Image via Amazon Prime Video
Growing up, everyone has their grails, the items they would do anything to own. For Teddy Riley, it was a purple ABC Camo zip-up hoodie from Bape. For Matt Hausfater, it was a pair of Arnette sunglasses and a No Fear chain wallet he purchased in 1995. And Aaron Buchsbaum spent all of his bar mitzvah money on a Sean John velour tracksuit. Each had a distinct grail of their own as teenagers. Now, each is in the entermainent industry. Riley and Buchsbaum met while attending USC in the 2000s and have written and sold various projects together ever since such as El Tigre, a feature comedy that was sold to Sony in 2012. Hausfaster has been a writer and producer on various comedy series such as NBC’s Undateable, and also has assisted in developing shows for networks like NBC and FOX throughout his career.
For their latest project, the trio have come together to co-create Fairfax, a new animated comedy series premiering on Amazon Prime today. The first season centers around a group of four middle schoolers, Dale (Skyler Gisondo), Derica (Kiersey Clemons), Benny (Peter S. Kim), and Truman (Jaboukie Young-White), as they navigate Fairfax Avenue, the iconic block in Los Angeles the show is named after, in search of their own grails—mainly a Dr. Phil box T-shirt from the most popular brand on the block, Latrine.
For streetwear aficionados, the reference should be immediately obvious. One of Supreme’s most celebrated pieces is its photo T-shirt that features figures like Kermit the Frog and Raekwon wearing the brand’s notorious Box Logo T-shirts. In Fairfax, it’s Latrine, not Supreme, who is selling the limited designs. But rather than an iconic rapper, the celebrity of choice is a well-known television therapist. Yes, it’s a bit out of left field. But that’s sort of the point. It’s the same reason why later in the series, Shania Twain is headlining a hip-hop festival, and in other episodes, Joaquin Phoenix serves as the streetwear plug who has the intel on upcoming drops. It doesn’t quite all make sense, but it’s so weird that you can’t help but at least giggle at it.
Much like Supreme, Latrine is the brand everyone wants. The series even made the “Latrine” logo a red box with white lettering, leaving nothing up for speculation. The brand is very much meant to spoof the real-world streetwear empire. Benny’s character, who is also a local reseller in town, wears a camo Latrine box logo hoodie throughout the duration of the show that is eerily similar to the ones that Supreme has released in years past. Latrine is known for releasing crazy accessories like a hand crank pencil sharpener or salad spinner, a nod to the unpredictability of the accessories peddled by Supreme from season to season.
“[Supreme] is the king of the block. The show couldn’t be named Fairfax without acknowledging the goliath that is Supreme,” says Riley. As far as how they settled on Latrine, it simply just “sounded right,” even if it is a word for “toilet.” It sounded like a designer brand, says Riley, who references Givenchy as a quick comparison.
Latrine is portrayed as a secret society of sorts in the show. Its store is equipped with military-grade security systems. Its founder Hiroki Hassan (Billy Porter) lives in a Willy Wonka-esque factory that makes clothes, but also houses rooms where dogs and cats do experiments in a laboratory. It’s all very over the top, but the creators say it is the way to nod to how important Supreme is within today’s existing streetwear culture.
“In a world where Supreme is selling Oreos and jet skis, they’re in on their own joke,” says Hausfater. “It felt like the right time to play around with that fun, while also paying respect to it. In our show, Latrine is the coolest thing ever in the same way that Supreme is. It’s a friendly poke of the bear. We all love it. We all know we aren’t cool enough to get the stuff on drop day without paying the massive resell fees for it. But we still love it, covet it, and respect it until the day we die.”
While the show’s creators weren’t big players on Fairfax Avenue in the same way someone like Bobby Hundreds or Tyler, the Creator was throughout the 2000s, Buchsbaum says the setting was something very personal for each of them. The three reminisce about being dropped off on the block as teenagers with $20 in their pocket, or eating challah french toast from Canter’s Deli at 2 in the morning. Riley notes that, to this day, they all still have some sort of interest in the fashion world, whether it’s sneakers, designer labels, or something in between. He recalls his days as a teenager in the 2000s hunting down items from brands like LRG, Triple Five Soul, and Zoo York. Now, he still logs onto Supreme’s site on Thursday morning trying to buy the latest items from that week’s drop.
“As three guys who grew up in Los Angeles loitering on Fairfax, it was in our DNA,” Buchsbaum tells Complex. “This was an opportunity to write something both very funny, and also personal to our story growing up.”
Riley notes that although Fairfax has such a pivotal place in streetwear history, the show aimed less at retelling that history and more about being that kid on Fairfax Avenue trying his best to fit in and doing whatever it takes to acquire the latest and greatest items.
“We had consulting partners in Somehoodlum and Pizzaslime who we would constantly have conversations with to make sure the show felt true to the world and current, but at the end of the day this show is about the kids in the back of the line. That wasn’t something we needed any advice on from anyone because we lived it,” Riley tells Complex when asked if the trio reached out to any of Fairfax Avenue’s pivotal figures such as Bobby Hundreds or Nick Diamond while crafting the first season. “What we want people to connect with is being on the outside looking in. We wanted that experience to feel unique. We went through lengths to make sure the block was true, from the crabby waitresses at the deli to the mean security guard to the reseller down the block waiting to rip you off. If you know the block, you’ll feel a connection to it. But at the end of the day, the block is really a jumping off point for a much larger world.”
While streetwear is the main throughline of the series, the show is less about the ins-and-outs of a fully authentic streetwear world and more about teenage life in the 2020s. In one episode, the crew is hunting down a rare T-shirt to impress their classmates. In the next, Dale is trying to gain enough followers to be considered an “influencer” by his peers and get invited to a party. In another episode, Derica is a big social activist who helps a whale get back to the ocean. In Episode 5, the quartet goes to Chernobyl Fest, a music festival themed around various environmental issues like deforestation. In another, Benny tries out for his middle school’s e-sports team, a sign of professional gaming’s growing popularity. Each episode tackles a different theme that’s relevant to teenagers today.
“It’s not even just about streetwear. It’s not even about influencer culture at large. It’s really about the memeification of the vast ocean that is the internet. Whether it’s super health conscious food stores, music festivals, streetwear, it’s this all-encompassing zeitgeist to be a 13-year-old in 2021,” says Hausfater. “The inherent comedy of having to know who you are and define yourself at 13 years old, so much so that it is blasted out publicly for the rest of the world to see, was comedy to us.”
In the end, Fairfax is much more than an animated series poking fun at the niche culture of streetwear and its most glaring cringiness. It’s far from a completely accurate depiction of streetwear, but at the end of the day, it isn’t supposed to be either. It’s about the trials and tribulations of growing up. The trio behind Fairfax just wanted to spotlight streetwear culture in the process, something few shows have done thus far despite streetwear’s growing popularity.
“While we have the utmost respect for guys like James Jebbia, Bobby Hundreds, Nick Diamond, Tyler and everyone at Golf, this show is really about the underdog. While the kids in our show would love to grow up and be any of those people, it really does speak to feeling like an outsider,” says Hausfater. “While we tip our hat to them, [the show] is not really about that experience of what it’s like to reign supreme over this kingdom. It’s about being on the outside and having that aspiration.”