Root Down: No Sesso

May 12, 2023

Photographer Clifford Prince King and designers Pia Davis and Autumn Randolph call in from L.A., the city that has tied them together by way of its rich and burgeoning creative community. Davis and Randolph are the designer duo that makes up No Sesso, the genderless brand that essentially built a name for itself from scratch, though today easily claims the title of one of the West Coast’s foremost fashion houses, and certainly could call itself the most progressive. The designers met during the height of the city’s party scene in the 2010’s, and clicked immediately. From there, it wasn’t long before No Sesso was born, beginning as an art collective that honed in on their immediate community — one which was filled with diverse, emerging talent — and which eventually turned into the brand we know and love today. The moniker the designers chose, No Sesso, derives from Italian, and translates to “no gender/no sex,” a sentiment they have kept at the core of each collection. What began as two artists making clothing for themselves and their friends, inspired by their boredom with the products they were seeing in stores, has become a heralded brand that has not only mastered its own innovative and unique look, but has worked to empower Black queer people. Davis and Randolph weave into each piece an ethos so often overlooked in the industry, one which is focused on an art-forward approach and cultivating and understanding an authentic relationship with consumers.

Published in office Issue 19. Get your copy here.

Photography AJ WILSON
Interview CLIFFORD PRINCE KING
Introduction KERANE MARCELLUS
Talents PIA DAVIS, AUTUMN RANDOLPH
Hair LYNN BROWN
Makeup KATHERINE SMITH
Production OLIVIA ROPER-CALDBECK

As the party scene was left behind for art and design by the No Sesso duo, somewhere not far away in the City of Angels, Clifford Prince King was building and pouring into his own creative community with photography. His 2020 exhibition, when night comes gently, amazed those who gazed at the vulnerable photos of queer Black men depicted with a sincerity and softness, a perspective Davis and Randolph have echoed in their own work. For some time, King and the designers have entered and circled around in each others’ social orbits, and over time, developed a friendship founded on shared ideas, values, and their mutual desire to have an underrepresented, misinterpreted community be seen and heard. When asked why their art exists, there is a resounding answer from both parties: it exists because they deserve for it to. They deserve the right to expression, whether it be through bespoke garments constructed with care and time, or through imagery that celebrates the cinematic nature of life’s mundaneness. They are each equally capable of asking and answering questions that others are afraid to through their mediums of choice. Though he leaves the camera lens at home, in conversation, the designers become subjects of King’s eye and perspective in a beautiful way. He sets a scene for us, highlighting these two figures who have been forging new paths for themselves and others in the fashion industry, imploring them to expand on their process, work-ethic, exponential growth — and how they’ve remained humble in the face of it all.

Clifford Prince King—So I guess I’ll start off by saying the last time I saw you both, you were showing me some new things. So what's going on with No Sesso as of today?

Pia Davis— As of today, we're in the middle of planning a pop-up shop. And just like, getting things in order for the year, like just our rollouts and whatnot. But yeah, I guess that's the easy way to put it.

CK— How is 2023 feeling compared to three years ago?

PD— I think for me, personally, it's feeling a little bit more like I can breathe. It's not feeling so tight and compact, I think. Towards the end of 2022, Autumn and I both really focused on resting and taking a breather so that we can, like, enter 2023 very calm. Just with grace so that we can bring that energy into the brand as well.

That's great. I'm happy to hear that the end of the year was kind of chaotic, but January has been feeling very slow. I remember talking to you both when you were thinking about it, you mentioned the pop-up. Then you also mentioned maybe a new collection that was a little more focused around the military, or like leather; what is inspiring what you're working on now?

PD— I would say the concept is utilitarian. So, just garments that serve more than one purpose, whether it's just like multiple pockets, or, like, straps, the hardware, just making really cool things that, like, can convert into other pieces, so that you put it into your everyday wardrobe, like, zip offs, corseting, and things like that.

Autumn Randolph— I've been kind of feeling like an aviator aesthetic a bit. A mixture, I think, in this time, for me personally, because I have so many things and aesthetics that I like, is really just going back to what we both love, and really expressing that, and feel like that’s drapery and gowns with puffy sleeves. That elevated kind of streetwear feels that we do, but we are going to move that to probably the September production. So, we're still figuring out what we're doing with the pop-up.

PD— You want to make sure that you don't rush into anything, and we design with time so that everything feels right for us, instead of just trying to keep up, just making sure the designs and everything that we're putting out is, like, intentional, and it works for us as well.

Do you feel like, as a team, you find yourselves kind of having to edit down, and kind of narrow in, on what a certain project or idea is? Because I feel like y'all have so many ideas.

AR— Yeah, definitely been in editing, workshopping situations. I think because we are so small, we don't have many people to turn to. So even though we put out collections and designs that we love, we both, I think, want to reach even higher executions.

PD— I think that's why we want to move with grace instead of rushing so much, so that we have time to edit our designs and go back to the drawing board to make our designs even better. So, I think editing is very important, and we've been making sure we pay more attention to those kinds of details.

There was a moment where things were more ready-to-wear, and then you had the Levi's collab, where that was ready-to-wear, but also still very fashion. Are you kind of trying to keep that middle point where it is very, like, Avant-Garde fashion, but also accessible?

PD— No Sesso will always have that couture aesthetic and feel to it. I think there are just some things that need to be made with my hands, in Autumn’s hands, and just to put that energy into those garments, because those details are just really important to us when it comes to draping and the couture feel as making our brand, No Sesso, a luxury brand, but we definitely want to have, like, those tiers, where there are ready-to-wear pieces that you see on the runway, and then people have access to that, and then those, like, beautiful gowns as well that people inquire about to get something custom made.

That makes sense. I feel like that's the challenge, but I think y'all have done such a good job doing that in the past. I feel like the more that you'll work toward that, the more I can just see it from however long I've known y'all. Things seemed to be moving much more slowly, but also, the execution is more graceful. What would you say is inspiring y'all these days music-wise, artists-wise? Or some people that you are enjoying watching, or like, what's inspiring you in general at the moment?

AR— I think personally, to get to that space of like, grabbing and finding your personal aesthetics again, and your personal voice, has had a lot to do with maybe instability in just our regular lives, so I feel like for us both, in our stability in housing and those basic necessities, have led us to get back to our roots. Musically, cktrl, that sax player.

Y’all should shoot with cktrl.

AR— I would love to do something, but yeah, I feel like It's just been very personal, of like, resourcing art from ourselves so that we can just communicate that.

...The relationship that we have, and how we come together, it’s just very beautiful... It’s like a marriage in a way. No Sesso is our baby.

Has the studio been going well?

AR— We just moved out of her. So three years, we just moved out, and we're going to look for a new space, but it definitely held us down on all fronts. Like if there's another pandemic, we need to find another hideaway.

Okay, so what would you say is your starting point when you're starting to create work together? Do you guys both just play off of each other? Or does someone come up with something with a specific idea? Or do you kind of meet in the middle? And both go your own ways?

AR— A little bit of everything?

PD— Yeah, I would say we talk about it out loud to each other, and just talk about things that are inspiring us at the moment, whether it's personal things, or nature, whatever. We just start to kind of flow off of each other's thoughts. We always have notepads. So we draw away, or we come together and draw, and just sketch out different concepts that we would like to see. Then that's how the very beginning of some of the collections start off.

You ever send each other references from films, or I know you all love Mary J. Blige, like those other R&B girls, but if you're like, “‘I'm feeling a little blocked today,”’ Is there something that you might just kind of open, or look to, and be like, “‘okay’?”

PD— I feel like both of our, like, personal mood boards or images and different references that we collect, like our library of photos and other references, it's really big. So we definitely send each other stuff online or via text message, and just to like, go off of silhouettes and shapes, and things that we like and want to figure out ways to make ourselves. If it's something like a photo that we're showing, it's already from the past, it's not the future because it's already been documented. So, how can we take that to the next level?

I was reading in this other interview; I think it was on, I think it was Cultured or Vogue, but y'all pretty much met nearly 10 years ago.

AR— We met in 2016 or something, close to about eight years ago.

PD— Yeah, we’ve been best bitches for a while.

I'm just wondering how LA has kind of facilitated this ongoing friendship and collaboration, because y'all could really be anywhere. I feel like your creativity is very much in line with your surroundings. So how has LA held y'all both down throughout this whole process?

PD— I feel like when Autumn and I first met, we were going out a lot. Like, going to different art events, going to different parties. At that time, in LA, it was, like, nice to go out and meet people, and go to different events to get inspired, and just be social, and be in a community with like-minded people. So that was our start, I think. I feel like our bond and our relationship, I would say, compared to where we are now from when we first met, we're not as social anymore in a way. Compared to our first meeting, compared to now, I think it's more because of the pandemic and everything else, LA has kind of slowed down. So, it's just really helped us with finding our art and our focus. I think just the relationship that we have, and how we come together, it's just very beautiful. That's a lot of what inspires the things that we're creating as well. It's like a marriage in a way. No Sesso is our baby, and we're just beautiful things that we're feeling.

I remember LA, in that space, because I feel post-pandemic, I would almost want to say it was like mustache-era LA. After that, it's been kind of like smaller groups, more intimate settings. I guess it seems like you always have more – I wouldn't say discipline, because you have always had that – but it's just, LA is the same, but you all are growing into what you need to do.

AR— Yeah, we've definitely, now that you counted the years [laughs], there's definitely been an apparent growth. It just evolves in a way that is more meaningful and more in-depth, and we’re more introspective. So, even things like maybe opportunities that we took, but we didn't really use them to our best, it's like, we're almost even taking that time back and learning from all that we’ve kind of drifted through. So, it's been great to 360, and try to grab everything back with our fists, and be more or less spread out and less spread thin, and just really focus inwards and creating our life and nurturing the brand.

What are some of your intentions? Or if you're manifesting things for yourself and the brand, what are some things that would be like on the list?

AR— I'm always looking, specifically at this time, for opportunities for us to be seen, for the depth that we hold, and the creativity. I think it's just been a bit harder to sift through whether people's intentions are real or in alignment with you and how you want to be seen. In regards to the brand, and just making sure people come to us with respect and also just knowledge of us and not just some diversity hire or pushed inclusivity. It’s wanting integrity around the brand, and the air to be clear — and for us to get all the opportunities for what we are bringing in.

PD— Also, with what Autumn is saying, not having to say yes to everything. I think it's important for us in our intentions to make sure that we're aligning with things that work for us in the best ways possible. So, I think we've been using the power of saying no more, and working with things that align with what you want to put out into the world.

That makes me really happy to hear y’all say that, because I think especially now with Pride next month, and then there's also Black History Month, it only seems like that's when things start to get busy, but then you're realizing, why am I so busy for these specific things? I’m glad that saying no is on the radar. You mentioned "totalitarian" in the form of fashion? What does that look like for y'all? What's something you wish people could more understand about your brand and process?

AR— Totalitarian, I would say, as in the industry wants us to present ourselves in a manner that is what they expect from us. Not letting us have normal growth and presence. We wish people would understand that even though we have had amazing support, we understand our position and are very humble, we don’t have a big head (like my old dance teacher would say to us when we were doing well). We respect the people who paved the way, and just want to have a normal process and support as well. We think those two things can exist together. We are still learning and finding our way as very unorthodox artists/designers. We want people to understand that we are not perfect in any way, but we respect the art, and the game, and are just wanting to add to the industry, and also have a reciprocation of what we offer.

Fashion

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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.