The Science Behind Evan Mock's Met Gala Look with Head of State

May 03, 2022

The first Monday in May, otherwise known as the Met Gala serves as a special time for everyone. Whether you're a stylist assistant running up and down the elevator of the Mark Hotel, tweeting critiques from the comfort of your own home, or you're an atendee, like Evan Mock, a skater turned actor from Hawaii — this day represents a look into America's fine appreciation over art and fashion.

In it's second installment of In America: An Anthology of Fashion, the Met's Costume Institute exhibition returns with a cherished theme: Gilded Glamour. In an age where structured sillouttes, detailed craftsmanship, and a stifling excesss of commodity illustrated the style of it's time, Evan Mock, who tuned to the red carpet with his signature pink do' observed the theme and showcased timeless yet subtle glamour in an unorthdox way. In a sea full of signature black suits seen in meanswear, Evan's disruption came donned in a Head Of State custom cream yellow corset and pantsuit paired with a pearl muslin neck ruffle.

Interview by Tiana Randall
Photos by Sophia Wilson

When it came to sourcing Evan's custom look, Head of State designer Taofeek Abijako says "Evan, a kid from Hawaii — You can't really find any reference of someone like that during the 18th Century that fitted the theme of the Gilded Glamour." Through this, the reimagination of what this time would look like for a kid of color who often prefers street-skating over custom jewels came together to create a world where he could enjoy both. From there, the incorporation of his youthful and genderless aura became the main muse for his look. As he was encased in a structured corset, the pieces pierced to his torso focused on adhering to the true shape of his form, while the borders and fringes of his look curved outward, creating a divergence in shape and silloutte.

Taofeek, who was recently nominated for a CFDA award, is known for his larger than life sillouettes and feminine form comes together with Evan's stylist, Taylor Okata to reimagine gilded glamour through lens of Evan's eye.

In an exclusive interview below, office was able to sit down with Head Of State designer and Evan Mock's lead stylist, Taylor Okata to dissect the science behind his look.

Head of State was started at such a young age, at 17. Do you remember where your head was at that time, and what you were really into?

Taofeek Abijako — It's a good story, I was trying to raise funding for a specific project. So I started off pretty much making t-shirts and hoodies and basic wardrobe essentials. Although I had a much bigger plan to make way more complicated pieces, I had to pretty much take the mini baby steps at that age, because that was my senior year in high school. I didn't have enough money to be able to properly construct a garment. But eventually the brand, just season by season, evolved to what it is today, which is way more sophisticated pieces, but also wearable.

Lagos is home to you. How do we see different components of Lagos in your current pieces?

TA — In terms of Lagos, I was born there and I moved in 2010, and last collection, which was called "Homecoming,"was actually dedicated to this major festival that took place in Lagos in 1977. I've heard so many stories about that festival and in a way, it's me lingering on this nostalgia of growing up in Lagos also made it easier for me to be able to reference what happened back home. I saw what I referenced and what people were wearing. But I pretty much didn't want to reference the literal traditional African wear, so what I decided to do was actually take the silhouette in West African wear and marry it with more Western European wear. And that's much how I came about referencing Lagos specifically. But my latest collection was actually me paying homage to FESTAC 77.

Taylor, how did you learn about Taofeek's work, and how did you come together to create this world for Evan's Met Gala look?

Taylor Okata — I first got introduced to the brand, I actually believe it was probably Lindsey [Okubo], who had told me to keep an eye out for the brand and for Taofeek's last show, which was beautiful and stunning. And so I had already known of his work just purely off of his last collection, and so when it came time for the Met Gala, thankfully, Evan's manager had said, "What about Taofeek?" I had just talked to him at Evan's birthday party, and I was like, "That's a brilliant idea. Can you connect me immediately?" And that's how we started working together.

Taofeek, I feel like a lot of your looks in the past have been quite feminine in structure, but with very bold colors. How are you envisioning Evan for this Met Gala? Will he be tapping to a more feminine look or are you envisioning something completely new?

TA— Pretty much, when Taylor and I started talking, I was like, "Hey, I have an idea of where my head is at for Evan." Because in a way, when I knew I was making a piece for Evan, I think about Evan as a character and where he fits within this theme of Gilded Glamour, which is 18th Century fashion. And in all these images I could find of men during that time period, they were all dressed like butlers. They were all dressed in the traditional black suit and a white shirt. And in a way Evan doesn't fit that, just him being Evan, a kid from Hawaii — You can't really find any reference of someone like that during the 18th Century that fitted the theme of the Gilded Glamour.

So, in a way, we started talking about how can we incorporate his youthful energy. The way you think about youth, you think about counterculture, you think about someone who wasn't doing whatever it is that's traditional to what's happening during that time period. So in a way, Taylor and I started talking and he sent me a bunch of references and stuff with the corsets and a lot of beautiful images that spark my imagination, and we're able to put a little twist and make it suit what the 18th Century Gilded Glamour theme was and make something way more counterculture, I would say. And something that doesn't fit within what you would expect a man to wear during that time period. That's how we give birth to Evan's look. Taylor can touch on that, but that's pretty much how we came about Evan's look.

TO— Taofeek's work is already amazing, and to his point of me just wanting to make sure that it's very true to Evan being young, a skater, coming from the beach, and we're both from O'ahu, every time I dress him I always approach it from context. I want to fulfill the assignment, but I also want to fulfill the assignment for my client, and so it needs to make sense for him, and that's why him and I do such a good job together. It's because we always find that balance of fulfilling what the context is, but also staying true to who he is, because he already has an innate sense of style. He already has this effortless cool about him that nobody needs to touch or mess with.

And so when I started to think about the Gilded Age and the theme of Gilded Glamour, and because Taofeek already does such beautiful feminine pieces and garments, why don't we take a twist on it? And Evan's the type of person that can really carry that genderless definition of what somebody has to wear, even in today's society. And so that's really where I started to pull references from and wanted to push Evan into that realm of taking a risk. It's probably the biggest red carpet in the world, really, and so it's like, why not do it for the Met?

The Gilded age was really a time that made sure that brown kids like us and black kids like Taofeek didn't progress during this time, so for us to really come through and rep like this is so sick

How many revisions were there until you got to the final look? And how much directorial say did Evan have? I know you said you wanted to meet him in the middle, but I wanted to know what he was specifically looking for when crafting the look.

TO— I mean, when I talked to him about it— When it comes to big things like, for instance, the Met, he really trusts me, which I'm really grateful for. He knows that I know him really well. And I just told him, I said, "This is what I was thinking." And then Taofeek had sent over a number of sketches, not a ton, but sent it to me also so quickly it was insane. Say, six variations of looks, six looks that Evan could do. And the one that I really liked out of those sketches was what I presented to Evan. And I was like, "This is where I think we should go, but here's the other options that Taofeek also sketched and can also do." And Evan agreed and was like, "Let's go there."

TA—It was actually so effortless. I found it right away. I literally just sketched it and I was bombarding Taylor with a bunch of texts going, "Hey, this is it." But right away. It was actually so easy right away. We all agreed on one favorite look. There was no back and forth whatsoever, it was like, "We like this over this." It was so neutral and Taylor made my life so much easier, to be honest. And then Evan also having that cool factor, made it so much easier for us to arrive at one conclusive decision.

TO— Even the fittings went really well, because also Evan just has a very easy body type to dress when it comes to existing garments and samples and patterns. And he just wears everything so effortlessly that the couple of fittings that we had also went really, really smooth. So this has been one of the most smooth experiences in my styling career as well, which is so rare, definitely.

That's so interesting that it's for such a big event like the Met Gala.

TO — Right. Taofeek and I are definitely stressed, and of course there's anxiety and pressure, but I think from just doing this before and from past red carpets that I've done and past events that I've done. I also think it's important to highlight that Taofeek is also a young designer, let alone a young, Black designer. Evan and I are both from Hawaii. The Gilded age was really a time that made sure that brown kids like us and black kids like Taofeek didn't progress during this time, so for us to really come through and rep like this is so sick and so full circle.

And so it's like for me to also have that play of, let's stay to the theme, but what can we also do to be like, this is how we do it. This is how we rep. And so I think that's also why it's been such a smooth experience. Taofeek's been one of the easiest designers I've ever gotten to work with, and I'm super, super grateful. I think also why it's been so seamless, is because we respect each other, we give each other our creative freedom, and we meet in the middle. There's no ego. There's none of that. And same with Evan. We're chill guys from Hawaii, so we come in, we're not being divas. I think that's also why this whole experience has also gone as smooth as possible, given the short timeframe.

TA— But yeah, in a way we spoke the same language. In a nutshell, we spoke the same language and that's why it was that seamless. In a nutshell.

Is there anything that's hidden that may not be visible to the public eye that it's a little secret between you three that will be found in the piece that Evan's wearing?

TA— Well, the public would see it, but it's the crack pants.

It's the what? The crack pants?

TO— There's a little reveal. There's a little cutout above the butt that reveals a little butt cleavage, if you will.

TA— I love how Taylor just mentioned in Hawaii, just being a kid, always being in the water and whatnot. I don't want to touch on that, but Taylor can touch on that, but it just draw a parallel to that little cheeky moment, we just added it in the pants. But I would say that, for me, stands out. But obviously, just the look as a look in general, I would just say every little detail was so collaborative that everyone gets to see it. We're not hiding anything. We're not hiding anything from anyone. Everyone gets to see it. But we know this story behind each and every little part of the garden.

TO— There are some hidden, thoughtful, things just to keep the look really clean. Taofeek had a brilliant idea because of that cut out in the back to have almost a built-in underwear, if you will, and same with the jacket to hold the shirt in place, there's going to be these interior little secrets, that's how we are keeping the garments in place versus just using double stick tape or something like that that we would typically use on an editorial shoot. There are some really nice little details on the inside as well that are keeping this look really structured and complete, really.

TA— Shout out to Liz'. We were like, "Hey, we need Evan to wear underwear, but we can't have the underwear showing." There's a secret underwear in the pants, it's a two-in-one piece, and the little hidden buttons on the inside. We know that. No one else gets to see that.

How do you want Evan to feel when steps onto the Met Gala carpet wearing your piece?

TA— to be honest, I want him to feel like Evan. I feel he has such a strong sense of character that we just wanted the clothes to also portray that, and in a way it's you see the clothes and you see Evan, you go, okay, this was meant for his closet. This is Evan at a red carpet event. So I don't want Evan to feel anything else besides him feeling empowered in himself and his narrative and his story and just going, like Taylor said, 'I might not fit within this theme as a person of color, but this is how I shine through." This is what makes me unique as a person. So I just want him to feel himself and be as comfortable as possible.

TO— Exactly. That's perfect. I mean, that's always the goal whenever I dress anyone, I want them to feel good first, because then they will wear the clothes and the clothes won't wear them. I think also more so with Evan, obviously there's a bit of a deeper connection because of him and I having history from both being from Oahu, and me being close with his sister , and we met him before he became this celebrity. And so for me, I looked at him as my family, my little brother. I want him to feel that. I want him to have his moment. I want him to feel really good as soon as he goes out there. I want him to feel like he's on top of the world because everybody deserves that moment. And so as long as he feels good and confident, then my job is done.

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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.