An Interview with Edison Chen on the Big Boi x CLOT Collection
CLOT’s recent residency in Los Angeles – via the Juice L.A. pop-up – has inadvertently formed a
CLOT‘s recent residency in Los Angeles – via the Juice L.A. pop-up – has inadvertently formed a segue into a new collaboration with none other than Big Boi. After a chance encounter with Big Boi’s creative team, the two parties collaborated on a new line, influenced equally by Coachella (Southern California’s most iconic music festival) and Big Boi (one of the South’s most iconic musicians). We recently down with CLOT co-founder Edison Chen on the eve of Big Boi’s OutKast reunion performance to discuss how the project gained its momentum. Enjoy the interview below, and keep an eye out for the collaboration line to drop soon.
How did Big Boi and CLOT start talking about doing something together?
I have been a fan of OutKast since the mid-’90s; I’ve admired both Big Boi and Andre 3000 for almost 20 years now. Everything they do is amazing to me, and musically, they are geniuses in my mind.
Briefly describe the process of working with Big Boi on this line.
Big Boi was trying to reach out and do more cultural things [outside of] music, and I had the opportunity to meet his creative consultant crew. We had mentioned something about Coachella. I’ve gone to Coachella every year for about five years now, and I thought that the synergy on this was impeccable.
What was the inspiration behind the line?
The inspiration behind the line was one of OutKast’s most popular songs: “Bombs Over Baghdad.”
Can you please describe some of the design concepts on the graphics?
Since the Coachella venue is [called] “Indio,” we were trying to put the two together. We decided to use some wordplay on the word “Boi,” and changed it to express BOMBS OVER INDIO. We used some old military patchwork, and often used a sport jersey platform to make the silk-inspired pieces. These are representative of our CLOT input and we didn’t want to put CLOT logos everywhere so this was a good link to our heritage and our culture, and meshing the two was easy. KB LEE creative directed the project with us at CLOT, and it’s been a very, very enjoyable project. This is just the beginning of many CLOT x Big Boi things, so keep posted.
