Evan Mock, the Jack of All Trades

December 23, 2021

Hailing from Oahu, Hawaii, Evan Mock has cemented himself in the industry, planting seeds everywhere he goes and turning everything he touches into remnants of gold. He’s more than meets the eye, on one day he’s a skater and on another, he’s shooting a campaign or filming the latest episode of Gossip Girl.

The 24-year-old all-star quickly garnered attention from the masses and his motives are complex 一 pinpointing exactly what he does would be a waste of time because come tomorrow, he’ll be doing something completely different.

He’s become something of a visionary all while demonstrating his sheer brilliance through perfecting his craft in everything he does. In recent months, he’s collaborated with top-tier brands, released more pieces under his clothing label, wrapped up filming, and now, he’s become the latest muse for the jewelry company, Pandora.

Interview by Ronald Kahihikolo
Photography by RAYSCORRUPTEDMIND

On the collaboration, Evan revisited his roots in Hawaii 一 fusing his culture and lifestyle to emanate that Aloha spirit that he carries on his shoulders wherever he goes. He hand-selected three charms that perfectly captured his love of adventure 一 painting the picture-perfect days under the Hawaiian sun and melding together the beauty and essence of his memories. You can check out the gift set here.

office, caught up with Evan to discuss his upbringing in Hawaii, his upcoming projects, his latest collaboration with Pandora, and more.

Check out the interview below.

In recent years, you’ve taken up your rightful space in the corners of the entire industry. Talk to me about what goes on in your head on a daily basis and what does the universe of Evan Mock look like right now?

I'm always thinking about the next thing or what I can do to get better at whatever I'm doing at the moment. My brain never shuts off, so it's a curse and it's also helped me in my career, but at the same time, I'm kind of just enjoying being home and just being with family. I think every year it's been a little harder to come back home. It's harder and harder every year to have quality time with my family. It means so much more to me because it's harder for them to come to the east coast and it's a little easier sell for them to get me to come home to Hawaii for the holidays. I’m also working on my tan and having a little downtime. We start back up in January for season two of Gossip Girl. I’m probably gonna have to be in New York for another eight months. So I'm just enjoying being somewhere warm.

You dabble a bit in everything. From skating, photography, designing, acting, to modeling – you’re an absolute all-star in the making. How would you introduce yourself to anyone that hasn’t found their way to you yet?

I'm still figuring it out. I think there are just a couple of different things that are more of a priority, but it's different every day. I have a couple of different things that I'm working on all at the same time and that's kind of how it always has been, so I don't know how to explain it, but I sometimes tell people that I’m still figuring it out. I get inspired pretty easily and I watch a lot of documentaries, a lot of films about people and their lives. So I get inspired to see how hard they work to get where they are now 一 which fires me up to do the things that I do every day and push and I keep working towards a goal, whatever it may be.

How would you say your upbringing in Oahu, Hawaii influenced your current values and lifestyle?

Growing up here has taught me so many things from respect to lifestyle, to outlook, to motivation to go out into the world and eventually hopefully be able to pay for a house here because it's not getting cheaper 一 but it's taught me so much. The people that I was around were typically a lot older, like my cousins and even friends were a lot older. So I kind of grew up around people who were kind of already figuring out what they wanted to do. So I think it jump-started me into thinking that I had to get an early start on whatever I was doing. At the time it was just surfing and skating and they were doing the same thing as well so it helped me Excel fast.

How do you emanate that aloha spirit in a city that can eat you up in the blink of an eye?

It takes a fair amount of years to realize what that spirit is exactly. Coming back once or twice a year helps to refresh your personality and your outlook on life because you can get lost in the city. It’ll eat you up and it has, I’ve allowed it to, but as long as you're still in touch with your roots, I think it's nice to have a refresher. People are really surprised when you treat them a certain way when they haven't had that. Especially in this time as well, I think it's much more valued because we're going through a rough time over the last couple of years. I think when people feel that love even if you may have just met them or you've known them for a while, they’ll always remember that. So I think if you can have those refresher trips and come back home for the holidays it’ll always remind you how to treat people again. I think this makes it a lot easier to deal with the city.

Yeah. I can relate to all of that. Whenever I come back home, I feel like it grounds me and re-centers my inner being. Then when it comes time to return to the city I can tolerate it and handle it.

I mean, you can see from even the way they walk from here in Hawaii compared to NYC, it's such a different change of pace. I think it's pretty much the polar opposite of Hawaii. I mean, I think the reason I love New York so much is because it is such a polar opposite of Hawaii and it was something that I didn't grow up around. It's also kind of how my brain works as well, like, we're doing this interview right now, but I'm looking at the waves and seeing which way the wind direction is coming and seeing if the waves are good.

The city is nice because there's always something to do and you can have your schedule and you can go do it. I just love feeling productive throughout the day, I tried to figure out how I could be the most productive and it wasn't necessarily work productive, It was more just like maximizing my day. I would go surfing in the morning and come back, do school, eat at home and then go to the skate park and probably surf before dark. It was just like, those were the things that kept me inspired. I was also just around a lot of my heroes at the time, because Hawaii is a place where the surfing world is kind of a hub. So that pushed me a lot too, just seeing my heroes in the surfing and skate world, being able to surf with them and see how they operate and how they are as a person.

Speaking of New York City, let’s talk about your role in the reboot of Gossip Girl. seeing as this is your first acting gig, How did you mentally prepare yourself to embody a role that can justly be labeled as a polar opposite from a Hawaiian lifestyle?

I think the weirdest thing for me during filming was acting like I was in a school because I was homeschooled my whole life. Obviously, you don't wear a uniform if you're homeschooled, but it was interesting. I mean the whole thing was such an experience because I’ve never gotten anywhere close to doing something like that before. I don't know how much mental preparation I had going into it because I didn't know what to expect at all. I was kind of just keeping every door open and not, you know, thinking it was gonna be a certain way. I was kind of just taking it day by day. I think meeting the cast and some of the crew before we started was a little precursor in how people are and working with them.

So it was nice to be able to hang out with the cast and go out with them. It was kind of like a crazy COVID time during that time. So we would, we mostly just hang out at each other's house. So that made me feel so much more comfortable going into it because they all knew that I hadn't acted before and I think they kind of fell for me because they were in that position once in my life. So it was cool that I felt that they had my back straight off of the jump.

Aside from all of that, you recently partnered with Pandora to host the brand’s relaunch of the Pandora ME Collection in Miami. Paint a picture of the night for anyone that didn’t get to attend and what were some of the standout pieces on display?

I had a lot of Pandora on and I had the pearls on, my girlfriend had my charm on, some bracelets, and some rings and it was just good vibes. I had a good crew, we got on a boat, just had drinks, and just hung out. I think that's kind of how I've decided to learn to enjoy places, if I have a good crew around me, I think anywhere you go would be fun. Especially if you're on vacation in Miami, you kind of know the deal during art Basel. It's crazy. It was cool to see Sabrina again, I've seen Sabrina on multiple different occasions now, so it's nice to revamp our hang out again, but it was fun. They know how to throw a party, they know the right place and they know the right people to invite. So it was nice that we got to hang out again.

You’ve also been branded as Pandora's latest muse, how did you conceptualize your vision and capture the essence of your Hawaiian roots for the gift set?

The first time I met Sabrina, I think it was my birthday. I went into the Pandora Soho location on Broadway and she kind of set out a couple of different options for this charm that we made. I kind of wanted to capture things that remind me of Hawaii or life in general. I was thinking more of a travel set to have wherever you are and so that it could kind of relate to your trips. So I had a camera, a van, and a Palm tree. I also helped design the packaging for it. So it was all embossed like a Palm tree. Then I was there for a signing and I had my picture taken and it was put on a box. So yeah, it took a few tries to get the right one, but it ended up looking, alright. For the first time, it looked like I could write something because I'm left-handed and my hand doesn't flow as great as if you're a righthander. My hands are always in the ink, smashing it everywhere.

Yes. I love that. You've also been super busy this year or honestly like the past two years. You've just been doing everything. What’s next on your agenda? Anything you can let us in on?

Well, right now I’m kind of just enjoying my time off. What I know for sure is next, we're starting back up for season two of Gossip Girl in January, so I'm just kind of mentally preparing myself. I think we're all getting into our characters a lot more now. So I think I've been kind of thinking about what we can do this year or this season. Then you know, obviously setting goals for yourself, which I still haven't finished my list for 2022. I'm just excited to eventually get back into the workflow of things 一 what's next? Who knows? To be honest, I'm still just enjoying the things that I guess I’m now known for, but I think, I’m just trying to figure out how I can get better at what I do at all times.

But like I said, my brain never really turns off. So it's always about thinking how you could be better, you know, how you can tweak the things you need in life, the things you don't need in life. It's different every day. I get inspired easily, so it could be, you know, I could get really into chess like everyone did or I could design a water slide. The Mattel monster truck that I just designed was something of a bucket list for me just because it was the truck that I had in Hawaii and it was the truck that I sold to move to California. So it was like a nice little Check off the list. So I guess what's next is just to keep inspiring.

Lastly, What’re some of your go-to spots when you’re back home?

When you say go-to spots, I just think instantly of restaurants, but I live in the east village and I'm a skateboarder. So you would mostly try to find me at Tomkins. It's just easy. It's close to my house. Tomkins is fun to stretch your legs and go skating with your friends, I don't have a go-to spot. I think I just have general areas because I like riding my bike around everywhere, either skating or riding my bike. I think that's why I like New York so much because it kind of reminds me of the landscape or the vicinity of how close everything is in Hawaii.

So the fact that you can do that in New York is such a big thing for me. You never know who you're gonna see on your way to somewhere else. You have a whole set schedule and then that whole thing goes to shit because you're just enjoying wherever life takes you. If you don't have anything to do that day, you're just going with the flow. I think why I like New York so much is because that's what I do here in Hawaii, so there's not necessarily a certain spot. I think it's just New York and as a whole.

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.

Fashion

Milli Point Two: Day Two, Star-Studded Misfire

Fashion

Heron Preston Launches his Long Awaited “Orange Label”

The labels themselves have a rich history; first introduced in 2016 as part of the “UNIFORM” exhibition, a collaboration with the NYC Department of Sanitation. Heron has since recovered deadstock labels from that project, breathing new life into them for the collection. While the exact number of remaining labels is unclear, there are only a few hundred left, and once they are gone, the project will come to an end.

The t-shirts themselves are crafted from 8oz, garment-dyed heavyweight cotton and come in two classic colorways: solid white and solid black. There are no graphics or designs—just clean, blank surfaces. Made from 100% recycled cotton sourced from waste fibers collected during cotton yarn production, these shirts reflect Heron’s commitment to sustainability. Each t-shirt is unique, with the label hand-stamped with the L.E.D. logo, the date of purchase, “Made in USA,” and a unit number, ensuring that no two pieces are the same. Only 300 t-shirts will be produced, making this a rare and limited edition release on ledstudio.com. A portion of the proceeds from the collection will benefit the DSNY’s Sanitation Foundation, the nonprofit partner of the Department of Sanitation.