David Casavant Explains Why He Considers His Personal Archive To Be His Own Brand

David Casavant is mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore. Or at least that’s how the NYC-based stylist and archivist sounds when sounding off about everything from the political climate, to the exclusionary elitism of the contemporary fashion industry on this week’s HYPEBEAST Radio. “I’m just fucking over it,” he exasperates. When he’s not renting to high-profile clients like Kanye West and Rihanna, Casavant has made a hobby out of coloring—he’s been printing out de-lined Facebook pics lately—which he ferociously does while speaking. The Tennessee-born transplant views fashion as an exclusive, exclusionary and elitist space: “They” don’t want to dress celebrities like Kim Kardashian-West; “you” get blacklisted for stealing pieces from the archive, regardless of your celebrity status; “everything is just sooooo ironic,” he says. While Casavant’s collection is best-known for curating an encyclopedic compendium of conceptual menswear by Raf Simons and Helmut Lang, it also includes entire racks of workwear, Uniqlo and—perhaps most surprising—a sheer L.L. Bean turtleneck that Casavant describes as “one of his most popular pieces.” When we asked if he has ever considered working for a brand or starting his own imprint, he maintains that the curated collection that fills his apartment is his brand. In his own vision, Casavant’s archive will live long after he dies, as a documentation of what fashion was and could be. Listen to the episode in full above and keep up with