Leo's Evident Future

Stylist-to-the-stars Leo Velasquez added 'designer' to his resume last year when he debuted his much anticipated label, Evident Future during New York Fashion Week.

After years dressing musicians like Usher, Miguel, and Kid Cudi, as well as NBA star Lamar Odom, Velasquez decided men needed some serious help in the style department. So it was 'LV The Stylist,' as he is known in fashion circles, to the rescue. 

'Men need to step out of their comfort zone a lot more. And that is what I am here for, to teach them how to do that,' the designer admitted. Originally, he wanted his first collection to be unisex, but this epiphany lead him to design solely for a 'fearless man,' who, he says, 'will inspire the future.' And taking cues from the late Alexander McQueen, Jeremy Scott, and Gareth Pugh, Evident Future's motorcycle jackets with removable sleeves, leather pants that sit as comfortably as well-worn jeans, metallic vests, and reflective visors seem to be doing just that - inspiring the future of a different kind of menswear.​

​Q&A

Do you have a secret talent?
I'm pretty good at basketball, and I have also been a barber since the age of 13.

In your previous life you were?
A king... I remember it taking place in the Future.

The quality you most admire in a man/woman?
Intelligence and effortless confidence is the sexiest in a woman.

Who was the first person to break your heart? 
When my babysitter died when I was around seven years old. I remember crying for days.

Favorite food that brings back childhood memories?
Mangu.

Song that defines you?
KIDS / MGMT

​Photos by Kevin Amato

words by Olivia Fleming

http://evidentfuture.wordpress.com/​

Hooding with HBA

Olivia Flemming intimate interview with Shayne Oliver

Shayne Oliver’s unexpectedly idolized unisex street wear label began with simple T-shirts made for friends back in 2006. They simply read, HOOD. Six years later, with the help of heavyweight endorsers like A$AP Rocky and Venus-X, his designs have a cult following from the Lower East Side to the Bronx and back to Soho. His most famous: a long-sleeved crew neck for Hood By Air Classics inspired by Hollywood iconography. A$AP Rocky wore one that cheekily references Paramount Pictures’ logo, and suddenly he was being stocked in Opening Ceremony and written up in mainstream indie magazines around the world.

 Shiny and reflective, its famous film credit mountain sits with CLASSIC written where the word Paramount should be. It’s effectively simple, and cleverly cute. But from a guy who popularized the term ’swaggot’ earlier this year, and whose blend of Nineties street wear is mixed with ready-to-wear bondage – jeans made to look like chaps, or shorts with a detachable skirt – ‘cute’ feels wrong.

​ Born in Minnesota, Oliver grew up in the Caribbean and moved to New York at age 11, where he has spent much of his time voguing from Brooklyn to the Bronx, while DJing sets at downtown’s Happy Ending.  He says he designs for “more of a feeling” than anything else, but if he had to put it into words: “For a person being bred and built all the time”.  And with the designer’s very first appearance at New York Fashion Week this September, where he staged his spring/summer 2013 collection as an interactive presentation to an overly eager audience, it looks as if he’s doing just that, himself.

HBA S/S 2013 Backstage ​

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Maluca Mala In HBA ​

Photo by Kevin Amato

​Q&A

-Do you have a secret talent? I'm a dancer/musician at heart. 

-Favorite food that brings back childhood memories? Buss up shot, from Trinidad.

-Song that defines you?

I’ve never thought of one. I evolve with the music I discover.

-In your previous life you were? I’ve never really thought about that. Sometimes I embrace or restrict any intuitive energy that I currently have of a past life.​

-The quality you most admire in a man/woman? Truthful confidence. 

-Who was the first person to break your heart? My straight best friend from childhood. It’s an ongoing complex that has reared its head every once in a while through the years.

- Olivia Fleming ​

http://www.hoodbyair.com/​