Nowadays, streetwear fashion is at an all-time high. While there seems to be brands popping up left and right, it’s important to establish your name and stand out amongst the rest. Insert [Life Of An Outsider](https://www.instagram.com/lifeofanoutsider/)**,** the upscale and flashy clothing line prides itself in thinking “outside the box” with their creations.
Created by founder Isaiah Outsider, his goal is to create pieces that have never been done before, or even those who haven’t been executed correctly. With each design, he aims to draw a bigger emotion from people, presenting that WOW factor and debuting his talents as an artist and designer. While the rest of the world is following trends, Isaiah is setting them—and he plans to push the boundaries with his denim and style altogether.
The name itself is an ode to Isaiah’s own sentiments feeling like an outsider in all facets of his daily life, bleeding into his clothes with styles outside the norm. It’s the details for Life Of An Outsider, and they’re here to inspire above all else. From the way Isaiah takes his photos to how he posts his content, everything is strategic and demands attention instantaneously.
With his clothing being co-signed by all the elites of hip-hop, including Chief Keef, Lil Durk, Gunna, Lil Skies, Lil Mosey, and Yung Bans to name a few, Life Of An Outsider is best known for their standout rhinestone denim and hoodies—happily remaining in the underground scene with no superficial desire to reach the mainstream hype.
Isaiah states, “Don’t get me wrong, I definitely want to grow into a very big & well known brand. But I fuck with the underground support system way more than the hypebeast/mainstream thing you know? I want my brand to feel more personal and not just a random brand. I like everyone to feel like they’re a member of the ‘outsiderz’ type of thing \[laughs\].”
_Flaunt_ caught up with the creative director and owner of LOAO via FaceTime, who revealed he only thought of the brand 2.5 years ago.
**You’re from a small town in Virginia, when did you fall in love with fashion?**
I’m from Elkton, Virginia, population really small probably 4,000 people. It’s nothing but trees and mountains. I graduated high school in 2016. I went to college for sports marketing out of everything. I was failing college, wasn’t really fucking with it for real. So I dropped out, came back home in 2017. I started working at Burger King, thinking like damn college didn’t work. Now what am I gonna do? I’d always liked fashion. One time I made 25 simple t-shirts, sold them around town. Everyone was like “damn bro, you need to start an actual brand.” So I started going bigger with that. I was getting paid like $450 every two weeks at Burger King, not much at all. I ended up getting that last paycheck, then I quit, & it started from there.
What motivated me from the jump was the fact that I quit my job so I had no income. I had to pay for my car & stuff, so I said I gotta make this shit work because I had no other source of income. I had always liked fashion, not necessarily making my own clothes but always fucked with it. I had like $600 saved up at the time, I was living with my mom so I didn’t really have to pay bills, just my car & food. Still, that’s a lot to pay for someone not making a lot of money. I haven’t had a job since then. I started fucking with denim, I’d draw with sharpie on my pants, cool little beginner stuff. Then I just fell in love with denim specifically. I kept being consistent with my creations, posting lots of custom stuff on Instagram. I hit 2K to 3K followers off it, and I realized I could do something with this. From there, I kept going hard.
**Did you have any fashion icons that you looked up to?**
At the time I did, but it was people I’ve surpassed at this point. It was random people on Instagram with 5K or 6K followers, no crazy big influences. I wasn’t into industry fashion as far as big time designers, I was just into getting fly. I wasn’t into like real textbook fashion type stuff. I had really just started an actual brand because I wanted to make my own money, but then everyone said “you’re talented you need to take it serious & see what happens.” So I said “yeah, let me start a real brand with a vision & more than just t-shirts.
**How would you describe Life Of An Outsider for those who aren’t familiar?**
The name came from high school, I was very introverted but always with the popular kids. I’d be around them but I wouldn’t really talk much. I was never the center of attention, I always felt like the outsider of the group & everything else I did. I mixed my personal feelings with my art basically. I was like “Damn, Life Of An Outsider sounds hard.” At first it was just Outsiderz, but now it’s Life Of An Outsider & Outsiderz, that’s where my OZ logo comes from.
**What’s the reality of a day in the life of a Life Of An Outsider?**
Shit, anxiety. Feeling like you’re not in the norm of most people, you feel like you stand out for whatever reason it might be. Also because my clothes are very flashy and very different from most brands you see. I’m an outsider of clothing brands at the same time. If you come across my Instagram page, you’ll definitely be thinking like “this brand looks crazy.” You’ll either hate it or you’ll love it. It’ll cause you to draw some type of emotion towards the pieces & that’s what I want.
**Favorite items and why?**
The item that picked up a lot for me was the butterfly rhinestone pants with the 4 butterflies down the side. It’s not my favorite, but that’s what really got me going.
**What is it you want fans to get from your story?**
When you live in a small town, you don’t really have any inspiration. There’s nothing big going on, nothing to do, so most people get caught up with small town activities like drugs and dumb stuff. If you come from a small town, you can really make it out. You can really do something big.
**Do you plan on opening a physical store?**
Not as of now because last year showed me you can really make a lot of money online through Instagram & other social media platforms. Especially nowadays with all of the store break-ins & stuff, I don’t want to deal with a physical store and everything that comes with It. It’s a lot of extra money that’s pointless in my opinion. I might open a flagship store at one location someday just to say I have a cool store, but I won’t do that anytime soon I don’t think.
**Has designing denim always been your niche?**
Yeah, it was right after I did my first t-shirts, then I started working on denim. There’s more you can do with denim than you can with t-shirts. With t-shirts, it has to be the same thing: a blank T-shirt with a cool graphic. A real fashion designer is someone that cuts some jeans up for example, rearranges the whole piece and adds multiple different things on the garment. I feel like being a real designer, you have to do more hands-on stuff to clothing.
**How important is social media for your career?**
It’s the most important thing, I don’t really do anything in person. I’ve never done any pop-up shops, I’ve never been in any stores, none of that. Social media is a big part, definitely.
**First big artist to support your brand?**
The first big artist was Lil Mosey. He reached out to me, I didn’t DM him. I was checking my message requests one day, this was when I had like 25K followers. He said “tap me in bro, I need some gear.” He showed hella love. He wore the butterfly pants I talked about earlier in a video shoot with Gunna. He posted a picture in those, tagged me, shouted me out on his story a few times. No charge, nothing. He showed hella love.
Shortly after that, Durk hit me up from Rubi Rose. Rubi had posted my shoes on her story, I did custom shoes. Durk sent me a screenshot of her story. He said “bro you’re hard, pull up to the studio.” I pulled up the next day with some pants and a shirt. He’s very genuine compared to most celebrities, so that was cool. Within the next day, I had to come back and bring him something else haha. He also put me on his story, he showed hella love. Chief Keef hit me up before, he DMed me first. Same thing, he said “yo make me some pants.” \[laughs\], it was crazy.
**How do you design, catered to the artist?**
I know rappers love flashy shit. They love having clothes that nobody else has. All 3 of them for example, hit me up a year and half ago, around the same time. Back then, there weren’t as many unique pants as my brand. They fucked with it because nobody really had it. They know my shit looks hard. When they mix my gear up with designer, it just looks right & makes sense. They fuck with it because of that.
**Where do you see crossover in Hip-Hop and fashion?**
It plays a big role because all rappers talk about is drip, clothes, money, & girls. That’s like the top 4 things, so it plays a big role. They gotta be fly for their image. Fashion plays a big role for them, as well as them playing a big role into us designers. For example When Lil Mosey posted and tagged me, I had his fan pages following me. Lots of his fans automatically falling in love with my stuff because of him. They definitely go hand in hand heavy.
**What do you have planned next?**
My website’s been closed for a few months because I had issues on the backend. I have a lot of stuff in production right now, I’m about to start dropping again. I also have a lot of random stuff I plan to do soon like for example, a cool ass cereal box & some other stuff \[laughs\]. I’m going to start doing some crazy random items, I want to showcase that I can do more than just cool jeans/clothing, I want to show that I’m a real artist as well.
**Goals yourself as an artist at this point of your career?**
My biggest goal right now from a business standpoint is to triple my income from last years sales. This year I also want to get my pieces onto more big artists consistently, so it could start spreading faster. I want to be a household name for artists by the end of this year. I want a lot more artists wearing my clothes, I want people to see all their favorite artists rocking my pieces & them being like “he’s wearing it, he’s wearing it!”
**How do you plan to get there?**
I just gotta stay consistent. I’m trying to get better with my marketing and getting my pieces on celebrities. They’ve always reached out to me. I’ve never had a team or anything that knew how to get clothes onto him or her, I always had them hitting me up. I don’t really know how to get my pieces onto certain bigger people that I want to get them on just yet, and you can’t just shoot a DM to everybody because they won’t always respond. So right now my partner & I are working on figuring that side of things out. Once we figure that out, I’ll hopefully be able to get my clothes on whoever I want to get them on.
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