Deep within the entrails of Miami-Dade County, two comparatively unknown people are working tougher and dropping higher garments than most high-end designer manufacturers.
I’m certainly not a vogue or streetwear man (writers can’t afford to decorate good, belief me) however I’ve been obsessive about FELT because it first crossed my Twitter feed in 2020 after I noticed Da$h sporting a few of their stuff. I dug a bit of deeper and misplaced my absolute shit after I noticed the incense chamber sculpted right into a mushroom patch. After that I began noticing the model on all my favourite artists together with Mac Miller, Frank Ocean, and Freddie Gibbs to call just a few. I needed to know extra.
FELT is owned by two guys, Kosta and Louie, who formally based the corporate in 2015 in New York earlier than transferring again to their hometown of Miami in 2020. They’re principally hell on wheels if the wheels had been connected to a Dodge Charger and greased with codeine. Kosta is a self-professed madman and describes Louie as a younger Puerto Rican Johnny Depp (although admittedly with out the high-level court docket appearances). They each grew up in Miami. Kosta is a ebook worm who loves Hunter S. Thompson, Louie can cook dinner higher than anybody and may often be present in a gasoline station white t-shirt consuming some unique soda. In addition they have six stunning pitbulls between them who I’d simply decide in a combat over most grizzly bears.
“We needed to start out {a magazine} known as Southern Minimize, after which contained in the journal, we wanted adverts. We didn’t actually know anyone, so we simply made faux adverts that mentioned FELT. After which we had been like, these are kinda sick,” Kosta mentioned.
The duo has launched some really stunning work collectively and have pushed the boundary for what is anticipated of a streetwear model by releasing work that isn’t clothes in any respect. A few of my private favorites embody a sofa plastered with butterflies from a collaboration with MEDICOM, an ashtray that claims “Jah is my co-pilot,” and an unreleased motion determine toy named Abel that appears like he hotwires spaceships in a dystopian future.
“What Louie and Kosta are doing with felt is a good instance of homegrown. Previous my private relationships with every of them to see the best way they each channel their separate takes on artwork and the world into their clothes is unbelievable.” mentioned Da$h by way of Twitter DM. “We traveled throughout collectively burning spliffs too from hash from the initiatives in Paris to the 60 greenback a gram eighths of sativa in Japan. I bought another tales too however these are within the journal of the darkish arts gotta kill you if I let you know these…..however should you asking what kinda dudes they’re…. SOLID INDIVIDUALS.”
FELT stands for “For Each Dwelling Factor” however initially started as “Fuck Everybody Let’s Terrorize.” The garments themselves appear to be a clean mix of these two ideas. Refined references to psychedelia and graffiti tradition turn into not solely palatable to the common shopper however magnetic to all. The basic butterfly sweatsuit, as an example, at first look seems like one thing you’d see inside a giant field division retailer however it’s truly a silent head nod to the CIA LSD thoughts management experiments in Undertaking Monarch and MK Extremely. That is becoming on condition that Kosta as soon as informed me one among his favourite issues to do is take acid and attempt to make himself have a foul journey.
“He’s a sick fuck,” mentioned Don, an in depth good friend and former intern at FELT, referring to Kosta. “He’s in all probability one of many sickest of us I’ve ever encountered in my life.”
Not solely are the garments cool, however the attract lies locally Kosta and Louie have created, which works effectively past the bounds of something a advertising division may accomplish on their finest day. There’s a FELT Discord server with over 1300 folks in it and I’ve seen Kosta and Louie in there on daily basis since its inception earlier this 12 months chopping it up with folks, organizing film nights, giving freely tons of of free t-shirts and even working Pokémon battles. It’s value noting right here that nobody has even come near knocking out my Blastoise but.
I need to admit, at first I assumed there needed to be some monetary incentive for them to be so interactive but when something the Discord has value them cash as a result of they usually purchase folks’s artwork simply to have it or put it on a shirt. On the flip aspect of that coin, they’re additionally not afraid to constructively inform anybody their shit is weak. They’ve made themselves totally accessible to anybody who appreciates what they do, and the one rule is don’t be bizarre. They inform everybody in there on a regular basis to tug as much as their workplace and smoke one.
“All that is for [the] group on the finish of the day. Clearly, there’s a financial facet, persons are making a residing off of it. We simply want that any person would have opened their doorways to us again within the day,” mentioned Mac, an in depth good friend of Kosta and Louie’s who spent years serving to them out of their New York workplace. “All the celebrity, notoriety and cash coming in hasn’t modified them as a result of they know very effectively what it was wish to be broke.”
It drives me up a wall when manufacturers collab with different manufacturers solely for the monetary incentive with no regard for the artwork, however FELT does regardless of the hell they need as a result of it sounds enjoyable and so they do it with fashion. They lately did a collaboration with Elbo Glass on some plushy and vinyl dinosaurs lined in monarch butterflies that I’d be prepared to commerce a kidney for. They’re always forward of themselves and the curve by specializing in authenticity, artwork, and enjoyable over financial achieve.
“[Kosta] wasn’t doing this shit to get wealthy. It was by no means for the cash or concerning the cash. He at all times mentioned cash will burn you out,” Don mentioned. “He says this lots however garments simply occur to be the medium that he’s working with or that he’s caught with however he’s really only a sick particular person and a dope ass artist, each of them.”
Each firm in America who spends {dollars} on website positioning readability and different ineffective metrics of capitalism is attempting to recreate what Kosta and Louie did off the power of their very own characters. From what they’ve informed me and what their buddies say about them it’s plain as day that they stayed true to themselves and created their very own world the place they didn’t should water themselves right down to survive, and everybody who is aware of them appears to gravitate towards them for that purpose. The one factor that appears to matter to them is the power and authenticity of the work. In line with Kosta, their success could be attributed to an ideal storm of arduous work, consistency, and luck.
“It was lots of good luck, and lots of consistency. And that’s what it’s all about. We’re actually per the shit we’re placing out,” Kosta mentioned. “I do know a bunch of folks that begin one thing after which form of simply cease for a bit of bit after which decide again up. You by no means actually develop like that. You bought to always hold fucking urgent buttons.”
I’m nonetheless not sure what FELT is. The closest I can describe it’s the sum of many elements, elements and not using a agency task or directive. The idea appears to evolve with time, which is becoming because the E stands for evolving. FELT is a secret handshake, a faith that occurs to make clothes, a group of maniacs and a Pokémon fitness center rolled up into a giant stunning goddamn murals that someway makes you a greater particular person. I really feel deeply privileged to know these cats in any capability and I can’t wait to see what they do subsequent.
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