GALLERY DEPARTMENT

More of a personal art endeavor, this is the newest, trendiest streetwear brand in Los Angeles. With each passing week, the ranks of abandoned storefronts and shuttered retail outposts grow: The commonplace banalities of brick-and-mortar shopping can seem askew to reality — a walk-through of the Twilight Zone. As this grim new normal settles in, well, to being normal, signs of life can feel jagged.

Consider a pair of storefront windows on Beverly Boulevard in West Hollywood. Not long ago, they were lifeless echoes of a closed high-end furniture outlet. Then, in August, they started to fill with seemingly unrelated objects: blue jeans heaped in a mound chest high, a lounge chair upholstered just above the knees in denim, a mannequin in a jumpsuit, its head replaced with an eyeball, standing amidst a sea of paint-spattered drop cloths.

Hand-painted signage in the other window stated only that this “Appointment Only” storefront, with the vague arrangements, and the 6,000 square feet of retail space behind it, belonged to the Gallery Department.

Despite this name, Gallery Dept. isn’t a gallery or a department store but a hybrid clothing label that falls into the Venn diagram overlap between streetwear labels, denim ateliers, neighborhood tailors, and vintage stores. Alternatively, you might call Gallery Dept. an artist’s personal art project, the one of its founder, Josué Thomas also known as “Remi” in 2017, a designer whose own creative desires are equally disparate and layered.”

With so many small brands retreating this summer, Mr. Thomas’s label has not just survived these spirit-destroying conditions but flourished. Gallery Dept. has relocated from a bustling workshop a block away on Beverly Boulevard to its new digs in part because its hoodies, logo tees, anoraks, and flare-cut jeans — all designed and hand-painted by Mr. Thomas on upcycled or dead-stock garments — have become improbable objets d’art in a crowded streetwear field.

As editions or tie-in apparel hit every corner of fashion, there have been so many collaborations and merch drops in recent years that they have started reaching a kind of corporate cadence. In contrast, Gallery Dept. is a bespoke operation, with streetwear basics that have all been touched by the artist’s finger.

Celebrity Endorsements

After being worn by Kendall Jenner, LeBron James, Kendrick Lamar, and two-thirds of the Migos (Quavo and Offset), Gallery Dept. became more than just an underground cult label for collectors. In 2017, Mr. Thomas began cutting up jeans and screen-printing shirts when the mood struck.

The Gallery Dept. Experience

Once inside, those lucky enough to assert themselves in the appointment-only space that is now filled with as many as 20 appointments a day are greeted by a 20-foot-tall expanse of wall proclaiming, “Art That Kills” in large crawl text coiling around other references to Rod Serling’s seminal sci-fi program.

Mr. Thomas’s abstract paintings and writings line the spaces between clothing racks and vibrant brass shelves weighed down with the brand’s heavy hoodies and sweatpants throughout the sunlit store. Above the rumble of sewing machines, snippets of bossa nova Muzak are audible, a vinyl-only mix that Mr. Thomas also made. (Music by other artists, like as the New York rapper Roc Marciano, will also be released under an Art That Kills label.)

Gallery Dept. The new space was financed with e-commerce sales from this past spring and not with the aid of venture capital or outside investors, said Mr. Thomas during a recent walk-through. That freedom allows him — and the label, which now has 12 staffers — to do things by its arcane biennial clock. And there are a few. The store’s dressing rooms add no mirrors with which to check a fit. (“We’re going to let you know if a piece works or whether it doesn’t,” he said.) Nor does it put price tags on its garments.

Bold Decisions and Artistic Direction

“How you think about a piece will change if the price is the first thing you look at,” he said. “I would rather that people arrive at the clothing first.”

The Gallery Dept. does not entertain pull requests from stylists or mail its pieces to influencers, a practice Mr. Thomas speaks of with just a whiff of punk indignation. He said, “Kendall does not receive a discount.” “We don’t plant seeds.”We don’t have distinct marketplaces, regardless of who it is.

Clad in cutoff carpenter pants and a white T-shirt both dusted with a fine rainbow splatter, Mr. Thomas appeared every inch the artist pulled from his creative flow, paint-speckled hands, and chip-coated, individually painted fingernails. Standing in a mauve-carpeted room, Mr. Thomas pointed to his latest thoughts: pewter jewelry in eccentric shapes, like an earring in the shape of a zipper pull, produced with the Chrome Hearts offshoot, Lone Ones, and shorts cut from dead-stock military laundry bags — as he explained the origins of his style.

Mr. Thomas stated, “When I was younger, I liked what my parents wore.” As a teenager, “I wore my dad’s leather jacket. It had the proper amount of worn patina, which I understood was a personal touch. You couldn’t just go to a store and buy it.”

Origins and Creative Drive

Mr. Thomas, who turned 36 in September, has never trained in fashion or garment construction, and he cannot use a sewing machine. But as the son of immigrants from Venezuela and Trinidad, he grew up, watching his parents scrape by on their raw artistic skills to build a life in Los Angeles. He has, in recent years, applied those same talents as an artist and designer: sign-painting, tie-dying, and screen printing. For a time, his father, Stefan Gilbert, even had a private women’s wear line.

Likewise, Mr. Thomas also worked at Ralph Lauren, in his early 20s. Early on working in a largely white company as one of the few Black people in creative roles, he felt that particular navigating in fashion was only going to survive if he was part of a project he created himself.

He claimed, “I was the ‘cool’ Black guy, but I had nowhere to go.” “Sourcing buttons for women’s outerwear or something would have been the ideal scenario.”

Gallery Dept. ’s unplanned founding occurred in 2016 when Mr. Thomas peddled a hand-sewn denim poncho off his back to Johnny Depp’s stylist. Mr. Thomas was then concentrating on beat making and D.J.-ing, but after everything he’d designed sold at a small trunk show at the Chateau Marmont, it hit him that he had found a new creative lane.

Signature Denim: The LA Flare Reinvented

Experimenting with heavy vintage shirts, hoodies, trucker hats, bomber jackets, whatever was available, Mr. Thomas would often silk-screen the brand’s logo, slinging paint or other flourishes as the mood struck. It now includes long-sleeve tees, sweatpants, and socks. He also started using the silhouette of the vintage Levi’s 501s and Carhartt work pants, blowing them out into an almost imperceptible flare with patches and reinforced stitching for a streetwise take on the classic boot-cut jeans.

Mr. Thomas referred to this style of jeans as “the LA Flare.” And where denim had long been historically confined to “his” and “her” bins, the LA Flare is the zeitgeist “they” of streetwear denim. (The label describes its products as “unisex.”)

The jeans are priced like luxury items, with a basic pair starting at $395. Mr. Thomas’s custom tailoring and other touches can bring the price upwards of $1,200. One early Chrome Hearts collaboration — a pair of orange-dyed flares patched with that brand’s signature gothic crosses — has sold for $5,000 on Grailed.

Industry Praise

“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen in repurposed denim,” George Archer, a senior buyer at Mr Porter, said. “They are both wearable and an art piece. He is the only one doing this.”

For Mr. Archer, who first discovered Gallery Dept. logo-ed out, popped out, men in Tokyo in March, Mr. Thomas “interprets and creates” clothing as an end — not a thing to be monetized.

“He grabbed this hip-hop cultural staple and freshened it up,” said Motofumi Kogi, the creative director of the Japanese label United Arrows & Sons.

Vincent Abloh, a fan of the jeans, considers Mr. Thomas’s “edit” of the timeless piece to be the next phase of its evolution.

“Since skinny jeans, their flare cut is the most important new denim cut in the last ten years,” Mr. Abloh stated.

He said, “I see Josue creating a new canon for himself, of what Black design can do.”

Collaborating Partnerships

Collaborations and partnerships are often how the Gallery Dept Clothing expands its reach, discovers new talent, and increases media exposure. It has partnered with top brands to launch an exclusive limited edition line of apparel and accessories. Below are all the brand’s collabs:

• Converse x GD
• Nike x GD
• The Rolling Stones x GD
• Fear of God x GD
• Work In Progress x GD
• Chateau Josué x GD
• LA Dodgers x GD
• Vans X GD
• Mr.Porter x GD
• Lanvin x GD

Various Gallery Dept Clothing Pieces

Gallery Dept. is a contemporary clothing brand that prides itself on original, artisanal pieces. The brand’s unisex assortment of apparel and accessories encompasses an array of goods:

Tops

Gallery Dept has an extensive collection of t-shirts and shirts, in both long and short sleeves. There are also everything from classic button-up tops to a limited-edition selection of tops designed in collaboration with GD’s line Work In Progress. Highly Unique – The 3D style printing method used creates a stylish effect with ink splashes and colored letters that do not fade and will not come off easily. It is ribbed in such a way that the neckline will not lose its shape. Just a few of the tops this brand is known for include the GD Painted Short Sleeve Tee Shirt and the GD Printed Silk Button Up Shirt.

Bottom wear

For all of your training sessions, Gallery Dept offers a fun and stylish selection of gym shorts and sweatpants. They also produce joggers, flares, carpenter pants, and denim. Paint spatter, blazing flames, patchwork, tie-dye, and cargo are examples of quirky styles that dominate bottoms.

Sweatshirts

The sweatshirts via Gallery Dept encompass everything from hoodies and zip-ups to crewnecks. Old streetwear staples are reimagined as high-spirited, off-kilter designs. These sweatshirts and hoodies put a contemporary spin on the traditional style, with hand-finished details, screen-printed graphics, and retro patterns.

Outerwear

And if you thought the Gallery Department was sandals and sweats all the time, you are sadly mistaken. The brand adds an outerwear collection of coats, blazers, jackets, and vests to its range. These premium quality & style overcoats suit perfectly your dates, parties & events, etc.

Accessories

You can buy a variety of clothing accessories, including hats, bags, belts, shoes, and socks. Most of these accessories with soft warm fabric and proper snug fit are designed to highlight your overall look.

Conclusion

This is another clothes brand Josue Thomas created in 2017 — the brainchild behind Gallery Dept — that has become a court of fashion that rewrites the mainstream idea of luxury and the grammar of fashion. The brand’s unisex clothing line has become synonymous with creative, individual, and self-expressive fashion. New Trends and Limited Edition Merchandise in the Gallery Dept are available at OriginNYC, your destination for the latest fashion trends.