ZOIILA ISSUE 002: THE SELF MADE ISSUE

ISSUE 002 | SELF MADE

ZOIILA

ZOIILA MAGAZINE

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ZOIILA Lara Kheireddine

Editor in Chief and Creative Director

Contributors

Alexa Lopez, Milan Sachs, Naserin Bogado, Stephanie Banita Kumari, Lara Kheireddine

Features

Amin Adjmi [Stay Cool NYC], Buzzy’s Baazar, Miles Pascall, Yann Lauren, Mozado, Meagen Montgomery

info@zoiila.com www.zoiila.com 002 | 4

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Photograph by Milan Sachs

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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

9 a letter from the editor

FEATURES

14 Amin Adjmi, Stay Cool NYC 24 Buzzy’s Baazar 40 Miles Pascall 42 Yann Lauren 50 Mozado 56 Meagan Montgomery 67 Dedication

CONTRIBUTORS 32 Milan Sachs

10-11, 44-45 Alexa Lopez

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ZOIILA Zoiila’s SELF MADE issue is all about the individuals who have curated their own futures by living and working solely around their own passions and creations. It features a powerful ensemble of creators from London to New York, Germany to old time Miami, all the way back to Boston. Despite the odds, these individuals have distinctly paved their way through the gates of the different creative industries.

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Photograph by Alexa Lopez

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Z

Photograph by Lauren Moghavem 002 | 14

AMIN ADJMI’S STAY COOL NYC is an introduction to modern-day ‘chill-wear’ with a nostalgic twist.

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AMIN ADJMI

In the middle of 2015, Amin Adjmi could have been found selling self made t - shirts to ten of his closest friends on the streets of Boston. Now, he’ selling to over twenty thousand across the globe. The recent college graduate, has officially dominated the act of adulting in the, so called real world, through his self made empire inspired by vintage fashion.

Stay Cool NYC is a little over three years old, how did it all start?

I started my brand around 2015 by selling T-shirts to some of my friends and anyone I thought would be interested. I did it all through a custom website where you could basically drag and customize designs onto a t-shirt template. The first design said “Stay cool people” on it. I was just looking for two words that went together, I was just playing around. People actually liked it so, next thing you know I made another shirt and texted more people about it. I went to a printer opposed to online just because it was easier. I didn’t really know what I was doing so it was a lot of trial and error. I kind of started within my own community so to say. I decided to make an instagram, do a photo shoot. Play it organically from there.

Was there ever a specific moment in time that made you want to start designing and selling clothing?

I was definitely interested in clothing. Just unique clothing. Whether it was vintage or local stores in new york city, I just always liked something different. So i decided that instead of shopping other peoples clothing to find something I like, why don’t I just make my own? It basically started and still is, for me. I wear everything that I sell. Essentially, it’s like I’m making my own wardrobe; people happened to like it too and that’s how it all came about. Obviously, I have people in mind when I make stuff but to this day a lot of it is for me. I wear what I make.

When you look at the brand its very 80s, 90s inspired. Where do you pull your biggest inspirations from? Is it through magazines, tv shows, movies, etc.?

A lot of it just comes internally. Mainly from the concept of nostalgia in general. I don’t necessarily look at one thing and be like ‘oh let me copy this’ or ‘reference this’. I love pinterest, I definitely get a lot of my inspiration from there.

I think of ideas and then see how I could get it down through a design. For example, on instagram I ask people to comment what a stay cool design would be.

(Like stay cool mall, stay cool car wash, etc).

So, basically I’m using the term “stay cool” to mean many different things. Once I have the inspiration, I would go research retro versions and then use it to make a design. It’s a lot of just pulling inspiration from everywhere.

At the moment, the [Stay Cool NYC] website has a lot of interactive aspects to it, such as lookbooks, music playlists, etc. Is that your way of expanding outside of just clothing?

Definitely. I don’t want to limit myself to just clothing. So yeah, I’d like to have a music aspect to it and get into other things from an artistic aspect. Like music obviously, and I have other goals down the line that I want to work towards. I gave a little bio on my brand up there.

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When you designing for a new collection, do you find yourself majorly inspired by vintage trends?

I wouldn’t say trends. I would say colors, patterns and I guess designs too. If I were to make everything 80’s, retro and just so vintage, it would be cool but there would need to be some sort of kick to it. I call it [SCNYC] futuristic retro. It’s like old but futuristic. I don’t want people to think that what I am doing is just a trend. It’s more visually pleasing references.

Earlier, you mentioned that you design for yourself, you have to love it before it’s made.

Do you think your brand has a presentation of your identity?

It is a huge representation of my identity. I’m essentially a walking Stay Cool ad. It’s a big part of me. 100 percent the answer is yes.

Do you think it ever gets too repetitive, the fashion industry referencing past decades?

If people do it in a way that’s genuine, has a natural spin, and not because it became popular, then it will never get old in my opinion.

If something is naturally cool and happens to be vintage looking, why should it go out of style? If it’s genuine, it can be cool forever.

I think what’s temporary, is that a lot of brands are bringing back the 90’s because of the trend and not because they actually like it.

Has your new found platform given you a place to speak out and express yourself?

Perhaps even address social issues?

I’m realizing that the bigger the following gets, the more of an opportunity I have to express myself. There are different things that I want to explore, like start a podcast for kids who want to start their own brand or get into music. A lot of other stuff besides clothing.

I try to stay away from addressing things like social issues because I want to keep the overall identity of the brand, always positive. All of that is personal, it has nothing to do with what the brand is.

Stay COOL NYC Fall/Winter collection is available now through their website, www.staycoolnyc.com

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WINNERS NEVER QUIT. QUITTERS NEVER WIN.

BUZZYS BAZAAR

A VINTAGE GOLD MINE LOST IN THE SUBURBS

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BUZZY’S BAZAAR

Fast Fashion is known as the inexpensive production of garments by clothing retailers to keep afloat with the current trends throughout the industry. At the moment, the planet’s biggest polluter, after oil, is the Fashion industry. It is not reasonable to say that people should buy less. Nobody would listen. However, it is reasonable for us to say that individuals need to buy smarter, to buy kinder. The earth is our home, and for it to remain so, there is a responsibility on the consumer and producer to make those little changes that do have a massive environmental impact.

The sustainable fashion revolution has emerged to create a system that supports environmental and social-economic aspects of the industry. Specific clothing brands are making changes by using natural dyes and recyclable or renewed textiles. But there are also individuals taking a significant step, by recycling garments from past decades and bringing them to life as fashion continues to revamp vintage trends.

Buzzy’s Bazaar is a locally owned consignment shop that specializes in clothing, accessories and house decor, highlighting key trends from the ’20s till now. After participating in flea markets for 15 years, where she would gather pieces all over the east coast to bring back to Miami, Buzzy settled in Massachusetts full time to raise her consignment company from the ground up.

“A group of individuals founded the art deco committee, and due to their collective efforts, a flea market was started that occurred once a year in February. I had been a collector all my life and was rebuilding down in Bel harbor when they were looking for people who would set up booths so they could have this Art Deco festival presidents weekend; it went on for four days. I told them I would bring down a load of stuff from Boston.

I lived in Boston in the summers and Miami for the winters. My kids drove down all kinds of stuff that I would go out finding — jewelry, clothing, pocketbooks, home decor.

However, It got to a point where it was getting to be too much to do; four days, day and night. I would sleep there to protect the stuff in progressively rising temperatures. For the first 15 years, it was a successful event filled with antiques, but we had rain, high temperatures, tents blowing up. All these tragedies happened to people that one by one, they just started to quit. So they began a new one, and I started doing it with them on Sundays instead. After a while, the art deco show changed. It was no longer the only show in town.

I moved to Boston full time because of the access to medicine for my husband. My grandchildren said that I would go crazy if I were to stop it all. They said I should open up a store and later came up with the name Buzzy’s Bazaar; they knew it would never be one thing, if I like it, you’ll find it here. For about six years, people have been coming in and out, bringing all sorts of items. Some get overwhelmed by how much is in here, for others, it all just makes sense.

The[clothing] pieces are more interesting. People don’t have to wear what everyone else is wearing; they can change and do whatever is right for their figure or what they feel about themselves. There are so many kinds of styles that have been introduced over the decades. Nothing is wrong with anything as long as someone feels comfortable. The pieces have lasted so long and their only going to continue to do so. You can buy beautiful things without spending thousands of dollars. “ For about six years, Buzzy’s Bazaar has graced the city of Boston, and the suburbs surrounding it, with a unique approach to fashion by selling what’s deemed ‘interesting.’ They have introduced the concept of sustainable fashion to many young consumers, and have continuously proven it possible.

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MILAN SACHS WE ASKED MILAN HOW SHE VIEWED THE CONCEPT OF IDENTITY THROUGH HER WORK AND THOSE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THEM. “Identity is a series of desires; desires of and desires from.”

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DISCOVER DISCOVER DISCOVER

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DISCOVER DISCOVER DISCOVER

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MILES PASCALL Discover London’s new profound artist, Miles Pascall, through his soulful vocals and honest tale into the music industry.

Photograph by Stephanie Banita Kumari

DISCOVER | 1

London native, Miles Pascall, explores heartbreak, diversity, and hard work through his growing solo career that sprouted from his time as a session drummer. The artist is starting to stray away from his great dance creations by welcoming change shown through his new soulful and tender projects. When we asked Miles to tell us all about how his solo career came about, he took us down a slightly conscious path that all started back in his days at Uni. “I’m an old soul with a young heart, a subsequent by-product of wisdom and angst. I consider myself a modern-day memoirist, a writer and an encyclopedia of circumstances that people can reference and interpret however they choose. I make music for the mindful, the melancholic and the miscellaneous.

I started as the in-house fixer at uni. Singers would invite me to their writing sessions and band rehearsals, I would help them write their drum grooves and from time to time, remind them that it’s ok to take a breath and let the music breathe. What’s kept me working is understanding that my job is to take care of whoever is up front so they can take care of whoever it is that’s out front, in front of them. Learn the melody, as many of the lyrics as you can and be able to justify every stroke.

I guess I developed a knack for getting others to realize their potential and that transcended into artist development. With artist growth, came the discovery of needs based on how far in the process they are, their strengths and weaknesses and what their mission statement is. I remember being on a tour bus somewhere in Europe. We had not long finished a show, and I was in my sleeper bunk having trouble drifting off. After about an hour or so I somehow arrived at the answer to all of those questions I’d been asking the artists I was looking after at the time.

I got back to London and with a newfound intolerance for anything that failed to meet my desired level of satisfaction, no matter how grandiose the promise.”

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YANN

LAUREN. Photograph by Naserin Bogado

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22-year-old Berlin based Yann Lauren, started his musical journey on the outskirts of Germany in the small town, Gambach. Fresh off his European tour with the band KYTES, Lauren reflects on his ongoing rollercoaster experience through the music industry that started with his ambitious fifth-grade self, trying out for the orchestra class despite his parent’s concerns.

“My mom didn’t let me attend orchestra class to save me from future failure. So, I got on the bus and applied myself. Eventually, they accepted me, saying I didn’t know shit about music, but I had a drive.

I started playing the clarinet, violin and in the end, wanted to form a band.

I learned to play bass through YouTube tutorials until the band recorded our first demo. It was complete shit, and I wasn’t even involved in the recording process.

I lived in Gambach throughout all of my childhood until I was 15, where I got the chance to finish High School abroad in New York. That experience got me into a vast range of music and genres. I downloaded Logic Pro X and failed miserably. I lost faith in myself to become a music producer, but it just took time and a lot of hard work. Here we are now.

It’s tough to try and describe my music style. I don’t even know. If I’d start to name every genre that is in my music style, it will be a long list. I try to cut it down to urban future something?

I want to put out all the music that I have been sitting on this past year and see where the tour goes.

My dream is it to find the people that understand and vibe to the music, the fame and money come along with it I guess.”

Yann Lauren’s solo project Tinder is now available on all streaming platforms.

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Photograph by Alexa Lopez

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Photographs

by Alexa Lopez

University professor, Jen Barrows, sat down to talk about future generations, their roles in the classroom and what it does to them in the ‘real world.’

“Well, I think the exciting thing about teaching younger people, not just millennials in general but the high school and early college-aged population, is that they are the most exciting students to work with because they aren’t necessarily worried about what type of work they’re making. There’s less fear towards taking risks and going out on a limb, that is what makes the photographs more enticing. As a teacher, it’s always nice to see someone want to try something else. But that particular age range is willing to do it more often.

One has to have hope in the next generation because otherwise, why are we doing anything? The millennial generation, in general, inherited a lot of bad stuff, right? I mean the economy is terrible, it’s hard to get jobs, the world is changing. It’s becoming more mechanized and lives are beginning to happen online regularly. More than that, older generations don’t necessarily understand how quick that shift has occurred.

My childhood, for instance, the internet didn’t exist. It just wasn’t a thing, so I didn’t grow up with my entire life being online the way it is for some now. Having everything online is both incredibly exciting and terrifying at the same time. The ability to immediately learn anything you want to is fascinating. Some of the social aspects are exciting. But what I look at now is that there is this sort of dichotomy that is happening between older generations that don’t understand the immediacy of it; Younger generations are trying to fight back against this stereotype. But I would also say that because the internet is such a massive thing in millennial life, that for some people it is difficult for them to make headway with what they want to do.

The feedback is immediate, right? If the first feedback that you hear from people is that it’s not a good idea, you drop it. That’s not how people make big things happen. You make big things happen because you are tenacious and want it. I think our ideas that we are socializing by doing everything on the internet or our phones is entirely arbitrary. This phone conversation that you and I are having is probably going to be the most extended phone conversation I have all month. I think the socializing aspect of like actually sitting in a room with people is slowly getting lost in the millennial generation.

What I noticed is that it’s harder for students to socialize in the classroom or speak eloquently about what they are trying to say. It’s not that they can’t do it. It’s just that it takes longer to get someone to share with you. Whereas if you are typing it, mistakes are lower in some sense because that’s our mode of operating. I could send someone a Snapchat and get out something I want to tell them, but later if I’m meeting up for dinner or something and they’re like tell me what’s that about, I’m like okay I have to go into this whole long thing about it. I think that’s what’s hard. The older generations didn’t grow up that way, and they don’t understand it. “

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After opening up for artists such as Skrillex and the Chainsmokers, Campbell talks about his journey from EDM and beat production, to letting the world hear his voice for the first time.

TYLER CAMPBELL AS ‘MOZADO’ As said to the interviewer.

How did Mozado come together? What was the starting point of it all?

“For a while, I wanted to be a professional Sax player. That was my whole plan. I was going to go to Berklee and go from there. As I got older, I realized even the dopest Sax players didn’t make any money. I started gearing towards pop culture more than jazz culture for a lot of reasons. The jazz community is not as welcoming as others; they are elitist. It can get annoying after a while. Hip Hop, believe it or not, is very open.

I’m 24. I grew up in Norfolk which is right next to Foxborough [Massachusetts]. I’ve been producing for around seven years and just recently, within the past year, started singing and rapping on my own. I put out my first song, that had my voice on it, last week.

Towards the end of high school and beginning of college, I started to get into EDM. At that point, my main musical inspiration came from Avicii; He was the first artist I ever saw in concert. Eventually, I began to take notice of the EDM bubble and started to realize people weren’t into the things that I liked or thought were cool. I always have, and still will, think EDM is interesting, but no one was getting into the music that much in comparison to other genres.

My name used to be BlackLight and I switched it after that whole thing. I had a summer where I did a producing competition and went to Vegas. I was able to go to Electric Daisy Carnival and other elements of that sort. That’s where I saw the bubble of EDM being like ‘it’s cool, but it’s not going to keep growing like crazy like it was in 2012’. I rebranded and started Mozado and started producing more R&B and Hip Hop style tracks.

Music has always been a significant aspect of my life. My parents use to listen to a variety of classics. My mom used to listen to a lot of classic rock: Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, stuff like that.

My dad would be listening to jazz and funk. So James Brown and Myles Davis. It [music] was always there. James Brown is a big inspiration. He invented funk, he kind of invented R&B. Then his funk invented hip-hop. As for vocalists, I look to artists like Chance the Rapper, Miguel, Frank Ocean, people of that sort.

I think my stuff is always going to have a sense of musicality. I’m never going to release a song that’s a monotonous beat with me rapping over it. There’s a lot of stuff out there that I think isn’t musical, just upbeat; I’m always going to have chords and rhythms in my songs. I guess my style is a mix of R&B, pop and electronic but it’s all very commercial sounding even though I hate the word ‘commercial.’ I mean that in a way where anyone can listen to it. You don’t need to be an EDM head or a hip-hop head to enjoy it. I don’t want to be pinned to one genre is a bit of the reason as to why I sing but not really and rap but not really. I produce all different styles, and I don’t want to be held down to one box.

I’m still kind of working on it. I just started writing in the last year, so I don’t know exactly what my music is about. I have an EP coming in January. That one, there’s some different material, is mainly about relationships and girls. I’m trying different things. I guess we’ll see what happens. “

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A YEAR IN REVIEW Young contemporary photographer Meagan Montgomery displays her journey through 2018 with a series of photos taken over the past twelve months.

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“High Contrast and on top of things.”

“A surreal yet naive month.�

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“Pieces Season.”

“No end or sight.”

“Not so swimmingly.”

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“Freedom and Liberation.”

“Bound.”

“Saving grace.”

“A month of self love and sun bathing.”

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“Watching and Waiting (as the time passed).�

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“Pleasantville, a summertime dream.

Brooklyn based photographer, Meagan Montgomery, conceptualizes her series by focusing in on themes such as love, fantasy, and identity. “Often I explore my visions through self-portraiture and experimentation, either post-process or while shooting. Aesthetically I like high contrast and bold colors.”

We invited Montgomery to take our readers through her 2018 experience with the photographs she captured along the way. “This selection focuses on two series I’ve created this year, “Eternal Love” and “Self Sacrifice and Rebirth.” Both sequences represent 2018 for me, a year with plenty of ups and downs that seemed to be split in half: a misleading beginning with a rough yet rewarding ending.”

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My Zoila.

Amongst the roughly estimated six million people in El Salvador, lived Zoila, a vibrant lady whose life sprouted from the depths of the city of Usulutan. Despite the ongoing corruption and violence that arose from the street corners, Zoila stood as a breathing representation of what every human should strive to be; gracious, kind and humble.

My grandmother Zoila was one for the books. I would hear countless amounts of stories about her, and they all left me with the same conclusion: Courage, strength, and respect don’t come easy, but when they do, they are here to stay.

Grandma, I want to thank you for leaving a deep impression on the person I am today and inspiring me to continue to be myself and only myself. This magazine is all for you.

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