Sincerely, Devin Ray

January 10, 2022

Can we ask you a favor? Open a textbook, and skim through the pages. In between the highlights of Shakespeare, The Victorian Era, Y2K Megan Fox eating boys aesthetics, and Sofia Coppola montages lies Devin Ray stuck to a blank sheet with bubble-gum and smudged lipstick. Devin Ray, known as Totally_Devin on social media, is a fever dream and a riot all at once. Her Instagram feed precedes itself as a story that every other viewer watches with doe eyes and flushed cheeks. As a lingerie and corset designer, her work isn't just the aestheticism we can see. Her work speaks to loneliness and the excessive stitch for love and warmth. Romanticism is a conversation that future generations will reckon with, and Devin knows how to sew and carve these boned corsets with consumers in mind.

Ray's work is a journal entry on femininity and the irony of innocence. Since, in societal's understanding of love and sex, there is an emphasis on purity. Yet, we discuss the male gaze and its ribbon around this theme — love and sex on a patriarchal standard aren't about romance or hand-holding. The young designer removes the need to be desired. Devin's work is for the self, for the lived experiences. Prioritization of the individual over the public's arousal.

Text by JoliAmour DuBose-Morris
Photo courtesy of Meg Bryant

In the early 20th century, it is keen to know that sex was a dangerous whisper upon city streets. With married couples having separate twin-sized beds and the somewhat contractual chaste kiss here and there — intimacy was as forbidden as a pair of scissors in TSA. When married couples get that one night to converse long and slow, the woman enters the master bedroom in silk or lace with her pin curls and not-too-bright lipstick ready to "go steady." As we look back into history, it appears that we understand attraction by its physical form. Mini-skirts, red nail polish, a peek at a thong, a wet t-shirt, some garters, and of course, a corset. Good thing it's not 1950 anymore because lingerie doesn't have to be what one wears in the bedroom.

The garments that Devin creates bring forth breath to self-love and reflection. Kinderwhore is a concept that aspires to her work; its juxtaposition of feminine and childlike silhouettes with these female figures drape power. Their brashness, unfiltered words, and bodies are like scrapped fabric one turns into a vessel of patchwork. Ray moves off of vulnerability and various forms of love along with women who embody the kinderwhore theme including one of her favorite bands, Babes in Toyland.

I've always been heavily drawn to figures like Courtney Love, PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple who are so radically vulnerable, yet incredibly strong and poetic.

In 2018, Devin moved to New York to study fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Graduating this spring — prepare your Congratulations now — she specializes in intimates and lingerie design. Her passion for design and corsetry shows in a matter of many ways. The first being one-of-ones and customs she's continuously made for varying buyers featuring embroidery, graphics, and velvet. Plus, if you take a look at her "Do You Remember" Zine, her vision collects the early decades before us, film noir, and a poeticism that shines through her sketches. In journals, you can see the step-by-step process of how her corsets became alive. From annotations to fabric selections and measurements became a divine piece of art in the form of frillies. It seems Ray's artistry isn't half-empty. Instead, it's a jar of overflowing ideas and collaged loves that give birth to a reflective form of feminity. There are curated photographs, hand scribbles, and stills from our favorite films, and we can infer in years to come — Devin's journals are an awaited auction.

"My journals usually act as diary entries for me, most of them are heavily interspersed with images collaged togetger as well as song lyrics, love letters, and things of the like. My journals catalog a part of the process that is more difficult for me to verbalize, and they are a representative of what I'm feeling in the moment of conceptualization." Devin says.

As all trends do, they take their moment to shine in the light again but in a modern twist. We have seen it since the uprising of windbreakers and mom jeans a couple of years ago, and now we're seeing it with more Edwardian and Gregorian uptakes. One in five people strolling down New York City in averagely hot weather will be wearing a corset. Or, one in ten people walking down G-Train Brooklyn during the winter will be wearing a corset under a North-Face Puffer. The point isn't statistics but a revelation to the revival of all things dainty. Something about mary janes or knee-high socks has brought out the schoolgirl in all of us which, meshes with the sexiness of wearing the supposed unmentionables. Devin Ray's take on corsetry has its peculiarity that other designers are still joggling their memory to find.

Devin's evolution of corsetry has mirrored time. Since the original corset, she created two years ago was loosely based around the 17th Century. Now, she's sculpting hourglass shapes and styles that reflect the 18th and 19th centuries. Devin Ray is a designer filled with passion and poise, creating a body of work that'll trail down history. Look out for upcoming availabilities for commissions and potential drops — you don't want to miss it. Check out her website and look into her world.

Fashion

Happy 424 Day!

Simon Rasmussen — What's going on?

Guillermo Andrade — Right now we're just setting everything up.

So, what are you doing, is it a party?

Well, I kind of felt universally forced, right? Because 4/24/24, I was just like, I don’t really have a choice here. The stars also just kind of aligned, so to be honest, I got this settlement that came with a bunch of clothes so I had this idea to give back to the kids who fuck with us by allowing them to buy our shit first. Not handing stuff out for free, but to do it in a way where we could skip the middleman of the industry, so to speak, and not allow clothes to disappear into the abyss of Farfetch or whatever else. So what we’re going to do is a sort of warehouse sale, which we’ve never done before so that was really exciting for me. I didn’t want to do just another warehouse sale, so it’s like a sample sale turns rager. We teamed up with Adidas and a couple of other sponsors, then drinks, DJs, and a performance.

Sick, I love it.

Yeah. My dream sample sale. Also, it’s not just hoodies and t-shirts here in there, it’s proper collections from the past three seasons. I’m also not picking and choosing, trying to make it accessible, like this was the only way I could afford to buy shit when I was a kid, bro. Sample sales were the thing I looked forward to the most.

I feel you. In New York, there's the annual CDG sale, which is when I used to cop all my CDG.

The only time I could afford Rick. I flew to New York once for a Rick sample sale and I was like, Wow, I can't believe I got invited. And it was mental. I still have those pieces. I will never sell them. Not even because I got 'em cheap. It was also just really fun. Even on the flight to New York, I was like, I can't believe I'm going to New York for a sample sale, what a fucking loser I am. But it was like the adult version of when I was a kid and I was like, Wow, I can't believe I'm 20-something and I'm still doing the thing I was doing in high school. So I hope we can create moments like that for kids here in LA.

Yeah. I love that. It’s important to connect with them; they’re essentially creating the brand. If you don't have them, good luck.

I mean, yeah. Fuck, bro. It's cool that we've been around for this long. I mean, it got a little rocky there for a second I think, for all of us. So coming out of it, tomorrow is a celebration. And it’s like an odd day of the week. It's a Wednesday, super random. And now that we've set it up, the homies are all like, Yo, I'm coming. I'm coming. Let me jump on stage, let me do this, and that's really what it's always been about. It's not some other strategy to get likes on the internet.

That’s how the best things happen, you just couldn’t help yourself. It was intuitive.

Yeah, it all came together in a really nice way.

Would you say that’s how 424 started as well? I remember we met in like 2010 on Fairfax and I was visiting with Rasmus…

Oh bro, it’s probably the time when I started the branch… do you remember Cecilia from Black Dakini? She’s the one that introduced me to CIFF and honestly, I didn’t even care what she was doing, I was just like, I’m coming, I’ll go with you. She said she’d give me half of her booth and I said, Awesome count me in. At the time, I had just gotten my green card and I wasn't allowed to ever leave America, so Copenhagen was one of the first cities I went to when I could finally travel. I mean, you see what we did at CIFF bro? It became our fucking hub for half a decade.

That was a moment for sure.

I remember the first account I got was Antonioli, and he came super gangster, being like, You're going to sell me these clothes. And I was like, bro, I didn't come to sell clothes. I'm just kind of catching a vibe with my homie and I made these things. And he's like, No, you're going to sell it to me. And then I was like, Oh my god that’s Claudio Antonioli. So then I went home, I googled wholesale, and figured that shit out. [laughs]

[Laughs]

Like you said, I couldn't help myself, but I didn't just make t-shirts and hoodies either. I was really on my Rick wave, so I made my version of the Rick things. It was that meets like The Boondock Saints, because I'm still a little bit of a Cali bro, sort of rock kid, but not really. I like hip-hop, but I like the way the rock stars look. I like the contrast. I thought it was cool. After that, I just never stopped.

It was clear to me when I first met you that you were onto your own thing in LA. It made a lot of sense, and it was so cool. It was before 424 was its own brand; you just had the store and this really cool curation.

It was all my shit, bro. I was very, very invested in sharing all of these things that I was finding from all over the world, like Astrid Anderson. She was one of those designers at the time, so important to 424. The connection to Copenhagen specifically for me was huge. I had a big fan base there. It was incredible. And then here in LA, we were sharing the things that we were a part of and finding; it was still the early days of Fear of God, Rhude, Martine Rose. A lot of these brands, we were the first store to ever sell it — we were selling Hood By Air on the West Coast.

You had Rick as well, I remember.

Oh yeah. It took me a long time. But I got Rick, bro. By the time I had to close the store on Fairfax, I already had a Raf Simons account. I had reached my ultimate dream. It was really all the stuff I wanted to wear at the time. It was dope. The best of the best.

We had an office magazine newsstand in there as well.

Oh yeah, we did! I came to visit the one you had, and I was like, Yo, I got to bring this whole fucking thing over here. But yeah, in LA, after two days people forget you exist, but everyone’s been super supportive. We’re all 10 years older now. We've been around forever at this point.

It can be dangerous to take those breaks when you’re figuring shit out, but there’s something very genuine to this comeback you’re having.

Thank you, thank you. We’ve been in and out of those fucking showrooms in Paris for long enough. I've been in and out of these factories for the past 10 years of my life. We had to figure something out. And I think now really diving in, being in Italy full time and being there to develop these products over time, I think that the whole thing just really shows the suppliers respect you more. The people who are making your goods understand why you're making them. And I think now I finally got to the place where I'm not making Italian things, I’m making my clothes, I'm making Cali-centric shit, but with that European technicality and execution. With this Fall / Winter collection, it clicked.

So what’s the vision for the next year? What are you manifesting?

I'm just fucking relentless, bro. This is the way I want to live my life. Now that we are more aligned, more prepared, and have more experience, moving forward it is just more of becoming a fully functioning company that can provide and create opportunities for all of the people around me. We’ve been operating just on instinct for a long time.

Sustaining a business is scary, trust me I know.

Scary as fuck, dog. I just opened a store next to Bottega, bro, and it’s like what am I even doing? You have to just believe in the thing you're doing more than anybody else.

100%, and it seems like that’s what you’re doing.

And fashion’s kind of a competitive sport, as much as people don’t think it is. We can reach a certain level without losing ourselves. My biggest ambition at the moment is to create something that, when you leave one of our neighbors you come into our place you don’t feel that the level has been sacrificed at all. And it’s not easy.

Definitely. I wish I could be there tomorrow.

Thank you, bro. 10 years now. You’ve always shown me so much love. We have to do a booth or have the office part of the next 424 day. Shit let’s do a 424 day in New York.

That would be sick. Let's do it. I'm here. Let’s catch up soon.

Next season’s right around the corner so I’ll see you in Paris.

Yes, see you in Paris and Happy 424 day!

Fashion

Luis De Javier's Puta Takeover

April 25, 2024

Last night with Luis De Javier, guests were overheard confirming this generation's most vital conundrum: “If I’m cunt, I can still be pussy.” “And if you’re pussy, you can still be cunt.” This sentiment echoed throughout the night as we celebrated De Javier’s first-ever streetwear collection, "Puta". We spent seven hours at Ella Funt at a dinner turned party that only he could’ve thrown (co-hosted by emcee). It was too dark for even the most aspiring-to-look-mysterious of us to wear sunglasses inside. Under the semi-oppressive flash of party photographers, we danced as much as the space would allow, drank tequila out of teacups and kissed each other on the cheeks with a vaguely European intimacy. “I’m doing streetwear!” De Javier could be heard exclaiming — whether it be in disbelief or excitement, we couldn’t tell you.

Words and photos by Izzy Capulong

The Spanish-born London-based designer has been well-loved for his genderless tailoring, latex mastery, and overall message of empowerment. Dressing everyone from ravers to A-listers, De Javier’s latest drop pushes his design repertoire to a new level. “While designing for my celebrity clientele and showcasing my creations on the runway has always been my dream,” he notes, “It’s equally important to me that my brand resonates with a wider, more diverse audience.” While this collection’s medium has shifted from corsets to sweatshirts, the classic LDJ avant-garde sensibilities remain. Bikinis and booty shorts are shamelessly emblazoned with “PUTA,” blazers are constructed with ample shoulder padding, and I had my eye on the cheekily-named “Faguette Bag.”

The Puta collection will be available exclusively on emcee.

Fashion

Nadia Lee Cohen Celebrates Paris Texas Launch at the Chateau

To celebrate the launch, Cohen and founder and creative director of Paris Texas, Annamaria Brivio hosted an intimate dinner at the Chateau Marmont pictured below. Arman Naféei entertained guests throughout the evening with a special playlist he curated for the occasion.