← The Run-Through with Vogue
The Run-Through with Vogue
Fear of God Founder Jerry Lorenzo Is Creating a Space That Didn’t Exist
00:35:04
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- [00:01]
Cho Minardi
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- [01:00]
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- [02:25]
Nicole Phelps
This is the Run Through I'm Nicole Phelps. Today we have Fear of God founder and designer Jerry Lorenzo on the show. Just last night he was given the CFDA Innovation Award and he joined us in the studio ahead of the awards ceremony. Jerry is a great and thoughtful storyteller. He shared with us how he went from throwing Hollywood parties to starting one of fashion's most influential labels. We also talked about his views on elegance and comfort innovation means to him. Welcome Jerry Lorenzo. Thank you for joining me on the run through.
- [02:57]
Jerry Lorenzo
Thank you for having me.
- [02:59]
Nicole Phelps
We are several hours ahead of the CFDA Fashion Awards. You are receiving the Innovation Award. You have said that you orient yourself around purpose and not so much about being in the conversation, but here you are in the conversation, and I want to know what it feels like to be getting this award.
- [03:20]
Jerry Lorenzo
Anytime you're recognized for the 10,000 hours, it's humbling. That could be someone on the street coming up and telling you how much they love how they feel and what you make. Or it could be an award like tonight. I mean, I think it, for me, I just take it all as encouragement that I'm on the right path and I'm kind of doing what I've been called to do. I'm just happy to be acknowledged, to be honest.
- [03:48]
Nicole Phelps
Well, as an aside, my. My son was wearing the Vogue Fear of God sweatshirt that you made for the. For the Vogue World event yesterday out in New York City, and he did have someone come up and ask him where he got that sweatshirt, so.
- [04:03]
Jerry Lorenzo
Amazing.
- [04:04]
Nicole Phelps
Yes. Well, let's talk about that idea of innovation. I think you probably do identify as an innovator.
- [04:10]
Jerry Lorenzo
Yeah. I mean, I think above all, like, I feel like the way that, you know, the vision that God has given me and the way that I see things and the perspective that I have, I have so much conviction in it because I feel like it is somewhat innovative, it is somewhat new. And I think what we do with Fear of God and our ability to speak across luxury authentically, to speak across accessible aspiration through essentials, and have a conversation in sport, whether that's through our relationships across the NBA and Major League Baseball, NFL or with Adidas, and we're talking about performance, basketball. And for us to have a conversation across all of these different touch points, to me is the. Is the vision, is the modernity that makes. That gives us the permission to have a voice in this space. And I feel like that in and of itself, in a time like today, is somewhat innovative.
- [05:09]
Nicole Phelps
Well, I know you come from a baseball family, so congratulations to the Dodgers. Were you watching the World Series?
- [05:17]
Jerry Lorenzo
It was funny. Yeah. I mean, I watched every game, and then we were actually on our way to the airport, coming here to New York, and so we started at the house, and we were watching it on DirecTV in the car, and then we were Watching it in the Delta Lounge. And then they finally won. We were on the plane on our phones right before we took off. So it was a cool little.
- [05:38]
Nicole Phelps
It was an incredible final game.
- [05:40]
Jerry Lorenzo
Yeah, yeah.
- [05:42]
Nicole Phelps
What you're talking about being in different parts of the fashion business is something that Willy Chavarria told me. I noticed that back in January that you were on Willy's Runway. You walked the Runway, which I thought was very cool. And so I talked to him, and he said that you represent a perspective on luxury and on the mass market that he deeply respects. Tell me why you decided to walk in Willie's show and why you respect him.
- [06:10]
Jerry Lorenzo
Oh, man, I respect him. Cause I see a lot of myself in him. You know, I think his perspective is uniquely his. You know, through the way that he grew up and through his culture and things that everything that he was exposed to and it comes out and through his designs, how he communicates and he shows beauty in a place where it's not always seen. And I think I'm trying to do the same exact thing and put a beautiful, eternal perspective against my surroundings and where I'm from that may not always have that beautiful, eternal perspective attached to it.
- [06:54]
Nicole Phelps
More with Jerry Lorenzo after the break.
- [06:56]
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- [07:05]
Cho Minardi
Hi, it's Cho Minardi. If you're not on the Vogue app yet, what the hell are you doing? You can follow along with me and other editors as we talk about everything happening in fashion. Think you're already a fashion expert? Well, find out how your Runway IQ stacks up against the Vogue community with an all new Runway genius leaderboard. So download the Vogue app today and you'll never miss a moment.
- [07:30]
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- [07:59]
Nicole Phelps
It's 11:30pm I'm just about to fall asleep. And yet I'm still scrolling ebay looking for YSL. Quilted satin, transparent Moto Miss 60 deadstock. An antique Edwardian blouse. I'm actively bidding and putting in best offers on ebay before my head hits the pillow. That's actually what lulls me to sleep at night. And then waking up in the morning, checking to see who responded to me. This is a normal day. Let's go back to what shaped your perspective. Take us back to the beginning. I know you've said that your mom, who was an interior designer, shaped your. Your taste. How so?
- [08:41]
Jerry Lorenzo
She just had a knack for. I mean, we. We grew up, my dad, for the most part, in a minor league baseball family. And so we. We did a lot of driving across the south, the minor league baseball games, and she loved stopping in antique shops. And she just had a knack for finding the most perfect thing that would fit in the most perfect place in our home. And although we were checked to check, we had such an elegant, beautiful home, and she knew how to take what she had access to and make it beautiful and make it luxury on top of that. My parents are married over 50 years. My dad was in major League baseball on a coach's salary, and so we were kind of exposed to or around a higher class. We were struggling as a coach in the big leagues, and he went to the ballpark every day with, like, the same navy blazer, but somehow the way he wore it, the way he presented himself, players, staff, coaches, the league had a different level of respect for him. And so as a young child, I knew a lot about the way you present yourself as kind of who you are beyond just kind of what you're wearing. And so taking this idea of integrity and dignity and putting that against this honesty of taking the best you have with what you have, I knew there was a way to say luxury and aspiration without it having to be tied to a price tag. And I think that informed everything that I do with fear of God, the approach, this humility that the clothing has, this elegance, but yet relaxed feeling and welcoming feeling. It's luxury that's welcoming. It's not luxury that is trying to set yourself apart in a way.
- [10:38]
Nicole Phelps
You've talked a lot about moving around quite a bit as a young person. Did that shape you?
- [10:45]
Jerry Lorenzo
Oh, yeah. I mean, I look back and I'm pulling from all these different places, Northern California to West Palm to Chicago, New York for a little bit, Los Angeles, and just being exposed to all the different cultures here in America. Living in Montreal for about six summers, and my dad was with the Expos, Being able to find myself in all of these places that I felt like I didn't fit right. I was still able to, like, find something about these different places that spoke to me. And so as my. As I started to develop my perspective, I realized that it came from so Many different places.
- [11:26]
Nicole Phelps
Did you use clothes as, like, a tool to. To fit in or stand out? I remember, you know, moving around a fair bit before the time I hit high school and, you know, leaving the Midwest, going to the east coast and seeing that, you know, there was a totally different way of dressing. I had the wrong shoes. I mean, how did. How did that go for you when you were moving around so much?
- [11:50]
Jerry Lorenzo
Yeah, 100%. I mean, definitely being, you know, black in America. Right. You're aware that the first thing someone sees is going to be, like, your skin color before they see you. Right. And so, you know, the attempt really is to. How am I presenting myself in a way to disarm someone of their preconceived notions of who I am? Not necessarily to stand out, not necessarily to look better than anyone else, more so to just kind of be seen as equal, to just be seen as human, just to have a conversation on the same playing field, you know, And I think there's a lot of thought and consideration, and the weight of what you put on sometimes is what allows you to have access to certain rooms, to have access to different things in life. And I realized that at a really, really young age that, hey, I can't change this. I can't change who I am, the color of my external appearance, but I can change the way that I present myself. But change it in a way that at its core is more importantly the most authentic version of who I am. You know, not changing to, like, assimilate, but changing to how do I present myself in the best way that is unequivocally me.
- [13:14]
Nicole Phelps
So you've talked about being in Florida and you are at a predominantly white school, and then you were attending a black church. So you're going between cultural cultures. Yeah. How did that influence you?
- [13:28]
Jerry Lorenzo
Yeah, I mean, you find a little bit of yourself on church on Sundays. You find a little bit of yourself in high school, and you're exposed to things that maybe you wouldn't have had. You grew up in a all black area. I mean, you know, my basketball team ran out to Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Like, I loved grunge in the 90s. That's just what I was around, you know. But just as much as I loved hip hop, you know, I loved Allen Iverson, you know, and I didn't necessarily love the aesthetic of Alan, but I love the spirit of Alan. I love this. Like, I'm going to be myself. You know what I mean? Not to say I could pull off those looks back then, even back in the 90s, it didn't work for me, but there was something about, like, I'm just going to be me. And I think there's a little bit of that, like, spirit of like, hey, me is enough, whatever that me is. And I think that was encouraging for me to find myself in high school, to find myself, you know, on the weekends at church, to find myself at a historically black college. My first time exposed to like, you know, you know, all of us in one place. And then going to grad school and getting my master's and then back to kind of what America really looks like. And I think there's all these different moments and places that I found myself that required me to continually look at in the mirror and say, hey, how am I presenting myself? That's Jerry. Because you want to be in everything, but not necessarily of it.
- [15:02]
Nicole Phelps
So you were at Florida A and M University. Right. And we actually just covered their homecoming. And my colleague Leah Faye Cooper said that the F in FAMU actually stands for fashion. I don't know if you agree with that, but I'm curious what you looked like in college. What was Jerry wearing?
- [15:23]
Jerry Lorenzo
My style was definitely, like, evolving because you had to. Your point earlier, where you talked about kind of going from the Midwest, you know, you could see the Chicago kids had a certain swag. The D.C. kids had, like a specific swag. The Atlanta kids, fashion was different. You know, the New York kids, their fashion was different. And this is kind of just before the Internet, where we had access to, like, everything. And now everyone kind of dresses similar. But back then, you know, you could see it, you know, and I think for me, you could clearly see the difference. Right. And one of the things for me was like, I didn't ever want to look like I was from somewhere specifically. I didn't want you to be able to look at Jerry and say, oh, I have this preconceived notion about anything about you either where you're from or like any of that. And so I think it was that experience through Florida A and M, where I was finding myself. So you probably saw me with a super baggy football jersey on one day. You maybe saw I used to work at the Gap, so I might have been in some khakis and a tighter fitting button up the next day. I think I went through lots of different phases to try to find Jerry.
- [16:35]
Nicole Phelps
And so moving forward, you got your MBA and you're in Los Angeles and you are throwing parties. You were like sort of a nightlife guy. And that is when you decided to launch Fear of God.
- [16:51]
Jerry Lorenzo
Yep.
- [16:51]
Nicole Phelps
Right? Yeah. So just tell us, tell us that story how you decided to make that move.
- [16:57]
Jerry Lorenzo
Yeah. So through undergrad and through grad school, I worked, always worked retail. I think when I moved to LA to finish my mba, I was working at like Dolce and Gabbana. I was working at Diesel was popping back then. You know, I thought I wanted to be like a Jerry Maguire. I wanted to be working baseball, work in sports. And so I was working towards that. But even my first job with the Dodgers doing like corporate sponsorships on the weekend, I was still working kind of retail to help supplement my income. Post that ended up with some Hollywood girlfriend. And we were out like five nights a week for like two years straight. Like, that was just the lifestyle we lived. And I'd wake up and go to work in the morning and party at night. And then by the time we broke up, I just had this Rolodex of Los Angeles just from going out, you know, it would be one culture one night, another culture, another night. But there was never a night where we all kind of came together. And I was like, man, we should figure that out. And so me and my partner were kind of the first on this wave of kind of like bringing all these different kind of like from streetwear brand owners and fashion kids, to actors and directors, to professional athletes and kind of creating this new space that really didn't exist. And so that led to me being exposed to like all the kids that had their own streetwear brands. And I was just kind of like narcissistically. I feel like I could maybe dress better than some of these kids. I should be able to figure this out. And I just went downtown and was self taught, taught myself how to make a pattern, how to make a long T shirt, how to make a hoodie with zippers. And I remember Virgil was in town from Chicago and I was, hey, man, I just started this like clothing brand and it's kind of like this luxury street thing. Cause I feel like, you know, like streetwear is kind of dying, but luxury is like a little too pretentious. And, you know, I showed him all these like long T shirts and hoodies in my, in my basement or in my garage. And then he's like, yo, I just started this brand Pyrex. And then I just remember from, you know, we kind of began to work together soon after that, but just kind of like we both were convicted of like the space that didn't exist, right, Us. And then there was like Hood by Air with Shane and I remember walking in Barney's, and the three of us were in there, and it just kind of, like, felt like the beginning of something new. But I say a lot to say, like, it was like just this. This vision of what was missing, right. And this conviction of what didn't exist that has always led me to, whether it was throw parties or whether it was to start a brand, you know, it came from a place of, hey, I see something that's not there that I know people want.
- [19:35]
Nicole Phelps
And you had the name right from the start, Fear of God?
- [19:40]
Jerry Lorenzo
Not really. I had the idea of clothing, but it just felt. I don't want to say corny. It just felt like there was no weight to it. I didn't know that I could continue to be driven to create without, like, real purpose and intention. So I was doing a devotion with my parents, and we talked about the clouds and darkness around the kingdom of God and how that spoke to the layers of him. And if you were in relationship with God, it spoke to, like, a reverence and a peace, you know, the clouds and darkness, the layers. But if you kind of are not in relationship, those layers could be darkness and be a real fear. So I like this play on Fear of God and how it's both a reverence and a peace in it and how it could also be a real fear. To know God is to not know fear. And so after we read that devotion, I remember me and my dad were driving somewhere after that. That morning. I was like, dad, I got it. Like, I got what I really think I can build this thing after that. I can always pull from, you know, this deep well of, like, my conviction of what I believe I'm here and called to do against these gifts and against this vision that I feel like I've been given that I could continually pour into. And that was. That was the beginning of Fear of God.
- [21:01]
Nicole Phelps
It's such a powerful name. And then on the other hand, your aesthetic was so sort of fully formed very early on, and I wonder when you reflect back on the evolution of your brand and you. If you see the name being very important to its growth and success, or is it the aesthetics or is it the combination?
- [21:28]
Jerry Lorenzo
I think it's all of it. I think it's all of it. I think you can't take any element out of it, you know, because the aesthetic was built on humility and dignity and fighting for to be seen. It never came from a place of crying for attention. It came from a place of, like, fighting for equality. And I think there's something that is extremely immovable and humble about the God we serve and those traits. And that feeling is what I'm trying to put into clothing. Something that's so immovable and, like, clearly, like, it is what it is. At the same time, it's not calling for attention, you know, similar to God. It's not. He's not calling. He sits back and he waits, you know, but he's always there. He's immovable. I feel like everything that God has brought me through my entire life, I've been able to use against this calling that he's called me to. And I honestly feel that about, like, anyone that wants to get into fashion or like, I feel like we all live one unique life that's different from everyone else on the, in the world. And if you have the ability to put that perspective, your perspective into a thing, into a calling, into a purpose, the world will make room for it.
- [22:57]
Nicole Phelps
When you look back at that collection, it was 12 pieces, right? The first season?
- [23:02]
Jerry Lorenzo
Yeah. Maybe about 12. Yeah.
- [23:05]
Nicole Phelps
What do you see? What do you think of it when you look back? It's like 13 years now. 12 years now.
- [23:10]
Jerry Lorenzo
Embarrassed. I mean, because I'm self taught. Right. And so it's like you could look at that collection and look at what we just did with the ninth, and men's and women's, you know, it's like, because I'm self taught, I'm still learning, and each collection is, like, exponentially better than the last because I'm in the middle of class in front of the world. But the intention of that collection is the same exact intention of the last collection. You know, I look at those pieces and I understand my intention and why I'm doing this hasn't changed. And it's just that I'm getting better at saying what I've always been trying to say. I think that's what gives me the courage to continue to go, because it's not like I need to change what I'm saying. It's just. I'm just making it more and more clear and direct every collection.
- [24:01]
Nicole Phelps
That makes me think of something you said to Luke Leach, who reviewed your Spring 26 collection, and you said it was the Dieter Rams idea of refining what already works.
- [24:13]
Jerry Lorenzo
Yeah.
- [24:14]
Nicole Phelps
I would like you to talk more about your design philosophy.
- [24:18]
Jerry Lorenzo
You know what? I look at other designers and I say, oh, yeah, I like that. But I'm always looking, like, for the root, like, the essence of where that comes from. You know, there was a time where, you know, people said, oh, your stuff really looks like Armani, and it has this, like, effortless and this elegance, and, you know, this. It's. The shoulders are generous, and I'm like, yeah, but that's not where I'm pulling from, you know, and it was maybe, like, a couple years ago, I read, you know, I'm looking at these old ads on, I don't know, Tumblr or something, and it was like, you know, Armani, like the American collection. And it was, you know, his perspective was on. These silhouettes were taken from just the way we dressed here, you know? And so to see that was, like, really encouraging in the sense that I'm inspired by, like, the everyday person. I'm inspired by what I grew up watching. Movie. You know, the movies that I saw, the films and athletes and how they dressed. You know, Michael Jordan coming into the arena. And I always thought it was cool to be comfortable and elegant. You know, I never thought it was cool to be in a proportion that was restricting. You know what I mean? Like, to me, it just, like, how can you be elegant and you can't move? You know, and it's not functional? And so for me, I don't really have mentors in this space, but I have mentors in life, and I have mentors. You know, I have spiritual coaches and people that pour into me in a different way. And I feel like, you know, I watched my dad manage baseball in the big leagues, and before his games, you know, he's reading Gandhi, he's reading Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, and he's taking these life principles and saying, how do I move men with these principles? Like, I understand the game. I know what I want to do within baseball, but how do I take these higher, you know, principles from the Bible and apply it to what I'm doing in baseball? And I feel like that's how I kind of approach clothing. I think of, if anything, what we do that's innovative within clothing is. It's honest, you know, And I think that's the innovation. It comes from an honest place.
- [26:37]
Nicole Phelps
Does honesty apply to materials, too? I mean, would you say that you're like, a real materialist? Fabrics are important to you 1,000%?
- [26:44]
Jerry Lorenzo
Yeah. I mean, and maybe that's like, you know, I could go through fabrics all day, but, you know, my team will tell you they'll put a thousand fabrics in front of me. I'll run through and I'll pick 10. They'll put the same thousand in front of me maybe three months later, and I pick the same 10. You know, it's like I know what I'm looking for. You know, there's a conviction in what I know, how I know something needs to feel depending on kind of where it lives. And I think for me, I'm very much a feel and a drape of fabric and, like, a silhouette and a proportion and a shape. And the details to me kind of are kind of neither here nor there. I'm always trying to find a way to strip them back and let the fabric and the proportion and the drape of it and the silhouette, the color speaks, you know, And I feel like the more that I can do my job in doing that, the more that the person who's wearing it is, you know, seen before the clothes are seen. It's almost like I want to design pieces that allow people to be seen. You know, I don't want to design pieces that you see the pieces before you see the person walk in the room. I think that goes back to, like, the intention of, like, me wanting to walk in a room and just be seen.
- [28:06]
Nicole Phelps
We'll be right back with Jerry Lorenzo.
- [28:18]
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- [28:19]
Jerry Lorenzo
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- [28:22]
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- [28:26]
Jerry Lorenzo
When he passed away last year, I.
- [28:29]
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- [28:49]
Nicole Phelps
Let's go back to May, because you dressed a table of incredible people at the Met Gala, including Andre Walker, who is getting his own CFDA award tonight. And how did you go about that process? Was it a back and forth with Ryan Coogler and his wife or Arthur.
- [29:07]
Jerry Lorenzo
Jaffa and what they wore? Oh, it was the most back and forth with Yara. She's super specific and intentional, and I love that. And the rest of the guests were just like, hey, man, we trust what you want to do. And of course, we had about, you know, I had the one look that I, you know, felt most convicted on. But we had some options around that because, you know, it's not like putting clothes on a model. You know, it's like, I really want you to feel like yourself in this. I want you to feel good. I want you to love what you have on.
- [29:46]
Nicole Phelps
Well, I'm glad you brought up Yara, because you have just launched womenswear. And some might ask, you know, it took you 12 years to launch women's wear. To me, it seems like, you know, you are very thoughtful and strategic. But what has it been like to branch out into womenswear?
- [30:05]
Jerry Lorenzo
You know, I've always wanted to do it. You know, I watch my wife get dressed every day. And, you know, if you look at all of our collections, we've always put women in men's clothing. You know, it's all Fear of God has historically been, you know, designed for a man with a woman in mind. I love how, you know, my wife or women look in their boyfriend, boyfriend's or husband's pieces. It's just cool to me. But it got to a place where I just had a little bit more to say, and I felt like I had kind of the chops to say it. Although I look at that collection now and I'm like, oh, man, I wish I would have done this, this, this and that. Which is encouraging because I know I have more to say in that space. But, yeah, I just felt as the brand grows, my perspective, I have a perspective on how a woman. I would like to see a woman dress. I have a perspective on kids, and I have a perspective on. Again, we spoke about all these different areas of life, from sports and performance to luxury and tailoring and knitwear and everything in between. And then beyond, you know, home and the world of fear of God. And the world of fear of God can't exist without the fear of God, woman.
- [31:15]
Nicole Phelps
So you also told Luke that you moved your design studio from Milan to Paris now that you have women's. I wondered if you would show up on the Paris women's ready to wear fashion show schedule.
- [31:27]
Jerry Lorenzo
You know what? I've always tried to shy away from the Fashion Week schedule. It's important that we're there. Obviously, we're doing sales, seasonal sales. At the same time. The industry is. And I finally have given into that. Where before we were kind of collection based, when it was ready, it was ready. Which was also a product of just it taking me longer to finish these collections because I'm again, self taught. But, you know, it's just hard for me to have something to say because when I'm saying something, it comes from such a deep place. And it's hard to say it when there's so many things being said at the same time. Which is why we did our show at, like, the Hollywood Bowl a couple years ago in April, you know, in Los Angeles. You know, the stories that we tell through a live presentation or a live show, they're intended to put the viewer into a place of contemplation. You know, what did I see or what did I feel. And how do I feel about that? I think that's kind of hard to do when you're running from show to show. So maybe, maybe I'll find a way to do it, but that's my instinctual kind of like, how do I, you know, if I'm really trying to say something, you know, maybe it's best that it has, like, some room around it.
- [32:49]
Nicole Phelps
So you brought on Bastien Dagouzin. He was the CEO of Jacques Mousse to be your CEO. How are you two collaborating and where do you want to go together?
- [33:01]
Jerry Lorenzo
I thought it was really important for me. He had worked very closely with Simone and Jacques Muse, because, like Simone, I see luxury in a new way, and I feel like what luxury was is changing. And he's proven that through what he's doing, and there's a new luxury that's happening. You already mentioned Willie and Grace and some other designers, and there's a new perspective that doesn't necessarily sit against these hundreds of years of these other houses. Right. And so having that simple understanding of this new space that's happening was also important to me versus a CEO that maybe came from an older luxury house.
- [33:43]
Nicole Phelps
Yes. I think that's one of fashion's big problems at the moment. The way we're sort of, you know, propping up names from the, you know, the distant past now in a way, rather than building 21st century names. I mean, obviously you're an exception, and you mentioned other exceptions, but as a rule, I think that, you know, fashion does have a problem being too connected to the past. So thinking about the future, you know, what are some of your hopes and dreams for fear of God and for yourself?
- [34:12]
Jerry Lorenzo
Oh, I just. I just want to be around 50 to 100 years from now. The brand to be around 50 to 100 years from Now, I'm comfortable with. Yes. Like, anyone I can get. I can want to move a little bit faster being an independent brand and maybe being able to accelerate certain things. But I'm confident that the way that we are organically growing, with the resources that we have, we can get to where I have a vision of where we're going. And so next year, we're opening retail in New York and Los Angeles. And, you know, I can look around now, and I can't believe we've gone so long without retail. I know, but I've just been owner, founder, and creative director, and there's only so much that I can do and been really just focused on the product and now focusing more on Holistically our business and what we're proposing and how important the atmosphere and the environment is for someone to come in and to understand how fear of God lives with eternal and eternal with essentials and athletics and sports, with all, you know, to understand the world in an atmosphere, in an environment. Because, you know, depending on whether it's our retail partners or digital or other ways to reach our consumer and our people, I could see it becoming confusing without this home that the world lives in. And so I'm really excited about retell and being able to, like, kind of complete this story. And again, I think all things happen to your point intentionally. I don't know that I would. Would have seen retail without a women's piece with it. You know, I don't, you know, and I feel like there's enough pieces to be able to tell this complete story that now let's put all of these pieces into its home. And when you walk into that home, you feel the warmth of the home. You feel the humility, you feel welcome even though there's a coat that you can't afford. You feel like you could walk out with an essentials piece and feel just as dignified, you know, And I don't know many places or brands where you can walk in and feel as if you belong without, you know, having your pockets or your income determine that for you. And like, that's also, you know, in having retail, it's like, oh, I don't know that this exists in my mind. I feel like it's something new. And so that's the thing that, again, that drives me. It's this thing that I feel like I have a vision for that doesn't exist in the world that we have solutions for.
- [36:53]
Nicole Phelps
I have to ask, since Giorgio Armani came up, your name has been mentioned as a possible creative director there. Mr. Armani passed two months ago. Do you have any interest in taking on another brand?
- [37:07]
Jerry Lorenzo
Oh, man. Not to turn down all these opportunities. Not really. I mean, if there's a way where I can bring my gifts to a house that enables both the Fear of God house and the respective house to continue and go forward with the way they were intended to go forward, then maybe so, but I can look back to some other relationships and partnerships where there's always been a slight difference in intention. Right. And that could weigh heavily, you know, when you're trying to give and serve one thing, you're trying to give and serve another thing, and maybe the vision of how you serve it or how you give to it is different. I don't know that I have the capacity to. To do both of those things.
- [38:01]
Nicole Phelps
In a conversation you had with Pusha T and Malice earlier this year, you said that you are chasing peace.
- [38:08]
Jerry Lorenzo
Exactly. I'm chasing peace. Everything I'm responsible right now from everything we're doing within fear of God to also creative direct someone else's house. Finding the peace within, that seems like a very, very hefty job. So again, I don't know if I have the capacity right now for both, unless there's some type of a partnership that again, is written outside of time and space before time, that this is the way to push both things forward. And if that is the case, then I would welcome the idea.
- [38:44]
Nicole Phelps
Well, Jerry Lorenzo, thank you for joining me on the Run through and congratulations again on your CFDA Innovation Award.
- [38:50]
Jerry Lorenzo
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
- [38:57]
Nicole Phelps
The Run through is produced by Chelsea.
- [38:59]
Advertisement Narrator
Daniel, Alex DePalma and Stephanie Kariuki.
- [39:02]
Nicole Phelps
It's engineered by Pran Bandy and James Yost.
- [39:05]
Jerry Lorenzo
It is mixed by Mike Kutchman.
- [39:07]
Nicole Phelps
Chris Bannon is Conde Nast's head of Global Audio. From prx.