Fashion Fridays: Va$htie Kola x NY Times

Words by Alexis Swerdloff, via the New York Times

Watch her now! Downtown Vashtie Kola–super designer and Trini gal to the flippin world–was featured in the NY Times Fashion & Style section yesterday, a two-page feature covering her childhood, her trendsetting taste in chambray, her relationship with Pharrel and her tireless activities as a promoter. All-around a great look for Ms. Kola. Our only criticism: we could’ve used a little more discussion of her actual fashion portfolio (first woman to design an Air Jordan anybody?) in addition to her personal fashion sense. Read the full story after the jump.

NOT long ago, Vashtie Kola — a downtown party hostess, fashion designer and music video director — started wearing a chambray shirt, which she would pair with cutoff denim jean shorts and tights.
She didn’t think much of the outfit — in fact, she called the top her “stanky chambray” — until she noticed that young girls at her parties were working the same look, including wearing their hair flipped over one shoulder, just like hers.
“It was really weird,” Ms. Kola said. “They were mostly brown girls, girls who wouldn’t normally wear chambray.” It soon became very clear that they were trying to dress like her.
It’s not the first time that Ms. Kola started a trend. A kind of renaissance woman who moves easily among fashion, film and music, she has emerged as a role model for young tastemakers. “There are a lot of little Vashties running around right now,” said the rapper Theophilus London, who is a close friend of Ms. Kola.
“She speaks a story that’s very relatable for these girls,” added Rachel Roy, the fashion designer, who had Ms. Kola model in her spring look book last year. “She’s aspirational in terms of what she’s done with her career, but she can walk into a room wearing high-tops and a T-shirt, and still be the sexiest woman in the room — which makes her sort of attainable.”
Her style influence has grown considerably in recent years, thanks to a number of high-profile gigs. She hosted a popular party at Santos Party House with the rapper Q-Tip. She started Violette, a T-shirt line sold at Colette, and was the first woman to design a Nike Air Jordan last December. And she directed the video for Justin Bieber’s debut single, “One Time,” in which the young pop star has a party for his pre-pubescent friends at his mentor Usher’s house. It’s been viewed 240 million times on YouTube.
It’s hard to find a New York scenester working in music, fashion or nightlife who hasn’t crossed paths with her — or at least ogled her from afar at the restaurant Lovely Day, the cool-kid clubhouse in NoLIta that she frequents. At her birthday last month at Santos Party House — she turned 29 — she couldn’t walk a foot without saying hi to someone like Lupe Fiasco and Josh Madden, or having her photo taken by an admiring stranger.
It’s hard not to be enchanted. Ms. Kola is charming, smart and disarmingly low-key, able to hold her own whether she’s talking about her favorite artist, Egon Schiele; a cool new Supreme skateboard collaboration; or her fashion inspirations.
“When she walks into a room, she’s got a camera over her shoulder, her style’s on point, her hair is smelling good and she’s representing in an amazing way,” Mr. London said.
Her ability to hop from one world to another has a lot to do with her upbringing. Ms. Kola grew up in a poor section of downtown Albany, the daughter of Trinidadian immigrants.
“My parents didn’t explain a lot of things to me about West Indian culture,” she said. Her neighborhood was predominantly black, she said, adding: “I assumed I was black. But the black kids were like, ‘You look Indian,’ and the Indian kids were like, ‘You look black.’ ”
She started hanging out in Albany’s Washington Park. “You know how all the weirdo kids hang out in public parks? We all hung out in this one — the suburban kids who would come down to skate and buy drugs, then there were the hippie kids, the thug kids.” But she was a good student, and landed a scholarship to the all-girls Academy of the Holy Names.
In 1999, she moved to New York City to study film at the School of Visual Arts. While there, she interned for film production companies and worked at the Stüssy store in SoHo, where she befriended well-known skaters, graffiti artists and street-wear designers. Her former roommate is the legendary street artist Earsnot of the IRAK crew.
“When Vashtie worked at Stüssy, I was working at Supreme,” said Aaron Bondaroff, who is an owner of the Ohwow gallery. “She’d pop by the store, and would just come in with this super confident attitude. Back then, Supreme was really intimidating, but Vashtie would always talk to everyone.”
After graduating from college in 2004, she pursued her childhood dream of making music videos, and met Pharrell Williams, whom she dated for several years.
She has since directed 20 music videos for acts like Mr. Bieber, Solange Knowles and Jadakiss. Also, she directed a Pepsi commercial that starred Will.i.am and LMFAO.

IN 2006, she and her friend Oscar Sanchez started promoting a roving party called 1992 that helped spur a downtown revival of 1990s music and fashion.
“You would hear about ’70s or ’80s parties,” said Q-Tip, “but who was recognizing the ’90s? Nobody.” Q-Tip was so impressed with the party that he approached Ms. Kola about doing a night together. Their popular party, Opened, was held at Santos Party House from 2008 to 2010, and it wasn’t uncommon to run into Sean Combs, LL Cool J, Drake, Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
Since the party ended last year, Ms. Kola and Q-Tip are hoping to collaborate on a low-key Saturday night party, potentially at the Ace Hotel. “Maybe a movie night?” she said. “We’re not sure.”
Meanwhile, she is shooting a feature-length comedy called “Bodega” in October and recently got a Polaroid SX-70 (“the same camera Andy Warhol used for his portraits,” she said) to take photos of her friends for a possible book.
But Ms. Kola has never been one for planning the next move. “About a year ago, I was trying to do this one project, and I kept forcing it to happen, and nothing ended up coming of it,” she said. “I’ve had so much success when things happen truly organically.”