Artists in their own words: Rashad Warren

Rashad Warren wearing his designs (photos by: Kelley Crawford)

Who: Rashad Warren

What: Fashion designer

Where: City Park

Q: When do you find you get inspired to create?

RW: Usually when I’m at home or when I’m in nature. Something about those places makes me feel open. You have so much space to explore and think. My mind can wander in those spaces, and that’s when I can come up with different designs.

This all started about two years ago when my mom started buying me oversized clothes. I wanted skinnier jeans, so I had to teach myself how to tailor. I deconstructed the clothes until I understood how they were made. I didn’t have a sewing machine or anything like that, so everything I do is hand-sewn.

These pants I’m wearing now took me about a month to make. It definitely takes a long time with just the needle and thread.

Q: Who would be the most surprised by your designs and why?

RW: I think most people are surprised by my designs. Everything I make is new and is something that people have never seen before. I can see anything, and if it catches my eye then I try to think about how I can bring it into fashion.

This headpiece, for instance, was something I imagined before I actually constructed it. Of course, that means some things can go disastrously wrong. I made this one shirt with patches– and this was pretty much my first time creating something–and that shirt looked terrible. It looked completely uninspired.

I don’t like clothes to look like anything else.

But I have an oversized scarf that is probably my favorite piece. The way it sits is completely untraditional. The scarf isn’t flat, so it stands up around your neck. I wear that scarf on special occasions, but I’d wear that scarf in a casual setting without any problems.

Q: What is your go-to late night snack?

RW: If I could eat anything, it would be fries, but my real choice would be cheddar cheese popcorn.

Q: How would you like the world to be?

RW: I don’t know if I could make the world perfect, but I’d really like to see people spend time researching. There are a lot of people in the world that are often really ignorant, and we no longer have any reason for that ignorance. The Internet is right there, and it has so many answers.

For some reason, I wish people knew more about phones when they talked about them. People debate about I-phone versus Android phones, but people don’t really know what they are talking about. They just say what they’ve heard from others, so a lot of people talk about how great the I-phone is, but the Android has a better camera and more options. People just don’t want to take the time to research; they just do what they hear.

Q: What do you think you’ve learned about yourself through your creations?

RW: I’ve learned that I feel like I need to be different everyday. I never felt that before I started creating clothing. Like I said, this started two years ago, but it all started with a guy I met.

He was dressed really nicely, and he inspired me to dress differently than the way I was dressing. He taught me about how to fit clothes to the body, and then that was the start of everything. I started researching and learning how to tailor the clothes.

Before that, I dressed like a skateboarder, and I still bring that skateboarding look into my designs. I don’t think there’s any reason why people can’t dress with a skater look while also being professional. That’s a challenge I like to take on in my designs.

To learn more about Rashad’s work as well as order some of his designs, you can check out his Instagram page.