KarmaSwap Seller of the Week

Hello Swappers,

As we continue to grow Karmaswap, we want to spotlight one of the many creative forces featured on the site each week.

Meet Alex Dakoulas, shoe designer by trade and graphic apparel genius. Alex took his passion for living life to the fullest, horror flicks, and talented graphic design skills to birth Dance Party Massacre, which produces a collection of tees, sweatshirts, and accessories. DPM is a unique brand that produces fashion with an edgy and artistic flavor.  To learn more about DPM, we caught up with Alex recently to hear how he got his start and his vision for the future.

- Leandrew Robinson, KarmaSwap

1.) Where are you from? What do you do for a living?

I am originally from Manchester, NH, but I lived in Boston for years having gone to school at MassArt. I currently work at Converse in North Andover, MA as a Footwear Designer.

2.) What kind of product do you produce?

My background is in graphic design, so naturally the focus on Dance Party Massacre is graphic tees, but we also have sweatshirts, bandanas, and necklaces. In the future I hope to keep expanding the line, without losing the graphic imagery we started off with.

3.) What drew you the kind of items you produced? What inspired your products?

I became known for my own graphic tees while in college, and I’m sure it helped me land my current job at Converse. After a while I wanted to venture beyond random one-off designs and really focus on a concept and create a line. I’ve had a fairly huge interest in horror movies since I was a tween, and it just so happened that my senior year of college I felt my love of life and death (so to speak) come together. Living in Boston and taking the city alive going to parties, and just having fun, inspired me to juxtapose the horror that I love with an optimistic, fun edge to create an identity that is hopefully unique and interesting. The idea of making scary things fun goes along with turning the bad into good and facing your demons so you can just be happy.

4.) Here is a small sample of the line:

EYECONIC

This is the one graphic that epitomizes the line the most. It’s the Dance  Party Massacre logo which has 3 elements: The eye is our soul, the knife is danger, and the hands keep us moving. Our core colors also represent us with Black being the night/evil, White is for good, Bright Blue is our aspirations, and Blood Red is the life we live!

VAMPIRE GRILL

The idea of a vampire having a grill is just funny to me, so our Vampire Grill design takes that scariness of some sharp fangs and makes it ridiculous with some gangsta bling and tons of dripping blood. It’s been of one our best sellers, but maybe that’s just because of Twilight and True Blood…

FRESH 2 DEATH

If we were going to tackle one of the most played-out phrases (that uncoolness being part of it’s ironic charm) then it was going to be DPM style. While most imagery that is created with the phrase “Fresh to Death” usually featured a skull with headphones, I decided to turn a coffin into a treasure chest full of fresh booty any street kid would kill to have their hands on.

6.) What kinds of influences are reflected in what you produce?

For our graphics, I like to always represent that combination of fear and fun. If it’s too scary it can be morbid, and if it’s too playful it can be silly. I also try to keep the style fairly clean and iconic to balance out the horrific imagery and make it a bit less abrasive and gross, and more pop-like.

The certain products we choose to print on, or carry, is about making the line accessible to everyday people, while trying to keep it a bit edgy for the ones who are a bit more fashion-forward. That combination is reflected in basic pieces like t-shirts and sweatshirts, but for instance—the first sweatshirt we put out was a crew neck. In reality I think a hoodie would have been a more “basic” choice, but I wanted to go with what I felt was just a bit more trend-relevant. Also carrying things like Razorblade Necklaces represent that edge the line has in other ways besides graphics.

7.) What are your ultimate goals for your line?

My ultimate goal would be for DPM to become successful enough for it to be my only job. I would love for people to enjoy it enough that I can logically devote my everyday life to it, and make a living off of it.

I would also just be happy creating something a small group of people truly love, than creating something that a lot of people kinda like. If I wanted to do that I wouldn’t put blood on my tees.

8.) What are your opinions of the new Karmaswap? How do you see this affecting streetwear culture?

I think Karmaswap allows great exposure to many brands who might not receive it otherwise. My main goal in being a part of it was just to get it out there and help it find its audience. I see Karmaswap effecting streetwear culture in the sense that everyday, working people (people of the streets!) have a chance at making it big.

9.) What do you hope your customers get out off your products?

I want people who wear DPM to remember to live life while they can. Start living before you start dying!

Yes, SSUR!

“You see things differently when you read
magazines and you seeing everybody having fun – you think, ‘OK, that’s
where I want to be.’ But once you get in it and you achieve the success
that you want, it seems like that’s when the playa hating starts.
That’s when everybody’s like, ‘Well, it’s not all that. He’s
not all that.’ I guess they just want it, you know what I’m saying?
Sometimes when you stagnated and you can’t really move to another
level, that’s the only thing you can do: complain or be jealous. I just
want to get it myself. I was in a situation where I would see somebody
with certain things that I want and I would just make moves to get it
myself. I would never try to take somebody else’s, because then it
really wouldn’t be mine if I took it from somebody else.“

Like Christopher Wallace, SSUR, a.k.a. Russ Karablin, is not one to be satisfied with the status quo. From his start in the streetwear game as one of the official pioneers back in 1990, with absolutely no formal training in art or fashion, Karablin has built his operation from the ground up only to take his designs worldwide, creating a name in SSUR that goes hand-in-hand with adjectives as humble as quality, creativity and innovation.

Well, SSUR smashes the standards of streetwear once again, this time collaborating with acclaimed photographer Barron Claiborne to create The King of Brooklyn 3-Style Tees, including The B.I.G. Barron Claiborne Portrait Tee, The Biggie Gat Tee and Karmaloop staff favorite, The Biggie Skull Tee.

Claiborne, a Boston-born and self-taught photographer who excels in large-format portraits, took this original photograph just days before Big Poppa’s untimely death, an image that has been replicated, ripped, stolen, bootlegged and otherwise pillaged throughout the past decade. However, when longtime friend Karablin came calling, he and Claiborne created three new, original takes on the iconic flick, the standout being The Biggie Gat Tee where guns morph into the portrait, a take that highlights the all-too-real dangers of gun play which took B.I.G.’s life more than a decade ago.

The B.I.G. Barron Claiborne Portrait Tee is the image as it was taken, featuring Wallace’s sad-eyed, “black and ugly as ever” mug beneath the crown he so rightfully deserved, while The Biggie Skull Tee is something almost tough to look at, and even more difficult to look away from. A simple study cannot help but conjure such thoughts as “what if,” or “why,” especially with the garbage that floods the game at its present. Nevertheless, Biggie is gone, and he is not coming back. While that is ultimately difficult to accept, one can always take solace that no matter what, no matter how short Wallace graced us with his impressive presence, he will always live through us and inspire our strive to be the best at what we do, to never settle, never compromise. Real talk. Real tees. Unbelievable.

Check out the rest of the SSUR line at Karmaloop here.