 | This article reads like a press release or a news article and may be largely based on routine coverage .(October 2022) |
Telfar Clemens | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 21, 1985 New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Pace University |
| Occupation | Fashion designer |
| Website | telfar |
Telfar Clemens (born 1985) is a Liberian-American fashion designer and the founder of the fashion label Telfar. [1] Clemens has won the 2017 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, the CFDA American Accessories 2019, and the CFDA American Accessories 2020. [2]
Clemens was born in Lefrak City, Queens in 1985 parents are Liberian. His family moved back to Liberia for a short period of time, but then to avoid the Second Liberian Civil War, relocated to Gaithersburg, Maryland. [3]
While in high school at New York's P.S. 206, Clemens's teacher wrote monograms for all of their students. The monogram the teacher gave to Clemens would later become the brand's signature logo. [1]
In 2005, Clemens was an accounting student at Pace University and a DJ, where he would go downtown at Century 21 to go shopping in women's European brands such as: Yves Saint-Laurent, Maison Margiela and Hemut Lang. [4] Clemens then founded his eponymous, unisex fashion brand, Telfar. [1] Clemens later graduated from Pace University in 2008 with a degree in accounting. [5]
Clemens met Babak Radboy in 2004, who later joined Telfar as creative director and business partner in 2013.
In 2014, Clemens released the first iteration of the Shopping Bag, which would go on to become a major it bag. [6]
In September 2016, Clemens and Radboy worked together on an installation at the Berlin Biennale, accompanied by a video rendered by artists Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch. [7]
In May 2017, Clemens collaborated with musician Solange Knowles to design the outfits for Knowles and her dancers for "An Ode To", a no-phones-allowed interdisciplinary performance at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. [8]
In September 2017, Clemens designed uniforms for 400 White Castle franchises. [9] In October, 2017, Clemens released a special capsule collection in collaboration with White Castle that year, with all proceeds from the partnership went to bail funds for teenagers imprisoned on Rikers Island. [10] [11] That year, he won the 2017 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund along with a $400,000 prize, much of which he invested in the production of the Telfar Shopping Bag. [12]
In February 2019, Telfar showed his Fall Winter 2019 collection at Irving Plaza in New York City in an exclusive event celebrating black future(s) month, with 1000 guests, a mosh pit for a runway (models were crowd-surfed through the audience rather than walking down a runway), and live stage music. [13] The fashion show, co-hosted by playwright Jeremy O. Harris, featured performances by musicians Ho99o9, Na-Kel Smith, Oyinda, Butch Dawson, and the designer Clemens himself. [14] [15]
In early 2020, Clemens announced a collaboration with Gap Inc. The collection was postponed indefinitely in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [16] [17]
In August 2020, Telfar introduced the Bag Security Program, a one-day-only online event that would allow anyone to preorder bags for a guaranteed holiday delivery that year. [18] “I created the bag security program so that people could be able to get the thing that they wanted. We just really wanted to know like if we actually gave people the chance to get this bag, how many bags can we sell in one day?” Clemens stated. [19] Two more Bag Security Programs have since taken place, both in 2021.
In June 2020, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first LGBTQ Pride parade, Queerty named Telfar among the fifty heroes “leading the nation toward equality, acceptance, and dignity for all people”. [20] [21] Clemens launched a line of durags in September of that year. [22] [23] Shortly after, Clemens announced a collaboration with UGG to launch in fall 2021. [24]
In September 2020, Clemens was awarded the Accessories Designer of the Year at the CFDA Awards. [25]
In 2021, GUESS, a large American retailer, produced a bag consumers recognized as a look-alike of the Telfar Shopping Bag, but with a G-logo in place of the Telfar brand. Guess’s handbag licenser Signal Brands voluntarily pulled the G-logo off of shelves and released a statement that "Signal Brands does not wish to create any impediments to Telfar Global's success and, as such, has independently decided to stop selling the G-logo totes." [26]
Clemens counts Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier and Yohji Yamamoto as influences, [27] along with "life style" brands such as Calvin Klein, DKNY, and Polo Ralph Lauren. [1]
The Telfar Shopping Bag is made of vegan leather, branded with the signature "T" Telfar logo. [28] It has been called an "it-bag" and "the decade's most important accessory" by major fashion publications. [29] [30] Originally modeled after shopping bags from Bloomingdale's, the Telfar Shopping Bag is colloquially known as the "Bushwick Birkin" due to its combination of status and accessibility. [1] [31]
In 2018, singer Kelela featured the bag in her "The Story of a Thing" column for T . [32]
The bag has sold out within minutes of every restock, with demand crashing the shop site in July 2020. Telfar's team was initially concerned that bots were buying the bags to resell them at a higher price, but concluded that the bot issue was overstated—the issue was real demand. [33] [34]
In November 2020, Oprah Winfrey picked the Telfar Bag as one of her 'Favorite Things'. [7] The bag is also promoted by other notable figures such as Real Housewives of New York City star Sonja Morgan, [35] Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, [36] [37] [38] Swae Lee, [39] Ashton Sanders, [40] and Dua Lipa. [41]
In 2021 Telfar designed the official uniforms for the Liberian team for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. [42]
In 2022 singer Beyoncé mentioned the brand in her song "Summer Renaissance."
Rapper Maiya The Don released the song "Telfy" in October 2022, about the signature shopping bag. [43]
| Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund | — | Won | [12] |
| 2020 | CFDA Awards | Accessories Designer of the Year | Won | [25] |
| 2021 | The Fashion Awards | Global Leader of Change: People | Won [lower-alpha 1] | [44] |
Thomas Carlyle Ford is an American fashion designer and filmmaker. He launched his eponymous brand in 2005, having previously been the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. Ford wrote and directed the films A Single Man (2009) and Nocturnal Animals (2016). From 2019 to 2022 he was chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
Katherine Noel Valentine Brosnahan Spade was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur. She was the co-founder and co-owner of the designer brand Kate Spade New York.
Proenza Schouler is a womenswear and accessories brand founded in 2002 by designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. Based in New York City, Proenza Schouler is derived from maiden names of the two designers' mothers: Proenza is the maiden name of Hernandez's mother, and Schouler is the maiden name of McCollough's mother.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. (CFDA), founded in 1962 by publicist Eleanor Lambert, and headquartered in Manhattan, is a not-for-profit trade association comprising a membership of over 450 American fashion and accessory designers. The organization promotes American designers in the global economy.
Cyril Duval, who works under the name Item Idem, is a French conceptual artist, designer, and filmmaker. He lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan.
Pamela Love is an American jewelry designer based in New York City.
Valextra is a brand of luxury leather goods and accessories based in Milan, Italy. The name is a portmanteau of "Valigia", the Italian word for suitcase, and "extra".
Todd Snyder is an American fashion designer based in New York City. He founded his eponymous fashion label in 2011, and has been called "the most influential menswear designer of his generation" by GQ. The brand was acquired by American Eagle Outfitters in 2015, and reports over $100 million in annual sales revenue. Todd Snyder is also the Creative Director of American heritage brand Woolrich's Black Label Collection.
Alessandro Michele is an Italian fashion designer and creative director of Valentino. He grew to international recognition as the creative director of Gucci, the Italian fashion luxury house where he worked from 2002 to 2022. Known for his maximalist designs, Alessandro Michele revived Gucci's popularity, most notably with a Geek-Chic aesthetic. He had been responsible for all of Gucci's collections and global brand image from January 2015 until he stepped down from the role in November 2022.
Maria Grazia Chiuri is an Italian fashion designer. After stints working at Fendi and Valentino, Chiuri was named creative director at Dior in 2016.
Gabriela Hearst is a Uruguayan women's luxury ready-to-wear and accessories designer. In addition to designing her namesake collection, she runs and operates her family's ranch in Uruguay.
Hood By Air is a fashion and streetwear brand based in New York City co-founded by designers Shayne Oliver and Raul Lopez. It was launched in 2006 and took a hiatus 2017–2019. Oliver left the brand in 2023.
Brandon Blackwood is an American fashion designer and businessman. He is the CEO and founder of Brandon Blackwood New York, a fashion company that specializes in handbags and accessories.
Elena Velez is an American fashion designer and heterodox creative from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, based in New York City. Her work is known for its non traditional synthesis of metalsmith and high fashion.
Beth Bugdaycay is a jewelry designer and entrepreneur living in New York City. In 2019, she was nominated for the CFDA Award for American Emerging Designer of the Year.
Aurora James is a Canadian creative director, activist, and fashion designer. In 2013, she founded the fashion label Brother Vellies, with the goal of promoting traditional African design practices and techniques. In 2020, James founded the 15 Percent Pledge as a non-profit organization to support Black-owned businesses. Her memoir Wildflower was released in 2023.
Jordan Askill is an Australian jewelry designer and sculptor.
Selah Louise Marley is an American model and singer. Marley is the daughter of singer-songwriter and rapper Lauryn Hill and football player Rohan Marley, as well as a granddaughter of reggae musician Bob Marley. In addition to walking the runway for Chanel, she was also a brand ambassador for their Chanel Chance fragrance. Marley also acted as a muse for Dior's beauty line. She has starred in campaigns for Calvin Klein, Telfar and Michael Kors. Throughout her career, Marley has made appearances in American Vogue and CR Fashion Book, and has been featured on the covers of Wonderland, UK Sunday Times, and L'Uomo Vogue. In 2017, she was placed on the Maxim Hot 100 list.
Shayne Oliver is a fashion designer, musician, and creative director, based in New York City. Oliver is the co-founder and design director of Hood By Air, a fashion brand he established together with designer Raul Lopez in 2006. In 2013, Oliver was named among The 25 Greatest Black Fashion Designers by Complex.
Sarah Staudinger is an American fashion designer, entrepreneur, and founder of the fashion label STAUD. In 2019, she was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Arts & Style list.