Telfar Relaunches His Shopping Bag With A Stunning Photo Series

Telfar Clemens, the savvy, smart talent behind the New York label Telfar, could do a lot after he won the 2017 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, including being able to put back into production his Shopping Bag, a vegan leather tote in different sizes branded with a T for... well, no need to ask, “What's the T?” here. Since then it’s only been available as a series of limited-edition drops, which sold out nanoseconds fast. Yet now he's going to make it available on a regular basis, and available from his website. In its way, it's the perfect embodiment of what Clemens does so well: universal and democratic in its appeal, slyly witty and inventive in its execution.

To get things going, Clemens worked with his longstanding creative director Babak Radboy on a series of images of Telfar friends and family, styled by another of his close collaborators, Avena Gallagher, and shot by photographer June Canedo. Like everything this crew does, it's a project that prioritises the creative cooperation that comes from knowing each other, and instinctively doing what feels, and looks, right.

“Telfar is very family,” says Radboy. “I'm married to Avena, his stylist; she was with him before me! And our son Malcolm starred in the Bambino video Telfar made. June was one of those people we already knew, she'd offer to shoot our shows, was part of the creative community. We wanted a photographer that had their own story; June has her own point of view, she's a woman of color, directional in what she does and a friend. We like that organic feeling. It's not just calling up someone's agent!”

The shoot took place in Telfar's studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a 10,000-square-foot playground half of which, says Radboy, laughing, is “raw, full of piles of dirt. The shoot was a way to invite our friends over as we've not had time to have a party.” Adding to the challenges of making time for that is the fact that Clemens spends a good chunk of his time in China, working on production of his collections. Given the punishing 12-hour time difference, he ended up chatting via email, discussing the inspiration behind the bag, what informed the casting of the images, and a tantalising hint as to what he has planned for New York Fashion Week in September after his terrific show performance this past February.

Firstly, you're in China right now! Where are you and what's around you as you answer these questions?

Yeah, I'm in China at the moment. I am in a farm/city/industrial small town called Yangzhou right now making the spring/summer 2019 collection, and also prepping for our collection preview/show at the Serpentine in London on August 10th. It's exciting!

Secondly, break down for me what's happening with the relaunch of your bag; why you're doing it, and what you're doing?

The bag was actually the first thing we did with the money from the [CFDA/Vogue] Fashion Fund, so it means a lot to us. We designed it years ago but with that investment we were able to make it right and in quantities and it sold out immediately. Then we made more and they sold out in a weekend. And again a third time.

It really represents us moving from an idea to a business. It represents everything we are about; like our clothes it's completely unisex and every possible kind of person can wear it, but it's also extremely accessible and practical. It's on celebrities and at the same time it's the official baby bag of downtown art mums! People kept asking for colours so we were able to come out with brown and white and just give the people what they want!

Can you tell me how and why you designed the bag in the first place?

Well, I designed this bag for the 2014 autumn/winter collection. I remember designing it around the holiday time and seeing people walking down the street with a million shopping bags and thinking how cool that looked as a silhouette. If you consider it as a look or an accessory it's suddenly this handbag that's being worn by women, men, babies everyone and everyone looks great with it! [It has] that “I just bought something!” look. We really just measured paper shopping bags to design our own version in three sizes. It was a thing that already existed in the world, but it's more environmentally sustainable and 100 percent vegan.

I've always thought you were incredibly instinctual and smart about how to put things out into the world, so what was the thinking about doing this photo series?

The photo series is sort of inspired by what we see on a daily basis on our social media timelines. We've been seeing amazing images of people all over the world tagging our bag and we wanted to basically create images specific to us and to them.

Why did you choose the people you did to appear in it? And what influenced the choice of the people you chose to make it happen?

The people are not just models they are people we are connected with and all of them make something. It's really inspiring that the people who love what we do, do things that we love just as much, and that we actually meet each other through the bag.

Lastly, you've given us dinner, and sang for us: Do you have an idea what you're going to do for Fashion Week in September? Can you give us a hint?

We are really excited about it. We are actually giving a sneak peek next week at the Serpentine. We want to make shows that you can feel. Feeling is so important to clothing; it's not an image. I can't tell you any more than that!