JARED MENANE: I was introduced to your brand by Visual Tales, and when the magazine asked me to do this interview, I was informed COI as a very rock and roll brand, but when I went through your posts on social media, I noticed there was a lot of big names in the hip hop industry that repped your clothing, can you tell me how that crossover has applied to your approach to the brand’s own identity, your COI design process?
RON POISSON: It's interesting in terms of the brand, I have a very rock and roll look, and a lot of the design was very rock and roll, but the audience really started to melt together. And I think the answer to that question is, for me, as an individual, as a musician, as an artist –  rock and roll has always been at the roots, and I've always had relationships with a lot of these music people. But as we've done this, this clothing brand has evolved. We started as a denim brand, and it started with really cool washes, and I started doing a lot of gift lounges backstage for music award shows, for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, even the Tony Awards. And a musician said to me, Ron, your brand is really interesting and unique, because it's cross-pollinating every ethnicity and genre of music out there with zero stereotypes. And that's a very rare thing to have, especially in this day and age, everybody wants to put us into a proverbial box. I think the thing about our clothing is that it speaks to individuality and how you want to express yourself – there are no limitations. Well, you know, I want to be a rockstar. I want to be a hip hop artist –  I listen to country music – It really is about the music, the DNA, and the artist’s [own] take, [they take] the product and make it their own. It's interesting to see how many artists come into the office again, from all different genres, you know. And you'll see a lot of my rock and roll guys, whether they're newer rock and roll or they're older rock and roll guys, and, you know, they're going a little more street wear with the vibe. And then you'll see a lot of my hip hop artists and my Latin artists that come in and, like, dress me like a rock star. So it's really interesting to see the cross-pollination. Listen, we'd be remiss to say that hip hop and streetwear and urban [style] has really been a driving force across all aspects of the fashion world, from the really high contemporary to the mass merchants. When you look at collaborations that retailers such as H&M and GAP have done with hip-hop artists, you see surface gate brands. It really it's a melding of worlds that are happening out there, and we're excited to really be on the forefront of that melding. You see it with music. You see hip hop artists and rock artists doing collaboration. It's just a blending of cultures and sounds and nuances. And why wouldn't it be happening in fashion, you know, and, you know, and that's, that's really where we've taken that. And it's great. I get texts often that says, Wow, I saw so and so from the rock world wearing it. And this is a hip hop artist, or somebody from the, you know, rock world saying, Oh, I just thought this hip hop guy, you know, it's a brave new world out there, and for us, you know, Cult of individuality really is an oxymoron, right? You can't be in a cult, but be an individual. But that's really what we're about. We're about breaking down barriers and letting people be themselves. So it happened not by design, but it happened just by being organic and who we are as a brand…designing what we think is cool fashion that these musicians will want to wear, and then the audience that follows them will want to wear it because they see their favorite artists wearing them.

JM: When did you start Cult of Individuality and what was the first idea you had for a product?
RP: Okay, so, we started Cult of Individuality conceptually in 2008 when we were looking to start a brand. And for years throughout the industry, when I was in the surf world and urban world, you know, at some point, I always had the vision of having my own clothing brand. And I would always jot down notes and possible brand names and so forth, and in 2008 I came up with the concept of Cult of Individuality. Back then the brands that inspired me were Diesel, Replay, Double RL Energy, Miss 50…a lot of these European brands and domestic brands that were  pushing the envelope in terms of denim and washes and so forth. Everybody else was in this world of light blue, medium blue, dark blue, a little bit of black here and there. So I came up with the name Cult of Individuality because, honestly, denim is a cult phenomenon. It's the backbone of American fashion. Pretty much everybody has a few pairs of jeans in their wardrobe. So it really is the backbone of America. We can all wear the same pair of jeans, but how we style it and accessorize it – that really speaks volumes to our personality. [Back in the day] I had some old G-Star bootcut jeans that I would wear out all the time, and they were worn out in the crotch, in the knees, ripped, torn, and whatnot, but they were my favorite pair of jeans. I felt great when I wore them. Whenever I traveled, I'd bring them with me. I reinforced the crotch probably 4 or 5 times. So for me, when I started Cult of Individuality, I wanted to create a denim brand that really captured the essence of that vintage pair of jeans that you had in your closet, that was there throughout [the] years, growing and maturing [with you] and tells a story of who you are. I want to replicate that, that process, that jean that would embody that energy for someone, because not everyone has the patience to want to wear and break in denim. I want to create that process and make it look organic and natural. So that was how I started the brand. I took eight jeans, four boot cuts, and four relaxed fits – and Cult of Individuality was born. Back in 2008. There was a lot of bling bling, so to speak, or stick stitch happening with True Religion and other brands. And I wasn't trying to be that. I want to be something that the fabrication and the aesthetic and the wash and the color and character speak, not the loudness of the back pocket ornamentation, or the way the jean was stitched.

JM: How long did it take to get to the point where you started feeling like “yeah, this is what I am doing, I’m building this”?
RP: I still don't feel that. I'm at the point where everything is in a constant [state of] change. I think, what was the point where, like, “wow, okay, I've created something”. I mean, certainly having all these musicians…walking into the Tony awards show and, you know, backstage at the gift lounge, and Brett Michaels from Poison is walking up wearing the jeans. He's like, “oh my god, I wear these all the time.” He had these boot cuts on. And then I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and one of the guys from Public Enemy walked up, and he was wearing the jeans! And I'm like, “alright, so it's getting out there”, and it's cool to see these celebrities wearing them, but it's really not until, you know, I live and work in Manhattan every day, and when you're walking up the street on Seventh Avenue or Eighth Avenue, or you're coming out of Penn Station, you see somebody on the escalator wearing your jeans and you’re on the back pocket. Or now, fast forward to the hats that have really exploded, and seeing the logo out there, I think it's when you see it on the street, just normal everyday life is when it hits you like, alright, this is why we do it. This is where we're inspired. I always use the word inspire. We're inspiring people to recognize the community of artists and musicians that this brand embraces, and these people want to be a part of it, regardless of whether they can afford a pair of jeans or a t-shirt or a hat, or a sweatshirt. 

That's gotta be our main inspiration – is to never step back and settle. I think that's a testament to the brand, you know, we never rest on our laurels. We look at what we're doing, and how do we evolve, and how do we change, and how do we keep the audience engaged? And how do we keep the audience youthful and young, right? It’s the challenge to try to always keep that youth movement coming in, and wanting to be a participant of what we're doing and creating.

JM: Who are some of your personal inspirations as a designer? Brands, individuals or otherwise…
RP: I mean, Vivienne Westwood really is somebody that I look at because of her general outlook on life and incorporation of fashion and the message of what she wants to say and do, she is definitely an inspiring person for me. I look at how she approached fashion with a non-conformist nature, and that's how we are with our brand. Diesel was always a brand that I looked at back in the day, that I wore religiously and appreciated – again, their rebellious nature, the way they said, I don't really care what everyone's doing. They weren't trying to appeal to a certain customer. It was just, “Here we are, and this is what we do.” That always sat in my head.

I had the privilege of working for a brand called Mossimo back in the day, and it took that California lifestyle and really brought it into people's lives and really took it from a traditional surf, beach, volleyball brand to a lifestyle brand and sold this lifestyle. I took what I've learned at Massimo and in my earlier years with Ocean Pacific, about embracing a lifestyle and a culture and how do you use that to impact the end consumers and inspire the end consumers to be a part of what you're doing? You need to give a living, breathing persona to your brand in order to really touch and influence and inspire people, and that's what I learned from being in those surf companies earlier on in my career. So we took not the surf, but the music culture, and really wrapped that around our brand and made that our DNA. 

JM: I like that some of your content features you giving a detailed explanation of some of your latest drops. I can tell you are excited about the details and the craft that goes into the designs of your clothing. What made you first interested in the technicals of garment craft?
RP: Again, our palette when we started the brand was denim. That was our artistic palette. And when you go back 15 years, really, compared to where it is now, [there is an] evolution of technology from a multitude of different focuses. I mean, first, we look at how these denims are being washed and done these days when before it was just sanding and stones, and now it's lasers and ozone machines to be more environmentally safe, but it's the way that they can treat them now, with fusing fabrics and laser application prints and so many different things, it's exciting to take fabric from a fundamental starting point and explore how you can push the envelope, whether it's wax coatings to make it look like leather, or it's fusing and flocking to make it look like velour. It's layered, it's printed. It really is an exciting starting point, and for a person that has ADD, I get bored easily, and I like to move on to something new. It's exciting to be able to meet with these factories and these suppliers and look at how they're pushing the envelope. And sometimes we're going to them, and we'll say, look what's happening here in this leather world or another fabric world, and how can we incorporate those same techniques that they're pushing the envelope here and apply it to denim? 

We live in a world of fashion where the attention is what have you done for me lately? So we always need to rise to that occasion and provide something new and different with what we do. I think collaborations are another thing that we've done with our brand, infusing the music world and paying homage to a lot of the artists that our audience listens to, whether it's Bob Marley or Jimi Hendrix or Guns N Roses, or Sex Pistols or Def Leppard. We have one coming out with a Kiss for their 50th anniversary. You know, they just turned 50? Years of being musicians, and they're about to call it quits. So what a great time for us to pay homage to that music group and what they've done. When we do collaborations, we always try to treat it as limited editions. You know, artistic pieces that those artists would be proud to have represent them and their style and their music and how they approached their craft, and again, the marriage with clothing and music.

JM: I would call a lot of the work “busy” or “maximalist” from a design perspective, I’m assuming there is a lot of iteration and experimentation that goes into designing new lines for the brand, can you share a bit about your editing process and what guides you in the process of finalizing a collection from a creative standpoint?
RP: We have an amazing team here. We are people in all different walks of life, with different interests, and different styles and techniques. And I think what makes our brand unique is that we're very comfortable [with each other]. We've worked together for so many years, we've been a team together for a while, so we respect and appreciate each other's points of view, and we kind of bring everything in the mix together, where I'm the creative director and we have a head designer, we have a graphic magician, we have another apprentice that's in here working with us the last couple years, and we all create our own mood boards based on how we see what's going on. We don't look at just other brands, but we look at other trends, and it could be an artist and something they're doing in their own technique. The one thing that we do follow with fashion is what's happening in footwear, because footwear drives so much of the denim world's trends. So we look at what they're doing. A chunkier footwear coming out means there will be wider leg bottoms trending. But other than that, we kind of throw everything up in the air. We never think about what it's going to cost to produce this or that, you know, at the end of the day, we kind of create and do what we like and then we put it into the line. And it is frustrating at times. Sometimes you're too early, you know, it happens. Often you're a little too early, and people don't understand, and that's where you'll sit back and wonder and then a year later, somebody else would do the same thing and you're like, Oh, shit we’re early. We did these stack jeans for six years prior and they just started becoming popular in the last three years. But we've been doing it for six and at first, people don't understand, they go what is this? So it's cool to be first, but really, it's cool to be the best, right? Sometimes, the first doesn't get the same accolades as the second person coming along, but they paved the way, they created the road. Our design process has changed a lot throughout the years. Back in the day, you'd send tech packs overseas, the factory would make a proto, send it back to you with a comment, and it's usually wrong, and then you send it back. And the process is very, very long. So we started traveling to China twice a year, and we'd spend about two months of the year in China designing, and it worked out great for us for a multitude of reasons. One, we go into the market there, you'd get exposure to things that you would never even conceptualize or think about or see, if you're in the US or Europe. So we go shop the trend markets and leather markets and metal markets and we'll add things into our mood board that become really integral points in the line from a design perspective. And that's been very advantageous for us. And then, of course, you know, being set up at a place where you can go into the sample room, where they're sewing, we go into the printing room, you can go into the laundry where they're creating these washes and look at things as they're happening and make changes right away. It speeds the process up.

Then covid hit. And, you know, we all had to go back to doing things the old-school way, and it slowed down the process a little bit from a design perspective, and it certainly limited some of the really new and different things you could find when you're over there in the markets in Asia, shopping and maybe traveling even to Japan and looking at what they're doing, and how their styles are because it's certainly a culture that's influenced by a lot of music as well. But you know, traveling to China is a plus. To be honest, it's hard to be in New York and not get distracted here in our office whether it's marketing or sales or this or that, we need to kind of buckle down. It's great being on the other side of the world, so we can get busy and design without distractions, and then in the evening, handle the business things that are happening throughout the day in the office back in the states.

JM: What’s your favorite record?
RP: Boy, tell you what, that's a tough, tough one. The reason why is cus I think in your early 20’s the music that comes out is for your generation. When we're younger kids, we get influenced a lot by our parents and what they're listening to, and then you get into your teens, and there's an experimental kind of thing, checking out new things and whatnot. But me, personally, I feel that it's when you get to that 21-23 years of age that the music that's out then is really what shapes your musical tastes. And you know, for me, the 90’s was that period. It was one of the most iconic decades of music with that Seattle sound and grunge. It was a period of, again, you know, anarchy and rebellion from what was happening, not only in the rock genre, but in the hip hop genre as well. It really was a creative period in the 90’s. I do have to list Pearl Jam 10. Pearl Jam 10 would probably be my favorite. You know that iconic question, “if you’re stuck on an island, what record would you take with you?” I'll never forget walking into the HM Music Store over on 72nd and Broadway, and they had this We Recommend section, and there was Pearl Jam 10. I saw the record cover, put the headphones on, like, wow, this is pretty cool, and I bought it right there. And, you know, since then, the Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Chris Cornell and his projects have all been the root of my musical taste.

JM: Best place to grab a drink in New York?
RP: You know, I get partial to two different types of places. I like this place right over here. It's the rooftop over on 39th Street. It's an iconic little little spot called Skylark. They opened up during COVID, and surprisingly were able to survive. I'm not really a late-night drinker, so an after-work drink with 360 panoramic views of midtown Manhattan is pretty cool. And then if you just want to be down and dirty, I like one of the oldest bars in the city, McSorley’s, downtown. Do you want a light beer or do you want a dark beer? Keep it simple.

JM: Best place to see live music in New York?
RP: It all depends, right? You have the big venues. I mean, Madison Square Garden is the biggest and best venue in the entire country. But I wouldn't go there. I like some of the smaller places like Irving Plaza. I also just went to some small little hole-in-the-wall type place called “Cafe Wha?”. It's a cool, jazzy type of bar cafe downtown. In terms of a small, little, intimate place to see some, some larger artists, sometimes it’s cool to just kind of pop in and see some performances in a low-lit place.

JM: Anyone or anywhere you want to shout out that the folks at home should look into?
RP: I've been telling people I came across on Instagram this kind of rock band based out of South America called Deister. It's got a nice, kind of grungy sound and a very melodic vibe. I came across them, they have probably about 12-13 songs, and I think they're a little hidden gem that people don't know about, that if you're into rock, it's definitely somebody to check out. In terms of places at home to check out my brother-in-law’s building in Seaport, the Tin Building. It's a cool spot. You can go have some great food. They have a speakeasy and restaurant inside. You got all the best kind of food, and then, if you're lucky enough, there's a cool event going on up there on the pier right nearby. 

JM: Any advice for those at the start of their journey looking to make a living out of being creative?
RP: Yeah, I mean, listen, you gotta have a support system, with your family and friends that are constantly there to encourage you and be part of what you're doing. Because being a creative is rewarding, but it's an emotional roller coaster ride. And I tell people not from month to month or year to year, it's day to day, hour to hour, right? There's going to be a lot of people that want to be in your ear saying, if you did something a little more similar to this, this brand, or that brand, or that sound or whatever it is, you could be more popular. We had that all along the way. There were lots of brands that were doing crazy embellished crystal pockets and thick stitch jeans, where the trend from multiple different brands when we were, you know, pioneering our way through the denim world, and people like, well, add that into the brand. Add that. I'm like, No, it's not who we are. We're a clean back pocket jean, “clean jean”. Our loudness, so to speak, is our washes and our aging and our fabrications and our silhouettes. Everybody thinks they know the way and the right way is difficult to navigate. But if you follow your heart and you have that support system, and you stay to it, and you know, you got to be able to work at it. You know that picture with the iceberg, and [most people] see the tip of the iceberg, right? And they see all the success, but they don't see all the sacrifice that goes into doing whatever it is you love doing. I've had the same talks with my kids. Find out what it is you love to do, then find a career that can foster what you're doing. Too many of us chase the mighty dollar, and we relocate to places that we don't want to live, or we take jobs that we perhaps don't want to do, and we're miserable. Find where you want to live, find what you want to do, and then find ways to facilitate that. And don't give up. Because I've heard many say, listen, we're 15 years in, we're still a hidden secret for all the success that we have. We're still a hidden secret and it’s still really just touching the surface of our success as a brand. We’re known nationally and looking to push globally. So persevere. Persevere!

JM: What’s the best place for people to find your work and cop some Cult of Individuality for themselves?
RP: The best and easiest place to find some Cult of Individuality is on our website, cultofindividuality.com. You can also go to larger retailers like Nordstrom and check out their websites for a full array of products. Online seems to be the way everybody wants to shop in this day and age. We have built this brand in partnership with mom and pop stores throughout our existence, and they've been the backbone of who we are. So if you’re out shopping on the street, chances are you’ll find a store that carries Cult. And If they don't have Cult, ask them, why not? But let's support the local businesses and get out there and make sure they're still here and not eaten up by the big conglomerates.