What is your earliest fashion memory? A moment you realized wow clothes and accessories can be a way to express myself…
Sophomore year of high school I used to get bullied a lot in school, on the bus, at home. People would just shit on me every day. I had no escape and wrote my first suicide note. But I had this hoodie with a really large hood. It felt like being hugged. I could even cry in it, and no one cared. I wore it 24/7. It’d be hot outside and there’s little Joshua in his hoodie trying to hide from the world. With the hood up, I was able to avoid people’s stares. The less people saw me the less pain I had to endure. The safety of that hoodie let me know that I was ok. Senior year my mom got me like 20 hoodies for Christmas. It blew my mind with the pockets and zippers and T-Rexes, and galaxies, what art could do to a hoodie. When I thought about launching my own brand, a hoodie was the first item! [Laughs]