Telfar

Sounds & Style

Host Lynette Nylander sits down with designer Telfar Clemens at the Selfridges Corner Shop to discuss his journey from Queens to global fash

Key takeaways

• Telfar Clemens's early life involved a rigorous schedule of school, clothing production, and DJing to survive in NYC.
• His fashion education was built through secondhand shopping at places like Beacon's Closet and Century 21.

Main topics

• Fashion origins and early career
• Musical inspirations and R&B influences

Notable quotes

It's not for you, it's for everyone.

Conclusion

The episode provides an intimate look at how personal history and musi

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) T.S. Welcome Speaker 1 (0:16) to a special, very special episode of Sounds and Style on NTS. I'm Lynette Nylander and today we have someone who I love, someone who I adore. I love you too. You know him as a designer. You know his famous bags, but I think that's doing him a major disservice because he's a full service designer and he's one of the best designers of our generation. It's Telfar. Clap for Telfar. Speaker 1 (0:44) Telfar was established in 2005 and has gone on to break all sorts of records with all sorts of, dressed all sorts of people. He's from the Lefrak City Queens by way of Maryland, by way of Liberia, by way of now London because we're in Selfridges and we are at the Corner Shop celebrating the launch of his bags that now come in leather. And so Telfar, I want to talk to you because we have spoken many times. over many different parts of your career and I always start the podcast with a quote. So I'm just going to lean over. It's actually something you told me a very long time ago and you said, I would go to school at 6am until noon, go home and sleep until about 3pm, then work on my clothing. I would DJ in the evenings to earn money, usually until midnight to 4am, then the next day you would wake up and do it again. So tell me, when you were clubbing, when you were out, when you were DJing, What were you wearing? What was it like? Speaker 2 (1:43) Trying to pay rent and trying to pay for the next show and also to just trying to survive in New York City. What I was wearing was definitely something designer, definitely secondhand, definitely return the next day. Speaker 1 (1:58) Return. We all know it. Speaker 2 (2:01) Yeah. I was really, really, really good at shopping. So I would go to Beacon's Closet and find like the Margiela or Yoji or like whatever thing that... also too nobody would want and wear it if I didn't want it again. You know, I just like accumulated, I would only get designer things. That was like my experience. My experience with fashion is pretty much firsthand. So it was like going to Century 21 and going to places like that and I'll touch every designer and that's how I knew what it was. And you Speaker 1 (2:29) told me before you were making clothes when you didn't have the means or you didn't find stuff that you wanted, you would make the clothes yourself. Yeah, Speaker 2 (2:37) yeah, I mean like, and also too the clothes that I wanted didn't Speaker 1 (2:40) exist. Yeah. Speaker 2 (2:41) So I'd be like, oh, I want something that looks like this and like that. And it's like, you would look for it everywhere. Every once in a while you'll find like a designer thing that was kind of like it was like I just have to make it, you know. Speaker 1 (2:52) Let's talk about what you are actually wearing at this very moment. I am wearing a Speaker 2 (2:56) Disgusted Speaker 1 (2:57) to Speaker 2 (2:57) be Speaker 1 (2:57) British Speaker 2 (2:57) tee that we customized into a Telfar t-shirt dress shirt. Would you like Speaker 1 (3:01) to go on the podium? Can we have the podium go around for a second? I believe it needs to go around. Here we go. Okay, keep talking. Speaker 2 (3:08) Yeah, t-shirt, dress shirt. Speaker 1 (3:11) Custom. Speaker 2 (3:12) Custom. Catherine Hamnet. With what bottom? Disgusted to be British. Speaker 1 (3:16) Disgusted to be British, guys. Which I Speaker 2 (3:17) couldn't believe in more. But definitely get yourself a Catherine Hamnet t-shirt. Let her know that I love her. We Speaker 1 (3:26) love you, Catherine Hamnet. Answer our emails. Speaker 2 (3:29) And what Speaker 1 (3:31) are the pants? Speaker 2 (3:32) My pants are Telfar. Speaker 1 (3:35) Telfar. Self-designed. Okay, perfect. Speaker 2 (3:38) My watch is Loire. His Speaker 1 (3:39) watch is Loire. A good friend, Loire. In fact, I want to speak about Loire. My hair is pressed. His hair is pressed, made by himself. Amazing. Okay, so the first, we always root sounds and style in the music that you're listening to, the music that are inspirations. So the first person that you chose that we asked you about before was Klein, who I know, you know, we love an experimental music artist. Tell me what you love about Klein. Is there any specific song you really like? Yeah, Speaker 2 (4:08) I mean like the whole album. And Speaker 1 (4:10) she just Speaker 2 (4:10) came out with a metal album. I've been listening to, you know, and also too just like in general I love like, you know, we did a show in like 2019 in Paris. Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:22) And Speaker 2 (4:22) she and Crystal, Crystal Mess, like they DJ'd