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Before Midnight: Shane Gonzales
How was the Midnight Rave event?
It went really well. I would probably say it was our best rave to date so far, as far as turnout, music selection, just the overall aesthetic of the rave, and it was two floors, which was really cool. We've never done that before.
When was the first Midnight Rave and how did it come about?
The first Midnight Rave was towards the end of 2016. This was actually all Rocky's idea to begin with. He wanted to do this party and he wanted to have clothing to go along with it. So, he decided we would open a popup before the rave and sell the clothing we had. Any purchase made that day would get you access to the party later that night, so it was all a one-day thing. It was very, very DIY. We really didn't know how to throw a party at that point. It was just me and Rocky and we booked a random warehouse, got some DJ equipment in there and then had myself DJ, some of the A$AP guys DJed, Virgil DJed and then there was just a lot of guest DJs throughout the night.
How many have there been now? I'm guessing the Pandemic put a pause on it.
The whole rave series was really about to develop into a full world tour. At that time, before the pandemic, we were aiming to shift the rave to being a mini world tour where we would stop in each major city, do the pop up and then the party. We actually had scheduled the first stop to be in London right at the beginning of April of 2020 and we were working on other dates after that in Tokyo and Paris, but yeah, the Pandemic canceled all of that. So, the end of last year we kind of reshifted and we're starting over.
How did it feel having your debut New York Fashion Week show in September?
That was really cool. New York is somewhere I've always dreamt of showing one day, from when I was little going there for the first time and really getting inspired by the city. I actually came up with the name for Midnight while I was on my first trip in New York when I was a kid. So, it was cool to kind of full circle, come back and do our show, especially being locked in on the calendar for the first time. It was very exciting, but I was very nervous to do it as well. I wasn't sure how it would turn out being that we've never shown in New York. We're not from New York, but the turnout was great and overall I think it was super successful.
How did you first gain interest in fashion and at what point did you consider it a serious career path?
I think my first interest in fashion was when I was in middle school. I remember seeing Pharrell and Nigo and Kanye during that time period. That for me was the peak era of fashion that was more accessible to everybody. That wasn't really like fashion houses, you know, that's when BBC came around and Ice Cream, Bape, Mastermind. I discovered Supreme right around that time. I think that moment is when I really shifted from anything else I had interest in, to doing fashion, and drawing t-shirt designs on my homework and really trying to take it seriously. But I was so young at that point, it was just the thought in my head.
I had to finish school so once I was getting ready to graduate high school I started working on designs, just printing t-shirts out of a garage at that point. I was able to get them on certain artists that I really liked, that's when I started to see that maybe I could this for a living. When I graduated high school was right around the time I met A$AP Rocky and I remember getting a phone call that he wanted to meet me and work on some stuff together. Since then, I dropped anything else I was focusing on to just shift my energy to clothing.
Do you feel like growing up in California has played a role in the aesthetic of Midnight Studios?
Yeah, definitely. Originally the brand was a hundred percent based on punk rock and primarily California punk bands, like Black Flag and Circle Jerks. I was taking a lot of references from their flyers. A lot of these big punk bands came from the coast of California and Orange County, so it was always pretty close to me. Growing up with a huge skateboard culture also developed what type of fashion I was getting more interested in. As far as gaining inspiration from the Nigos and Pharrells, I was just watching a lot of MTV at the time (laughs), I think that really opened my eyes to a whole different world that I wouldn't have discovered just being in California alone.
That actually leads me to my next question because your designs reference a lot of bands like Sex Pistols. Can you speak more on the influence of punk rock music on Midnight Studios?
Punk rock is something I've always been really into in general. That was the first music that I got into at home without it being whatever my parents played (laughs). I remember playing the Tony Hawk video games and the soundtrack was primarily punk rock. I was probably five or six at the time, so I would just play that soundtrack all day every day. I think that really stuck with me throughout the rest of my life. When I started the brand, I didn't really see any other brands focusing in on that particular time period of music or culture, aside from Vivienne Westwood. Vivienne was one of my favorite designers once I graduated high school and started looking into other people, so that really inspired the brand but I took a different approach to it, more graphic based. When I launched Midnight, it was primarily graphic t-shirts, hoodies, and hats, so I was recreating a lot of punk flyers, tour posters, whatever I could find really.
I dropped anything else I was focusing on to just shift my energy to clothing
You would've only been around 21 when you started Midnight. How do you feel the brand has evolved as you've aged?
I think now that I'm older and I'm nearing my thirties, the brand has taken a turn from streetwear into a more luxury menswear space. I like to focus now on not so much the graphics, but more attention to detail, cleaner silhouettes. I'm mentoring the tailoring space; we have our suiting program now. We do keep our graphic t-shirts and hoodie programs alive, but my focus lately has been on more mature level garments and something a little bit more traditional and timeless while still keeping that edge of the original rock and roll roots that we started with. Essentially, finding a balance of growing older, but keeping the youth intact.
Did you initially find it hard to be accepted or taken seriously in the fashion industry?
Yeah, and it was primarily because I didn't have the resources to make garments that could keep up with a lot of the bigger names. I was pretty much doing the brand myself for the first five years, getting the t-shirts printed, walking around downtown trying to find anyone that could help me sew up jackets and pants when I wanted to enter the cut and sew space. For a long time, it really felt like the quality wasn't there and I wasn't able to do all of this on my own.
It wasn't until Virgil came around and I started picking his brain; he offered me tons of advice and help. He actually pointed me in the direction of a lot of people to start producing for me. When I wanted to start printing publications, he had the printing companies that would help me do it. Once me and him developed a better relationship is when I felt like, “okay, I kind of belong in this space." He gave me the collaboration in like 2017, I believe, and once that happened it kind of validated everything that I was hoping to do with my career. Since then, I feel pretty welcome in this space. I feel like we sit well along other brands.
My next question was going to be how the Off-White collaboration came about.
Yeah, so I had met Virgil in LA a few times prior to the collaboration and I met him once in Paris when I was with Rocky. I remember he followed me on Instagram one day and I think the first thing I did was immediately make a sample Off-White x Midnight collab and pitched it to him. Basically, I cut these two shirts in half, printed Off-White logos on one, Midnight logos on the other and then sewed the two different pieces back together. I sent him like 15 photos of all different pieces I made and then two days later he responded that he was in LA and wanted to come see them. He literally came into my apartment (laughs) and just looked at all of them. I remember he was just like, “Can I borrow these? I wanna show these to some people.”
I literally didn't hear from him for another month. He just took them, and I never knew what he was going to do with them. Fast forward to fashion week in January, he sent me a text message asking for my info for flights for me, my brother, and my mom. He flew us out to Paris and we went to his show. A few looks in, those shirts came down the runway. It was a really cool experience. It happened so fast and it was really just off of me DMing him a few pictures of shirts I made.
Do you feel like the Midnight Rave line offers a different creative outlet for you than Midnight Studios?
Yeah, Midnight Rave is something that we can do to engage our audience, and our fans, and kids around the world as often as possible. With Midnight Studios we only show twice a year now, so there's not a lot of events and activations that we're constantly focusing on throughout the year. With Midnight Rave, we can do these a lot more often. The prices are a lot more accessible, the designs are a lot more loud. I think it engages all ages of our audience. The events allow everyone to come so it offers an experience, much more frequently, to be a part of the Midnight world. I think with the rave and the price point that it's at, it's really for everybody.
Can you tell me about Midnight Art Department?
Midnight Art Department is something we started this year, that we're kind of just testing out. It's a way that I can do more collaborations with the musicians and films, artists, other brands, anyone that I really have an interest in. We have this new platform to produce small capsules and release them at more accessible price points, similar to Rave, but more collaboration based. With Midnight Studios being limited to the two collections, I can't release as many collaborations as I would like to and showcase a lot of my favorite brands and musicians and whatnot. So, the Art Department definitely allows that and gives us that platform to put their work out there in clothing format. We've always done collaborations in the past, but we couldn't really do that many. We did the Sex Pistols collaboration and the Courtney Love and Rolling Stones and things like that, but now we're able to do much more, much quicker.
What are your objectives moving forward?
With Midnight Rave, my goal is to really expand on it and do what we initially set out to do, which is take it global, more of a tour experience, maybe even grow into a festival at some point. We want the collections to get larger, we’re aiming to hit retailers in the next few years. Overall, make the Midnight Rave a much larger experience than what it is now, but still keep the underground aesthetic that it has. I don't want to go too big with it, too commercial. I want it to stay authentic.
Midnight Art Department, I really want to just organically grow. I want to keep bringing in the collaborations with musicians and films and things that I grew up on and translate those into clothing, which has always been something that's really fun for me. And then Studios, the overall plan is more retailers, more shows, get the brand more out there and then open a platform for other people to come in, similar to what Virgil was offering to me at the time. I want to create more opportunities for kids to collaborate with us, release their music with us, print their magazines with us, things like that. So I hope in the long run we can really open up those opportunities for a lot of people.
Breaking Boundaries with Koi King
Continue reading for an exclusive interview below.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing pretty well. I'm actually getting ready because after this, I'm gonna go to boxing class. It's cool. I mean, I'm in a pretty good mood and I feel like I've been biking more often. So I feel like my moods just been improving from biking. So it's a good morning.
Yeah, I feel like that's the best part about New York is just being able to bike everywhere.
Yeah, it saves so much time.
Talk to me about how you got started modeling. How was it in the beginning of your journey?
I feel like, since I was in high school, everyone was like, "Koi, you should model." And I thought about it once I graduated, but the track I was on was that I was a chef. So I was more focused on being in the restaurant, cooking food, and learning about stuff like that. Then when I moved back to New York, like 2019, I was like, "You know what, maybe I should do this." So I started freelancing. It was very low key just because I was still working in restaurants six days a week. 2020 I was out protesting and that's how Liv scouted me. She was like, "Hey, are you represented?" And I was like, "No, not really, but I freelance." And then she was like, "Well, do you want to be represented?" And I was like, "Yeah, I'm down." Because of the pandemic I had stopped working in restaurants, and I was trying to figure out what my next move was gonna be. I ended up booking my first job with Diesel which was really cool. I ended up meeting with One Management in the office and I was hella nervous because it's a huge agency. I was really nervous because one, I knew that for the industry, I'm short. And the other thing that I was more concerned about was being non-binary and how they would represent me. And also me being disabled, and how they would represent me in the best way for all these intersectionalities. But so far, it's been a wild ride, and I'm learning so much of the industry and just how I want to present myself to the world. I'm just glad that I have Liv and my agents at One. So it's been a pretty interesting ride so far.
I feel like everything sort of aligned for you, and got you to where you are today. Just in recent years, I feel like the industry has grown and progressed a lot, however, there are still things that need to be done. How would you like to see the modeling industry continue to change?
Well, everyone uses catchphrases, like, "Oh, you know, we're inclusive," but when I look at agency rosters, with their inclusivity, I don't see it. It's one thing to go out into the public and be like, "We're inclusive, we're trying to make changes," but you're not hiring models that are also following that need for change. We see it a lot, especially in this industry, where it's a trend to be inclusive. It's a trend to be the one person that's including everyone when it shouldn't be a trend. We're humans, we're not meant to all be the same. So when you're telling me that you're inclusive, but I see no non-binary models on your roster, I see no disabled models on your roster, and most of your models are white, it's not giving.
How would you say that MultiiMedia and One back you and see you for who you are?
I think it's really important for models to really vibe with their agents, and really let them know what it is they need from them. Because one of my first conversations with Liv was, "Yeah, you're gonna represent me as a model, but I'm a human that does so many other things. And that's not the only thing I want you to push for me, especially when you're talking to other people, because I'm still a chef at heart." I still cook when I need to, I make music, and I make art. When it comes to One, my biggest thing with them was really advocating for me, especially before I even get into the room. One I'm non-binary-- that's my biggest thing. I'm disabled and of course, a lot of the times when people look at me right off the bat, they can't tell. That's the thing with invisible disabilities is that unless people are really paying attention, they can't really tell that I am. When I go into these castings, I tell my agents at One, "Did you let them know before I go in?" I think that's my biggest thing that I've taken from both my agents is them just being like,"Just go in there and be yourself." And if they don't hype you for being yourself, then fuck it. Either way, you're gonna continue to do what you need to do, as long as you're doing it as yourself.
In one of your Instagram posts, you made the comment saying, "My very existence breaks boundaries." Can you elaborate on that?
Because of all my intersectionalities, being a black, non-binary person from the Caribbean. That shaped my whole life and just having a lens on life that I think a lot of people didn't have. I say that my existence is, in itself, a protest. Because if the times were different, I definitely wouldn't be alive. I think I think about that every day, especially with the laws changing, and our rights being taken away. I think about it every single day, because I know that there are people in the world that wouldn't, to this day, want someone like me to exist. I want to show other people that they too, can be themselves wholeheartedly, and still be fine. When I go out into the world, I keep that at the forefront of my mind, because I know that it's true. I know that if the laws were to change a lot of people would be against my existence.
Would you say that you use modeling as a vessel to leave your mark and to tell your story?
Yeah, it definitely is one of them. So when I'm on set, I try to articulate that as much as I can. So those conversations can be had and people keep certain things at the forefront of their mind when they're on set with other people who may look like me. I also do it through my art, and through my music, because I feel like my whole purpose is to create. And in that sense, I get to create things that might help someone else, while also sort of putting out what I need the world to see for myself. So it's kind of like a win-win situation.
Has there been a favorite campaign of yours where you felt your most authentic self?
Yes, the Marc Jacobs campaign I did for the Perfect Fragrance came out last month. From beginning to end, I think that was one of my favorite campaigns I've done just because of how they coordinated it and the fact that they really let everyone be themselves on set. We got to pick out exactly what we would wear on a regular basis, how we wanted our makeup to be done, and our hair. Also just the kind of questions we were asked. I feel like being on that set and doing that project was one of my favorites. One because, it was based around my queerness, which isn't something that I get to talk about within the campaign universe. It's like, "Oh, you're queer, cool." But that campaign I feel like they took their time to be like, "Okay, what is it that you as a queer person like? What changes do you want to see and how do you feel like you're represented? How do you think that your existence is perfect?" And I know a lot of people hear the word perfect, and they're like, nobody's perfect, but it's like perfect in your own self.
It's nice when you're on set to be seen as you versus just as the figure that is pushing a product. Because at the end of the day, we're all people we have our stories to tell.
For sure. It's just like, yeah, it's a model with a pretty face who's selling you a product, but it's a human with life experiences with things that they like to do.
When do you feel your most beautiful?
This might be chaotic, but honestly when I'm in the middle of a breakdown, because I feel like that's when I have the most important realizations about what I'm trying to do. And understanding why I'm in the middle of a breakdown. I think for me, it's beautiful, because I'm someone who has DID, so a lot of the time my alters and I are always going back and forth on decisions and things we want to do and choices we have to make. So when I'm in those moments of chaos and I feel like I'm crashing, I take a moment to really see the beauty and the fact that I'm only thinking that I'm crashing, because I want things a certain way. That's when I take the time to be like "Hey, Koi, you've done so much, you've come such a long way, and you're gonna continue to do so much. This little thing that's bothering you right now is not that big of a deal." I think that's when I feel most beautiful because I'm making space for myself to feel okay. Even in the moments where I know I don't, I'm still giving myself that space and I'm still giving myself that love. I feel like it's easy to love other people especially when they're having a hard time, but to love yourself, when you know that you're not really in the right space of mind, or you're not really having the energy to do a lot is when I feel my most beautiful.
You kind of talked too a little bit about your other interests and passions, like being a chef, art, and music. Can you talk a bit more about what those look like?
I feel like all of them are connected or come back around at some point. For my modeling, I feel like my art comes out in that way. Whenever I model I think about the silhouettes and the shapes I'm making. When I'm painting, I'm truly connecting it to everything in my life because sometimes when I paint, I never usually have a full idea of what I'm painting. I just let my mind be like "Here's a brush, here's the paint, here's the canvas." So by the end of the painting, I usually realize that I'm talking about stuff in my paintings that I've been thinking about what's going on around me. Now when it comes to my music, it all relates back to experiences I've written about. I think that because I'm so centered around all of the things I like to do, they all come back to each other. So even sometimes when I'm cooking with my friends or just making family dinner, I'll have some idea for a song and I'm like, "Oh shit, hold on, I need to write this down!"
If you could describe Koi in three words, what would they be?
I'd say unpredictable, student, and light.
I like that you chose “student” because I feel like we're always learning and we're always growing.
And that's why I say that because I'm a student of life. I feel like no matter how old I get, they're still going to be things that I don't know that I'm learning. And I think that people sort of overlook that part of life where it's like, you don't know everything. We don't know everything and we're never going to be able to know everything. So just learn what you can learn and listen to what you don't know. I say light because I feel like that's my main thing that I try to do. Wherever I go, I just try to bring light to people, because I feel like I know what it's like to not have light around you, and feel like everything is dark. So I try my best to just help people see that.
And then unpredictable…
Unpredictable, because I never know what I'm going to do. People always inquire, and I'm like, I won't know until it's happening. So you can never predict what's going to happen.
If you could tell your younger self something with everything you know now, what would you tell them?
Stop worrying. I think as a kid, I was riddled with anxiety about life. And it's weird to think about it and say that now because I was always the kid that had all the questions-- I had so many questions and the burning need to know the answers to them. I was just worried about what I would do with my life especially when I figured out that I was queer. I was stressed because I come from a religious Rastafarin family. So I think I'd just tell younger Koi to chill out and really enjoy being a kid. Because I feel like when you're a child, you don't really realize that that's the only time you'll get to be a child. I think it's important for us to recognize, especially as adults, that when we do eventually have kids that we don't make the same mistakes.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
I think the only thing I'd want to say is for people to really start paying attention to what they say, and how they put it out into the world, especially with what's happening right now. It might seem like everything is chaotic. But it's really important for us to find community and ground ourselves in community and within each other. Because at the end of the day we need each other. We need human connection and I think that's the strongest thing that we have as humans is our connection to each other. So I think that now more than ever, it's important for us to continue to do that.
