In conversation with .. 5!
#PrideIssue - Welcome to our new digital issue: IN CONVERSATION WITH – Part 5, 144 pages fashion, art and illustrations! Out 17.07.2020 – featuring in conversation with Pabllo Vittar, Adrien Weiss, Ella Boucht, Davi, Phoebe Bridgers, Mateo Velasquez, Lil Botox. Featuring Crystal from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 1, Tom of Finland, Darren Skene, Pablo Solano, Damian Garcia, Sammy Finn Cullis, Jacopo Marchio, Ernst van Hoek and more. On the cover, Chris Flora photographed by Alberto Lanz.
#PrideIssue - Welcome to our new digital issue: IN CONVERSATION WITH – Part 5, 144 pages fashion, art and illustrations! Out 17.07.2020 – featuring in conversation with Pabllo Vittar, Adrien Weiss, Ella Boucht, Davi, Phoebe Bridgers, Mateo Velasquez, Lil Botox. Featuring Crystal from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 1, Tom of Finland, Darren Skene, Pablo Solano, Damian Garcia, Sammy Finn Cullis, Jacopo Marchio, Ernst van Hoek and more. On the cover, Chris Flora photographed by Alberto Lanz.
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KALTBLUT chats to Colombian born fashion designer Mateo Velasquez, a talented London-based<br />
graduate of Central Saint Martin’s, on his new series “Leather Boys”, on the<br />
topics of homoeroticism, hyper-masculinity and his self-exploration of his own queer<br />
identity.<br />
Hi Mateo, how are you?<br />
Hey! I’m well, trying to keep myself busy<br />
in these trying times.<br />
How’s lockdown life treating you?<br />
Mateo: To be honest it has been sort of<br />
a blessing in disguise. A much-needed<br />
break to stop and reconsider, evaluate and<br />
decide what’s worth going back to, and at<br />
what pace, once this is all over.<br />
How are you staying motivated as a designer?<br />
I take it as an opportunity to start fresh<br />
<strong>with</strong> thoughtful actions, re-visit old projects,<br />
exercise and keep mindful about<br />
what I can bring on next.<br />
What’s your earliest fashion memory and<br />
when did you know you wanted to create<br />
your own designs?<br />
I remember my grandmother customising<br />
clothing for my father back in Colombia,<br />
then throughout my teenage years I was<br />
obsessed <strong>with</strong> Jeremy Scott. I saw myself<br />
identifying <strong>with</strong> the non-conformity of his<br />
work, but it wasn’t until I arrived in London<br />
at the age of 17 when I first became<br />
interested in making. I started sewing<br />
clothes for myself as I could never find<br />
things I actually wanted to wear.<br />
You recently dropped the first part of<br />
your ‘Leather Boys’ collection; talk me<br />
through the main inspiration for this series?<br />
I found the initial reference for this project<br />
on ‘Casa Susanna’ a series of documentary<br />
snaps discovered at a flea market taken in<br />
the mid-’70s depicting a group of ‘heterosexual’<br />
men who would travel to a refuge<br />
outside New York where they were allowed<br />
and encouraged (often by their own wives)<br />
to dress as women; that took me into researching<br />
further into subcultures where<br />
flexibility in gender behaviour is allowed,<br />
where the hyper-masculinity atmosphere<br />
allows for homoerotic behaviour, sexual<br />
fluidity and expression.<br />
What can we expect from Part Two?<br />
The collection has been developing organically.<br />
Part One explores the more feminine<br />
and fragile side of the story and it<br />
develops into the sexual and the exposed,<br />
giving way to explorations of queer identity<br />
and the leather archetype based on<br />
non-acceptance and rebellion coming in<br />
Part Two.<br />
How would you say Leather Boys differs<br />
in comparison to your previous collection?<br />
When I started this project I knew I wanted<br />
it to have a holistic view all-around, making<br />
garments, not for the sake of producing<br />
and self-satisfying my creative pursuits<br />
but instead, making it responsibly<br />
by up-cycling most of the materials from<br />
garments found at car-boot sales, charity<br />
shops and so on.<br />
Have you expanded or developed any elements<br />
from your previous collections?<br />
I’m influenced by my own queer identity,<br />
so the running themes of gender and exploration<br />
of queer culture, as well as some<br />
multicultural elements, are something innate<br />
<strong>with</strong>in my aesthetic and design process.<br />
As a young designer, how do you think<br />
you can stay unique and stand out in<br />
your own way?<br />
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