Identity, Diaspora and Amerikan Dreamin'

Can you tell me about your upbringing here? Where did you grow up and what was it like?

I was born in The Bronx. I feel like I always got to say that first. I was born in The Bronx, New York, Tracy Towers to be exact but I was raised in Lefrak City, Queens. I'm firstborn generation. First person out the family to be born in America. My parents are originally from Ghana, West Africa, a village called Mampong. So as far as my upbringing is concerned, it was very interesting. It was definitely a blessing. You get a little bit about how your parents grew up; the language, the college, the food but I was raised in a small project, so I got to see a little bit about that, growing up with my friends, playing basketball in the back and just seeing other things that come along with Lefrak City. So it was interesting.

Was your household very traditional Ghanaian growing up?

It was traditional, I don't know about very traditional, but definitely traditional. Traditional in terms of food, mannerisms, language, but my dad came here before my mother did, so I feel like he was already getting inundated to that western lifestyle. The way he talked, the way he dressed, suit and tie kind of thing, even the music. He'll bump Celine Dion, Bob Marley, Kenny Rogers, Kenny Pendergrass, Aaliyah, Michael Jackson used to spin in the house. So, I grew up on all of those sounds.

Was it a difficult adjustment going from your environment at home to out in New York?

Not really, because when you are born into it, you don't think about it too much. I think it honestly becomes more difficult as you get older and then you just start to understand your surroundings and how this world is. Growing up, it wasn't really difficult. Of course, when I went to school, my last name is not easy to pronounce, so I got called names and all this other ignorant stuff. It didn't really hit me, it didn't really affect me too hard because it was just us kids playing around, they shoot jokes and I’ll shoot jokes back at them. I think what was weird though is when I go back to Ghana, it was different for me because I didn't know Ghana like that growing up. When I go back home, the kids didn't understand a word I was saying.

And it's like, "Who's this guy?" A lot of them didn't even think I was from Ghana. So, growing up you know you're African, you've got the last name, the language is different, but when it's time to go back home to Ghana where your parents are from, you think it's going to be easier, you know, and it's like they see you as an alien.

Yeah, I know that all too well. It's that feeling of your identity being caught in the middle.

Yeah. It's crazy because I went to Ghana last December and I was eating at some local pub. It was like four old ladies, it was mad nice, they made me some food and stuff like that, and they didn't know I was from there. They were talking in the language, and I said something back. It's like "You're from Ghana? Your skin looks different." I’d never heard that before. So even things down to the skin, the hairline, the features, you would think that your blood from Ghana, but even in Ghana they didn't see me as a Ghanaian, so it is interesting.

As you got older, did you feel like your identity was with one culture more than the other?

No, not at all. I honestly felt like it was a balance and that's where that whole in between comes in. I was more lost in Ghana than I was in The States as far as identity is concerned. Because I had a lot of friends growing up. I think being born into that in between, you just learn to accept it. But as you get older, there's certain experiences that kind of trigger certain things, right? It was definitely weird, but my upbringing was fun at the same time, so I just accepted all of it.

Can you tell me about how those experiences led to Kwasi Paul?

Growing up I talked to a lot of people that were also firstborn generation and the great thing about New York is that everybody comes from somewhere. So, you have conversations with people, that say, "Oh yeah, I drank Milo growing up, my parents were this and my parents do that. My parents told me to come home at 8 o’clock as well." Whether they're from India or Jamaica or other parts of Africa. So, you think, oh, all right, there's other people like me. It's that duality, I think, that I really, really appreciated. Being able to be inundated in this whole different culture in a foreign world and just being able to step out the crib and be in another culture too, you know what I'm saying?

It was a lot of things that happened in Lefrak City growing up. Me playing basketball, me seeing things growing up, seeing things I'm not supposed to see growing up, so a lot of that really shaped my experience and how that led to Kwasi Paul. I really just wanted to tell that story and see if I could create a space for other people that can relate, other people that have these conversations. So that's really how that came about.

And the brand name itself?

Kwasi Paul is my father and my mother's name put together. And I just found out not too long ago, my grandfather was also called Paul. So Kwasi is my dad's name, Paulina is my mom's name. They're my biggest inspirations. My mother, she went to FIT, she was a designer, so I think that's where I got it from. Whereas my father, he's just real eclectic within that culture, music, things of that nature. But Kwasi Paul is also a play-on-play because Kwasi is the origin of what somebody from Ghana would be called if they're born on Sunday while Paul is such a westernized name. So, I picked those two words because I wanted to have that play-on-play feel but also commemorate my parents and their influence on me and the brand.

Do you take different elements of inspiration from each country? Is it like cuts and silhouettes from one culture and fabrics from another? Or is it a mix?

It's definitely a mix, but I'll look at how my ancestors dressed in Ghana to funerals or weddings, things of that nature. The material was always so heavy, and I was always interested in that material, which is Kente. So that's what I use in my brand right now. When it comes to the design aspect, I'm really inspired by the materials from Ghana, West Africa. When it comes to styling, I say I take a little bit of both. So the way we dress in Ghana, whether it's like years ago, even now, I take that inspiration. But how I grew up, how I've seen my parents dress in the '80s, '90s, I also pull inspiration from that. I love nostalgia-ism. I'm pulling inspiration from the hip hop era, the millennial era, everything that had some type of effect on my upbringing, I'm pulling style inspiration from that.

I took a lot of inspiration from my parent’s photo albums when they first came to America, even down to the colors and I mixed it with fabric and some styles. So just taking a little bit of everything and just mix it up to stir the pot. And then as far as the storytelling is concerned, I would say that kind of jumps back and forth and then I just try to find the means of meeting in the middle and pulling a little bit from both worlds.

How important is it to you having your clothes made in Ghana and to continue having them made in Ghana?

It's very important because if you walk through a store right now, you don't see a lot of clothes that have a “made in Africa” or “made in Ghana” tag. I've never came across a clothing line in The States that had a “made in Ghana tag”. So for me it is very important because that is a huge part of the brand within itself. I was born in America, but my bloodline runs through Ghana, West Africa, and we have so much rich, luxury culture, so I felt like it was best to really express that through the labels and it's part of our story. So made in Ghana is super important for me. Absolutely. I feel like if it was made anywhere else, it wouldn't be as authentic.

I was born in America, but my bloodline runs through Ghana, West Africa

Can you tell me about the campaign imagery for this collection?

Yeah, Amerikan Dreamin’. That was a fun one. When I went back to Ghana when I was younger, a lot of people had their ideas on what America was like, and they used to call it “the land of milk and honey.” I remember my cousin saying, “I want to go to America, because I heard all the pavements are made with money." Growing up in Lefrak City, Queens, it's definitely far from that. But even watching TV, they still portray that American dream of Hollywood, what life is like in the city, so I wanted to put all of that together and that's how we came up with Amerikan Dreamin’. So, I took inspiration from how people view Western consumerism back from where I am from and the balance between what's realistic and what the fantasy is as far as what an American dream is supposed to be.

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District Vision x New Balance: Eco-Friendly Trail Runners

Fashion

After 30 years and over 100 cult fragrances, COMME DES GARÇONS PARFUMS 1994–2025 BY SIMONETT & BAER launches this month

December 17, 2024

“I have to add that the topic is, of course, an irrational one, because it's not art and it's not fashion. It has to do with scent, which is something in the air,” explains Dino Simonett, renowned art-book maker and designer/publisher of the new COMME des GARÇONS x SIMONETT & BAER book, which details 30 years of CDG perfumes.

“The moment you smell something is irrational,” he continues. “This book transports you and brings you to the idea behind the perfumes. People have gotten thousands of art catalogues from me, but this fucking perfume thing really drives people a little bit crazy, you know? Because everybody has this bottle; and that bottle smells like this on them; and this bottle I need; and all the memories and everything. I like it a lot that we made this.”

As fans and family of the world’s coolest brand prepared to gather at Dover Street Parfums Market in Paris to celebrate the launch of the book, our Editor-At-Large Paige Silveria shared some coffee and cigarettes with Simonett to discuss his wild trajectory, making books with Joseph Beuys and Tilda Swinton early on, and the importance of nonconformal thinking.

By Paige Silveria

This fucking perfume thing really drives people a little bit crazy.

Paige Silveria: Tell me about yourself. You make books.

Dino Simonett: My books are my art. Each book might be a painting or sculpture. And you should not do the same sculpture all the time. When you hike somewhere, you never should go the same way back home — this is something my mother taught me when I was young. In the same way, it's boring to make the same stuff all the time. So I try to find a way to invent my own language.

PS: This book you’ve made is really beautiful.

DS: It’s hyperrealistic larger-than-life images of boxes and flacons in an endless row presented on paper the thickness of a children’s book.

PS: I loved how it said in the press release that you woke up one Sunday morning and the idea for the book suddenly came to you.

DS: The backstory is that Remo Hallauer [COO of COMME des GARÇONS International] is a true book lover. We met at the Offprint book fair in Paris. And one day, shortly after peak COVID, this email came from him asking if I’d think about a possible collaboration with one of the young stars here — and no hard feelings, but it didn’t work out. So then, as it is in life, which is the essential thing, you have to have an idea. And most of the time, they’re not good enough. You have to have another and another and then you go, Ah ha! Perfume.

PS: And you’d already been pretty familiar with their fragrances?

DS: I’ve known this stuff since the beginning. I wore the first perfume they created. It was part of my life all the time, and I thought, It's so funny. There’s a connection with how I make the books: like two, three books a year, all collaborations and each is different. Just like their perfumes. So I immediately texted Remo.

PS: And what perfect timing, with the 30-year anniversary.

DS: Yes, but this was two years ago or so. I hadn’t had the jubilee in mind. It might not look like much, but there was a lot of work to do.

PS: Many of the advertisements and images weren’t archived, physically or digitally, right? You had to search all over for a good portion of the material?

DS: Well we also had to wait for the official deal to go through in the beginning. Adrian Joffe [President of COMME des GARÇONS International and Dover Street Market International] wanted to do it but he didn’t have the mind space at the time; they were about to open the Dover Street Market here in Paris. So we were on our own for a bit, developing the project from zero. We looked all over the Internet and tried to create the chronology. I had a young guy helping me. He kept reminding me to be patient and to continue to work on growing the book. The door was open, but we had to wait in front of the next room. So we took little steps to prepare ourselves. And stuff slowly worked out.

PS: And thank God for the Internet.

DS: Yes, because as you mentioned, there was no archive. We thought surely they’d have something in the basement. But no, that didn’t exist. At one point they sent us a list of all the perfumes so we had a clear checklist to manage. I had to become an expert.

PS: There are so many, over 100?

DS: Yeah, and at one point the CDG team was activated. It was like a machine and in the spring suddenly a load of stuff was coming. First we had to grow the grapes, then make the wine and then the grappa. And at the end, it's a really strong grappa. And so things came together, and then one day Adrian said, “All is fine, but Rei [Kawakubo] must now also approve it. This is how the system works.” But nobody had told me! So Remo met with Rei to show her the book.

PS: That’s a bit of pressure!

DS: She could have said no and we’d have to throw everything in the garbage, two years of work. There was indeed a little bit of pressure. But it was fine. She liked the book. Then at the end of this summer we met again and they asked if they could have some of the finished copies on 20 November in Tokyo. I said, “I’m sorry, what?” He was thinking that the book was finished, you know? I told him we still needed a lot of material to finish it. Sometimes it's nice though to have this pressure. It's motivating and thrilling when you finally accomplish it all.

PS: Let’s go back. How did your upbringing inform who you are?

DS: It has to do with nonconformal thinking. Most people think the same. And we’re constantly pressured as well, by everything around us to conform. You have to really fight to keep your head and so I had this upbringing with this rather eccentric mother who was absolutely nonconformistic in every way. She was resolute. Why should we follow the path of the masses? It was never my thing. Voilà.

PS: How were you in school?

DS: I was not so good at school. I was only skateboarding at that time. I was on the Swiss National Team. I even was here in Paris at a European championship when I was 15 at the Trocadero. And my mother said, “You are not going to school anymore. You need an apprenticeship. It makes no sense to send you to school any longer.” I was independent and had my first salary at 16.

PS: What were you doing?

DS: I was a carpenter making tables, chairs, all that stuff. All my friends went to high school with like 16-week holidays, while I had only four. And so it was really, really tough shit for a 16 year old. But I learned two important things. The first one was discipline; seven o'clock each day it started and lasted nine hours. And the second thing was precision; you have to do things right. People always said to me that the apprenticeship was good as I’d really use it for the rest of my life. And I always thought that was such bullshit. But actually, it's kind of true. And so anyways, the moment I finished my apprenticeship, the very last day of the last test, I went on the Interrail for one month and never went back to a carpenter shop.

PS: What’d you do after?

DS: I wrote a letter to this very super famous music guy, Claude Nobs who was organizing the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, telling him I’d like to work there that summer. I mentioned that I’d just finished my apprenticeship for carpentry. He phoned me back immediately after getting the letter. He said, “Oh you’re a carpenter? You can come right now.” He was renovating his apartment in Montreux. So I stayed and worked there alone while he was up at his chalet. I felt like Kevin McCallister from Home Alone in this completely furnished apartment. And then the festival started, and there was this guy from New York doing a large mural painting. It was Keith Haring. I had no idea who he was. We became friends. Then I met George Benson and Herbie Hancock. It started from nothing and then one thing comes, another thing comes, another thing comes. This is how I started, which is maybe not the natural way. But I was following my intuition and taking chances and putting myself out there.

PS: And you're going after what you have a passion for.

DS: I think that’s the best way to live one's life. It was like my own private art school. I met all the guys I was totally hot about. I met Joseph Beuys and told him I wanted to do an art project with him. I got his number and he told me to ask for his assistant. But I took everything for granted, what people said to me. So I had this phone number in Berlin. And I called the guy 20 times until this fucking meeting with Beuys finally happened. And we met and made a small collaboration art magazine called “Quer.” You just have to stick to the stuff.

PS: Wow. You don't still have one of those copies around, do you?

DS: I had one and I brought it to Remo at one of our meetings. Adrian saw it and immediately took it … I hope he gave it back to Remo. Adrian has a pile of my stuff that he wanted to see, so that’s good.

PS: Yeah, of any coffee table in the world for it to be displayed, his is probably in the top 10.

DS: So then I decided my dream was to be a film director. There was a film school in Berlin that I applied to. They only took about 18 people from 600. We waited all week to see this list on the wall for the final call back meeting. And my name wasn’t there. I was like, “Shit!” And then a week later, I received a letter saying I’d been accepted. Later the director told me it was clear enough with my application and the art magazine I’d sent that I’d be accepted. I don’t say this to brag. I say this to tell you that every young person that wants to go somewhere, all they have to do is fight. You have to get out of your house and your small town and your comfort zone and all that shit.

PS: I agree. So you’ve made films?

DS: I made a feature movie and went to the film festival. It was really amazing and everything, but I was not Tarantino, you know? So it’s the last semester and Tilda Swinton is supposed to teach a seminar. I really wanted to attend it. It would be the cherry on top of the cake. Then she postponed it once, then twice. The third time, I’m on the tube and there’s a woman in front of me with a newspaper that says that Tilda’s super mentor, Derek Jarman, had passed away. It’s the very Monday morning that her seminar is set to begin. And I thought, Oh shit. She’s not going to be there. But then she was there after all and it was a fantastic week. There were only five of us students and we all fell in love with her. And she fell in love with us. I’ve known her since.

PS: I can only imagine. How’d you make the transition into books?

DS: You have to find out what you're really good at. I had long discussions with this guru, an old guy who was a very diligent, very bright guy. I was really miserable, feeling directionless. He asked me why I wasn’t continuing with filmmaking. And I couldn't give him an answer. Then he said right into my face, “Probably it’s because you’re not good enough.” The message was one-hundred percent received. It was a relief; I'm not a bad person. This guy told me the truth, and I could accept it. And when you can do this, you can figure out what you actually want to do, what you’re actually good at. I started making books. I made one with another film director. And we visited Tilda at her hotel, bringing one to her as a present. As we’re knocking, I thought to myself, If I did another book focused on people in this business, it’d have to be her. And she opens the door, looks at the book and says, “Oh, I would like to have a book like this on me.”

PS: These situations seem unreal.

DS: I spent five years on her book, which was an enormous success. It included stills from all her films and launched it in different cities. Fantastic shit.

PS: And now you’ve just released this soon-to-be iconic CDG book.

DS: I've learned to be patient; things can take you years. This book with Adrian and Remo took two years and I didn’t even know if it was going to be approved! Follow your dreams as much as you can. It's not so important which dream it is exactly. If I see a step in front of me, I try to take each chance I get. This is what I wish for everybody, in whatever situation you find yourself, start to do something with nothing. This book started with just a simple idea. You can not find anything like this on the Internet, this compilation, this narrative. It’s something we had to bring together with enormous work. And here we are. I think in our digital, splattered times sometimes you have to make something which is real. That you can sit with and focus on in silence and really take time alone with it.