When it comes to sneakers and all things related, [Converse](https://www.instagram.com/converse/) continues to prevail. Whether you’re into low tops, high tops, classic colors, custom designs, high-end designers… the American shoe company continues to deliver trendy, high quality shoes at an affordable rate—deeming them the most recognized shoe around.
Now debuting the brand’s Spring and Summer 2021 lifestyle product offering, Converse recruited a group of multi-dimensional creatives who break barriers in basketball, skate, music, and fashion, with each embodying the new spirit of their classic sneakers. The new bold designs and refreshed classics are brought to life in a lookbook featuring musician TheHxliday and professional skater Kaue Cossa, both of whom are gamechangers within their respectable industries.
Converse continues their long-history of collaborations with both established and up-and-coming creatives, this time styling and shooting via FaceTime due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
_Flaunt_ caught up with both TheHxliday and Kaue via Zoom, to discuss their love for fashion, what the partnership with Converse means to them, the turning point in their careers, and more!
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The Hxliday
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**What is your love for fashion?**
A lot. I love fashion work, runway shows. Later on in my career, I want to start getting myself into that type of lane. When it comes to fashion, I love putting little pieces together. I always go shopping all the time, that’s pretty damn near all I do.
**Where do you go shopping?**
Saks Fifth Avenue, to be honest with you. You know I’ll fall into Saks Fifth, I grab a couple pieces. I also love low key stores like Hot Topic, the gothic type store.
**How does fashion play into your artistry?**
Whatever phase I’m going through when it comes to my music, I acquire my fashion to whatever vibe that is. When I’m feeling like a _Batbxy_, I wear a lot of dark stuff.
**What was the creative process for your latest EP?**
It was a year’s worth of experiences, I put it all on the tape. I did the same thing with a lot of the tapes before too, _Broken Halls_. They have the same formula, experiences I’ve been through throughout the whole year. I collab them all on one tape. It’s something small for my fans to listen to, but it’s more about the quality I put into it and the quantity of tracks I put out. I made a lot of songs, not going to lie. A lot of songs didn’t make _Batbxy._ At the end of the day, I kept the core songs that pinpointed the things I wanted to make, to hear from me. This project was a little wild to pick out all the songs for, especially when I got 1300 songs in the vault.
**What does this partnership with Converse mean to you?**
The way I see it, it’s opening a door because this is my first time ever doing anything with any company or any partnership with anybody. This is the beginning that can lead to something crazy down the line, maybe even a collab with Converse too like to draw something. This is pretty big. Whenever it comes to fashion, I want to be more hands-on, especially when it comes to what the kids are wearing and what they like. Converse, they go dumb on designs. \[laughs\]
**How was it shooting and styling via FaceTime?**
It was a little weird. \[laughs\] I’ve never seen nobody photograph through the phone, but it was cool. That’s something new, not going to lie. Some new age photography right there. Imagine hitting someone up like “yo, let me shoot some of your stuff real quick.” FaceTime somebody and boom, that’s the photoshoot right there. What?! \[laughs\] We have pictures on the side too, my photographer. We also got flicks on my phone, that was fire.
**What are you most excited for as the sneakers become available?**
To see whatever kids throw these fits with, how they throw the fits together. Alright, these look different. Definitely something new. I’m excited to see how everybody’s going to pair them up with fits because I like fashion, I like seeing pieces and everything put together. Especially being able to be in the lookbook, it’s pretty cool. It’s something for the kids, it’s fashion for the kids. It’s nice to be a part of something like that.
**What was the defining moment in your career that changed everything?**
The moment I made my name. As soon as I called myself TheHxliday, nobody called me by my real name. As soon as I’d made my name, nobody really called me Noah again. Not only that, that’s exactly when I started taking music really serious. This is really something I'm going to go really far with in life, I’m not going to give up ever. Especially with being TheHxliday, it's a style. I gotta go far, I gotta go crazy this year.
Kaue Cossa
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**What’s your love for fashion? How does it play into your artistry?**
Fashion is a new thing for me, that was the first shoot I did in my life.
**You didn’t like fashion before?**
To be honest, I don’t look that much at fashion things. More skateboarding, but I like it. Skating is fashion actually, right? The lifestyle part of fashion is skating.
**How does fashion play into your artistry?**
I like classic designs, big, oversized styles. I like to match colors the way fashion matches colors. I like matching colors.
**What does this partnership with Converse mean to you?**
They represent my life, my lifestyle, who I am. The clothes I choose, the way I like to skate, the way I see the city. Converse likes the way I move and the way I shape myself through skating.
**What was the creative concept behind this project?**
The creative concept behind the project was to capture my life and my story, as a kid that grew up in Brazil, flying kites, graffiting the walls, and skateboarding.
**How was it shooting and styling via FaceTime?**
Doing a fashion shoot was a new thing and doing a fashion shoot through Facetime was crazy to think about. I never thought something like that would really happen, but it ended up really well in a good way.
**What’re you most excited for as the sneakers become available?**
The ones I like the most are the camo Chuck Taylors because it's the colors I like to match.
**What was the defining moment in your career that changed everything?**
First one was when I was invited to join the Converse Cons Global Skate Team in 2018. I went to Texas with just one board and one pair of shoes, they invited me to become a global skater. The second one was when I turned pro-skater on January 2nd this year. It was my birthday and I was presented with a pro board.
**How was that feeling?**
I’ve skated since I was 9 years old so all of my career was devoted to this moment of becoming a professional.
**Anything else you want to let us know?**
The fashion world is new to me, but I’m down to keep doing it because I loved it.
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