Salehe Bembury dresses with ‘cartoon character consistency’
Today, Salehe Bembury is one of the most in-demand designers in sneakers, who has collaborated with brands including New Balance, Crocs, Versace, Moncler, and Vans. With an aesthetic rooted in a combination of an outdoor lifestyle and funky, organic shapes, Bembury has reimagined streetwear as something as biological as it is mechanical.
But it’s almost impossible to centrifuge Bembury’s fashion aesthetic from his own brand, and that’s in part by design and what it means to be a creative in the era of social media.
“We’re all kind of like cartoon characters in this space . . . we’re all just like kids in high school in the hallway, comparing outfits and competing and all that shit,” Bembury says ahead of the release of his first career retrospective. “It’s like, fucking Bart Simpson or Doug Funnie opening up their closet and seeing all blue shorts and orange T-shirts. So I would say that that’s what exists with my current selection of clothing, is that it just all fits within this cartoon character consistency.”
Bembury says his fashion sense was originally born from mimicry—Nike ads and other influences that informed his style. But as he grew older, he learned, as we all do, what works on his body—and he began considering his own signature look. Roughly a decade ago, he started carrying a wooden briefcase everywhere he went. “That was me shouting ‘I’m an individual!’” he laughs. Beanies, too, were almost always in the mix.
But a move to L.A. led him to ditch the beanie, and an evolving aesthetic led him to retire the briefcase. His personal style became grounded in comfort, wearing high cinched Satoshi Nakamoto pants most days, any matter of tee, and maybe a Boro stitch (Japanese repaired denim) jacket up top. Handkerchiefs, a cycling cap, and wraparound shades often complete the look.
Grounding it all is an anchor in comfort. “Take it back to childhood, I just remember what it felt like to go to church, and I hated that feeling, and I also thought that that feeling was representative of what it meant to have a job,” says Bembury. “Entering the professional space . . . when I first got a job at Cole Haan, and like, what I was wearing back then. It was in an effort to try to hold on to some level of individuality, but then also be a working professional. I’d wear a plaid button down and Dickies. Is that professional? I’m not really sure, but like, that was my attempt at it.”
Now, Bembury has evolved from wearing Uniqlo, to tailored off-the-shelf garments, to more bespoke pieces. “That comes down to a combination of education and resources,” he says. And while he knows that’s a privilege, he does wish to remind the public that they don’t need to settle for the fit off-the-rack.
“Actually, I get a lot of messages where people are simply curious how I get my pants like that. I think that’s also displaying maybe just a lack of understanding of simple tailoring,” he says. “I don’t even think a lot of people see that even as an option. But if you just taper these pants or crop them, they become a different pant!”
Describe your style in a sentence.
Comfortable, utilitarian, with a dash of Japan.
What’s the one piece in your closet you’ll never get rid of?
Proleta re Art made me a boro fabric North Face Supreme jacket. A$AP Rocky has a quote, “we don’t rock clothes, we rock pieces.” And that is a piece.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?
Not long (a few minutes). The longest investments may be around Paris Fashion Week.
What do you wear to a big meeting?
It doesn’t change.
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?
It’s probably the most said one, but it’s just like, “the best version of yourself you can be is yourself.” With the uniform that I’ve achieved, and with what I wear, it is myself to the fullest.