Music
S.P. BADU is the unisex clothing brand challenging fashion stereotypes
Toronto designer Spencer Badu sheds light on how ASAP Rocky and Young Thug ended up wearing his clothes, his dream runway soundtrack and his t-shirt design for Red Bull Music Festival.
Ebhoni & Casey MQ in S.P. BADU's exclusive Red Bull Music Festival t-shirt
© Manny Dark
When Spencer Badu took fashion design at a college in Calgary, he had no idea that it would lead to him creating one of Canada’s coolest new clothing brands. Growing up airbrushing and screen-printing t-shirts with images sourced from the internet, the formal education helped him master the basics, from pattern drafting to dress-making. In the face of his training and experience in the fashion industry, he found himself disinterested in many of the clothes he was making because of the rigid gender-specific guidelines that were imposed.
“Calgary is an amazing city but people don't really think progressively in terms of dress. You either wear whatever is popular or dress conservatively. They’re not really ruffling anyone’s feathers,” says Badu.
Relocating to Toronto, he founded unisex clothing brand S.P. BADU in 2015, with the goal of designing clothes that challenge gender norms and stereotypes. “When I first started it was about looking at gender frameworks and deconstructing them. I built my own size chart,” he explains. Look at S.P. BADU’s website or Instagram feed and you’ll find embroided trackpants, denim jackets and shirts emblazoned with slogans like “POST GENDER FUTURE.”
Although the brand has only existed for three years, Badu’s designs have been worn by arguably two of today’s most fashion-forward young hip-hop stars—New York’s A$AP Rocky and Atlanta’s Young Thug (who famously wore a dress on the cover of his 2016 album JEFFREY). He was introduced to the latter’s stylist through a friend and sent the rapper a selection of clothes, though he wasn’t sure what would happen with them. “Ultimately, these are people who wear what they want to wear, they’re not puppets,” says Badu. “With any partnership that I go into it’s really about whether the person likes the pieces or not, as opposed to forcing someone to wear them.”
He’s quick to point out that music and fashion go hand-in-hand, and lists a diverse roster of artists that he’s listening to these days, including Arca, Erykah Badu, Frank Ocean, Nina Simone, Michael Jackson (“I just watched the Quincy Jones documentary so I’ve been listening to Thriller for the past couple days”), Travis Scott and others. When he’s working he prefers music that’s calming rather than aggressive, but says he’ll turn to trap when he’s on a tight deadline. The designer’s even thought about his dream runway soundtrack. “I’d want to take a bunch of musicians I’m a fan of and get them to make a big, long track like “We Are the World,” a fusion of vocals and sounds,” he says. “I think that’s what we are as a brand, we’re not strictly one way in anything.”
The t-shirt is available online & at Red Bull Music Festival Toronto shows
© Manny Dark
Ahead of this year’s Red Bull Music Festival Montreal and Toronto, Badu designed a limited edition capsule collection inspired by artists’ tour merch. “You think of a musician, they have a shirt, and that shirt is kind of a representation of a tribe or a fanbase,” explains Badu, whose own personal wardrobe includes prized items from seeing The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Outkast and more in concert. Instead of working with regular models, the designer had photographer Manny Dark shoot rising Toronto rapper Ebhoniand avant-pop multi-instrumentalist and producer Casey MQ for the campaign, praising both artists’ distinct looks. The shoot was styled by Badu’s longtime friend and collaborator Bobby Bowen, who he frequently refers to for a second opinion on collections. “He’s my partner in terms of bouncing ideas off one another,” he says. “He really comes through with the styling and makes sure every piece is on-point.” The t-shirts are available online and will be sold at select Red Bull Music Festival Toronto shows.
While he describes S.P. BADU as a “one man band,” the designer says there’s big plans for the brand’s future, beginning with their fall 2018 collection being available at Canadian retailer The Bay. He also hopes to work with other retailers and expand his team on both the creative and business side. Although Badu admits Toronto isn’t necessarily considered a fashion destination (“There’s not a lot of editors or buyers coming to view the collections”), he’s optimistic about the current generation of designers and believes supporting one another is essential to creating new opportunities. “There’s definitely a lot of progress. The people who are in the top spots or the gatekeepers have to stand behind it. Even if they’re not really involved as they would want to be because it’s not for them,” says Badu. “Even if it’s not for you, you can still support it.”