By Tora B

Rico Curry decided that living in Cincinnati was no longer for him. He wanted to realize his dreams of living in a big city and his ambitions of being a popular DJ in Los Angeles, California. To add an additional hurdle to his metropolitan mania, Curry was stricken with with spinal meningitis in preschool, and the hearing in his left ear is completely gone. As a result, most people in his close circle of friends were unaware of his costly victory, but he never let his disabiity (a half deaf DJ?) stop him from pushing for his goals.

Rico Curry knew that Los Angeles was calling his name, and it grew louder with each day nearing for the departure of his flight. Once he landed in Los Angeles, he was to become a huge DJ by following his dreams in Ohio. However, as most know that life suddenly takes a surprising turn when we least expect it. We caught up with Curry, now fashion designer of one of the hottest accessories around Sunset.Vintage.Flex hat to talk about his ambitions as a rider.

PlanetIll: What gravitated you towards the world of fashion?

Rico Curry: I gravitated to towards fashion because as a customer, mm, I’ve seen a lot of open holes, a lot of not really dissatisfaction but, you know I am kinda of an 80’s baby, and I like to stay fashion current but a lot of the direction where the clothing were going was actually in a completely different direction. When I wear clothes, I like to be simple; I don’t like to be too loud, and I’m not really a fan of like super loud colors, and needles all over the place, you know, like more of a simplistic touch.

I’ve been collecting hats for years.  You would always come across that good looking hat and you’re like, “Ah! If they only did this or if they didn’t have that!” I just said, you know what, why not? I [had] saved my own money up for quite sometimes, and I started making hats the way I saw fit, I didn’t seek out to be a designer at all. I still to this day do not considere myself a stylist, or a designer or a fashionista, I am just simply a guy that loves hats, and made hats that I would wear. I’m fortunate enough to even be here chatting with you about hats. That’s what I love to do.

PlanetIll: Why choose accessories like snapbacks and beanies to break into the fashion industry? Other people that are designers use clothing…

Rico Curry: That is a great question. In terms of my company, the direction that I wanted to do is just hats. Hats are something I understand. I understand clothing as well, but that’s not something that I feel like I am passionate about or something that I am an expert at. Like I said, I have collected hats along with my shoes for years. This is something that I have been on the customer side of, I’ve been dissatisfied, I’ve been happy, and I’ve been appalled. I wondered why I had paid this much for this hat, what made me do that and you know, just being a customer was my own research.
Most people break into the industry with doing clothes, I figured I rather do something a little bit more timeless, I figured that hats…Specifically, hats that don’t pump a brand, pump meaning, you know like, “Hey this is this label or this is my line…” hats don’t do that, hats that are iconic, those can be timeless. For most designers that do enter the game, the whole inspiration is to never be played out; To always be current, to always be relevant, and to make timeless pieces. You look at Louis Vuitton, Karl Lagerfeld (Chanel), and all of these other people have had an excellent run of fashion, never ending. They do iconic pieces because it is something that comes from the heart.

To answer your question, I just felt like hats are something I understand, hats are something that I believe in and you know, I just wanted to get the opportunity to make something that will be timeless and something that won’t ultimately blow out of style. I only do things or associate myself with things that I understand and hats are definitely something I understand. I want to keep it really simple, the line is based off of minimalism, simplicity, and that is what you get from wearing a Sunset.Vintage.Flex.

PlanetIll: What is the meaning behind your label name?

Rico Curry: Sunset is my DJ name and I host a radio show as well. Sunset has always been my name. It’s kinda funny how I got that name. I am actually from Ohio, and a lot of people from Ohio, they either want to move to New York or Los Angeles, because their tastes or their ideas, kinda outgrows the small Mid-Western city. With that said, I always had these aspirations, if you speak to any of my friends, I always watched Puffy Daddy stand on these tables and pour bottles, and I’m a little kid and I’m like, “Man I want to do that! That’s going to be me!” And I said, “I wanna get out to LA.” So, eventually, I had moved out to LA. Long story short, you know, we are at diner and I am over here playing this music at this nice restaurant, I’m like, “Oh! DJ Sunset!” We are literally on Sunset Blvd. It’s real cheesy, and that’s how I got my name.

When people think of vintage or something antique, it’s a classic piece, it’s something that is timeless. I had people comment on some of the hats, and say, “ That’s a cold game! You’re taking something from the 80’s and calling it vintage!” We are really not doing that, what we are doing is just making timeless pieces. When something is vintage, it is something that is undying, it’s something that you appreciate from the past. That’s what we are doing with the [reference of] vintage.

The flex part is kind of funny! Coming from Ohio once again, I went to University of Toledo. As a struggling college student, you live off of your mom and dad’s allowance with them helping you out. We had a card called the flex card, so basically the only way I was able to survive when I was in the most trying point of my manhood, by being a college student trying to make something better of myself was on that flex card. Without that flex card, I’m dead. You have that support, it’s kinda of an iconic point, you’re out there living but you’re relying on one means of survival.

The other meaning of flex, in the urban community, if you’re flexing on somebody, you’re stunting on somebody and you’re looking good in the club. You’re flexing. It has a double meaning. Sunset.Vintage.Flex. to me captures me dreaming to be someone to put my thumbprint on fashion or inspiring other people from other places to get out and live your dreams.

PlanetIll: The most captivating piece of your line is your beanie, and it had the word GOLD printed backwards with the G upside down. What is the symbolism of the word gold and why do you place it on your beanies and your hats?

Rico Curry: With Gold, it’s however you want to interpret it.

PlanetIll: Why did you choose it?

Rico Curry: Pretty much whenever you have a goal, that can be gold, your gold, whether it’s money, whether it’s fame, to get an article in a journal, or whatever that goal is. Sometimes when you do meet that goal or when you reach it, you are not always fulfilled, it’s always something lacking. So really, is gold really gold? Is it upside down on how we view gold? Is it really, how we place all the emphasis on that one goal? There’s more to life than just that.

But you know I would get more into, but I want people to continue to be captivated by it. It’s more what it means to them.

PlanetIll: What is fashion like in Ohio and how did you bring your Ohio roots to a fashion forward city like Los Angeles?

Rico Curry: We’ve always had our own thing. It’s kinda like the fashion scene in New York or LA obviously is always magnified, what they do it becomes trends. In smaller cities, such as Cincinnati, where I am from, we had Nautica, and Tommy Hilfiger, everyone was doing that on a larger scale but the way we had tweaked it, the way we wore it was different than any other city. That’s kinda what I am doing it with my line as well. Right now we have skinny jeans, you gotta bunch of needles in hats, you got people wearing different lights on hats, and you’re doing a lot of stuff. And in Cincinnati, we make that loud statement, we really don’t go out that hard to do it. We’re kinda mellow with it. We try to be seen without shouting.

So, I kinda implemented that, and my roots being in the 80’s coming up in Cincinnati in my line. Like I have said, my whole line is [dedicated] to being simple, saying what you want to say without yelling, and being timeless. Most of the lines that we wore coming up are timeless pieces, like Reebok Classics, Tommy Hilfiger, Jordans. Everyone was crazy about that. That’s a fashion staple worldwide but just the way people from Cincinnati wearing their gear; it’s different, it’s minimalism, just laid back and not really reaching too much.
PlanetIll: How did your product land into the hands of Chris Brown? How did it feel to have a world-renown celebrity indorse your line?

Rico Curry: Great question! I have a three-man team. On my marketing team, there is one individual by the name of, Albert Miller, and he has the team of other marketing members. Believe it or not, they are all from, guess where?! They are from Ohio. We all stick together. We all go out. We all have different roles. I have a — what’s the word, you’re the writer, you got help me out with that one — an extended family of friends that I considered real family. We all stick together and support each other.

With the Chris Brown situation, my marketing director, Albert Miller, is well known in the Hollywood scene. Getting the product to Chris was fairly easy. We used the old school method, we didn’t go through publicist, we didn’t go through stylists; I’m not a stylist, I am not in the fashion industry, we walked straight up to him and handed him the hat. He looked at it and put it on his head and the rest is history.

There was no, “Send me your manager’s email, text messages, Twitter, Facebook, and then I’ll MySpace you, Blackplanet you, and then you give me your email, and we will find you on Facebook.” It was nothing like that. We just had the product on us, we walked up to Chris Brown and we gave it to him. I am blessed that that young man actually felt the line. That he has been proudly wearing the line, and I’m like, “Hey Chris if you need any more hats!? Here’s the whole line!”

I didn’t get to talk with Chris until three weeks after he had received the hats. And I did get a chance to thank him, despite how the media plays him to be, he is a very down to earth brother. And I get a quick second to tell him some of the stuff I’m sharing with you today, and he felt that. He is a supporter that is a real dude. I am just a real guy out here just making hats, making stuff that I would wear and to be cosigned by someone that is fashion forward like Chris Brown.

I had launched my line that Tuesday, and Grammy night was that following Sunday, and to have someone that big to wear your hat? I wasn’t even ready! The minute he did that I had to run home and get the Instagram [started]. Without getting too preachy, God is a powerful force. I prayed on my line, I prayed that it would go into the right hand into individuals that share those same ideas as me. It didn’t happen at once, it happened 3 or 4 times. We had run into Chris later that week, and we had the snapback version of the beanie that we had given him. We saw him again! Same story– I was with them the both times that happened.

I don’t have access, I am not a celebrity; I’m noone special. I couldn’t get back into where he was and one of my buddies in my crew actually had pull; he walked up with the signature red back and Chris saw the hat inside and he pulls out [the hat] and puts it on with no hesitation. And at that time, I’m like, “What’s going on!” Just a blessing that I felt. Even to this day seeing the average Joe wearing my hats that is the most honorable thing. I get the same rush from someone wearing my hats. That’s surreal, I am always humble by that, whether it’s Chris Brown wearing my hats or an average person, and I am truly blessed by that.

PlanetIll: Who is the man behind Sunset.Vintage.Flex? Who is Rico?

Rico Curry: I am a young man from the humble upbringings of Cincinnati, and I worked hard to get here; and I worked hard for my dream. I have done a bunch of other stuff too, I have done music stuff, I’ve done Djing, and I am currently a radio host for an urban radio show.

Here’s another fun fact, I don’t tell people about this, and this is something that is very important for the brand. Most of my hats, you are going to see an icon or a logo on the right side — I don’t know why I didn’t bring this up early — it’s because as a young child I had Spinal Meningitis, and I had gotten sick and I lost my hearing. My left ear, I am completely deaf. I only have one ear basically, I have my right ear. And on the beanie that I sell the cross appears over your right [ear] on my beanie on the right side, including my snapbacks. That goes along with the part of my struggle.

I don’t like to be too deep for on my customers. Like I said, it’s fashion. It’s how you interpret it. It’s all about you. I think that’s where a lot of designers fail because they’re so geared about making their brand about them, and fueling their ego. “This is XYZ brand. This is FUBU, this is Phat Farm, this is this…” Instead this should not be able the label, it should be about the people. That’s what GOLD is. People think Gold is the name of the [label] but it’s not. It’s the name of my first line. We have DREAMS coming out in the summer, then we have other things rolling out. That’s why I am glad it was received that way. You don’t know that it’s Sunset.Vintage.Flex… Sunset.Vintage.Flex. is the backdrop and I always feel, like I said, as a customer you always want to feel that when a designer makes a piece it’s for you. That’s how we are in Ohio, we want to be different, we wear out stuff differently, we want to be minimal and we want to be unique; that’s who I am.

And going to back to the hats with the [logos] appearing on the right side. [Being deaf] that’s always been my struggle as being a little kid how I overcome that struggle of people making fun of me. Or when I was a younger adult, how do I navigate through life without being embarrassed telling people that I am handicap. Being too ashamed of wearing a hearing aid; all of the things, all of the insecurities I’ve had because of my handicap, I put into my hats. In the end, it comes out as a strength, people are wearing my hats, Chris Brown is wearing my hats and little does he know, he is representing my struggle with coming here[ Los Angeles] from Ohio as a deaf person with one ear.