Speaking Style and Sound with Lucky Daye

April 18, 2024

The dynamic relationship between fashion and music has constantly intertwined to craft cultural narratives and define identities. The two have always gone hand in hand and so festivals in particular continue to provide a world where melodies meet threads at a captivating intersection.

Before heading west for Coachella, perhaps the most renowned of festivals, we visited adidas's New York headquarters to witness Lucky Daye bless a lucky handful with an intimate acoustic performance. While there we were able to sit down with Lucky, as he donned a classic full tracksuit, and dissect his relationship with music and fashion and how they coexist in his creative process. A week later, as day turned to night in the California desert and the temperature switched up, so did the outfits.

Interview and photos by Dylan Andrews
Main image courtesy of BFA / Zack Hilty

How's your day been?

It's been good, it's been good. It's been great.

When did you get in?

Australian time or American time [laughs]?

I'm from Australia, so you can give me both.

For real?

Yeah I grew up in Perth.

We just left Australia. We landed like two days ago and then we came out here. I think I got here today maybe? Yeah, today 5:00 am.

Damn, the early flight.

The no sleep flight.

Who'd you grow up listening to?

Well from zero to eleven I grew up listening to whatever I had to listen to make my mama happy. But when I was able to listen to music, I went backwards and I listened to, vocally for Stevie Wonder because I admire his voice. I listened and watched a lot of Michael Jackson because I admired the way he could entertain. I felt like D’Angelo was sexy and all of that so I was watching him and Ginuwine. I just felt I liked anything that… I don't want to say 'simple', but when I was little I was always looking for something that made me feel alive or made me feel anything.

So you took different parts from different artists, like the entertainment of Michael Jackson, the sound of Stevie Wonder, that sort of thing?

Yeah, his vocal ability, the tone of D’Angelo, Bill Withers. Even to this day, I'm still learning. I listen to Usher, I'm one of Usher's biggest fans. When he got into the Super Bowl was crazy. But I listen to everybody, but the main person I would say is probably Stevie Wonder.

How do you feel like growing up in New Orleans affected your sound?

Well, New Orleans is a jazz place. So when you think jazz, you just think a gumbo pot of stuff, just a jumble of all types of stuff. And down there it's not too many rules because the rules are kind of misconstrued and mixed up. So my sound is basically that. I'm big on not being conformed into a box and using everything that I have to make a mixture or potion of who Lucky Daye is every time I do an album. And this one is a whole new vibe.

Did growing up there affect your style, the way you dress, the way you present yourself, carry yourself?

Definitely. Being in New Orleans, we was poor, so I had a lot of hand-me-downs and I think that definitely affected, it taught me how to put stuff together that people that knew how to buy expensive stuff couldn't see. So I was able to wear whatever and figure out how to make that look good or wear shoes that was too big, and then wear a jacket that's too big too to make it look like it fit.

Was there anyone you looked up to style-wise for inspiration?

Nah, I just got all my big brother’s clothes.

There wasn't someone that had you like, ‘damn, I want to dress like that'?

Nah. I couldn't get that stuff.

What about moving to Atlanta? Did that affect your sound and the way you dressed or was that already established by the time you moved there?

Nah, pretty much in Atlanta, I didn't really care about fashion too much. I never cared about being attractive. I never thought I was attractive until my music came out and people were like, “oh, you sexy.” So in my mind still, I don't grasp the idea of it, but I do grasp the idea of beauty and art as far as the clothes. And Atlanta, it showed me a different expression. Everybody was just doing what they wanted to do.

Everything would be kind of baggy and then you'll go over here and everything is kind of tight. Then you'll go over here and this dude will make a girl shirt look masculine. And then that became something else like, okay, I don't have to use the hand-me-downs to mix stuff up. I can mix all types of stuff. Everything goes. In New Orleans, you can't mix Adidas and something else. In Atlanta you could do that. You could throw anything together. So that expanded my brand sense I think. And once I got to LA, using that along with the hand-me-downs conscious of just throwing stuff together, and all the thrift stores they have around, I learned how to put stuff together in my own unique way.

Obviously you got on the tracksuit now. Are you usually dressing for comfort or style or it’s a mix?

I never dress for comfort. I like a challenge and I guess feeling like something hurts me makes me feel like I'm making progress or it is a challenge or something I have to fight through. I never go on stage comfortable. And if I do go on stage comfortable, it's probably with no shirt at all. If I'm not wearing something fly… like, this Adidas, this is crazy. I would throw this on stage, take a shirt off from underneath and just be as comfortable as I want to be on stage. But on stage I'm not concerned about comfort too much. If it hurts, it's going to hurt tomorrow because of this momentum feeling, I don't feel nothing. I don't feel nothing on stage.

How do you feel like your style and what you're wearing influences your creativity, your mood, how you're feeling that day? Do you feel like that's an extension of your creativity?

It's definitely an exterior expression of what I feel inside. I try to let the music speak for itself. So every album, if I'm singing something that's kind of uplifting, I wear something uplifting or singing something sexy, I'll just wear… I may have my back cut out here or back cut out there.

You’ll do the backless?

Oh, I've done the backless. Don't judge me.

Nah, that's what’s up. I’ve always said the best dressed men blur that line between masculinity and femininity.

But honestly, remembering my childhood, the only brand that I wore was adidas because it was there, it was everywhere. The shell toes. We just ran it like that.

The shell toes was an iconic era.

And especially in Atlanta, it's a thing out there. Yeah. So that's when I really got tapped into adidas in Atlanta. So I know a lot about adidas. I'm a style head. I'm a fashion head. I know about the two brothers, I have the big adidas book, I know about how they started it.

That’s cool because a lot of people be putting brands on and have no idea about the history.

I'm into it because I really do love fashion and if I want to be comfortable, I'm putting on adidas. They have the best tracksuits. You've never seen nobody with a tracksuit that could beat adidas. Even in the A’ everywhere. All the dope boys got ‘em. They got it.

Yeah?

Yeah, they got ‘em. That's how you know.

Fashion

From Prince Street to East 4th, a Ride With Rapha

April 29, 2024

To celebrate the coolest (and finest) cycle-centric brand Rapha's latest drop, we kept the party going after its New York Clubhouse launch with dinner and drinks at Ella Funt.

With a first campaign shot in New York, capturing riders through the lens of street photographers Sarah van Rij and David van der Leeuw, Rapha Performance Sportswear strikes the perfect balance between style and functionality, tailored for life in motion. Just in time for prime sunny weather here in New York, the collection is a perfect choice, both on and off the bike. "For someone like myself who lives in Amsterdam and commutes by bike daily," says Fayrouz Salem, Rapha Head of Lifestyle, "this is a dream come true. We've created pieces that work on the bike without having to compromise on style."

Shop the collection at rapha.cc and in select Clubhouses.

Photography by Anderson Martinez

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

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!