If measured by traditional standards, Kanye West may not be a qualified fashion designer, but that doesn't hinder his ability to recruit talented people from all walks of life. Virgil Abloh, who once served as the creative director of his creative project studio DONDA, launched the fashion brand Off-White in 2014. In less than two years, it rose to a hot stage and has just launched a joint series with Moncler. Now, another Kanye West-owned designer is ready to flex his muscles: Tracey Mills, the designer who was responsible for Kanye West’s 2011 women’s line “Dw by Kanye West” and launched a unisex brand called Visitor On Earth last week.
“Do you know how lucky you are to have people like Tracey Mills by your side? ”, Kanye West told Christian Audigier that the French designer who passed away last year and was responsible for the legendary hits of brands such as Von Dutch and Ed Hardy seemed a bit puzzling. "Because Tracey Mills can communicate with aliens." The aliens in Kanye West's mouth refer to superstars as famous as him, and Tracey Mills is the favorite earthling of the "aliens".
This is why Christian Audigier absorbed Tracey Mills. Around 2000, Tracey Mills, who was in her twenties, started working as a marketer for Von Dutch, specializing in celebrity marketing. Under the leadership of Christian Audigier, this brand urgently needed to expand its influence with Hilary Duff, Usher, Destiny's Child, Justin Timberlake and other popular stars at the time. At this point, no one can complete the task better than Tracey Mills, because these big names all have personal relationships with him.
The reason why I have friendship with these stars is because Tracey Mills’ brother Chris Mills was an NBA star from 1993 to 2003 and played for professional teams such as the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks. "Thanks to my brother, I was able to be friends with these celebrities, which gave me my first opportunity to work in the fashion industry." In 2005, Tracey Mills joined Ed Hardy along with Christian Audigier, and his position was promoted to vice president of marketing. But at the same time, he had a desire to do design: "I have been interested in art and design since I was a child. My mother said that my painting skills are very good, and then I went to art school."
Tracey Mills met Kanye West through mutual friends around 2000, when the latter just started working as a producer for Roc-a-Fella Records. Ten years later, in 2010, Kanye West, who was already a superstar in the music industry, began to plan his women's clothing brand "Dw by Kanye West". At his invitation, Tracey Mills left Ed Hardy and became a member of Kanye West's think tank, and stayed there for four years: "Kanye and I went to Paris and met Anna Wintour, Riccardo Tisci, André Leon. Talley, these big names in the fashion industry, give us a lot of confidence. One time Carine Roitfeld came to our office and saw the inspiration board that Kanye and I had prepared for the women's clothing line. As a result, she tore the more than 1,000 photos into 10 pieces. She told us that this is our brand, and we need to learn to simplify it so that we can have our own perspective."
After its first show at Paris Women's Fashion Week in the spring and summer of 2012, "Dw by Kanye West" received an unsatisfactory response. It disappeared only two seasons after its launch. However, Tracey Mills began to nurture her own brand and at the same time prepared the design work for Kanye West's Yeezy X adidas series. In 2014, VENUSxMARS was born. As an avid fan of science fiction film and television works such as "Star Wars", "Star Trek", and "The Jetsons", Tracey Mills' VENUSxMARS is naturally composed of strong Sci-Fi elements. His extensive celebrity relationships also made this brand very popular once it was launched, through the clothing of Rihanna, Beyonce, Chris Brown and others. But the good times did not last long. Venus, an American swimwear brand established in 1982, sued VENUSxMARS for infringement last year: "My lawyer told me that I can no longer use the trademark VENUSxMARS." With the last messages released by the brand on Twitter and Instagram in March and July 2015, VENUSxMARS was forced to end.
Last week, Tracey Mills made a comeback with a new brand, Visitor On Earth. As the name suggests, this new brand and VENULike SxMARS, it also comes from Tracey Mills' love for Sci-Fi: "This is my second evolution as a designer. VENUSxMARS is very popular, but it is not what I want. I don't want to continue to design from other people's perspectives. Although my company Beyond Mars and I still provide image consulting services for Kanye, Rihanna and others, I don't want to continue to design from other people's perspectives. Visitor On Earth is completely my own interpretation of design and creativity."
Similar to the new series of brands such as Public School, Visitor On Earth no longer divides series by year and season, but is named after a sequence such as "Chapter One". In addition, the brand uses the concept of "uniform" to make it neutral and can be worn by both men and women. It does not have stores and adopts an online sales model. The reason is that Tracey Mills does not want Visitor On Earth is influenced by buyers, retailers and fashion weeks. As a member who has participated in the creation of the Yeezy series, Visitor On Earth's debut series is easily reminiscent of the former. These rugged items, priced from 95 to 300 US dollars (one of the jackets has not yet announced the price), are all named after the technical industry. For example, the cotton T-shirt is called "Landing" Base" (basic landing style), and khaki leggings are "Gravity" (gravity)...According to Tracey Mills, each of us is a passenger on the earth, but how long Visitor On Earth, a rookie, can travel in the fashion show, depends on luck and chance.
