I SPENT $2,000 ON SUPREME! S/S17 WEEK 1 PICKUPS
Sage Elsesser isn"t famous, but he"s popular among the right kinds of people, a group that includes the likes of James Jebbia (founder of Supreme), Jason Dill (skateboarding legend/style icon), and even Frank Ocean (no explanation required). Elsesser is known to this ahead-of-the-curve set as a gifted professional skateboarder, Supreme"s go-to lookbook model (a position secured thanks to his skateboarding skills), Earl Sweatshirt"s roommate, and "Frank Ocean"s collaborator," even if it"s a mischaracterization (Elsesser"s voice appears on the last song of Ocean"s 2016 album, Blonde). He"s also just a 20-year-old college student who, on the day of our shoot, was skipping class at the Pratt Institute, where he"s studying fine art.
Elsesser checks all the requisite boxes of a cool kid who would have the inside track on the freshest streetwear, sneakers, and, fittingly, all things Supreme. But he"s also refreshingly unaware of the industry he"s increasingly considered to be part of. If anything, he"s just an influential outsider; the kind of guy who rocks a tucked-in T-shirt and Dickies pants for years before the same styles start popping up in lookbooks and on big-name designer runways. There"s a reason the fashion world has turned its attention to skateboarding for inspiration of late, and it"s hard to ignore a guy like Elsesser and his ilk as a crucial part of that attraction.
You could dismiss that fact if Elsesser"s personal style weren"t in lockstep with how a lot of guys want to dress today. It"s evident in the photos you see herein his artfully baggy sweats, his logo-heavy Gucci scarf, and those minimally stylish new Converse One Star Court Classic Pro sneakers that feature a premium leather upper (washed suede on the navy blue pair) and hardly any Converse branding. We spoke with the soon-to-be-everywhere Sage Elsesser about the new kicks he helped design, how he got so stylish, and what he thinks about his employer"s high-profile collaboration with Louis Vuitton.
Are you sick of people saying you contributed to Frank Ocean"s album? Yeah, like, guys asking me, "So explain what having credits on Frank Ocean"s album is like?" Like, I didn"t do anything. Like, sure, I"m down, I"m a Frank Ocean collaborator. One time I told someone I wrote "Solo." I told them I wrote that for him, and they were like, "Wow! No way!"
What do you think of the Supreme x Louis Vuitton collaboration? It"s cool, f**k yeah, Louis Vuitton. It"s another cool collaboration for Supreme, but I just don"t really care. There"s gonna be another one next year kids are gonna flip on.
How does it feel to replace [legendary skateboarder and style icon] jason dill as supreme"s official lookbook model? It"s really cool. It happened really quickly. I remember Dill telling me, "Man, I"m gonna be too old soon, and they"re gonna ask you to be the model." I didn"t believe him. Now I"ve done, like, four of them, so it"s kind of like, "When is it gonna stop?"
In a recent interview with Earl Sweatshirt, you reference how your style changed when you moved to New York. How would you describe your style now? Yeah, he said something like, "expensive roadman." I guess that just came from traveling and seeing different places like Paris, London. It"s cool, but I"m all about comfort. I skate for Converse, but I"m not wearing Chuck Taylors all the time. I was able to differentiate my on-board style from my regular style.
How do you dress differently when you"re skating? I don"t like to wear shorts if I"m skating. I have kind of expensive taste. I wouldn"t wear
The Gucci scarf you have on, for instance. I actually got this on sale. [laughs]
If you know you"re being filmed that day while skating, will you step your style up a little bit for the cameras? I"m always conscious of what I"m wearing. It"s just like how a basketball player doesn"t wear a jersey and basketball sneakers all the time. You sweat, you bleed, so you kind of always need to change your clothes.
How do you feel about how skate style has recently become so popular in fashion? I just think it"s corny. It just looks dumb, but it"s also cool that, like, Forever 21 is making Trasher, Paradis, and f*****g Awesome tees. Like, they want to be on our s**t. But I also just see so many kids dressed like Sean Pablo now.
Like Dickies and Chuck Taylors, tucked in... Yeah, like that"s my friend. I know him so well. That"s a normal look now. And Sean looks good. If that helps kids dress better, so be it. I just thought it was funny, because it"s something so simple as, like, tucking in your T-shirt. I see rappers trying it out, like A$AP Rocky, Ty Dolla $ign, and thinking, "Wow, they"re looking at us." But as far as fashion, it"s just their inspiration. Every designer uses inspiration, whether it"s Supreme, FA [f*****g Awesome], it all comes from inspiration.
Is it okay to wear skate style if you don"t skate? I don"t give it too much attention. Let Selena Gomez wear a Thrasher shirt, it"s popular. Bieber wears FA. People shop at Supreme, like, it"s just popular.
Jonah Hill? Jonah Hill is cool. I"ve met him before, too. I think he"s a little mixed-up, though, wearing like a Palace hoodie with a Supreme hat and Yeezy Boosts. Get it together, Jonah.
Let"s talk about your Converse collaboration. How did you end up with this design? I didn"t really design it, I just thought it was a shoe that was really important to the aesthetic of Converse. It"s a classic shoe. I"ve thought recently the direction of Converse has been really Nike-influenced, with the newest technology and breathable fabric and all that bullshit. I just wanted to make a shoe you f*****g put on your feet, tie the laces, and do what you do. I wanted just a basic shoe. It"s just an old tennis shoe. And I know that"s really popular with things like the Stan Smith.
Where did you first see the style? I was in Japan. And I found the leather we used on a different Converse shoe.
Do you go through shoes really quickly because you skate so much? But that"s just skating. I saw this pair of shoes at Barneys that had, like, duct tape and were like $600.
Golden Goose? Yeah. f**k Golden Goose.
Source: http://www.gq.com/story/sage-elsesser-interview-stylish-skater-turned-supreme-model
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