God's Favorite: Praying

It's the perfectly ironic kind of post-internet branding that people online, filled with anxiety and sick of the influencer economy that runs on curated positivity, just can't get enough of. If you don't believe in God, or Gaia, or anything anymore... Convert. Accept Praying as your Savior. Psalm 37:3-4:

"Delight yourself in the Brand, and it will give you the desires of your heart."

Started by longtime friends Skylar Newman and Alexander Haddad, Praying has figured out a way to create a viral brand that's actually in on the joke. Whether they're printing "Goodbye Horses" on a crewneck or "Brangelina 2005-2016" on a bag, they've managed to parlay the things they find fucked up or funny (or sometimes both), into a successful brand, one that's constantly selling out their drops. In under two years, they've developed a cult following that includes perhaps the mainstream world's biggest Gen Z tastemaker, Olivia Rodrigo, and partnered on an exclusive collaboration with SSENSE. And they've done it all while still maintaining their outsider ethos. Simply: they've blown up, without selling out.

"For us, we like that the brand is ambiguous," says Newman about the various interpretations of their slogans and designs. "We're not trying to preach anything to anyone. It's funny, because you can take from it what you want."

"Right, like 'Goodbye Horses' is also just a funny saying," adds Haddad.

It's also the Q Lazzarus song from the infamous scene in Silence of the Lambs, when a serial killer, with a hostage elsewhere inside his home, applies lipstick while asking himself in the mirror, "Would you fuck me?" The song plays lightly in the background as he answers, "I'd fuck me. I'd fuck me so hard."

It's this type of duality—the kind that nods to Christianity, campy horror films and pop cultural icons of the past (like the aforementioned Brangelina, as well as Princess Diana and Twilight's Bella and Edward)—that makes Praying feel simultaneously nostalgic and distinctly modern, in a way that's emblematic of what everyone is craving in 2021. There's a level of irony, and despondency, but also, maybe, earnestness for the past. Looking back, things always seem a little easier... Like, remember Beanie Babies? But when you look a little bit closer, life has always been filled with anxiety, whether that of your parents not buying you the Princess Di purple bear collector's item, or the reality of her death. Things have always been pretty depressing, so why not have a laugh?

"A lot of our designs are just things we find funny, or the stuff that Alex and I talk about and joke about when we hang out. We never really thought they would resonate with people like this outside of our friend group," explains Newman.

But they have. And now the brand's biggest problem is keeping up with orders.

As of now, it's still just Newman and Haddad designing, producing and even shipping everything. They have plans to expand the operation, and their collections, but always want to remain true to the brand:
 

"There's just something about printing something straight on a garment," says Newman. "It's simple, it's funny, it works."

Clearly, they're right. Haddad, who comes from a background in fine art, and Newman, who spent time working on music merchandise, have combined those worlds to create Praying. The pieces function in the same way merch does—simple slogans, a kind of billboard to express what you like—but have the same subjectivity in meaning as modern art. We think we know what Jenny Holzer means when she writes "Protect Me From What I Want," but the reality is, it's more about what I'm thinking, feeling. The same goes for what you read when you see a Praying hoodie: "You Don't Matter, Give Up," or "You Matter, Don't Give Up." The reality there is that it's ambiguity is the best—and probably most saleable—part. I'm inclined to read it as a negative, a funny take on the anxiety we're all feeling in the midst of the pandemic. But I've seen influencers post selfies in the sweatshirts, encouraging their followers to "Keep going, even on your roughest days."

And that makes me laugh. It's like it says in Nehemiah 8:10:

"Do not grieve, for the joy of the Brand is your strength."