Like so much of what he does, Young Thug aka Jeffery Lamar Williams has not only stirred the pot but has it overflowing with the cover art for his new mixtape, “No, My Name is Jeffery.” Shot in a long blue, tiered dress and pleated funnel hat, the cover was an expression of the artist walking the walk around his belief that “there’s no such thing as gender.”
Getting the inside scoop on the story behind the mixtape art, North Carolina-based Power 98 host Vonyetta earlier today interviewed Thug stylist, Zoe Dupree, and VFiles‘ stylist, Rox Brown, who hooked up Thug with the elaborate dress. Designed by Italian designer Alessandro Trincone, Thug first saw the dress when he was visiting SoHo boutique and showroom VFiles as a mentor for its upcoming New York Fashion Week event.
When asked about the story behind the dress, Brown explained that Thug had already shot a cover for the mixtape, but decided to change the art after visiting VFiles. Explained Brown, “As I was showing him the designers and we were flipping through, he saw the look and was like, ‘What is that,’ and at first I thought he didn’t like it. He said it reminds me of ‘Mortal Combat’ Sub Zero. And he was like, ‘If I don’t get this, I’m gonna die.'” Prior to finding the look, Thug mentioned to Brown how he wanted to break gender barriers through style.
Dupree noted Thug was very specific about the jewelry he chose to wear, and said while you can’t see them on the cover, he wore Balenciaga sandals. Dupree went on to describe Thug as a genius, and Brown agreed, adding “visionary” and “iconic” as to describe Thug.
Trincone’s collection was in the VFile’s showroom because he’s one of five designers tapped to show in VFile’s group presentation that will open New York Fashion Week in September. Trincone is a graduate of Poliminda International Institute in Italy and Osaka Bunka Fashion College in Japan, and the dress Thug wore part of a collection titled “Annodomi,” first shown during FASHIONCLASH Festival in the Netherlands earlier this summer.
Similar to Thug, Trincone doesn’t believe in gender, and said in a FASHIONCLASH interview, “The androgynous identity of my inspirational garments reinforces my belief of no-gender boundaries between men and women. The feminine side of every male is explicitly shown through the whole col-lection, hoping to introduce a new meaning of masculinity.”
“”PLAYLIST”” I named the songs after all my idols…
A photo posted by “”JEFFERY”” (@thuggerthugger1) on
