Amari “Moo” Jones

Excerpts from an Interview with the Designer

Recorded on: Feb 22 2023

Tell me about your collection!

From a young age, I’ve always loved and wanted to be a cartoon character. Although I was initially moving in a different direction, the cartoons in my head sort of won and my concept developed into a world I created of characters with different personalities. I'd like to say I was inspired by a deeper movement, but I'm making this collection to deliver and indulge in black joy, make outfits that I would love to wear, and place my happiness at the forefront of my project. More specifically, my collection is futuristic black comfort.

How did you arrive at this idea?

Originally I was using colors like green black and white, which gave an almost industrial militant coldness in an overgrown dystopia however, something didn't feel right. I'm a pretty warm person, and if you couldn't tell, my favorite color is orange. This unhappiness, paired with a beautifully patterned orange fabric I found at goodwill, drove me to redo everything until it made me feel good. Truly why would anyone do anything that didn't make them happy? So my entire collection's vibe completely shifted and I centered it around a few of my passions: black aliveness, dancing, and revealing clothes all showcased by the universe I've been reworking for my beautiful characters to live.

Have you fleshed out more details of this world?

Yeah. In my mood board, I'm imagining these people in a warm hazy party-like commune that's slow-moving due to contentment and they're drunk off something - off living, off life, off... something like that. And they're all just black, happy, and showing too much skin. And I'm imagining, there are disco lights coming out of the building and it's always the perfect temperature, but also it's taking place in a different universe where there are robots that are also attending these parties and existing with these people. And flying spacecraft. I’m sort of creating a cartoon in my head and I'm having a lot of fun, creating that cartoon. I think that's my favorite part.

What challenges have you faced throughout the process?

It was a little hard for me because at first, I was trying to do things that I thought would be trendy and things that I thought would make brands happy and look at me. And every time I would look back at the things I was drawing, I just felt a pit in my stomach. Slowly, I think my collection was pulling me in a direction that would make me happier. I started changing those things with each piece because I like it and not because I'm trying to conform to something else.

Would you say it's difficult to balance your creativity and your originality compared to what is trendy right now?

Yeah, I think about this every single day. I think in this generation, everyone wants to be unique and everyone wants to have that thing that's trendy and be the one who created it and be the top person to have it.

So trying to keep up with what's trendy and keep up with the constantly changing things that are changing like every single day, I think that weighs on me.