FEAR OF GOD"S NEW ESSENTIALS COLLECTION IS JUSTIN BIEBER

The Fear Of God designer shares exclusive BTS sketches & photos of the creative process for the tour.

Jerry Lorenzo wants to lớn be known as a storyteller as much as he’d lượt thích to be known as a designer, and it shows. In crafting narratives for Fear of God và its diffusion line F.O.G., Lorenzo has honed in on elevating the grunge aesthetic that dominated the ’90s zeitgeist, re-branding vintage tour tees và bringing them into the 21st century alongside stacked layers và carefully proportioned outfits. The latest step in this narrative is also Lorenzo’s most audacious yet: when news broke that Lorenzo had played a part in the stylistic direction of Justin Bieber’s Purpose tour, fanbangparty.com had khổng lồ know how và why he had gotten involved with one of the most contentious and popular figures in modern music & to hear the story of their collaboration.

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First & foremost, Lorenzo does not want khổng lồ take sole credit for the styles found onstage. In fact, the Fear of God designer makes it clear over the course of a half-hour phone call that his mission is for everyone who contributed to get their due credit và respect, name-dropping figures like Scooter Braun, the music industry maven who tapped Bieber for success back when he was but a wide-eyed tween recording covers on YouTube; Karla Welch, Bieber’s longtime stylist; và Bieber himself alongside Fear of God team members for the tour’s inspiration & aesthetic direction. When reached for comment, Welch hailed the collaborative process with Lorenzo as “symbiotic and egoless” & that the relationship between Camp Bieber and Camp Lorenzo progressed in a “nice & organic way.”

The designs found onstage, meanwhile, take equal inspiration from the aforementioned grunge movement, as well as Bieber’s recent ambitions as a skater. The creative team worked painstakingly to lớn re-contextualize iconic rock star styles like Axl Rose’s kilt, metal merch, & oversized plaid overcoats in order to lớn craft symbols that embody both grunge & Bieber. They are also sure to lớn ire the wrath of phản hồi sections from fanbangparty.com to lớn YouTube. Lorenzo knows this. He just doesn’t care. He makes it clear in our conversation that he does not care about cool any more, only Purpose.fanbangparty.com spoke with Lorenzo to lớn get his side of the story, the inspiration behind the pieces found onstage, và whether or not he considers himself a Belieber.
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Let’s start at the beginning: how did this collaboration come about & what was your role?

I had seen Justin on a couple of occasions và he was such a high-energy, super-positive person và he would come up like “yo, my tour is coming up in a few months & I want you to bởi the whole thing! I just want it to lớn be Fear of God!” At the time, I took it as more of a compliment to lớn what I had done up until that point. Then I saw him again a couple of months later & he brought it up again. Then maybe a month before the tour started I got the call from his stylist, Karla Welch — who’s done a tremendous job as he’s matured as a young man and his style has followed suit — and she was like “hey, Justin really wants me to meet with you about the tour and his wardrobe.”So I took the meeting và obviously I was pretty prepared; I had all my references lined up, I had some boards of some ideas & the overall theme of modernized grunge. Và she was lượt thích “oh my god! I used that word this morning in our meeting — that’s exactly what we had in mind & what we were hoping for!” & so she said that they had a lot of designers who were interested, but Justin is really into what you’re doing with Fear of God, would you like to come in & present something of how you see his wardrobe so that I can chia sẻ with my team. I said something to lớn the effect of, ‘Awesome, I’ll have something to lớn you in a week.’And so the very next day I flew in this sketch artist named Johnny Singer from Seattle and we probably spent 10 hours together and I went through each look that I had in my head & based off the references, & based on where I saw this thing going and we came up with 13 looks at the kết thúc of the day. Keep in mind that they asked for four or five, but I went all the way in & was lượt thích ‘This is what I think this should be.’We pulled everything from the kilts on Axl Rose to lớn some of the pinstripe punk pants và grunge plaid pants, and really began to take the Fear of God aesthetic & give it a new language that was modernized grunge, which was lớn be Bieber’s new communication. We sent those sketches over to lớn Karla and she was lượt thích “let’s rock!” và we had three weeks khổng lồ that point to produce all of these pieces. I think in the kết thúc we produced something lượt thích 80 pieces. So we made the pieces & Karla was traveling và Justin was traveling & we didn’t have the opportunity to lớn work directly with Justin. looked through it và looked at it as a whole và he took the pieces that we sent & put his own spin on it. I think one of the great things about working with him is that as a designer I may have had a certain direction or look in mind for how I wanted him lớn wear certain things, but he’s so confident & sure of what he wants to vì with his looks. It really took on a life in và of itself, & I’m happy with the way it turned out.
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Going back to lớn the modernized grunge aspect; there’s a real sense of nostalgia: the pieces inspired by Metallica merch, Cobain’s face, the Marilyn Manson ‘Bigger Than Satan’ tee, the Axl Rose kilt. Was there an angle beyond grunge inspired by these shock jocks, scream queens, polarizing rock star figures to court controversy?

I don’t think the intent was ever to lớn come out with something so polarizing. If you know the history of Fear of God, you know that we’ve taken these rare rock tees and printed our hình ảnh sản phẩm on them. It’s just a nod of respect. We’re not a graphic arts clothing brand, so you’re not gonna get a graphic tee from us, but we’re gonna give you the best version of a graphic tee, which is a rare 1990s Guns N’ Roses tee, of which there might be, like, trăng tròn left. This super rare thing.One of the things Karla và I threw around—it was her idea, really—was kinda like Jay Z in the old Roc-A-Fella days, when he would wear a different jersey depending on what đô thị they were in. If they’re in Toronto, they’d have the dope-ass blue Jays jersey; if they’re in Philly, they’ve got the 76ers throwbacks. So what we wanted to vày with these rock tees was initially lớn hopefully have a vintage piece that speaks to a band or an icon from each of these cities that he’s visiting, in a nod of respect và acknowledgment as the tour travels. So we secured over a hundred vintage tees and I got my guy Rick Moe from Tyranny and Mutation Vintage in Seattle who helps me pull these things together.Me và Mark Riddick came up with the logos, the Bieber logo, the Purpose Tour logo, you can kinda see the Fear of God hand on ‘em, và we started to lớn place the different tour logos with the art of the rock tees và the Marilyn Manson one just really hit when we made it. Và it immediately spoke khổng lồ The Beatles’ ‘Bigger than Jesus’ thing; it spoke to lớn his spirituality & his story of redemption, which is one of the greatest stories of our recent pop culture—of him going from a punk kid to this ascension và this màn chơi of forgiveness, và his own story of defeating và overcoming Satan & being redeemed và having faith in God. So it played on so many different things that we knew that it was a hit when we saw it.
If you know the history of Fear of God, you know that we’ve taken these rare rock tees và printed our hình ảnh on them. It’s just a nod of respect.

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So you mentioned that you had a hand in the kiến thiết of the tour logos; did you play a part in the merch thiết kế at all? Or were you only involved with the on-stage wardrobe?

We played a small part in the merch. We helped creatively direct his merch & tried to help give it all a singular voice. We tried lớn take all the vibes and give them one language khổng lồ make sure you get this skate vibe, the fashion vibe, & this dark, grungy, metal vibe and make them say ‘Justin Bieber 2016.’ So we kinda helped in that way, but for me to lớn take any credit for any of his merch direction or ideas or designs would be wrong.

You’ve described yourself as more of a storyteller than a designer; where does this latest turn as a wardrobe designer fit into the broader Fear of God narrative? How would you describe the narrative behind Bieber’s tour merch as opposed to, say, Fear of God or F.O.G.?

I don’t even really see it like that. I’m getting a bunch of different people saying ‘How cool is this really? It’s Justin Bieber!’ và I feel like there’s this whole idea of cool is so fleeting; it’s so trendy. What’s cool today isn’t gonna be cool tomorrow & by no means is this a strategic partnership of positioning Fear of God more-so than it is positioning us with someone who has the same message as us.The message of Purpose is one that we can all look to! We’re all here trying khổng lồ find purpose and understand our potential & why we’re here. And I think that’s the message that us as a team with Fear of God was so excited to be a part of, to lớn reach so many people. And what can we vị with our talents to help him better communicate his message?And, khổng lồ me, this transcends cool. This is beyond cool. I’ve seen cool & cool isn’t that cool to lớn me anymore. That’s the reality. So what’re you giving people? What’re you telling people besides ‘Buy my cool merch!’ or ‘Look how cool I look onstage!’ It’s, like, what’s the message? & I feel like this kid gets it at 22. He understands it. That message of purpose is just one that we really wanted to lớn attach ourselves to và we were humbled that he valued our perspective the way that he did.
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We’re all here trying to lớn find purpose và understand our potential & why we’re here. And I think that’s the message that us as a team with Fear of God was so excited to lớn be a part of.

Independent of Fear of God, it seems lượt thích you’re more involved with the Purpose narrative & this idea of redemption và faith than the idea of cool?

A thousand percent. I mean, my kids love Justin Bieber. I can take my son lớn school and he knows all of his songs. I can bring him to the show và he likes it just because he likes it. There’s no other reason than he loves the music. There’s a purity in that that I see what my children like, that’s not clouded by anything other than what they’re into. & I’ve become a believer in this kid! It’s all about this story which aligns more with Fear of God than anything fleeting, whether this is a cool thing for Fear of God or not. That’s where we are with it.

Sounds like Justin made you a Belieber, huh?

I would never địa chỉ the ‘b’ khổng lồ it (laughs). I believe in him, but I will never địa chỉ the ‘b,’ But I believe in him, as a person. I think he is one of the most talented people I’ve ever met. From being able lớn play basketball with the kid, then the kid picks up a soccer ball, then he picks up a guitar, & he sings, & he can dance! Like… he has something there that’s God-given. And whether you’re into him or not, you have to lớn respect that. & I respect it… lastly, my iTunes library tells me his album is my “Most Played” in my library so I will let that speak for itself.