Ephemera

More recently, he’s become that of a muse after going viral on Watching New York’s Tik Tok and Instagram. Since then, he’s caught the eye of the masses and has been carefully constructing his upcoming capsule collection that's set to drop in the fall. 

office caught up with the designer to talk about his most recent designs, his upcoming collection, his journey, and more.

Check out the interview below.

You’re like this day-to-night enigma floating around the streets of NYC. How would you introduce yourself to anyone that hasn’t found their way to you yet?

I suppose, my ethos and beliefs seep into all aspects of my life. For example, fashion has always been a huge component of my identity. Maybe that explains that whole blow-up, I guess. But across all art forms, I try to capture that same personality and look. So I’m a very intense and cohesive creator and that's what I would say.

Speaking of going viral, some people blow up for some pretty ridiculous things but your vibe and energy were the catalysts that propelled that video. Tell me, what was going on in your head when you suddenly went viral for all of the right reasons?

We live in a generation where there are so many ways you can get viral and it's just a chance thing, perhaps. I blame it on chance and I feel very grateful for what happened.

I was a little bit shell-shocked, I had taken some time to get off of social media because I didn't want to let it change anything about myself. I was so grateful, but at the same time I had to take a step back and be like, ‘well, I guess this is happening,’. But at the end of the day, I was super grateful for the amount of people who resonated with me. Also, the amount of positivity that came through was insane, so many people were messaging me being like, ‘I've been trying to find myself, you make me wanna shake my depression and make me want to strive to be who I am.’ I was just like, these were the nicest things anybody could ever tell you.

Yeah, when that video started circulating, that's all me and my friends could talk about. We were like ‘this guy's so f*cking cool!’

That's crazy! Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, being hooked into the New York scene and its communities have benefited me a lot. But with that said it seems everyone I know here has seen it and been sending love!

Love it. Walk me through the creation of your first design and what was the initial spark behind your creations – where did it all begin? Did you think you’d still be designing?

When I moved to New York City, I had goals of becoming a designer and I thought fashion was where it was gonna be, but I realized that fashion has kind of changed across the board. Looking to do it more as a hobby, I kind of just let life take me in weird places since nothing ever goes the way you plan in life. My first creations would be some clothes and bags, but I started doing jewelry stuff a few years ago and like many things, it stumbled into my lap and I just kinda fell in love with it. I realized that when you consciously know your voice and you're very aware of that, you can move laterally in between different fields and don't let anybody tell you otherwise. You're gonna pick up on things that you love about certain things and things that you don't love, which is part of your artist's voice.

I established my artist's voice during my time in fashion and I knew who I wanted my leaders to be and who my gods were. So I just took that and moved into jewelry and now I've done that same thing and a little bit with sculpture work too. My ethos is contained across all facets, but it's just acknowledging what you like and what you don't like, which I think has helped me with a lot of my designs. Chasing that curiosity keeps me still designing. Also, I was super fortunate to meet Brian Weissman of Brooklyn Metal Works who took me into his studio, nurtured my creativity, and became a mentor of mine.

Yeah, for sure. Your designs have a mixture of playfulness and innovation to them 一 it's a peculiar type of chic glittered over with a forward-thinking mindset. What makes this such an irresistible combination for you and the consumer?

I think all the fostering I've done to become that individual and know the artist's voice 一 I think that's what kind of makes it charismatic. You can be ugly if you want to be ugly and as long as you rock that shit, then people are like, wow, I fuck with ugly. I think a lot of my jewelry looks like something that's been dug out of the earth, but that can be charismatic even though it's not mainstream, there is some honesty and modesty to that.

Amazing. How do you come up with these ideas and how long does one design usually take?

I look towards a lot of textures is what I would say. I love textures and the illusions that go into making textures that are recognized by the eye. I also look towards a lot of deconstruction work. One of my favorite things ever is the anti-fashion movement in the nineties, so I embraced a lot of their gospels, which promotes uniqueness and designing against the grain. I think what goes into a lot of my designs is presenting something different or at least I hope so. Then of course always looking towards heritage. I just finished a piece with somebody who's part Columbian and emeralds are a huge part of their culture. We researched a lot of the indigenous community that his descendants had come from and used that as the base design, and then we had a mutual love for anti-fashion. So we went with an even more unique design.

In general, projects are about two weeks to two months.

How have your designs helped you morph your vision into a living, breathing reality? In other words, when you first started the brand, what was Masahiro LaMarsh thinking?

My designs and my visions are just an extension of myself. Feeling blessed for the reality I’ve worked for. I suppose what I'm fighting for is to have my keep in the design world and introduce my ethos so that my designs and my success go hand in hand. Like, when I create something for the world to see I've won my battle.

I can’t predict how well it’s appraised or received, but it feels like creation is the success. It's the same thing I'd imagine, for when you write. You can't choose who's gonna receive or see what you write, but you're winning because you're pursuing what you want.

Do you see your designs as a way to embody different identities or is it something you want people to wear to encapsulate the outer shell?

So this is an interesting topic because of this whole viral thing. I kind of realized that maybe it is a different identity. I think my designs are the most honest form of myself. They are the purest form of me that exists today. But then I don't think I can keep up with the other identities that are acquired. I was thinking about this last night, I don't think I'm meant to be anything other than the weird creator making those designs. I can't keep up with the idea of being a digital celebrity or If I'm put on this pedestal I have to kind of isolate myself or not be on social media as a face.

You have a lot of designers who like to do a lot of media and can be that public rockstar figure. Unfortunately, I don't think I can be that, I think like I love who I am as a creator and I just l don't have that trait to be so open space. So that's the two personalities that I've been battling with, one that's honest, quiet in the studio, and creating weird things, and then the person that’s being egged on to be more out there to help influence people. It's hard because the whole viral thing was the nicest and I feel so incredibly blessed, but it can put you in this position where you feel pressured to be a certain way to please others.

On the bright side, there are a lot of great designers, especially in the anti-fashion movement that did the least public-facing stuff other than their creations. So they let the creation speak for themselves. That way you only got that honesty. I fuck with that right now, that's like been my closing thoughts on this whole viral thing. I can't change anything about me because then I've lost the reason why it ended up going so well in the first place.

And of course, incredibly honored if anyone out there is wearing my pieces and is identifying with the ethos I’m creating!

Yeah, you have an upcoming capsule collection coming up for fashion week in the fall of this year, what can we expect to see and where are you in the process of each piece?

It's gonna be all of my wildest dreams come true. I do a lot of one-off pieces, so I'd like to consistently do one-off pieces forever, but I would also like to do something that's more publicly available for other people. There's a trick to be said with accessibility because, in my mind, it's immoral to sell a shit ton of the world's resources without being conscious of what you're doing. I think that's how our generation is going to be better is by designers realizing that. So I'm going to do a limited capsule collection. I'm also going to show some of the sculptures that I've been working on. I did a marble sculpting residency in Italy this past year and I learned so much about sculpture work which just pairs nicely with jewelry creation. I'll be displaying sculptures there with this really interesting conceptual brand that I have all mapped out. It should twist everybody's arms appropriately.

So that’s what you gotta look forward to in September. If I can figure out the finances and if I can figure out a space, where it's going to be, it's going to be giving so much. A big thing about this show is going to be the after-party - since it’s all about having fun anyways. I'm working with some of the key figures who run a lot of the club scenes and RA scenes in New York. So I’m hoping for an iconic after-party as well.

Who is the person behind the designs? Give us a little scoop into who you are and where you are when you’re not designing.

As a designer I'm a reflection, or as any artist, I am just a reflection of my upbringing and things that I've been inspired by. So I enjoy the love of dark art, horror, fashion movements, or even these things that are really philosophically and intellectually intriguing. Then I also have a very serious upbringing as a person who's raised by a minority mom, grew up in a very poor environment and to present that, I know I don't really do too many cultural pieces per se, not yet at least, but there's a huge part of me that understands that I am fighting for a lot of biracial people out there who kind of have this like identity journey. It's not so easy, but I can see beauty. Then as a minority in the United States, I'm also fighting for people on the same team, so that's how I view it as a designer. That's what I would like to achieve success across the board and bring everybody up.

When I’m not designing, I’m usually doing activities that reflect these views, like spending time with friends, researching, or partying with a plethora of wonderful communities in the NYC underground.

Where do you hope to take your designs in the near future? What can you tell us about any future collections that you have coming out?

I think I’m gonna have a healthy design house for jewelry and also a great art-house for some of the sculpture work that I wanna do, one day. In the next 10 years, I'll be dedicating my life and my blood and soul to upcoming collections. It's gonna be so good. It's gonna be limited just to be conscious of the world of course, but in the next 10 years, I'm hoping to alter the way that we understand jewelry and consume it, as individuals.

That was sort of my last question unless you wanted to talk about anything else.

Well, if anybody can help with the show, I need a gallery space. That'd be great. Please feel free to reach out. The other thing that I wanna promote is the power of kindness and the pursuit of your own existence and individuality.