Lamar has been probably the most influential mentor I've ever had, not just in the industry, but in life. In that time, he introduced me to Lamar Taylor, who's The Weeknd’s creative director. He ended up crashing there for three months while he was working with Disney. He's from Toronto and he needed a place to stay, so I told him to come and stay on my couch. He used to take photos for The Weeknd, Selena Gomez, and a bunch of other people.
How did you get involved with The Weeknd and XO? He instilled the mindset that these brands need us more than we need them. He’s the one who fathered me in, which he's done with a lot of people. How did ILLZ help you grow in the industry? He let me sleep on his floor for a while. For almost two and a half years I was under his wing. He was kind of like my mentor, for a good amount of time. Eventually, one meetup led to another, and I ended up meeting A$AP ILLZ. How did you get involved in celebrity styling?Ĭoming from Virginia, where there wasn’t much of a scene, the main way I was able to make connections was through social media. We discussed Carti, learning from XO’s team, battling drug addiction, loss, and his brand, Life is War. Instead, Modes absorbed the pain, and to this day, it still informs not only his approach to work, but his life viewpoint. Yet he's not the type to have forgotten his roots, or the at times heartbreaking hardship that it took to get there.
As I sit down and we begin to talk, Modes' intimidating appearance is overshadowed by genuine and thoughtful insight. Working so closely with a global pop behemoth such as The Weeknd, Modes has undoubtedly reached the summit of his craft. It's Modes, along with the likes of joy_divizn, burberry.erry, destroylonely, wakeupf1lthy, and nico.ballesteros, who have helped plot the rapper's manifestation as a vampiric supervillain.īut looks can be deceiving, and all that. Naturally, this intriguing character hasn't gone unnoticed.Įver since Carti's Whole Lotta Red dropped, subforums and fan accounts have wondered, "Who the hell is in the crew?" Some names have been around for a bit, and others are fresh to the scene. He looks likes the type of guy you'd find holding court in an underground industrial club. It's obvious as to why. Entering in an all-black Rick Owens get-up, I'm immediately struck by the "Life Is War” and “I Died In 2010” tattoos on the back of his head and hand. Modes immediately commanded the room's attention when we met in downtown Los Angeles a couple of months ago. Some names (such as Dutch Brown, Taylor Derence, Kari Lennox) also appear on Slater's list of vampires in The Sacrifice.If you don't know Mitch Modes, chances are you’ve seen one of his muses. Running with blue-chip names including The Weeknd and Playboi Carti, Modes has carved out a successful career - and a loyal online following of dark fashion obsessives - with his aggressive, head-turning aesthetic.The inclusion of Christopher Lee on this list could be a homage to the actor, who played Dracula multiple times in various films since 1958.It was revealed in the Season Three Blu-ray Exclusive, that the cast put names of the people they knew on the list (ex: Nina Dobrev's mom Michaela and crew members such as Matthew D'Ambrosio).