Sean Wotherspoon at Guess Farmers Market, Melbourne Australia
Sean Wotherspoon has been a vibrant force in streetwear, leaving a trail of lively, contrasting colours wherever he goes.
He's a designer, social media phenomenon and owner of Round Two, a vintage boutique that's become a Mecca for throwback garments in Los Angeles. Given Sean's love for classic designs, it comes as no surprise that he's teamed up with longstanding label Guess for his latest collaboration. For the Farmer's Market collection, he takes influence from Guess’ golden era of the ‘80s and ‘90s, while implementing his own vibrant twist that's inspired by the colours of fruits and vegetables. The Farmer's Market range has also headed on tour, being sold at packed-out events in Paris, London, Tokyo and yes, right here in Melbourne.
Fans queued for days in Melbourne's brisk winter to grab the collection, and when doors flung open on Saturday morning, hundreds descended on Flinders Street to immerse themselves in the Farmer's Market. Most of them left with sizeable Guess shopping bags, and when Sean himself arrived, it was nothing short of pandemonium. Kids huddled around for photos and presented items to be autographed. One fan got Sean's 'More Air' tagline scrawled on his Air Max 97/1, before placing it carefully in a bag and hobbling off with only one shoe on.
Amongst all the madness at the Farmer's Market, we nabbed a few minutes to talk about the collection with Sean and Nicolai Marciano of Guess.
We're here at the Guess Farmer's Market, which you've hosted around the world. How does it feel physically going and seeing the immediate response of the fans? I imagine it's pretty surreal.
SW: Oh yeah, it's so sick. The US is where we're pretty much launching everything, and that's where I feel like we're the most popular, but it's hard to put into perspective how many people in other countries really fuck with what we're doing. It's sort of insane. When I saw Nicolai's videos, he came up this morning and he was like, "Yeah, there's 300 people in line." I'm like, "What?!" It's always nuts... It's dope knowing that we're all connected by clothing and shoes. It's super surprising.
I feel like in the US, everyone is so set on making money off stuff, that they lose sight of actually having fun or learning about something. I feel like all these other places – Australia, just looking and talking to people there, and I've only been here an hour and a half – it's so different. Everyone's a true fan and has this actual love for it. It's not just, “sign this, so I can get it resold." It's, "Dude. Oh my God. I've been waiting to meet you. We've been waiting to get some of this Guess stuff... I can't wait to wear it." Dudes are throwing it right on with dope fits and shit. I'm really hyped on it.
What do you feel is the future of fashion and retail from hereon in, with buying products online as opposed to providing a full-on experience like the Farmer's Market?
SW: It's the future of consuming, stores and retail. I think when I work with companies, especially what we've been doing with Guess, that's what I bring to the table. Online is weird, it's not fun. Just like Round Two, nothing's online. If you want to experience it, you have to come to the store, and you get this amazing in-store experience. That's what we're doing with the Guess thing. It's like we're creating what I think is a phenomenal product, and we want everyone to be a part of it. We don't want you to just buy online and click.
A couple of years down the road, that's what's going to matter, is that people have a story. I think that's the stuff that's going to stick with everyone, hold value, or still be cool. There's a story to that. It's really sick, dude.
NM: It's something that we always wanted to do, especially with Guess Jeans USA, and even since Rocky. Everything's always been about installation, and more than a pop-up. It's the future of it. Anyone can sell stuff online, but not everyone can create this really tangible experience that people can carry with them, it's just something we're really trying for.
The garments have a bit of an '80s, '90s throwback feel to them. How do you go about releasing collections that pay respect to those years, but still remain for fresh for a contemporary audience in 2018?
SW: I think we're really lucky right now because the contemporary audience is looking for the ‘80s, it's not like you have to try so hard to convince them, "Hey, this is what you want to be wearing." I think most of the demographic right now is ‘90s babies. I was born in 1990. I think that we're all looking back to what was cool when we were younger, not that we wore it, but we looked up to it. It's not really convincing, it's just showing that person today that we're doing it the right way. Just getting as close as possible.
NM: From a Guess perspective, all these kids, they're all looking for an original story. It's crazy to see how all these silhouettes are ‘80s, ‘90s silhouettes that are timeless. The same things were happening in that time with a different colour twist and a different angle of marketing around it. You're able to resonate these pieces with this demographic. That demographic of the ‘80s and ‘90s was the Polo, Nautica, Guess; and now it's Supreme and Bape. It's like you're merging these two worlds where kids are wearing vintage Guess with their Jordans and Bape, and whatever it may be.
On that note, do you think that there's any item from the ‘80s or ‘90s that you could confidently say will 100% never come back into fashion?
SW: Honestly, I wouldn't even say anything now because I think everything will come back to fashion. I was going to say, "Man, I don't know. Patent leather pants." Now I'm thinking about it, I'm like, "No. That shit's popping somewhere." Girls rock that shit heavy. I don't even know what to say. Everything is coming back. You'll see some weird shit and you're like, "Oh my God. That was the ugliest thing ever, but it's so sick now." Like, fuck.
The whole Farmer's Market angle of the collection is based on fruits and vegetables, how do you go about translating that organic energy into mass-produced clothing?
SW: Everyone knows that I'm vegan. I eat a lot of vegetables and fruits. I just love farmer's markets, that's me as a person. We were like, "All right. Here's the fruits and vegetables that are in season for this time." We pulled the colours from it. It's pretty easy for us to throw it all together. I think it's really authentic to me. If it's authentic to you, what do you need to do? It just works out.
NM: Translating that whole colour story through all the different wash techniques, including how we do over-dyed denim-washed product, which Guess has always been known for innovating in product development. To be able to take those colours and really put them to work in an interesting way is really special.
Would you say that the collection has kind of a social aspect to it? It prepares kids to eat more vegetables?
SW: Yeah, I hope so. One dude's like, "Yo, if you sign my shoes, I'll go vegan for a week." I'm like, "Alright." Even at the one in LA, we had a bunch of produce and stuff like that. I think it does. I think it motivates people to just pay attention to colour in general. Everyone's like, "Oh, man. This stuff's so bright. Some people can't wear it," but really, it's an accent piece. Wear one with some other more toned-down clothes. In reality, it's kind of beyond wearing it and the whole fashion of it. I think this was the brightest way to start the summer. Not that we want to take credit for colour or anything like that, but I really truly believe that not a lot of people were into the rainbow colour stuff, before my Air Max and leading into the Guess thing. I'd like to think that we're at the forefront of making this whole rainbow colour thing cool.
Are there any Australian fashion trends or any Australian brands that you see that aren't really popping in the US, that's surprised you here?
SW: The US is super stuck on name brands and stuff like that. I notice in Australia, it's just all about the style of something. It's not about the name brand. You can have a no-name vintage piece that's floral, and if it looks dope, it looks dope. They're not going to be like, "Oh, it's not Polo, so I don't want it." She's like, "No. This shit's really fresh. I'm going to get it." I think that's a difference I noticed, just fly is fly here, regardless if it's a name brand. Vintage is vintage. If the shit looks good, the shit looks good and you can fashion it together.
With the popularity of streetwear and sneakers at the moment, a lot of people talk about it being a bubble, and ask when the bubble going to burst. Do you have any thoughts on that?
SW: No, shit's never going to go down. Supreme's about to do a Rolex collab, they're going to do a Ferrari collab. It went from paper clips, to Post-It pads, to pencils, to sunglasses, to toolboxes, to fucking Louis Vuitton, to now you can buy a fucking car. Shit's getting crazy. I think brands are accommodating for it. We're growing with it. It's like, "Dude, I think shit's going to keep blowing." People might find themselves asking that same question 10 years down the road. There might be the dudes like, "Yo, man. The day is going to come." It's like, "Dude, shut up. You've been saying that since 2018, man." This shit's going up and it's not going to stop.
Look at what Gucci's doing, bootleg Gucci shit. Do you know what I'm saying? Dapper Dan, like what? It's a crazy world we're in. Virgil doing Louis Vuitton and recreating a Nike Dunk High, but for Louis. It's just nuts. Everything's crazy now. It's really cool. I love it.
Interview by Christopher Kevin Au
Photos supplied by Guess Australia
