WS
You’re super busy and you always stay on point. You have the clothing line and you work other jobs, that takes up a lot of time, so this is our first time catching up, which is part of the reason I really wanted to do it. So, cool. It’s good to see you.

LO
It’s so good to see you. Bill and I still keep in contact and remain connected and have a true bond which remains unbroken, even with this 4 year gap in a full in person hang out.  I knew for some reason when they asked for potential people to do this interview with me; it has to be Bill because Bill truly knows who I am. What our interests are is a huge part of what shaped me to do everything that I do.

WS
You were always doing your clothing line. Obesity and Speed.

I just spent a month on this shirt, this is my shirt, and then I was like my boss is going to kill me because what am I doing sewing stuff behind the counter and then putting it on the mannequins. So I was like, “It’s not for sale,” and she was like, “Mmmm, no, I want it.” So I was like “It’s $500,” because I thought no one would ever be able to afford that. But she was like, “Cool I’ll take it.” So I rang it through, I called my boss and told him what happened, and said, “Do you want to split the money and do it on consignment,” and he said, “Yeah sure.”

It turned out she was buying it for Gwen Stefani who wore it and then wanted more stuff.  And then all these people started hearing that I had a clothing line, and I was like, I don’t have a clothing line, I’m in college (what was i thinking I’m supposed to be working on my like senior project)”.  And then a rep for this Japanese showroom hit me up and said they heard I had a line, and that was a time when street style was really big. They asked, “Could we set up a buying appointment because we want to sell your line in Japan.” I talked to one of my 3 bosses and the time, and he was like, “Just lie and say you have a clothing line and sew some stuff. Just get your friend to help you; he works next door (at a different retail store) and you know he can sew”. That was when me and my former partner kind of started becoming friends and were making each other mix tapes. The process of then creating something together was so fun and special .

LO
That was the first one.

WS
How did that come about? Where did the name come from? And what was the idea behind it?

LO
I was actually just talking about this today. There’s this guy on Instagram who posts all these old archival photos. He posted this amazing old Balenciaga sweatshirt made from tapestry and shredded fabric from 2000. That shirt actually inspired me to make my first shirt. I wanted that [Balenciaga] shirt; I couldn’t afford it because I was 19 or 20 and in college. I was working at a clothing boutique called “Seven New York” to support myself inc college on orchard street at the time, which ended up becoming so influential in my life, not just in the creation of my first clothing line and interest in fashion; but in making friends who I have bonds with over music and movies and art. And:  also because” A Life “ (streetwear boutique ) was next door.

So I made a shirt to copy that shirt while I was sitting in “Seven”. I would stare at this Balenciaga shirt and made a shirt that was heavily inspired by it with tapestry and a vintage blouse and a sweatshirt. I put it on a body form after spending a month on it and this stylist comes in who’s shopping for somebody, and she’s like, “I want to buy that sweatshirt.”

I just spent a month on this shirt, this is my shirt, and then I was like my boss is going to kill me because what am I doing sewing stuff behind the counter and then putting it on the mannequins. So I was like, “It’s not for sale,” and she was like, “Mmmm, no, I want it.” So I was like “It’s $500,” because I thought no one would ever be able to afford that. But she was like, “Cool I’ll take it.” So I rang it through, I called my boss and told him what happened, and said, “Do you want to split the money and do it on consignment,” and he said, “Yeah sure.”

It turned out she was buying it for Gwen Stefani who wore it and then wanted more stuff.  And then all these people started hearing that I had a clothing line, and I was like, I don’t have a clothing line, I’m in college (what was i thinking I’m supposed to be working on my like senior project)”.  And then a rep for this Japanese showroom hit me up and said they heard I had a line, and that was a time when street style was really big. They asked, “Could we set up a buying appointment because we want to sell your line in Japan.” I talked to one of my 3 bosses and the time, and he was like, “Just lie and say you have a clothing line and sew some stuff. Just get your friend to help you; he works next door (at a different retail store) and you know he can sew”. That was when me and my former partner kind of started becoming friends and were making each other mix tapes. The process of then creating something together was so fun and special.

WS
Hear that. Mix tapes.

LO
So he was like just make the clothing line. I was just so shocked that I had gotten this opportunity that I knew I had to rise to the occasion.  So then I made 10 samples by hand. I stole everything from salvation armies and this store K Trimmings on Broadway where you could go and just knock shit into your bag.

WS
Fucking love it.

LO
And I cut lace off of prom dresses at salvation army, and I made the now cult favorite Misfits Skull sweatshirts out of tapestry and lace and hand-sewed everything. My look books were polaroids I had shot myself.

WS
I want one of those if you have any in storage.

LO
Someone asked me what the name of the line was, and I was like, “I didn’t think about that.” So I looked around the room and I was like, “Think of something think of something… Just think of something.” And I had done this painting and it was called “Obesity and Speed in 15 refractions” after the Huggy Bear song, and that’s where the name came from.

WS
I feel like that time period is very much that type of stuff, I hate to say it, but DIY. The technology now makes you feel like DIY is not a thing.

LO
Yes. It’s not.

WS
I’m not even complaining, but everythings so accessible, but there was always something really special about not being able to find something and then finally finding it.

LO
It was about the hunt and earning the thing. I bring it up a lot because you have to work to know.

WS
That expands your creative process, just being able to hunt for it, and then there was always the thing for me was I have the thing that no one has. I love that shit. That time period from ‘80 to ‘96 is so fucking dope because there was no money and kids where doing crazy shit, and I’ll watch somebody’s day trip to new york city in ‘85 today to get inspired to go out and film. I want that feeling of what I imagine it being like even if it wasn’t. Even if it might have been the shittiest time ever, but I kind of don’t think it was. It was kind of like you’re going over to your friends house, and then they’re going to a 10-minute film screening, and then you’re going to Nan Golden’s photo show. You’re running around with a crew of kids, and that’s how it was when I first moved here. And then the internet age shifted that a little bit and there were a lot of rich people living here. Richer kids that weren’t like us, but we went to their parties. It was fun in its own way, but it wasn’t my idea of what New York was.

LO
I have the same idea of New York. And while that time period was fun, at the same time I don’t think it brings about opportunity in the same way. I don’t know if I could start the same thing now having no money. It’s a really different time now.

WS
You don’t see yourself leaving, do you?

LO
No. People are like, “Have you thought about moving to LA,” and I’m like, “No you can do like one thing in a day there!” “I don’t know maybe because you need a car and there’s traffic and living in LA requires more planning ….”  In New York I like the opportunity to learn something new or do 20 things in one day on a whim. On Saturday I was like I want to go see the Sue Williams show at 303, so we can take the subway and then we can walk and go to Printed Matter and go see a movie, too.

WS
And it’s a block’s distance.

LO
And we spent a couple dollars. It terms of getting to places it’s just a metrocard. I go to the library uptown all the time doing research. I bring my laptop and work out of there in the picture files during the day, you also have the opportunity to have a million chance encounters on your way to wherever you are going , because you are out in the streets, you know? I love that you can be alone here, but still have these momentary connections with people randomly.”

WS
To your clothing line, you had a show recently and looked super sick at Saint Mark’s Church.

LO
Which is an iconic place for both of us. Yeah, I started my own line under my own name two years ago. This was the most intense production I’ve ever taken on, and it’s meaningful because it’s at Saint Mark’s Church, which is an iconic new york landmark. If you’re kind of punk, it means a lot to you. When I was still working at “Seven”, I had met Jess Holzworth, and we became friends; Jess was someone that I really looked up to, and we she had started her clothing line she did her show and Saint Mark’s church, and I thought this is so cool.

WS
Since it’s now under your own name is there any difference?

LO
The difference is with Obesity and Speed I had an unbalanced partnership. I was putting a lot of work but carrying the weight of two people. Carrying someone else’s responsibility and overcompensating when I should have been fully doing my vision and working at my pace.

WS
It should be both partners are working hard at what they’re supposed to be doing.

LO
It became such a fucked up dynamic and unbalanced, which I think can happen over ten years of being friends and having a business. Eventually when he and I split that last few years of Obesity and Speed became really successful. But success in terms of, ok, now I have a brand, but I’m not connected to this anymore. When your biggest account is Urban Outfitters, and they’re just like, “Ok, can you produce faster,” and someone’s knocking you off at the same time as you’re making it. I was so disheartened. I did it, but I don’t really like what’s going on in terms of contemporary fast fashion where everything has to be cheap and quick aesthetic and you’re pressed to deliver. Then I lost a friend, and thought I need to take a break. I had lost what I love about making clothes, which is the long inspiration process I have, which includes everything from watching certain movies over and over again, spending time in the library researching, going through my magazine archive at home and eventually sewing something. I made the decision  to end Obesity and Speed for some of the aforementioned reasons, but also I wanted to give myself a chance to feel uncomfortable not doing the thing I had become so used to doing for the past 10 years without taking a moment to breathe.  Then, about 8 months later a bunch of things happened that fell into place to make me think maybe I’ll start a new line.

WS
That was such a chunk of work for you that I’m sure when you stopped you thought, “I want to do something, but it has to be the right time.”

LO
Yeah. I had also wanted to make myself feel uncomfortable because I think at that point in my life I had been working so much that it kept me from experiencing a lot of other things. I needed to feel uncomfortable not doing what I’d become so comfortable doing as a job to know what it’s like to feel the loss of this thing that had started as a passion and then become a larger business, which I wasn’t that psyched on.

WS
It took away the great part of it by turning it into this thing where you have to hand it in on time.

LO
And churning it out for a customer that I was not connected to, that is quick to current trends etc…Larger retailers were like “We’re really into Boho right now, can you make something Boho.”

WS
That’s why I like working for Supreme because it’s big, but it still feels small to me. It still feels in this zone where they let me be as creative as I want without telling me to change anything. It’s great. I love that feeling. It’s like your own art and it’s going to get seen. I think of your thing as small thing that you control. It’s very Manic Panic; the way that those girls started that. A thing that started small here in New York and then stuck to its guns. And maybe you’re right, when it got a little bigger and a lot of people that were famous started wearing it, you were like, “We’ve got to get it on someone else,” but I think in order for it to be your way, you’ve got to bring back to being your own thing again. Because when things get really big it does take away from them. It becomes a business where you can make money, but that alternative rough aspect is really created when it’s little because it’s you against the world.

LO
I needed that feeling again of me against the world, of how I grew up. That’s where creativity comes from. This is all I have, I’m alone, it’s me against the world.

WS
Yes, it’s you, in your fucking bedroom in a small town and how am I gonna get out of here. Even in this apartment: I’ll be in this apartment, and I’m such a daydreamer that especially when I’m editing something, I’ll edit for awhile, then I’ll sit on my bed for a while and then I’ll be like, “Oh my god, I’ve got an idea,” and I’ll run back and I’ll do it. And I love that. I think I had the same thing when I’d rip out magazines when I was a kid and put them on my wall.

LO
I still do that!

WS
It could be like that for anything for anyone who has wild parents and they’re stuck in their room, and they’re like how am I gonna get out of this shit. I need to daydream my way out of it. Look at Chloe: she lived in Darien, Connecticut, and she would come to the city everyday and that was her big world and then she would go back and be in that small room and think about how that was so fun and I can’t wait to get back to the city, and that’s how I was when I was growing up. I’d go to Syracuse and have so much fun and then I’d go home and be like, “I fucking hate it here, how am I gonna get back to the city. Mom will you take me to the city and drop me off for a few days.” I loved that style. That’s why I think I really like the youth still because they’re doing that no matter what decade it is; kids start by doing that.

LO
My last two shows have centered around that.  The Spring/Summer ‘17 collection “Watch The Skies”  was centered around a teen girl punk band called “Pretty Sick”.

WS
The other day I was watching Waiting for a Friend the Rolling Stones video. Keith Richards is walking down Saint Mark’s in the beginning, and I was like look at all the stores and how sick they look and that goes back to the Manic Panic girls and the store they had. Those little mom and pop stores. There are some little ones left in Chinatown, but they’re kind of fucking dorky.

LO
Everyone looks the same.

WS
Did Vice make that type of human up? When Vice started it was really fun.

LO
We shot that cover in my apartment.

WS
Those early issues were just what was going on in New York.

LO
It was cool.

WS
Then around 2008-2009 only a certain type of person was in there. People really got into the news aspect of it and it was really Millennial-y, and that bred that type of person.

LO
It became less fun and became serious in the wrong way.

WS
They hired the wrong people. They hired people who were more professional than slackers. And the slacker kids kind of brought the art and acid all that shit to it…Before we end this, I want to talk about a few more things. With Obesity and Speed and your own personal line are they similar or did you change it up.

LO
They’re extremely different. But the thing that had happened was after I did Obesity for all of the reasons I did, it was something I was not connected to. The new line is who I am now, which is different from who I was when I first began O+S.  it’s a lot more elevated and elegant. But I knew if I started something new, it had to be connected to who I was as a person, to what I cared about, and I knew it needed to have a larger positive impact than just somebody buying shirt. Being a vegan, I use every scrap, and I bring everyone I work with to volunteer at the animal shelter, and we recycle, and it’s the larger ethos of who I am.

Buying things from larger corporations was really not how I was raised. My mom was into living simply .  I was raised with not much money. No T.V. Literally nothing. But it was also great  because I read books and picked vegetables from the garden in the backyard and baked zucchini bread or whatever. Hiked, played sports .  I was not brought up to just throw out things really fast, so the new brand had a really large emphasis on upcycling…. when i can work in recycled fabrics i do. I use  vintage leather and recycled denim and army surplus. The cut and sew and collection pieces are  all made in the U.S. between LA and New York and a lot in my studio. And the collaborations are important, too. Our M.O. (for the brand ) is everyone has to benefit. How can this be good for everyone? This is my show, it’s for my brand, but we want the church choir to sing the song and Ally to choreograph, and the cast is made of incredibly talented individuals; who I learned a lot from myself, and the show has to have a positive impact. I think it’s an important time for women, and also I think it’s easy to feel defeated now and stuff is shitty now. But I want instead to use it as an opportunity to change. How can we see this as an opportunity to create hope or create opportunities for other people working together.