What is your ideal office?
Shayne — One right below my home.
Leilah — A home office, with a kitchen and shower, in the desert with a pool, FIOS and rotating accessories, cars and people.
What idea has made a defining impression on you?
Shayne — When I realized someone like da Vinci existed. Leilah — That people listen when you have a good idea.
What is the good life?
Shayne — I don’t know, I’ve never been placed in a physical situation that creates the sense that everything is all good and that I don’t have any concerns. It’s more so my personal vibe that makes me feel that way.
Leilah — Maximalist lifestyle with no repercussions.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Shayne — For the most part, that I am my own boss. Leilah — Working with my friends.
What was your most difficult decision?
Leilah — Letting go of the dream of being a voice-over actor for animation.
How would you like to be remembered?
Leilah — In marble, in public.
What is your most treasured belonging?
Shayne — Clean underwear.
Leilah — Don’t have one or, the current file I’m working on.
If you had to do something different for a living, what would it be?
Shayne — I’ve been in transit for the last two years and I haven’t been able to retain a personal space. I’ve never really had my own space, in general, so the idea of defining
how I live is super fresh and exciting for me. My next major move is physical stability.
Leilah — Social work, social justice, eco-feminism.
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Shayne — A personal disappointment as a kid has reprimanded my ability to be let down. I have low or very open expectations of everyone and everything until proven differently.
Leilah — I didn’t appreciate Amy Winehouse enough when she was alive. I judged her and I’m sorry.
If your clothes create a new realm, what inhabits it?
Leilah — New York City.
What is the last thing you changed your mind about?
Leilah — The people wearing the clothes, and the people watching them.
Shayne, how have your years in Trinidad shaped your style?
Shayne — That you can use any existing item to create the new one you want.
How is the Internet a part of your design vocabulary?
Leilah — It’s the rabbit hole, or it was the rabbit hole.
What is your relationship with texture?
Shayne — Texture is all about nerves and spontaneity for me. The idea makes your mind work and texture makes it human, it develops personality for the idea.
What do you hope to redefine with your clothes?
Leilah — An aesthetic. A new category of Americana, circling around the idea of an intricate and undiscoverable family tree.
