Wil Fry Talks $93,000 Kanye Tees and Fashion Satire in a New Interview

Expect to see a lot more of his designs in the future.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Digital designer Wil Fry never meant for his designs to be worn by everyone. Thanks to Tumblr and a few re-blogs, what started as a few photoshopped designs has turned to a collection of its own. Now his pieces are the hottest goods on the Internet. There are even rappers wearing knockoffs of his own appropriated Givenchy Birds of Paradise Brooklyn Nets jersey. As for fashion parodies, he’s doing more than just the flip of a luxury logo.

With his online shop just recently opened, VICE’s The Creators Project caught up with Fry for an interview to discuss the crazy markups on his Yeezy-inspired tees, his thoughts on fashion satire, and thoughts on Photoshop clothing. Read a few snippets below and visit The Creators Project website for the full interview.

The Creators Project: Obviously Photoshop clothing has really become a 'thing' over the last couple of years. So what do you think it is about your work that sets you apart and has drawn such a following?
Wil Fry: I'd like to think it's because people can appreciate the thought process behind the few garments I've made. It also helps to make the physical piece—not just Photoshopping a design/idea onto a blank tee and leaving it at that.

You incorporate the language of some other designers as deliberate reference points into your pieces. What are your thoughts on the open source nature of brands and logos? Obviously corporate imagery is used a lot, particularly online—is it possible for any brand to retain control of their identity in this climate? 
Absolutely. Re-appropriating brand imagery from the likes of Chanel or Louis Vuitton, for instance, in most cases is only going to strengthen their identity in the long run. These are companies with legacies older than the people who are trying to re-use their logo on a sweater. It's tongue-in-cheek. It's funny for a minute, or if done well, maybe a week or two, but the joke soon gets old. 

We heard you put an Air Yeezy II tee on eBay for $90,300—how did that work out? Any word from Kanye?
No, no word from Kanye. Again, that was just commentary from me. It went well, that project went a lot further than I thought it would.

 

[via The Creators Project]

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