Collateral developed into a line very naturally. He has been teaching himself how to pattern, design and sew over the last 5 years and in that time he also experimented and developed methods of treating leathers, working metals and dying fabrics. Over that time frame, he sketched out many pieces; pulling influences from the world around him.
He went to school (University of Rochester in New York on academic scholarship) for Cell and Developmental Biology. He studied science and did research at other schools during that time as well. His interest has been medicine, anatomy and science for as long as he can remember. After he has graduated from college, he moved to Boston where he spent the next three years at Harvard doing tissue engineering research (his lab is the lab that created the now infamous mouse with the human ear on its back). He is now in medical school (1 more year before he is a doctor) in Texas where he was accepted on scholarship as well. Throughout all of his education, the way the body moves and works has fascinated him. This interest combined with his love of design, clothing as art and a great respect for designers such as Carol Christian Poell, Maurizio Altieri, Maurizio Amadei and others naturally led him to a personal exploration into creating his own work.
All of his pieces have an organic and natural look and feel to them. He takes cues from the in-depth understanding of human anatomy that he has and work with materials that reflect this (the piping in the the rmochromic arterial shirt changes from dark gray to pure white with an increase in body temperature). He is also very interested in old materials, rare materials; materials that have history to them. He loves the idea of breathing new life into something older than him; something that evokes emotions (positive or negative), convey reverence and make you think.
For Sartorialoft in Los Angeles, he has created a very limited series of long coats using World War II US military blankets as the fabric. These blankets have sheltered soldiers, covered the dead, been around the world and back and he wanted to give them another purpose while serving as a "new" reminder of our past.
He tries not to consider Collateral as a seasonal collection-based line. He produces a very limited number of designs which he releases less as a season and more of an iteration; a presentation of a set of pieces that he has developed one at a time. Each individual piece takes many hours of experimentation, patternwork and trial and error before it can be completed and so each piece is individually special. He does not creates "filler" because he certainly does not has the time and because he believes that it dilutes the idea behind what it is that he develops and create.
His work is currently carried by three stores worldwide and may expand to 1-2 more stores in the near future: Sartorialoft (Los Angeles, California). AL Select (Tokyo, Japan), NeverEnd Gallery (Perth, Australia). |
