PAUSE MEETS:
Who Decides War
Talk collaborations, business and the future.
Interview: Greg Emmanuel // @gregemmanuel
Photographer: Ollie Ali // @mrolliealli
PAUSE meets Ev Bravado and Téla D’Amore, the founders and designers of Who Decides War. As romantic partners and partners in business, WDW is both a labour of their love and a reflection of their passion. Since establishing the brand in 2019, Who Decides War has amassed a loyal following, sparked several new-age fashion trends and been at the forefront of streetwear’s evolution.
Being one of the first young designers that Virgil Abloh heavily championed, Bravado and WDW is an extension of Abloh’s legacy and partly a product of his willingness to share. After hosting the brand’s debut fashion show in Paris and showing in NYC last season, WDW is ready to advance to the next phase and we caught up with them right before their next NYFW presentation.
We’re in NYC, your hometown and where WDW is based. What’s your favourite thing about NYC in the summertime?
Ev: Just being outside and the energy. People are in a better mood for the most part and enjoying late nights and being able to be outside and not freeze your ass off.
How would you describe the phase WDW is in now?
Ev: We’re in a pivot point, like a redefining moment.
Téla: Fresh out the cocoon, ready.
Ev: Even though we haven’t been really tucked away, we do feel like that mentally. The last two collections were really about setting up the brand’s DNA and signatures that people could relate with and now it’s time to get crazy again.
Téla: And now that we have a lot of our staple pieces going, we’re building off of those and figuring out how to continue to refine them and elevate the clothing collection to collection.
The collaboration between ACW, B-stroy and WDW – your caption read, “Some things just need to happen”. Can you tell me a little more about the intention behind that collaboration and why it was important for it to happen?
Ev: So it’s funny because that quote is actually what Sam [Samuel Ross] said when we were there taking the pictures. And it sounds generic, but to show kids that you could have your own different lanes and your own micro-communities, but still come together to do something like that is very important. We’re all offshoots of V – God rest his soul – so I think one of the key reasons for doing that was to pay homage in a sense, like V is not here, but the spirit is still alive as these columns to uphold each other. And thank God for Sam bringing that whole project together and being a major catalyst for that. And shoutout to the B-stroy team as well for coming on with us to do it because kids just need to see it.
Téla: It’s also a moment of solidarity all around, exactly what Ev is saying, like not necessarily competition because a lot of times people like to compare and we wanted to show outwardly that there’s no kind of competition like everyone can eat. It’s one thing to say that, but another thing to act on it and be outward with it because all of us hang out and spend time together away from the industry, not posting photos, so we wanted to have it be a moment to iron out any confusion and with V’s passing, we’re all here, we’re all together and we see how interconnected we are, so the next conversation is how do we continue to do more things together.
Are there any upcoming collaborations you can tell us about or a dream collaboration you both would like to secure?
Ev: We have a couple on the cusp, one is with a major artist and that should be unveiling around fashion week tentatively.
Last September, WDW showed in NYC, do you plan to show in NYC again this season or take the brand elsewhere?
Téla: Yea, we do want to go back to Paris eventually, but we want to do it when it’s right for us. We’re big on trusting our own timeline and we think that may be in the next few years to come. But, currently we love the energy and showing in New York and it was cool to show Fall/Winter 2023 digitally, but we’re eager to get back to New York to show IRL.
In what ways have y’all noticed how you’ve both matured in the way y’all do business and create for the brand since starting? Has there been a moment y’all shared that kind of represents the growth and y’all were like ‘Damn, we’ve come a long way’?
Ev: It’s an everyday process honestly.
Téla: I just had this snapshot in my head of when we started vs. where we are now. First off, Ev and I met on Ludlow Street and I just showed him some designs like ready when you are. We started in a basement and in basically whatever place that would let us work in it at the time. Shoutout to Ludlow Hotel, we were in that lobby so many times just working as if it was our office.
Ev: There was a time I wasn’t really focused on my craft rather than being lit, but I just had to pull myself together at a point. There still are ebbs and flows that we’re continuously figuring out, but we’ve learned patience and how to trust our timing and knowing when things are ready for us and identifying when we’re forcing it and I think that’s one of the most important things for young designers to understand like if you don’t feel like something is sitting right in your gut then don’t put it out.
Téla: In a business sense, we have also learned the importance of refinement and not creating in excess just to get an idea out, like really thinking about it and how it relates to what you’re doing and making sure it checks every box before taking the next steps.
Ev, as someone who was close to Virgil and got to learn from him, what’s been one of the greatest lessons or things you learned from him that you keep at the front of your mind today?
Ev: It’s definitely how to move with grace. During his time period, he was heavily scrutinized and sometimes for no reason, but the way he moved through that and never chose to fight fire with fire is inspring. Sometimes I would be mad after seeing some of the things out there and he would brush it off and keep it moving. The “boo’s” come from the cheapest seats, so you can’t really pay attention to that, so as long you keep going and you know you are moving with pure intentions and you know that what you’re doing is right, everything else is just noise and you just have to put the sound cancelers on.
What can we expect from the future of WDW?
Téla: Womenswear is coming and there will be a huge debut.
Ev: And hopefully footwear for Spring/Summer as well, like our own footwear, so that should be cool. Once we get to a point where we want the brand to be, we will probably just do one big show a year, but right now we have to grind it out.
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