Ismail Sow
Q. Which interest do you love the most and why?
A: As a kid up the thing that defined me, my identity, was always football (soccer). I would wear a jersey to school every day, with track pants or shorts under my jeans. Playing allowed me to express myself, its pure joy you don't think of anything else.
Growing up your “self” becomes more complex and you define it with more concepts. I’m 22 now and the interests I love most are physics (I love hearing Brian Greene speak), humans and all their creations. I love these things because they help me make sense of the world.
Q. When was your first contact with fashion?
A: It was kind of late actually, I was 16 so in 2014, and I started stumbling on like streetwear and male fashion posts. I would see these guys in OddFuture merch (I was super into them) and I thought that was the epitome of fashion.
Getting flooded with fitpics allows you to start building a personal idea of what good and bad fits are. After that I fell down the rabbit hole and here I am watching runway shows daily on the Vogue app and following 37 different fashion meme pages.
Q. What decade has a big impact on you (visually, music, fashion, art)?
A: That’s a tough one actually. I’ve never really been a nostalgic person, probably cuz I have such a shitty memory. Musically I revisit classics, but mainly always listening to new stuff.
The same can be said with what I wear I think, nothing is really dated. Ideally u drop me into any decade in the past 50 years and I’d have a fit that would allow me to not look out of place.
Q. Where does your daily inspiration come from?
A: A lot of it comes from friends cuz I think all of them are so stylish and cool. Clothing wise my outfit really depends on what music I listened to that morning. So it could really go anywhere, I never understood people who plan their fits the night before.
Q. Why did you choose those outfits? Do they describe a bit of who you are?
A: Ok I just talked shit about people planning their fits but THIS was different i swear. I wanted to have fits that represented the ways I dress as accurately as possible so I prepared 3 encapsulating genres.
We had Cottage core (a term I colonized from Rym Guimili) which I love cuz most the pieces are second hand. Earth tones are prevalent in these fits, usually baggy and cozy and always got some type of knit in it.
Then Prepwear aka capitalist garments, which is basically me cosplaying as a rebellious wealthy kid. These usually feature most of my designer pieces downside is I get mad obnoxious when I rock em.
Finally we had Thotboysummer, where I show off my body as much as I can. The clothes I wear in these fits are either really tight or super flowy. Lighter vibrant colors are needed, summer really sees this genre more. I love my body and I love clothes that accentuate it.