark in the layers và depths of his kingdom. I was moved by that image of Him in my mind. & that image served as the foundation for me to lớn build a clothing line with this dark, grungy aesthetic.
TV: Who is the Fear of God customer?
JL: The Fear of God kid is someone that is sure of themselves, someone who doesn't need a lot of logos và whose fashion is elevated. He likes khổng lồ communicate through his wardrobe on a high level but with very few words. The details are subtle. The bomber jacket looks standard until you look closer, và realize the shoulders drop và the sleeve has ruching and a back pocket on it. You see the Japanese nylon và the silk liner. It's an elevated design but from far away, it's very approachable & familiar.
TV: We love the phrases on Justin's tour shirts lượt thích 'Bigger than Satan' & 'Repent.' How are you able khổng lồ take those messages — that are very Biblical in nature — và make them cool for a younger generation of believers?
JL: Those shirts are all one-of-a-kind t-shirts. They're vintage tees, like the Marilyn Manson 'Bigger Than Satan' shirt from the '90s, & I just took it và put my logo on it and changed the entire message. Next to Fear of God, the 'Bigger Than Satan' messaging takes on a new meaning. It now stands for 'I am bigger than Satan through God. I am bigger than these obstacles in my life that come against me.' It can be flipped into something positive. I called them 'resurrected rock tees' that once stood for darkness. Now with the Fear of God print, they stand for the light.
TV: Shoes are launching in May. What should fans expect?
JL: We're launching 15 shoes in total this year, including five different variations of our first sneaker, the military sneaker. The military sneaker is 100% handmade in Italy. It's taken a year lớn complete from conception to hitting the market. We've been through more than one hundred samples of the same shoe to lớn perfect it. The style is exactly what I think has been missing from the market. People are moving away from boots, and toward basketball và high-top sneakers. Và the military sneaker is the hybrid of the two that people are looking for.
We're dropping a đen pair in May, two new colors in July, & then in September, another two colors will launch. And then we have a really big drop set for October: a shoe with Barneys, a shoe with VFiles, và a couple other retail partners.
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Lane Stewart
6/15
TV: I've noticed your clothes are pretty genderless. Both Selena và Justin wore the same plaid shirt recently, for example. Is that something you consider when designing?
JL: When I vày start
TV: This shoot feels very '90s grunge. Are the '90s a big source of inspiration for you? What else inspired this shoot?
JL: It's definitely been my inspiration. As we all get older, we'll always look back lớn those years when we were most impressionable & to me, it was the '90s when I was in high school. All that stuff has always been super cool khổng lồ me. Fast-forward years later, I'm blessed that the stuff that I thought was cool is popular again so it works on a larger scale now.
For this particular shoot, the inspiration came from so many places. It's gospel music, which is all I heard in my house growing up as a kid. It's the grunge of Pearl Jam and the hip hop style of Allen Iverson with the oversize look. Và
TV: What are some of your favorite pieces from the new range?
JL: My favorite piece is the denim coat. It speaks khổng lồ exactly who the Fear of God customer is on many different levels. It looks super dope on women và guys so it's genderless. It has this vintage feel so it speaks khổng lồ grunge. But at the same time, instead of adding the zippers before we washed the denim, we added them after so the jacket has a luxe feel. It's this piece that would look cool on a hipster kid, & on Pusha T, the illest dope boy of all time. It's hood fresh và hipster fresh at the same time.
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Lane Stewart
9/15
TV: How did the collaboration with you and Justin Bieber come about for the Purpose Tour wardrobe and tour merch?
JL: Justin has been wearing a lot of my pieces, & he's obviously one of the most photographed people in the world. It wasn't hard for me lớn see that he liked the brand. His stylist, Karla Welch, was one of the key people who presented the brand lớn him initially. And she came to lớn me before the tour started và said she'd like to work with me on designing the wardrobe. Karla told me her idea of modernized grunge & it sat exactly with where my brand was at the time. I worked hand-in-hand with her. Justin was able lớn take our idea, và elevate it beyond what we hoped for, bring his own vibes khổng lồ it and communicate this new language.
For tour merch, I had this idea of integrating vintage tees & creating new Bieber rock-inspired logos to go on these tees that work with the wardrobe. Và I thought it would only make sense for us to lớn have that same language at his merch tables at the show. I presented an overall vibe & feel of what I think his merch should look lượt thích next to lớn his onstage wardrobe, & his team was super into it. And it all got rolling from there pretty fast. I've been a collector of vintage band & tour tees forever. I have this knack of knowing what makes those tees cool, & it was really a fun experience to lớn be able lớn apply all that random knowledge through the lens of Justin's tour merch.
TV: Can you speak khổng lồ the evolution of tour merch in general?
JL: I feel like people are looking for pieces that speak to who they are versus just what brands they like. They want pieces in their wardrobe that have depth and start conversation, rather than just a t-shirt with a logo. As you walk around with a vintage Metallica t-shirt, it's a conversation starter. Like "Oh, I love that album" or "Oh, I'm thirty-something years old, I was at that concert."
I think it's important lớn an artist because in a digital age when we don't have physical copies of people's albums, what's that physical, tangible piece that you can give your fans if they don't have a CD in their hand anymore? How bởi you create these experiences outside of the tour that can địa chỉ cửa hàng to that feeling you're trying to lớn give someone through your music? Tour merch is becoming that new central product.
TV: You worked closely with Justin Bieber in the process of designing the tour wardrobe & merch. What might fans be surprised lớn know about him?
JL: I feel lượt thích the way social media works in the information age, when we have access to lớn so much information about celebrities and icons, he's exactly who you'd anticipate he would be. He's just extremely honest, super humble và gracious. He's already been through this tough period in his life, and he was able to bring himself out of it. He's very self-aware. He knows who he is and what he's trying to lớn say. You look at his Instagram and he says he's sorry he can't vì meet và greets anymore like 'I love you guys but it's wearing me out.' and he's like that in real life, mở cửa and honest — & it's not even in a negative way. Honesty is really his greatest asset.
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Lane Stewart
12/15
TV: It's pretty courageous to be yourself in the face of pressure & constant criticism.
JL: Exactly. I would never know the weight that he carries. I would never attempt khổng lồ start a conversation with him and say 'Hey, you shouldn't have done that.' The weight of being Justin Bieber on a daily basis, & the weight of having to perform for 20,000 people every night on tour, I don't know what that's like. I'm not going to lớn pretend to act lượt thích I do. When he does something people may not understand, whose place is it khổng lồ say anything? You just have lớn trust the process. Based on everything he has access to, he is handling it a thousand times better than the majority of us would. I'm proud to know him, và to be his friend & work with him. I'm inspired by him. That was the message of Purpose. At 21 years-old, he made this album about purpose, and finding your life's calling. & that was so appealing to me as a creator khổng lồ be next lớn — that message. Và the fact that I've got lớn know him on đứng đầu of that has been the icing on the cake.
TV: What's the #1 piece of advice you would give to lớn teens who want to pursue a career in design?
JL: The most important thing is knowing what people want, và making sure you have a quality perspective và an understanding of your consumer. I knew my consumer was looking for a certain t-shirt và hoodie, & I was convicted by that. I just went downtown to lớn L.A. And figured out how to make these pieces. A lot of people know how khổng lồ make clothes, but it's more important to know what you are trying lớn say through your gift. You can always figure out the know how but you need khổng lồ have a point-of-view that sets you apart more than anything.
TV: What's one challenge you faced during your climb lớn success, and how did you overcome it?
JL: I think the challenges are everyday — from people who know I'm new lớn the industry và see me as someone they can take advantage of rather than someone they can help, to lớn the daily challenges of receiving 2,000 yards of damaged fabric from japan when I have to lớn turn in pieces khổng lồ a retail store in two weeks. There are challenges everyday. If you don't believe in what you're doing, there's way more opportunities khổng lồ quit than there are lớn keep going. That's why it's really important khổng lồ love what you're doing, & to have a desire that exceeds common sense — because common sense would tell you to lớn quit và get a "regular job."
The Fear Of God designer shares exclusive BTS sketches & photos of the creative process for the tour.
Jerry Lorenzo wants to be known as a storyteller as much as he’d like to be known as a designer, and it shows. In crafting narratives for Fear of God and its diffusion line F.O.G., Lorenzo has honed in on elevating the grunge aesthetic that dominated the ’90s zeitgeist, re-branding vintage tour tees and bringing them into the 21st century alongside stacked layers & carefully proportioned outfits. The latest step in this narrative is also Lorenzo’s most audacious yet: when news broke that Lorenzo had played a part in the stylistic direction of Justin Bieber’s Purpose tour, q6.edu.vn had to know how và why he had gotten involved with one of the most contentious and popular figures in modern music và to hear the story of their collaboration.
First and foremost, Lorenzo does not want lớn take sole credit for the styles found onstage. In fact, the Fear of God designer makes it clear over the course of a half-hour phone hotline that his mission is for everyone who contributed to get their due credit & respect, name-dropping figures like Scooter Braun, the music industry maven who tapped Bieber for success back when he was but a wide-eyed tween recording covers on You
Tube; Karla Welch, Bieber’s longtime stylist; và Bieber himself alongside Fear of God team members for the tour’s inspiration và aesthetic direction. When reached for comment, Welch hailed the collaborative process with Lorenzo as “symbiotic and egoless” and that the relationship between Camp Bieber và Camp Lorenzo progressed in a “nice and organic way.”
The designs found onstage, meanwhile, take equal inspiration from the aforementioned grunge movement, as well as Bieber’s recent ambitions as a skater. The creative team worked painstakingly to re-contextualize iconic rock star styles like Axl Rose’s kilt, metal merch, và oversized plaid overcoats in order to lớn craft symbols that embody both grunge và Bieber. They are also sure khổng lồ ire the wrath of phản hồi sections from q6.edu.vn to lớn You
Tube. Lorenzo knows this. He just doesn’t care. He makes it clear in our conversation that he does not care about cool any more, only Purpose.q6.edu.vn spoke with Lorenzo to get his side of the story, the inspiration behind the pieces found onstage, và whether or not he considers himself a Belieber.
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Let’s start at the beginning: how did this collaboration come about & what was your role?
I had seen Justin on a couple of occasions and he was such a high-energy, super-positive person và he would come up lượt thích “yo, my tour is coming up in a few months & I want you to vì chưng the whole thing! I just want it to lớn be Fear of God!” At the time, I took it as more of a compliment to what I had done up until that point. Then I saw him again a couple of months later và he brought it up again. Then maybe a month before the tour started I got the điện thoại tư vấn from his stylist, Karla Welch — who’s done a tremendous job as he’s matured as a young man và his style has followed suit — và she was lượt thích “hey, Justin really wants me khổng lồ meet with you about the tour & his wardrobe.”So I took the meeting and obviously I was pretty prepared; I had all my references lined up, I had some boards of some ideas và the overall theme of modernized grunge. Và she was like “oh my god! I used that word this morning in our meeting — that’s exactly what we had in mind & what we were hoping for!” và so she said that they had a lot of designers who were interested, but Justin is really into what you’re doing with Fear of God, would you lượt thích to come in và present something of how you see his wardrobe so that I can tóm tắt with my team. I said something khổng lồ the effect of, ‘Awesome, I’ll have something to you in a week.’And so the very next day I flew in this sketch artist named Johnny Singer from Seattle & we probably spent 10 hours together & I went through each look that I had in my head và based off the references, và based on where I saw this thing going & we came up with 13 looks at the end of the day. Keep in mind that they asked for four or five, but I went all the way in và was lượt thích ‘This is what I think this should be.’We pulled everything from the kilts on Axl Rose lớn some of the pinstripe punk pants and grunge plaid pants, & really began khổng lồ take the Fear of God aesthetic và give it a new language that was modernized grunge, which was to lớn be Bieber’s new communication. We sent those sketches over lớn Karla và she was lượt thích “let’s rock!” & we had three weeks to lớn that point to lớn produce all of these pieces. I think in the end we produced something like 80 pieces. So we made the pieces và Karla was traveling & Justin was traveling và we didn’t have the opportunity khổng lồ work directly with Justin.1 of 3
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Going back to the modernized grunge aspect; there’s a real sense of nostalgia: the pieces inspired by Metallica merch, Cobain’s face, the Marilyn Manson ‘Bigger Than Satan’ tee, the Axl Rose kilt. Was there an angle beyond grunge inspired by these shock jocks, scream queens, polarizing rock star figures khổng lồ court controversy?
I don’t think the intent was ever khổng lồ come out with something so polarizing. If you know the history of Fear of God, you know that we’ve taken these rare rock tees and printed our logo sản phẩm on them. It’s just a nod of respect. We’re not a graphic arts clothing brand, so you’re not gonna get a graphic tee from us, but we’re gonna give you the best version of a graphic tee, which is a rare 1990s Guns N’ Roses tee, of which there might be, like, trăng tròn left. This super rare thing.One of the things Karla and I threw around—it was her idea, really—was kinda lượt thích Jay Z in the old Roc-A-Fella days, when he would wear a different jersey depending on what đô thị they were in. If they’re in Toronto, they’d have the dope-ass xanh Jays jersey; if they’re in Philly, they’ve got the 76ers throwbacks. So what we wanted to bởi with these rock tees was initially to hopefully have a vintage piece that speaks to lớn a band or an icon from each of these cities that he’s visiting, in a nod of respect và acknowledgment as the tour travels. So we secured over a hundred vintage tees and I got my guy Rick Moe from Tyranny và Mutation Vintage in Seattle who helps me pull these things together.Me and Mark Riddick came up with the logos, the Bieber logo, the Purpose Tour logo, you can kinda see the Fear of God hand on ‘em, & we started khổng lồ place the different tour logos with the art of the rock tees và the Marilyn Manson one just really hit when we made it. Và it immediately spoke to The Beatles’ ‘Bigger than Jesus’ thing; it spoke khổng lồ his spirituality and his story of redemption, which is one of the greatest stories of our recent pop culture—of him going from a punk kid to this ascension & this màn chơi of forgiveness, & his own story of defeating & overcoming Satan and being redeemed & having faith in God. So it played on so many different things that we knew that it was a hit when we saw it.If you know the history of Fear of God, you know that we’ve taken these rare rock tees & printed our logo sản phẩm on them. It’s just a nod of respect.
So you mentioned that you had a hand in the kiến thiết of the tour logos; did you play a part in the merch kiến thiết at all? Or were you only involved with the on-stage wardrobe?
We played a small part in the merch. We helped creatively direct his merch and tried to help give it all a singular voice. We tried lớn take all the vibes & give them one language khổng lồ make sure you get this skate vibe, the fashion vibe, and this dark, grungy, metal vibe và make them say ‘Justin Bieber 2016.’ So we kinda helped in that way, but for me to take any credit for any of his merch direction or ideas or designs would be wrong.You’ve described yourself as more of a storyteller than a designer; where does this latest turn as a wardrobe designer fit into the broader Fear of God narrative? How would you describe the narrative behind Bieber’s tour merch as opposed to, say, Fear of God or F.O.G.?
I don’t even really see it like that. I’m getting a bunch of different people saying ‘How cool is this really? It’s Justin Bieber!’ & I feel like there’s this whole idea of cool is so fleeting; it’s so trendy. What’s cool today isn’t gonna be cool tomorrow and by no means is this a strategic partnership of positioning Fear of God more-so than it is positioning us with someone who has the same message as us.The message of Purpose is one that we can all look to! We’re all here trying to find purpose and understand our potential and why we’re here. & I think that’s the message that us as a team with Fear of God was so excited lớn be a part of, to lớn reach so many people. And what can we do with our talents khổng lồ help him better communicate his message?And, lớn me, this transcends cool. This is beyond cool. I’ve seen cool and cool isn’t that cool lớn me anymore. That’s the reality. So what’re you giving people? What’re you telling people besides ‘Buy my cool merch!’ or ‘Look how cool I look onstage!’ It’s, like, what’s the message? and I feel lượt thích this kid gets it at 22. He understands it. That message of purpose is just one that we really wanted khổng lồ attach ourselves to và we were humbled that he valued our perspective the way that he did.
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We’re all here trying to lớn find purpose and understand our potential và why we’re here. And I think that’s the message that us as a team with Fear of God was so excited khổng lồ be a part of.
Independent of Fear of God, it seems like you’re more involved with the Purpose narrative and this idea of redemption and faith than the idea of cool?
A thousand percent. I mean, my kids love Justin Bieber. I can take my son lớn school và he knows all of his songs. I can bring him khổng lồ the show & he likes it just because he likes it. There’s no other reason than he loves the music. There’s a purity in that that I see what my children like, that’s not clouded by anything other than what they’re into. Và I’ve become a believer in this kid! It’s all about this story which aligns more with Fear of God than anything fleeting, whether this is a cool thing for Fear of God or not. That’s where we are with it.Sounds lượt thích Justin made you a Belieber, huh?
I would never showroom the ‘b’ to lớn it (laughs). I believe in him, but I will never địa chỉ cửa hàng the ‘b,’ But I believe in him, as a person. I think he is one of the most talented people I’ve ever met. From being able lớn play basketball with the kid, then the kid picks up a soccer ball, then he picks up a guitar, & he sings, and he can dance! Like… he has something there that’s God-given. Và whether you’re into him or not, you have khổng lồ respect that. And I respect it… lastly, my iTunes library tells me his album is my “Most Played” in my library so I will let that speak for itself.
