Image via Publicist
In 2017, J. Cole opened his 4 Your Eyez Only tour by wading through a sea of fans in a full orange prison jumpsuit with “Property of” scribed on the back. It was one of the most memorable aspects of the tour that fit perfectly with his prison courtyard stage design, reflecting powerful themes throughout the album about incarceration.
The mind behind this unforgettable moment and several others was designer Raeana Anaïs. The Brooklyn-born multi-hyphenate started working with Dreamville in 2017 after Felton Brown—the label’s VP of Creative Services and her longtime friend—reached out to Raeana to help design Cole’s stage outfit for the tour. While talking on the phone with Complex, Anaïs revealed that the rapper’s memorable prison jumpsuit was her first idea. Cole loved it, and she had to complete it in a week.
“I had this whole concept of maybe starting the tour with one type of jumpsuit, and then by the end of the tour maybe he’s in maximum security, maybe he’s in a straitjacket,” Anaïs explained. “It got super conceptual, and Cole was so receptive to it all. I didn’t think it was going to go anywhere. Then Felton hit me like, ‘He loves these. Can you fly to Los Angeles tomorrow?’ I wasn’t prepared for that at all, so I got prepared very quickly.”
Image via Raeshon Roberson | Branded By Rae Productions
Raeana is Cole’s personal stylist and the Director of Design for Dreamville, responsible for not only styling him for tours, music videos, and other major events, but also leading the charge for the label’s apparel as it begins to incorporate premium pieces into its collection. The look would end up being a centerpiece of the tour that added a new layer of storytelling to Cole’s performance. From there, Anaïs officially joined the team and began working on the relaunch and rebrand of Dreamville apparel, focusing on trying to elevate the brand so that it is able to create bridges with consumers who may not even be familiar with the music label.
As for her approach to styling the multi-platinum artist, Anaïs understands that it’s all about balancing what Cole likes with new things she thinks he’d be willing to try. The key to J. Cole’s personal style is subtlty. He presents himself in a way that feels accessible while still being stylish. His looks resonate with his fanbase because they never feel too glamorous or out of reach, and as he rapped on a recent guest verse, “Please don’t get it fucked up from this homeless aesthetic.” Cole is still real-life wealthy and can throw in a sneaky flex whenever he wants, like when he wore sweatpants and Crocs to perform at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards, but had on Gallery Dept. socks that retail for nearly $100. Anaïs explained how that look in particular was all Cole’s idea, and that she loves how he is already deeply rooted in his own established sense of style.
“What’s so cool about him is that he has his own very defined personal style,” she said. “That’s very clear and concise, and to me, there’s a formula. So when I’m looking, I’m thinking about that formula, but I pretty much just look for things all the time.”
With Dreamville apparel’s Spring/Summer collection set to debut at the label’s second annual Dreamville Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina on April 2 and 3, Complex talked to Anaïs about expanding the brand beyond merch, how she solved the almost impossible task of making small jerseys fit Cole, and more stories behind some of J. Cole’s memorable fashion moments.
How did you and J. Cole meet, and when did you start working with him and Dreamville?
Shoutout to Felton Brown. He’s a really good friend of mine, and I’ve known Felton since I was in college and he’s always supported my work and supported me as a designer. I was walking down the street one day, working on another project, and he called me and was like, “Yo, can you make a jumpsuit?” I will never forget that. I was like, “I mean, I could, I guess. What kind of jumpsuit?” And now that I’m on the other side, I know what that moment was like for him where it was like, something has to get done, who can get it done? You have to make things happen, especially when it’s around something like a tour or huge project. I didn’t really know what they were looking for, I had an idea. He did send me a couple of things that [J. Cole] didn’t like.
So I’m like OK, I know what the focus of the tour is. I know what the concept is, I knew enough to start sketching. Then I started doing my own research on prison uniforms. I had this whole concept of maybe starting the tour with one type of jumpsuit, and then by the end of the tour maybe he’s in maximum security, maybe he’s in a straitjacket. It got super conceptual, and Cole was so receptive to it all. I didn’t think it was going to go anywhere. Then Felton hit me like, “He loves these. Can you fly to Los Angeles tomorrow?” I wasn’t prepared for that at all, so I got prepared very quickly. I went to LA, we had a fitting. I had literally a week to get things done. And I got it done, and honestly, when I look back, I’m still confused how it all happened. When I went to meet him for that fitting, the factory I was working with had closed. I was in a transition myself, I didn’t have the same resources, and I feel like everything just perfectly came together and that’s how I knew it was completely destined for me to work with him on that. As crazy and last minute as it was, it all worked out, and it was one of the most inspiring projects I’ve ever worked on. To see it all come to life, the way the stage was and everything.
How did the “Property of” detail on the jumpsuit come together?
Coming up with “Property of” is a really special moment for me because I was sitting there looking at all these prison uniforms and was like, “There needs to be something on the back,” because it won’t read the same if he just has a jumpsuit on. I felt like it would be more impactful to have something there. I didn’t want to mock incarceration by making up a prison to put on the back, so I took “Property of” and made it blank. That could mean anything, and initially, I remember Cole was on the fence about it, so I made detachable panels so if he decided he didn’t want to do that, we could always switch it. That was the best thing that ever happened because that lent itself to his performance at Made in America. He called me and was like, “Yo, I want to do an upside-down American flag with 50 lynched men in place of the stars.” So we were able to be creative with it because it wasn’t a fixed piece.
Do you feel like a lot of your job is predicated on your ability to think on the fly and actualize these dope ideas on short notice?
Absolutely. It’s weird, because in school I would always complain about how inspiration never strikes until the midnight hour. I felt like I couldn’t get thoughts out until things were due, so it’s funny that now I work in a pressure cooker, which this industry just is. Things pop up, and you have to prepare yourself creatively. But I definitely think that I need to be quick on my feet and be able to come up with solutions. Like with this past tour [The Off-Season], all of these jerseys were made by Mitchell & Ness, and it was amazing, the partnership that Cole had to do the Dreamer jerseys. The whole vision is amazing, unfortunately the jerseys were just a little bit too short. For an artist, they have to be completely in their comfort zone, they’re going up there in front of millions of people. Imagine, this is a major part of the show, and it’s not fitting right. So I had to think quick on my feet because there is no plan B, this is the plan, period, so we have to fix this. I could feel in that moment that I knew I needed to fix it because this tour had to be what he envisioned it to be. People needed to see these, so I found an amazing tailor in Miami that was able to chemically stretch them, and we somehow finessed them. I still don’t know how, it was one of those unicorn moments. He put it on and was like, “Oh my gosh, this is perfect.” That was one of those moments where I just had to find the solution.
You told a story about how you had to make an impromptu jumpsuit for Kendrick during the 4 Your Eyez Only tour because he was possibly making a guest appearance. Has that type of situation happened again, and if so, with who and how did you maneuver it?
In terms of styling, when there’s a last-minute music video or appearance, at the end of the day, it’s still my job that he has the best options to pull from so we can curate something cool that he’s comfortable with. It doesn’t matter if I have a day’s notice, which has happened. Those are the times where I’ll look at the finished product and be amazed. And I always feel like I want to do more still.
I do have a crazy story. I was in Paris for Fashion Week, this was in 2017. Ironically, I kept asking if there was going to be a video for the song he had with Miguel, “Come Through and Chill.” They didn’t think so, but in my mind I wanted to be 10 steps ahead. Then Ib [Hamad] hit me, it was like 2 a.m. in Paris, and was like, “Cole is going to do a video tomorrow for the song with Miguel,” and all I’m thinking is, not only am I in Paris, but I was stuck because there was a crazy snowstorm in Paris and New York. So not only did I not have my stuff, but all of my assistants who were in New York were also stuck because there were no flights out. The video was happening in LA, so I was scrambling to find someone in LA that could go and pull for me. And we’re on FaceTime, and the time difference was crazy, so I just didn’t sleep. That was crazy, but it worked out at the end of the day.
What made you fall in love with fashion and design in the first place?
I fell in love with art. Fashion is art, it’s just another medium. I fell in love with color. I fell in love with the ability to communicate through drawing at a very young age. My earliest memories are not going anywhere without a sketchbook. I was the little girl in church drawing, and then those drawings turned into fashion illustrations, which I fell deeply in love with. At one point in life, I wanted to be a fashion illustrator, and then I realized, like, “Wait, I actually want to make these things that I’m illustrating.” I haven’t painted in years, but I love to paint, stretching canvas, getting messy, all of that. I think that they’re all relative. My love for color, mixing that and texture and wanting to draw these things and make them. So I’d say probably as early as 4 years old. I think I took my art class when I was 5, and it’s been in me ever since.
Can you pinpoint a moment when you knew you wanted to make a career out of this?
When I was 12 years old. I went to a junior high school that was for the arts. That was a blessing because I had that outlet. It was supported at school, it was supported at home. My mom and dad would always encourage me to be creative, to draw and stuff. For Christmas, I wanted art supplies; that was my thing. I think that was really important because I realized that A: I was supported, and this was OK to lean into, and B: I can actually do this, which I figured out around 12 and 13, when we started thinking about high schools. There was a thick high school book for New York, and you’d look through the book and find all the schools that you wanted to apply to. I knew about the High School of Fashion, but going there and visiting and realizing that’s the next step, I just started building these steps. I obviously didn’t know all of the different avenues at that point, I just knew I wanted to be a fashion designer.
How did growing up in Brooklyn influence your sense of style and approach to fashion?
Being from Brooklyn and going to the city as a child, there’s something about the other side of the water that I’m really intrigued by. It was really early, like going into Saks [Fifth Avenue], because I had an aunt who worked for Saks, and it literally felt like another planet. I loved going to the city, and that energy fueled me to understand that there’s this whole world of fashion going on. And on the flip side, the train was a fashion show. It was inspiring to see the way people put things together and how every borough had its own flavor. I grew up super inspired by reggae and dancehall and Caribbean culture. I feel super blessed that I grew up in such a mixing pot because I was also really interested in other cultures early and things they would do like their jewelry, certain colors, and things like that.
There’s a line Cole has on the new EarthGang album where he raps, “Please don’t get it fucked up from this homeless aesthetic.” He has a very established, laid-back signature look. What’s your process like styling him?
I’m just always scanning the internet. Wherever I travel, I like to see what the stores are and what people are wearing. I’m just always in search mode because, at the end of the day, his job is to be an artist. That is his focus. My focus is fashion, so that’s my constant. Instagram is a huge tool for me to find and connect with young talent and up-and-coming brands. It’s a balance of respecting his comfort, the things he likes, and understanding the things that work and that don’t, and introducing him to things. I use every fitting as an opportunity to test something. There could be something that I think is cool and he could think I’m buggin, but it’s my job to show him and see what he thinks. I could assume that he’ll think it’s wack and not show him, but I just try and provide him with the options so he can explore and get to know these brands. What’s so cool about him is that he has his own very defined personal style. That’s very clear and concise, and to me, there’s a formula. So when I’m looking, I’m thinking about that formula, but I pretty much just look for things all the time.
He recently pulled up to perform at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Festival in sweatpants, Crocs, and the subtle Gallery Department socks flex. How did that look come together?
That was 100 percent Cole, I can’t take any credit for that. I’m not ever telling him, “This is what you’re wearing.” It’s way more of a fluid back and forth conversation about what he’s feeling. I enjoy that because he is his own person. He’s not a mannequin, he knows what he likes, he’s interested, and when he does something like that, you can’t be more authentic. That was what he wanted to wear, so I’m just curating what’s cool and getting his opinion. In that particular instance where he had the Crocs on, that was after the music video with Wale where he had them on too. And we had the most fire boots for that video too that went amazing with the look, but he was like, “Yo, I might just wear the Crocs,” and I couldn’t blame him. They’re so comfortable, and that’s a flex in itself without even trying. He was like, “I’m really not trying to impress y’all.” He’s just a very authentic person who wears what he likes and is true to himself. There’s nothing about what he’s doing that is trying to convey something. It’s always very authentic and organic. If he likes something, he’s going to wear it. He’s never going to wear something because people think he should wear it. That’s one of the cool things about him, I think a lot of people can look at him and really see someone who is authentically themself.
In YG’s “Scared Money” music video, Cole wore a suit and we see another side of his style. Talk about what inspired that fit.
I knew that they were going to be mobsters for the video, so I was like, “Alright, he needs to look super clean.” Of course, the red bottoms because I felt like it just perfectly tied into the song. I love when there’s an opportunity to shock people with fashion because I don’t think you should ever put any person in a box. At any time, if he ever wants to put a tux on or switch it up, we should all be allowed that. I think that it’s cool to switch it up sometimes, and it worked well for the creatives, and I knew that he and YG needed to work in an environment together. I also worked closely with YG’s stylist [Brookelyn Styles] and knew what his look was going to be so it was just making sure that it looked good story-wise. I think it came out dope too.
You’re helming the relaunch and rebrand of Dreamville apparel. What has been your team’s approach?
When I came on to work with Dreamville as a designer, we’re talking about a brand that is undoubtedly very well-known. That Dreamville logo is everywhere, you’ll see Dreamville tees in the oddest places. That’s the thing that I loved about it, but it was like OK, this amazing branding is able to lend itself to a fashion space. Just figuring out how to make that bridge out of a world where, in the music industry, we’re talking about merch. That’s a byproduct of music, and that’s super important too. I never want to take away from what merch is, but it’s like, how do we add another layer? Merch is always going to be what it is, but now when we’re talking about apparel, how do we make our mark in fashion and make it so if somebody saw a dope Dreamville piece, they think it’s hard regardless. Someone might not even know about Dreamville the amazing record label, but they’ll see a piece and now that builds a bridge.
I work really closely with Adam Rodney, he’s one of the co-founders of the company, and he’s had a vision of really growing Dreamville as a more streetwear-aligned brand. Like, expanding into premium cut and sew items, which we had an opportunity to do when the world shut down. We had an opportunity to really think about our goals and what we wanted to see grow. We went into production on our first premium items during the pandemic, which had its challenges of course, but we also relaunched all of the classics during that time. We relaunched the website, gave it a facelift and everything. We had a vision for it, but we wanted to have a nice and clear base. We’ve been building ever since, and now we’ve been able to relaunch the “F.$.S.M.,” which is a fan favorite, and it’s cool to see the reaction to pieces and see people be excited about them. Even getting feedback from the artist is always the biggest reward because at the end of the day, they are a part of this family, so to know that the artists, management, and everyone who’s been there since day one is really feeling what’s coming out of apparel is rewarding in itself. Yeah, I’m excited. We actually have a pop-up that we’re doing off-site for Dreamville Fest, and that will be the first time since we launched during the pandemic that people can see some of the premium items in person. I’m also excited about some of the collaborations we have coming up. We did a collab with Matte Black Cafe, and Adam and I always talk about doing things across the food space and accessories and cool experiences. I think Dreamville is so great at storytelling visually, of course sonically, and now we can do that with fashion as well because it’s just another medium. We want to tell stories and make cool product that you can live in.
How did you go about designing the apparel and merchandise around Dreamville Fest this year?
I think the biggest thing about the festival is always time and making sure we’re making the right deadlines and that everything lands. We can make the coolest creative and have all of these ideas, but we have to meet deadlines. It’s not like when you’re doing something for online, so I think there’s a lot of preparation and moving parts. The festival merch was its own entity and treated very separately. And despite as many tasks that I work on at once, I’m oddly very singular and like to work on one thing at a time which is so not realistic. I’m super proud of the fest merch this year, I think it’s really dope and I hope people love it. And the pop-up shop, which is going to house the Spring/Summer 2022 Dreamville Premium collection, is where my brain is right now. I know fest merch is all good and everything that needed to be done is done, so now I’m focused on building out this experience. I’m working with an interior designer to figure out what the space looks like, how we’re displaying things, are there any photo op moments that we can put into the store. How are we translating the inspiration behind the collection through the experience of coming into the space? I think the last collection we did for the fest was a lot different because it was a specific theme. Now, I feel like we’ve gotten a lot more in-depth in terms of how we’re approaching it, especially because it’s the first premium collection that people can see in person, so it’s exciting. There are many layers to it, but I’m excited.
What is the end goal for you?
I ask myself that all the time because I feel like that’s just not my destiny, to have one thing that my hands are in. I think exactly what I’m doing now is what I’m supposed to be doing. My interests are not limited, so I feel like I shouldn’t limit my experience. I think I’m a designer first and foremost, and that will always be my first language, but I’m multilingual. I’m never going to stop speaking that language, but I can learn a bunch of others.
What would you say is the best piece of career advice you’ve gotten on your journey?
The best piece of advice I’ve gotten that’s helped me with my career and beyond is to be true to myself, and understand the value of what I do.