Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
I’m from Nashville, Tennessee, and I currently live and work in NYC. I went to school for fine arts/photography but now I mainly work on a clothing brand called [ CAVE , CITY ] with my brother Will. I use the brand as kind of an umbrella project for other work that I do as well. The clothing and imagery is mostly inspired by the visual landscape of the American South. For my day job though I’m an assistant menswear designer for the brand Madewell. 

Are there any influences that are core to your work?
For me, the most core influence in my work probably stems from growing up around the different tourist economies of Tennessee. In Nashville, the honky tonks up and down Broadway, the Smoky Mountains, The Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Memphis. It’s places like that but also just the landscape of the South in general. I’ve always been interested in these fantasized aspects of American life, and in these hubs for tourism there’s this uncanny thing that happens where culture is simulated through commercial forms.

Is there a moment you look back on as being formative to the work you do?
There was this store called Friedman’s in Nashville that sold workwear and military surplus. Such a cool place, it was in business since the 1940s but sadly closed last year. My friend Collin lived in the neighborhood and brought me in there one time, and it really changed the way I thought about clothing. They had camo patterns I’d never seen before, cool patches, jungle jackets, Rothco bombers, Navy sailor’s uniforms. All that. I was probably 15 or so, and had only been exposed to clothing sold at the skate shops or like Walmart or something. Since then I became much more interested in design and after I moved away made sure to stop by every time I was back in town. One time I was visiting during the summer, and I bought like 10 pairs of thermal long johns to take back to NYC for the winter. The woman at the counter looked at me like I was crazy and said “You know somethin’ we don’t??”. Been there so many times over the years. Really bummed they couldn’t stick around.

What’s your studio or workspace like? Do you have any rituals when you settle in there?
I don’t really have a studio, I just work out of my apartment. got a little setup in my closet where I can work at my desk and fulfill orders. My brother is still a student at Pratt so we’ll work at the studios there sometimes. For graphics I kind of start by flipping through printed material then scanning things in. I have a thermal label printer that creates good texture on an image, so I’ll print stuff out with that then try to build things physically from there. It’s like scan, edit, print, cut out, scan, edit, repeat.

What kind of imagery are you drawn to?
I love old rusty southern gothic type stuff, old signage, military logos and diagrams. It’s aggressive but minimal at the same time. Stuff that you can see on the side of the road or in a military surplus store or in a gas station.

When needed, where do you look for inspiration? Have/how have these sources changed over time?
Driving around Tennessee and going to antique stores or gift shops in a gas station or something, always loved doing that. I’ll find stuff to scan and rework in old books and magazines. When I’m stuck in the city though ill walk around soho to see what’s in the market. feeling fabrics and materials in person helps. love the rick owens store lol. For online inspiration I’ll lurk on Are.na or Pinterest. When I was in school at Pratt though, I had access to the coolest library. I spent lots of time there. 

You work on the clothing brand [ CAVE , CITY ] with your brother Will. How did the brand begin? Is there an identity that you want to foster and explore with the clothing?
 In 2022 I drove through this small town in Kentucky actually called Cave City and realized the visual landscape and tourist economy was a great representation of what I was trying to convey through art and fashion. I had been making clothes for a while before then, but from that point I used [ CAVE , CITY ] for the name officially. Literally a city full of caves, It’s home to the world’s longest known cave system Mammoth Cave which is recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site. Though when driving around the rest of the town, it has this uncanny, empty feeling. It looks like there hasn’t been a visitor in 30 years. For our brand’s visual identity, we try to capture that feeling through like a military/southern gothic fantasy with a modern take, though I think our vision is always evolving. 

You’re one of the four people that started Parkmart. How did it begin and how did it evolve? Are there any favorite memories from past events that linger with you?
Like many others, I left NYC for a while during covid and was making stuff in my parents garage. When I moved back I was trying to get outside and do a pop up to try to sell some stuff.  I got my friends nico and nurse involved because we all were kinda in the same spot. After talking about it, we realized it would be way more fun if we just included as many people as possible. We started hitting up people who we thought was working on cool stuff or fit the vibe for a lineup in a public park. We hosted a bunch of markets at Cooper and Maria Hernandez in Brooklyn basically until it was a liability because the parks department kept denying our permit requests. We then started renting warehouse spaces and charging a vendor fee to cover the costs. We figured out a good system and ran it for about 4 years, then decided to end the project last december. Our last event was a collaboration with New Art Dealers, in their gallery space in the LES. NADA asked us to co-host a holiday artist’s market and help curate the lineup. After the market was over we took all the vendors out to dinner and karaoke after. Was a great night. 

How does your creative community now compare to your creative community when you were younger?
I think the biggest difference now is people’s presence on social media. In high school, I spent lots of time online following things happening in NY/LA on instagram and tumblr which was pretty formative actually. I feel like now everything is structured to be a business and it’s more like you’re social online to try to make money rather than being social online to have fun and learn about cool stuff.

What role does collaboration play in your work?
Well me and my brother will work on [ CAVE , CITY ] together. It’s funny as brothers we’re like exactly the same but opposite at the same time. We want the same thing for the brand but our way of getting there is different. So it’s good to work through things together because we balance out each other’s obscure ideas. He’s more interested in capital F Fashion stuff and since I’ve been doing menswear at Madewell I’m more interested in more simple mens stuff. The two sides on their own aren’t quite right for the brand but our minds combined I think really define what we put out.

How do you manage tending to the variety of responsibilities in the work you do? How do you mitigate burnout or exhaustion?
I think I’ve realized that good things take time and there’s no reason to stress or rush anything you’re passionate about. The last time we released product online was almost a year ago now. We just do stuff for ourselves and put it out when it feels right. Also, having a day job helps me not stress about income from the brand. We basically are just focused on making cool stuff and having fun rather than marketing and trying to push the product online. When we first tried to take the next step with the brand I didn’t work full time so I was more stressed about my shopify payouts lol.