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" America is a flawed land but a great one indeed. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

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" I grew up thinking my father was tacky. There was no color coordination. It was whatever was cool. 'These sweatpants are cool. I'll wear them with these shoes that are cool.' He had less inhibitions. I wasn't respectful of his swag then. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" I've always felt like an outcast. My aesthetic is very high-end, but I still get classified as streetwear. There's really no other reason for than other than my age, the way I look, and where I'm from. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" I was going to college on a full scholarship. I graduated summa cum laude. I was always on the dean's list. I was never a kid that started any kind of trouble. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" I don't think the narrative I was stuck in - the 'black' designer category - was going to go away anytime soon. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" In my shows, I always try to incorporate music because it's the most natural way to set a tone. So if I want to do a show about depression, I use the opera. If I want to do a show about greed, I use spoken word. If I want to do a show about the injustice that's taking place in the world, I might play Sam Cooke. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" The work of black creatives seems to always get undermined in one way or another, and that's what this new generation is actively changing by speaking up. We aren't accepting group categorization and group classifications to describe our work anymore - it just leads to group dismissal. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" Is the 'black designer' label there to warn everyone not to have the same level of expectations for me, or is it some type of prize? I just want to work in an even playing field where I can get press for my work and not just my race and my personal views on it. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" I want to be fashion's Erykah Badu. What I admire about her is her timelessness and her fearless approach. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" Financing is always the hard part, especially if you don't have friends or family to back you, which was my case and the case for most designers. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" I wanted to be a sneaker designer since I was 10; it was my dream to work at Nike and design signature shoes for Michael Jordan and Penny Hardaway. When it was time to select high schools, I wanted to go to one that would help me get a jump-start on my dream. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" Think about how much fashion profits from black culture and how underrepresented we are in the industry. If you insist on using black celebrities to peddle your merchandise and add a cool factor to your front row, it is indecent to not care about the plights of that person's community. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" 'Bernie versus Bernie,' for me, is these two extremes of capitalism. It's Bernie Sanders, the ultimate socialist, and Bernie Madoff, the ultimate capitalist. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" I'm desperately trying to unplug. The last thing I want is a watch that connects to my phone which connects to my iPad that connects to my computer that airplays to my TV. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" My earliest memories of defying my parents were through music. I remember rap being banned in my house, and then getting a Cam'ron album. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" A president's power is limited. We need to vote down the ballot as well, from your councilman all the way up to your governors and congressman. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" I don't know which was the first love - music or fashion. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" If you put the collections together, whether it's Rick Owens, Alexander Wang, or whomever, sometimes they do streetwear, but they're never called that. They're always called 'sportswear' or 'high-end' or 'luxury.' I feel like I'm tossed into that streetwear category so that I don't exist in this space. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" The world absolutely needs your voice. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" One of the things about runways that I hate is that you can't accommodate so many people because you don't have those in-and-out privileges where people can come and go. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" All my collections are based on something I like or something I'm dealing with. They are always deeply personal. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" We don't need to go back in time and make America great again, because really, America was only great for certain people. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" I came back from Standing Rock, and one of the things that struck me was their respect for elders. It was something that I felt like I needed to work on in my life. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" All it took was one conversation to know that Reebok was the right home for our team. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" The way I was raised, you get a new pair of sneakers when the old one gets messed up. But when I got to high school, I started dating girls and trying to fit in, and I realized everybody was collecting Jordans. When I would get my paychecks, I wouldn't even take money. I would just trade them for sneakers. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" If I'm going to be the black designer, I'm going to tell it my way. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" I grew up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. At the time I was growing up with my father - before it was gentrified - it was a very rough neighborhood. He felt that if I got into or started embracing the rap culture, I would be one step closer to being on the streets. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" I think that when you rally powerful voices around powerful issues, what you get are positive results. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" We're constantly having to go head-to-head with the Bernie Madoffs of the world who just want more and more money. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" I've never seen Ralph Lauren, Rick Owens, or Raf Simons described as white designers. They are just designers. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond

" I hope that people who don't believe depression is a real thing will stop calling people crazy, because that's dismissive and not a medical diagnosis. "

Kerby Jean-Raymond