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Offset on his New Fashion Line, Dressing with Cardi, and Why Japanese Designers “Got the Way”

“Tie-dye is a wave right now,” Offset tells me in an airy Paris apartment, the sun beaming down through a skylight and onto him like a messianic spotlight. “Brown is also a wave right now.”

The Migos rapper should know: he and his bandmates, Quavo and Takeoff, are some of the most out-there dressers in hip hop, mixing colors, prints, and brands with ebullient tenacity.

Still, it’s a big leap to from wearing clothes masterfully to designing them. “Hell yeah, it was a big step,” Offset says. He comes by this knowledge earnestly: while Quavo and Takeoff were front row at every major show in Paris, Offset was racing to put the last minute touches on his collection within a collection for the debut of Laundered Works Corp., a new line by designer Chaz A. Jordan.

Offset had long had design ambitions. “I do a lot of our merch, and I don’t ever have a stylist that shops for me,” he says. “I get in a lot of arguments with stylists.” He met Jordan through Instagram, after following the latter’s streetwear line ih nom uh nit, and they, “ran into each other so many times” over the past three years that it was only natural to discuss designing together. “I like to work with people that I feel are on the same vibe as me,” Offset says, “and want to get the same mission done as me.” People who do “not quick work, but hard work…. A lot of people don’t know, there’s a lot of last minute little touches when you play that shit out.”

“It was a lot of last minute,” Jordan nods, alluding to the small details that brought the collection to the luxury expression they were working towards. “Like, 72-hour last minute.”

“But that’s how you get the best product.”

For Jordan, the idea behind Laundered Works was “if Celine had a men’s line,” noting that “this was before Celine men came out.” So, more specifically: “Taking elements of inspiration from Margiela and Christophe Decarnin, those original Balmain days, and really diving back into what Paris fashion used to be, circa 2010-2013. That was when I lived in Paris, and it was just a different vibe all together.”

Offset and Jordan spoke to GQ the day after their runway show about developing their line and their taste in fashion, what they plan to do next, and the attention-grabbing mesh suit that Cardi B wore to the show. The collection is available for preorder on the brand’s website starting Saturday.

Offset: 2013 was when I was dreaming to come to Paris Fashion Week. I was never able to make Fashion Week because I’ll always have some touring in between that. But we made it happen before I came out here for the runway debut. And I just knew I wanted to work with somebody that I could personally talk to, instead of having a thousand-person team. It takes the organic juice away from the project when you do it like that. Me and him chalking it up, arguing at the crib…

What would you guys argue about?

Offset: “Hell no, I don’t like this fabric!” “You have to do better than this!” “It’s too light,” “it’s too heavy.”

Jordan: It’s not, like, a serious argument.

Offset: It’s not serious. It’s just being creative, and when you get in a creative space, we’re straight up with each other: “Hell no, I don’t like this. This needs to be cut like this.” And if I come up with some wild ass idea, he’ll help me calm it down: “Listen bro, it’s wild. I’m telling you, that’s wild.”

<cite class="credit">Evan Mock</cite>
Evan Mock

What’s too wild?

Jordan: The funniest part is, when he sees my pieces, he always thinks I want to go super luxury. That was the first argument: I wanted to go luxury but keep it contemporary, and he wanted to go accessible. So the argument was, alright, how do we mix the two? And that’s how we came up with the collection within a collection. It ties together; you can interchange pieces so that it flows.

How is that mix expressed in the clothes?

Jordan: When I design, I think from the time that you wake up to the time that you go to sleep. So you have a different attire for the early stages of the day, midday, and then evening.

Offset: I like streetwear, but we merged the streetwear with the luxury. When I put leather on my products, it’s like, it’s real. It’s not the cheap bull— [Offset covers his mouth mischievously and corrects himself] Crap! It’s not the cheap one. I don’t know if everybody got to see the actual details on a lot of our jeans, like where the pockets is—the [rivets] are metal skullheads we created, with the flame coming out of one eye. It’s fire.

That looks wild.

Jordan: All [the leather] is produced in Florence by a company that is owned by a big conglomerate. That was a helpful resource to have: because of my relationship with them, I don’t have [order] minimums, but I still get production pricing. So all of the materials, everything, finishings—top notch.

<cite class="credit">Evan Mock</cite>
Evan Mock

How did you guys build your taste in fashion? What were you looking at when you were growing up to figure out what you like?

Offset: My five brands growing up was, like, Number (N)ine, Seven Jeans, Rock & Republic, Antik Denim. I was big on True Religion until I saw that too many people [had it], so that’s how I got into Rock & Republic.

Right now, an inspirational brand is Kapital. I like Japanese brands now. I changed my whole thing: I like it to fit slim. Their clothes fit a different way: they’ll go slim on the legs, and then they’ll bulk right up [gestures to his knees] and stack down there. I just feel like Japan got the way. And then I like the fact that in Japan, they got their own brands that they won’t send to America. That’s fire to me.

Yeah, it’s the last kind of exclusivity.

Offset: You can’t take this away. That’s all it is. You can’t take it and run with it. We got more of an influence, I think, on the world than Japan, but they keep their culture where they’re at. You can’t buy certain brands online and have it shipped to America—no. Certain things that I got, I had to hit up artists like, “Are you in Japan? I’m going to send you a couple thousand dollars.”

Jordan: It’s similar...to how we’re curating his particular pieces. We control where the brand goes because we have the luxury of not having to necessarily worry about sales, because of the power that we have in the culture. [The pair is planning to sell the line almost exclusively through their website.]

<cite class="credit">Evan Mock</cite>
Evan Mock

You had an amazing front row, with a ton of your friends, rather than fashion influencers. One attendee said it was like the Grammys red carpet.

Offset: We support each other throughout the industry. It’s just all love. It’s how I do real love. I spread it. It’s just like, Jerry Lorenzo is my dog. We talked on personal levels. He was giving me pointers on what I should do: don’t use nobody, have somebody that you rock with, that you genuinely rock with. He gave me a lot of game, and for him to show up to see the product…. [Offset shakes his head in gratitude.] He was like, “I know you’re an artist. Don’t just jump into something. Have somebody who’s been in that field with you, that can properly tell you how to set up everything.” And so what I’m seeing in the front row, when I was walking, it’s just like, I see the love. It’s all love. There’s support for everybody because we all support each other.

I wear everybody’s brands. Even if it might not be their best drop, I still support everybody and I still rock it. I might see people and say, “Look, I got your thing on!” I just think that’s love, and that’s where that love came last night, because I always make sure to try to show love.

I liked the fact I got like 10 pieces, but they’re all slapping me for these pieces: “God, this is fire! No misses!”

Jordan: It’s a crazy thing, how we have a lot of mutual friends and contacts. That’s what made that front row. 2Chainz even FaceTimed us after the show because he was pissed he couldn’t go. The fact that we could just call another artist and then they’re just showing love, it’s just like…

Offset: Because a lot of brands have to [fill their front row] out of bank rolls and pockets because—you know what happens? You have artists that wear your shit and really spending hundreds of thousands dollars on your clothes—like the big, big, big brands—and you don’t come to them with no commercial, no ad, no business. So when it’s time for your new season and you want a superstar, they’re like, “Yeah, give me $250,000, $100,000.” The relationship’s going to be good? You got to just have a clean face for everything you do.

<cite class="credit">Evan Mock</cite>
Evan Mock

What do you want to do next?

Offset: We’re gonna do another season. When’s the next Paris Fashion Week for men?

Jordan: June.

Offset: I think we should do something with women. It’ll kill, it’ll surprise, fuck ‘em up. It’ll mess up the world. I think they’d be like, “What, that quick?” A lot of people was asking my wife, “They going to do women pieces? Is it unisex?” Basically, it is, though. We’re on our way with it. We’re not going to stop. Hell no! It was too much of a cultural big scene.

Jordan: That was certainly a cultural bomb that went off yesterday. Literally, the internet was insane.

<cite class="credit">Evan Mock</cite>
Evan Mock

Did you know Cardi was going to wear that transparent mesh bodysuit and mask? Do you consult with each other on clothes?

Offset: I just let her do her thing. She’s been getting best dressed every year.

She is the master.

Offset: I just let her do her thing.

This conversation has been edited and condensed.

<cite class="credit">Evan Mock</cite>
Evan Mock
<cite class="credit">Evan Mock</cite>
Evan Mock
<cite class="credit">Evan Mock</cite>
Evan Mock
<cite class="credit">Evan Mock</cite>
Evan Mock
<cite class="credit">Evan Mock</cite>
Evan Mock

Originally Appeared on GQ