Meet D.C. Designer Deontré Hancock, Finalist On Netflix’s ‘Next In Fashion’
Deontré Hancock opened with a daring introduction within the first episode of Season 2 of Netflix’s Subsequent in Vogue.
“I’m right here to say my prize,” Hancock stated to hosts Tan France and Gigi Hadid. His confident entrance set him up nicely when he –spoiler alert– grew to become one among three finalists on the present, giving the world a style of what he has to supply.
Whereas Hancock didn’t finally win, making it to the ultimate spherical created a buzz round his work – and his imaginative and prescient – that are closely impressed by his upbringing in Northeast D.C.
We sat down to speak with Hancock about his vogue journey – from rising up within the metropolis dreaming of a profession in vogue, to touchdown on stage as a high contender within the in style Netflix competitors.
Hancock says he developed an affinity for vogue early in center faculty and was impressed by his mother and father dressing up for church, in addition to the methods his sister personalized her personal garments.
“Once I was going to the varsity dance, I’d actually misery my denims, bleach them, and take patches off this SpongeBob chair and sew it onto my denims; like one thing actually wild and loopy,” Hancock says. “I didn’t know what I used to be doing, however I used to be like, I wish to look completely different and funky.”
Though impressed by the streetwear that dominates D.C. vogue, Hancock says he at all times knew he wished to raise these seems by taking a pattern he likes and placing his personal spin on it.
“I wish to do streetwear, however I wish to take it to the subsequent degree and have folks carrying stuff that they usually wouldn’t put on with streetwear,” he says. “Simply taking it into the long run and making it extra artistic than what it was.”
A lot of his expertise are self-taught. In 2010 at age 18, he watched YouTube tutorials, purchased a stitching machine, and went by way of the method of trial and error to develop his craft. He progressed lots on his personal however says there have been nonetheless lots of gaps in his studying.
After graduating highschool and taking time to find out tips on how to finest pursue his ardour, Hancock thought of a few of the high design applications within the nation, finally touchdown on the Academy of Artwork College in San Francisco, California. There he was uncovered to extra skilled expertise like vogue sketching and illustration, quite a lot of mediums and supplies, in addition to trade terminology. Hancock was additionally launched to the brand new and daring kinds that helped to affect his items right now.
“I feel what caught out to me essentially the most was this matter of extravagant vogue, which is stuff like Thom Browne would do,” Hancock says. “And I’m like, ‘This will likely be actually cool if it was streetwear.’”
Hancock’s signature look is his elevated puffer jackets, and his time on the Academy of Artwork impressed him to take these designs and make them “actually large and out of this world,” he says. The inspiration for his jackets didn’t come from the runway, however from his time spent in D.C. and San Francisco with individuals who may gain advantage from the items essentially the most.
“I keep in mind once I got here again house to D.C. and I used to be simply telling myself, ‘At some point I’m going to make garments for homeless folks the place they are often modern within the day, after which at evening they will have like a heat place to put in and like have garments that may hold you heat,” Hancock says. “And for me, it was puffer coats.”
Hancock nonetheless holds onto that dream and says as soon as he’s established himself and his model, Hoodlvm, it could be a full circle second to have the ability to give again to the those who impressed him.
As Hancock continued to make puffer coats and different garments, his designs caught the eye of producers for Netflix’s Subsequent in Vogue, who reached out to him by way of Instagram. After Hancock vetted the supply as actual, Netflix vetted him. Over a interval of three months, he was interviewed and chosen to fly to New York for a closing take a look at for the present as a part of an intense audition course of. He did this all whereas juggling a full-time job at a regulation agency as a visitor service consultant.
Hancock was one among twenty finalists to succeed in the ultimate spherical of Subsequent in Vogue out of the tens of hundreds of designer hopefuls who aimed to guide the present.
On Subsequent in Vogue, Hancock demonstrated his versatility past his puffer jackets by shortly adapting his expertise to new challenges, like establishing a corset for the primary time or making a humongous coat. The present requires that opponents collaborate with each other and work below extremely tight deadlines – filming over the course of 4 months. Even below excessive stress, Hancock says he stood by his imaginative and prescient, performed it cool, and prevailed.
“Strolling into that competitors, I used to be nervous; however on the identical time, I used to be like, I by no means actually need them to see me sweat.”
Now after his run on the present has ended, Hancock is de facto simply getting began. On April 16, his work will likely be featured on the DC Emancipation Fashion Show, and on April 21, he’s exhibiting his complete assortment to Georgetown College’s vogue program. His model website, Hoodlvm, launches with extra stock in April as nicely.
