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The drama surrounding Tremaine Emory‘s departure from Supreme is finally getting more context, thanks to the designer speaking out.
Emory appeared on culture journalist Touré’s Toure Show to chop it up about the highly coveted gig of being Supreme’s creative director and why he didn’t go as planned. During the 90-minute conversation, Toure asks him about his 18-month tenure and if things suddenly went downhill after the first year.
“It was pretty much a struggle from the beginning,” Emory says as he chooses his words wisely before comparing the job to playing Whac-A-Mole.
He goes on to explain that he wasn’t allowed to be the creative person he is. One of the creative decisions that Supreme stopped him from making was putting the image of a Black man getting lynched on the various Supreme-branded goods like hoodies, t-shirts, and skateboard decks. He also wanted to depict pictures of “Whipped Peter,” an escaped slave from 1863 whose whip-scarred back has long been used to show the disgusting history of slaves in America.
He received an onslaught of hate online for the idea, and he finally offered an explanation in the name of edginess.
“I think it’s the same thing they say when Supreme releases a t-shirt with two Catholic nuns. One with a cross in her hand and the other with her -ss out and a gag ball in her mouth,” Emory explained to Toure. “Or when they released Dash Snow’s artwork of his semen and Saddam Hussein on the cover of the NY Post with glitter on it. If the customer is intelligent and they follow Supreme, Supreme puts out provocative art with artists. They never do it with a Black artist.”
See how social media reacted to Emory’s controversial idea below.
Tremaine Emory Explains Why He Wanted To Put An Image Of A Black Man Being Lynched On A Supreme Hoodie was originally published on cassiuslife.com
