The Empty District

office, caught up with Gabriel to discuss his work, second-hand fashion, sustainability, and his recent ventures on the road.

Check out the interview below.

I feel like you dabble a little bit in everything so for anyone who doesn’t know who Gabriel is, how would you introduce yourself?

So essentially, my main thing is that I'm a photographer. It's always been my main thing and how I got to where I am and it continues to be my main thing. Another big thing I do is work with my scoliosis awareness and foundation work, especially with Ghana, which I have a charity event for every year and I was there in 2019.

During that time period, TikTok was starting to get big and I wanted to use it to grow my social media accounts a bit more, but I was having trouble figuring out how to do it with my photography. At the same time I had lost a lot of weight and started changing my style a bit and that’s also when I started thrifting more. I started posting my outfits and that kind of grew a new face to my personal brand. So then during the pandemic, with all that tough stuff going on, there wasn't that much shooting at certain points in the pandemic. So I was more focused on personal things, one of them being thrifting which is my hobby and it's always been my hobby.

It's kind of crazy to think because ever since I was little, I’ve had this old Bart Simpson plush toy that my mom always laughs about. She has it hidden because she's like, ‘oh, I remember when you were little and you found this in a garage and you were like, this is gonna make us rich one day’ and she still has it to this day. So then during the pandemic, people would ask me about my clothes and then I started selling it on Depop and then I kind of stopped, I mean, I still sell on Depop here and there, but I started my own thing on the side. I started doing pop ups in the living room of my apartment in Brooklyn, and those would get packed and sell out. Then I ended up having a pop up in Williamsburg at a shop for a few months.

It's so funny that you mentioned that you have a little Bart Simpson thing because I have one too! I've been carrying it with me since I was like six years old and he's been with me ever since. I always carry it in my little handbag every time I go out!

When I came here in the circumstance that I came here, as an immigrant to the US, I guess I kind of, I grew up with that hustler kind of like way of life and mentality. So from a younger age, you know, I went from selling lemonade and bracelets and rosaries to flipping shoes. It was kind, always a thing and now it’s the same thing, just like on a bigger scale. During the pandemic, my hobby came back around and became that but in a bigger way. Being from Florida, all that type of stuff was hyped at one point. Now it's just more like treasure hunting and collecting. I've actually been called a hoarder before in my life, not that much anymore because I'm better at it, but if it's a special piece, I like to hold onto them.

I feel like everything holds value! Like me, at least, because my grandma's the same way. She's a similar mindset. Even with a thermometer, I'm like, oh my gosh, the amount of times I've stuck this in my mouth. We all have a weird way of giving something value so that we have an excuse to hold on.

Yeah. Before I would just hold a lot of garbage, but now I always make sure that everything I hold will make me money or at least the minimum break even.

Yeah. I love that. Speaking of secondhand fashion You’re heavily involved in the vintage scene / resale market. What sparked your love for second hand fashion?

It's interesting because I feel like a lot of people nowadays are against the whole thrifting scene and some people are all for it because some argue that it’s sustainable. However, other people argue that it isn't, saying that it raises prices and it takes away from those who need it and this and that. But what I've found is that typically the people who are against it are the people who don't come from low income backgrounds. The people who do come from low income backgrounds, like me and like my peers and stuff who do thrift, we all realize and know that it doesn't really change much because if you look at the statistics and the facts, there's actually a surplus of clothes and second hand garments, they end up just being thrown in the garbage because it's too much. A small percentage of the clothes and thrift shops and stuff is actually sold. A lot of the countries that we would send it to in the past are not accepting them anymore. So, realistically, there’s no scarcity of clothes for people who really need to buy it.

For sure. Why is it important for people to adopt a similar mindset?

I do think it's really sustainable because right now with the whole fast fashion climate.In terms of culture and everything, you wear something that’s in it's hot right now and then it goes away but like with second hand clothing, it's more like fine wine. Some pieces age and they age nicely, I think all of that, even the little tears on it and the material wearing away and stuff like that only adds to it. With time, those pieces become more rare.

Nice. Yeah. I definitely agree. It adds more character to the article for clothing. What's one vintage piece in your collection that you absolutely refuse to sell?

There's a few I'm holding onto right now that I'm not putting up for sale. I have this 1995 or 1997 gap, Keith Haring and it’s from the aids walkathon and I have it in my storage unit. I also have this Elvis Presley piece. It's a crazy design and I'm not like letting go of either right now. I feel a lot of times people buy vintage just because they think it's cool now. Right now it's really kind of popping and they go for the nineties and early thousands vintage pieces, but I really think like the seventies and eighties are slept on. Especially for football or NBA, I have a 1979 pirates shirt and that one is sick and I just love the whole fit of the seventies shirts. I mean, they don't really fit me but I just hold onto them to have them there to look at. I enjoy those or eighties football shirts as well.

Nice! But yeah, you recently got back from a cross country roadtrip where you shot photos and thrifted in various states across the US. Could you talk to me about your trip?

Yeah. So I'm an Aries, so if something pops in my head and I know it's what I wanna do, I do it immediately. So one day I was sitting and I wanted to take a road trip and go around the country. So pretty much like the next month I had already found a car and I bought it and I went down to Florida and I remodeled the back. My uncle helped me and we put a bed in there and O bought a lot of the stuff that I needed.

Then I took off, it was a photography slash thrifting tour, I started in Miami and we went through the whole south. I visited a lot of thrift shops and went to a lot of Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas garage sales. The cool thing was that I was camping in the car, I wasn't getting Airbnb or none of that. The whole time I was sleeping in the car and I drove through the day, camped in the evening and I’d sleep in the car at night and then continued doing that. There were a few cities that I stopped in a little bit longer, like Austin and LA and then from there I drove up to the tip of Oregon and then back through Idaho Dakota, South Dakota, and then back to New York. I was gonna drive back down to Miami to do a whole circle but at that point I ended up selling the car and it ended right there.

Sounds like it was a lot of fun though!

Yeah. It was like a dope trip because I took a lot of photos and it was nice to disconnect and be away from the whole social media stuff for a little bit to get some of that like real fresh air and see the classic American road trip.

For sure. Would you ever do that in another country?

Yeah. I've thought about it a lot, if I did something longer like that I would get a better rig, which is like what they call your vehicle where you live and stuff too. Mine was more basic, just the bed and the back and the car. But if I was gonna do a bigger trip, I’d want more of a bigger setup.

Speaking of your pop-ups How often do you have them and what does the curation process behind the selection of pieces that you decide to sell look like?

Right now I'm kind of testing out markets and I wanna have more pop-ups. Essentially it's gonna be twice a month, every other weekend. I wanna have a pop-up in LA, Miami and New York at the same time. So, I've hired people to come on and work with me on this. Right now, I can delegate that work to my people to do the popups, but with the whole curation and piece selection, I still only really trust myself to handle that process. At the end of the day, I just pick out stuff that I like on myself and for myself.

I also select pieces based off of if I think it’ll look good on other people or even for styling shoots. Realistically, right now, I only trust myself on that, luckily I have enough inventory in all those cities right now to do what I have to do. I've already looked into ways where I can re-up a lot faster, or have storage units or order from select people that send me wholesale boxes. I just love the treasure hunting aspect of it and like never knowing what you're gonna find. Right now I'm not doing much of that because I'm kind of on the move right now but usually I go to estate sales and all types of shops everywhere.

That's interesting, I never really thought about how resellers collect their inventory, So that's super cool. Aside from being the absolute king of the vintage scene, you also shoot some of the most amazing photos. Do you ever fuse your interests together or do you try to keep them as separate entities?

In terms of mixing it all together, I feel like the good thing is at the end of the day, they're more so all connected. They compliment each other because for example, a lot of the talent I work with actually like my styling. So they sometimes prefer that I style and shoot. Now I get opportunities as well for me to do collaborations because I’ve mixed into my grid with my work. So I think at the end of the day, it all goes together.

As a POC curator and creator, I have to ask, what has your experience been like in a place like NYC? In other words, to this date, what has been the biggest obstacle that you’ve faced and how did you conquer it?

I had a big obstacle at the beginning, especially when I first started, people in New York think I'm Middle Eastern a lot. It's also been weird because when I was younger I looked a lot more Hispanic. In recent years, my appearance has changed a lot. So now my identity is kind of in a crisis because nobody ever knows what I am, people always ask me if I’m Brazilian or European.

When I’d be in certain circles or certain events, it was hard for me to really relate to people or talk to people, or fit in because sometimes I didn't feel like we could see eye to eye because we come from different backgrounds. On top of that, I felt like because maybe people saw me dress a certain way and hanging out with a certain group of people, they were thinking that I already came from the industry when in reality, it was kind of the opposite. I was never in the industry or wanted to be in it. I just kind of ended up doing what I do, which I love, but it was a 360 flip story.

Going off of that, like in the complete opposite direction, like what does the pinnacle of success look like to you in your chosen industry?

Recently, I guess also with the pandemic and everything, it's different when you're in the middle of it versus when you take a step out and look from the outside again. I've only been in New York for three and a half years and then before that I was still in school. So in my career, I've done big things but the first two years I was in New York, I just kept putting my mental health aside and grinding myself against the floor, you know, just throwing myself on the ground, and putting everything on top of that and like not sleeping.

But then, what I've realized is like, you know, a lot of those things catch up with you later and you can't really live that way because it never ends. There's always more and more. For the whole of 2019 and during 20, I really worked a lot on my mental health and self care. This year, I just realized how I was doing my things in 2018 and around that period, rallying myself into the ground. I've just been putting more importance on my peace and tranquility and enjoying that.

I feel that a hundred percent! I used to overwork myself but then I realized that I needed to place boundaries on myself to take care myt wellbeing. Could you describe your ideal world?

My ideal world, I mean, I feel the world right now is far from ideal. I can't even imagine what an ideal world would look like. I feel like sometimes people just get too lost and involve themselves with everybody else's ideal worlds and then they mess up their own. I feel like humans are too complex and they'll never be a full piece or understanding when everybody has different backgrounds and experiences in life.

What’re your plans for the rest of 2021? Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

I can't really give you specifics because I kind of like to keep that to myself. I mean, you never know what happens in life, you know? You could be here or gone tomorrow and by that time, five years from now, I'd probably be turning almost 28 or 29. So hopefully by then I'll be settled down a bit more. In terms of my business life, I hope I’m doing things on a much bigger scale but you never really know what else will get thrown in the bucket along the way.

Going off of that, like in the complete opposite direction, like what does the pinnacle of success look like to you in your chosen industry?

Recently, I guess also with the pandemic and everything, it's different when you're in the middle of it versus when you take a step out and look from the outside again. I've only been in New York for three and a half years and then before that I was still in school. So in my career, I've done big things but the first two years I was in New York, I just kept putting my mental health aside and grinding myself against the floor, you know, just throwing myself on the ground, and putting everything on top of that and like not sleeping.

But then, what I've realized is like, you know, a lot of those things catch up with you later and you can't really live that way because it never ends. There's always more and more. For the whole of 2019 and during 20, I really worked a lot on my mental health and self care. This year, I just realized how I was doing my things in 2018 and around that period, rallying myself into the ground. I've just been putting more importance on my peace and tranquility and enjoying that.

I feel that a hundred percent! I used to overwork myself but then I realized that I needed to place boundaries on myself to take care myt wellbeing. Could you describe your ideal world?

My ideal world, I mean, I feel the world right now is far from ideal. I can't even imagine what an ideal world would look like. I feel like sometimes people just get too lost and involve themselves with everybody else's ideal worlds and then they mess up their own. I feel like humans are too complex and they'll never be a full piece or understanding when everybody has different backgrounds and experiences in life.

What’re your plans for the rest of 2021? Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

I can't really give you specifics because I kind of like to keep that to myself. I mean, you never know what happens in life, you know? You could be here or gone tomorrow and by that time, five years from now, I'd probably be turning almost 28 or 29. So hopefully by then I'll be settled down a bit more. In terms of my business life, I hope I’m doing things on a much bigger scale but you never really know what else will get thrown in the bucket along the way.