A Collection of My Personal Projects and Collaborations
Up-cycling Shoes 2023
Starting October 22 2022, I won $5000 for my sustainable shoe design concept in the Apollo Crypto x Centre contest. I moved up to the final round for the chance to win $25,000. Although I left with no money, I received a third place title- landing me a live streaming job at EZZE. At EZZE, I streamed myself creating custom shoes 3 days a week. Two days were spent a week with hands-on designing, while the last day was used for interviewing creatives in the Venice Beach area. I created four custom pairs of shoes, one a week, from upcycled clothing materials. These photos are from a 3 dimensional Venice art crawl show organized by Tobi, Co Founder of GrlSwrl, at the Emeco Chairs space on Abbot Kinny. Here, I was invited to showcase my collection of up cycled shoe designs. Beside each shoe, I wrote a description of my process, materials, and overall experience. I auctioned off the shoes with bids starting at $100, and ended up selling four pairs all above $350.
Graveyard Garage x Sandborn Swim Runway 2022
This show came to life after months of preparation, planning, and dreaming. My vision was to showcase my favorite handmade clothing items I had created over the years for my brand, Graveyard Garage, as well as the bikinis my mom and I have been designing for SandBornUSA. I hosted this event locally at the Rose Room and invited Ali and Akki, (Both artists with their own brands: Cosmic Demise, and Father AKKI) to show 5-6 full body outfits, and provide their own models. I also invited my other amazing artist friends Dani T, DannyBoy, and Eric to cover the walls with their psychedelic artworks. I got a local kombucha company to sponsor the event with free drinks, as well as have an open bar with two bartenders. I decorated the room with party city supplies, my own cow rug, ect. and purchased the turf grass runway at Home Depot. I reached out to my currently working model friends, and pro surfers/skaters to see if they would want to be apart of the Runway. I put together full body outfits for each selected model, and asked everyone to come hair/makeup ready. Outside of the event we had all of the outfits on racks under a canopy, and I utilized my dads surf van as a changing room. The video above shows several street wear style SandBorn Bikinis, as well as my favorite airbrushed/hand painted/hand drawn clothing pieces. I asked Ali and his crew to get video coverage of the event for later content creation. Immediately after the event I got to work with Ali to get this video and others like it edited. This video I personally cut, and put music on top for my website.
GYG Collection II 2021
The vision behind this shoot was to capture the culture of Venice while showcasing the Graveyard Garage T-Shirt Graphics I drew and digitized.
My role: Creative direction, wardrobe, location, model sourcing, final selects, edits, and graphic overlays for all socials.
Location: the Venice Beach skatepark, boardwalk, and graffiti walls.
Models: Kate Baum, Tai Waters, Shawn Hale, and I.
Photographer: Kamden Kodimer.
Here are the final selects:
British Vogue 2021
The photo above captures me skating, while the one to the left features Briana King wearing a pair of pants I up-cycled.
The Story:
Rosie Vogel from British Vogue reached out to me to be apart of this Venice based shoot. I was referred to her by a few people in my community due to my presence in the surf/skate community and 4th generation localism. We hopped on a zoom call, and she explained that VOGUE wanted to have me come onto the team to help with location, wardrobe, and model scouting, given my closeness to the real Venice culture. I quickly sent over the profiles of several amazing and talented surfer/skater friends, as well as some areas in Venice that would be great shoot locations. The team ended up selecting my amazing friend Briana King, which couldn't have been a better decision. Rosie then asked me about what brands they should include along with their designer options, and I suggested a few local brands, as well as my own! She was excited that I had my own hand made items, so she told me to bring a few of my favorite pieces. On the day of the shoot, I packed up two bags full of hand painted sustainably up-cycled clothing items. When I got on set which was a block over from the Brick street (where I always park for surfing/skating in Venice), Dena Gia (amazing stylist), had me lay out my options on the clothing racks alongside the Gucci, Louie Vuitton, and Chanel pieces. Another stylist and I began discussing what I was to wear, which caught me completely off guard because I had previously believed I was just there to help out! Across the way, Dena Gia picked up one of my most abstractly painted pants and had Brianna King pair it with a $680 Prada hoodie. They then walked out to the palm trees by the graffiti wall, and got this amazing shot right before it started pouring down rain. When things didn't seem like they could get any better, the final Magazine Issue, "Steezy does it" credited me: "Hand-painted up-cycled trousers, to order, Graveyard Garage".
Details:
For a 22-year-old creative, surfer, skater, and Venice Beach local, shooting with the renowned photographer, Craig McDean, alongside the iconic six-time Vogue cover model, Julia Obis, and the talented skater, Brianna King, was a dream come true. The entire crew not only embraced my creative input but also artfully integrated my up-cycled wardrobe, authentically capturing me in my element.
Apple iPhone 11 2019
The first round of prints I ever made for my brand, Graveyard Garage, ended up being featured on the iPhone 11 around the world for the last five years. This GYG hoodie was the only version in pink that was made, as the rest were neon green.
How this happened: I was casted at the Venice Beach Skatepark for a job with Apple. On this particular day on set, I had brought a bag of handmade things with me. The stylists loved this hoodie, and decided to include it in the shoot.