Post Malone Launches Austin Post in Paris: “I’m Just Bringing Me, Which Is All I’ve Ever Done”
On Monday night, fashion month unofficially got underway with a hotly anticipated debut, not in New York but in the gilded aristocratic Pozzo di Borgo mansion on the Left Bank. If it got rolling rock-star late, that was, perhaps, to be expected.
Currently swinging through town on his Big Ass World Tour, Post Malone co-opted these salons—once home to none other than Karl Lagerfeld—to unveil ‘Season One’ of Austin Post, his new namesake ready-to-wear brand. To drive the point home, the collection was cast against a sunset landscape from the Far West, amping up these chandeliered rooms
with desert hues and a heap of cowboy swagger. The finale even included a live steed, with an added assist from the throwback “A Horse With No Name,” by America.
This isn’t the multi-billion-stream star’s first rodeo with fashion: just two weeks ago, a SKIMs campaign broke showing him in the badlands of Utah wearing not much more than his famed tats and camouflage skivvies. But it’s certainly his biggest.
As rehearsals got underway, Malone—dressed in a Canadian tuxedo, aka full denim and his favorite white straw cowboy hat—admitted that if he can hold a jam-packed arena in thrall, when it came to the runway he had a case of the jitters, which he was managing as he tends to do, with smokes and beers.
“It’s anxiety and excitement,” he said, reaching for a fresh bottle. “Those are the best feelings. If you don’t have those, you don’t care.”
And fashion is something he cares about. “I’ve always flirted with it,” he continued. “I love dressing up, even if [lately] I just wear the same shit every day. I always wanted to do [a show]; I just never thought it would be possible.” As he stared down his 30th birthday, last July 4, he decided that the time was right. “I think it’s really badass to bring the Bud Light and all the shenanigans over here, and just have fun with it,” he said as he popped the cap. “I’m a lucky son of a bitch to just be where I am at this point, so one day, I just said, ‘fuck it, let’s do it.”
Having asked his team to make everything here in his size so he could take it straight to the stage, Post added that he was intentional about the casting, tapping both professional models and ranch hands from back home.
Truth be told, the star had been quietly teasing this collection for months. It centers squarely on well-cut jeans, denim jackets embroidered with “At First Light” across the shoulder blades ir shirts ticked out with sunrays in silver studs, and sleek jackets, worked minimalist in pale suede with corduroy collars, or maximalist in studded midnight blue velvet, for example.
The main showpiece—and one of Malone’s personal favorites—was a buffalo jacket that looks weighty — and is. That number was embellished with silver and turquoise buttons by Tennessee Turquoise Company, the brand designed by Morgane Stapleton—the wife of Grammy-winning country star Chris Stapleton—who also brought rings, collar tips, and flasks to the mix, while the colorful Texas boots came courtesy of Lucchese and eyewear from Jacques Marie Mage.
“Some bits are a little exaggerated,” Malone allowed, “but really at its core it’s simple and it’s me, and I love that. You can wake up in the morning and drive cows and then you can go and play a fucking concert at night and I think that’s important. It’s just what I want to wear: you can rock these sons of bitches at the club or you can get married in ’em. I’m just bringing me, which is all I’ve ever done.”
By his own reckoning, Malone can “rock the shit out of a Prada skirt”—and so it goes for Austin Post. “I think the most important thing, especially in fashion, is to do whatever the fuck you want, wear whatever you want to wear. Nobody can tell you shit at all: just don’t hurt anybody and just be yourself,” Post said.
Is it as groundbreaking as the artist himself? No, but revolution is beside the point. Post’s fans love him for what he represents: authenticity and a whole lot of fun. Here, they will find a passel of both.
Post Malone’s Austin Post Season One collection is available at the Words, Colors Shapes pop-up in the Marais and online starting today. A Foundation Collection of tailored silhouettes will launch globally in New York on September 19.
Gaspar J. Ruiz Lindberg1/28
Gaspar J. Ruiz Lindberg2/28