Kevin Leong
“My goal is to become the man I am destined to be.” Kevin Leong
occupation: creative director of Simmons Design Group and slanty Asian-eyed rebel
Kevin’s cultural references blow my mind – he is an extraordinary observer, storyteller, and interpreter of life in his designs. His ADD seems to work for him, because I have never come across anyone who marries function, form, fable, and fashion quite like he does. His own clothing line, Origami Clothing: Fold Your Paper, is a play on words and the ancient folk art that his Chinese grandfather taught him as a kid, while hanging out in the family’s laundry mat. As he explains, origami is the art of paper folding, and you have to make money (fold dollar bills) in order to buy his clothes (did you get that?). The origami grasshopper, which is the logo for his clothing line,…
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Jules Kim
“I’m not soft. [Guys] are not going to be able to approach me in [an easy] way. I distance myself with the way I dress and the way I am. It’s only a certain personality that would ever have the balls to approach me.” Jules Kim
occupation: designer and creator of Bijules jewelry
Jules has daggers tattooed on both arms from her wrist to her elbow, in honor of her Korean origin and of her “duplicitous” status as a twin, where the ancient royal women hid swords in their cloak sleeves in case of emergency. She is a force to be reckoned with (weapons aside), with her jewelry line that she spends every waking and sleeping moment either working on or thinking about – she “can’t get the ideas out fast enough.” Jules grew up in Virginia, where she first pursued classical music as a…
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Rinat Welsing
occupation: aspiring singer and model
“I get inspired by people who dare to take steps, even if they have nobody to hold their backs. I love people who are not afraid to do what they want to do. I love it if you believe in yourself.” Rinat Welsing
Rinat grew up in Germany – his mother is Russian and his father is Ghanean. For me, he is a kind of embodiment of every man, a world of the United Colors of Bennetton ad campaign come true. Rinat is mature enough in life’s experiences to spew the kind of wisdom that stops me in my tracks in its truth and sincerity (“my influence is in my mind, my influence is me”), and young enough in spirit that he can make a snowman cardigan that cost him $3 look like the newest at Barney’s Co-Op. Rinat’s huge dimpled…
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Jose Pozo
occupation: party promoter
“Everything in life is mental. It’s just an attitude. If you want to be rich, rich is all a mindset. Everything is a mindset. You can be anything you want to be, but first you have to become it inside, and then everything that you want gets attracted to you.” Jose Pozo
This was a first for me – getting serenaded to a freestyle rap about StyleLikeU (though it wasn’t a surprise coming from Jose, whose warmth filled the room as he danced throughout most of our interview). He says that he loves people and feels that there is no such thing as a bad one. I was freaking over his signature layers of bracelets, rings on every finger, and piles of necklaces, all of which have immense significance to him. The abundance of skulls and bullets might not appear to reflect Jose’s belief that one…
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Dechel McKillian
Versatility and selectivity is key when traveling the world like Dechel does as the stylist for the band and dancers on Lil Wayne‘s and the Black Eyed Peas‘ recent tours. Her staple black rubber leggings tucked into knee-high boots have a different effect when worn with the one-of-a-kind cropped patent jacket (found in Australia) and socks pulled over-the-knee (her new thing), from the way they look with the extra long ’70s cardigan (found in Toronto), that she was going to shorten and decided not to (good decision!) and under her caged skirt. Unfussy and always crisp, Dechel’s ultra clean in the white chef’s shirt with the high-waisted jeans and she’s razor sharp John Fluevog gold wedge boots.
To learn more about Dechel, click on the detailed captions page.
If you like Dechel, you might also enjoy Legacy…
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