Carlos Lawrence (left) and Dalontay Gainey, creators of Beautiful Beyond Measure
Up-and-coming clothing brand Beautiful Beyond Measure is the brainchild of Dalontay Gainey and Carlos Lawrence. The native Clevelanders are looking to give fashion lovers something different than they've seen before.
I met Gainey years ago at the YMCA of Greater Cleveland, and we lost touch when I went to college in '09. When we reconnected, I caught wind of his and Carlos' idea and it had been catching the attention of Greater Cleveland.
We all sat down for a quick Q&A on a beautiful autumn Sunday.
Me: First off, whatās your full name Carlos?
Me: Who thought of the idea or brought it up first?
Me: How did it come to you?
Los: I always wanted to start a clothing line. But I was sitting on the bus one day I was just thinking about a lot of stuff. That was basically the day I wanted to get everything in motion for real. Then I hit him [Dalontay] up about it and he said he was in on it.
Me: So, which of you is the designer or do you both have input?
Me: Whatās your background in designing? I know you wanted to do architecture before, but I havenāt talked to you in awhile.
D: Yeah I changed that completely I just basically art and fashion for real.
Los: Same thing. Used to want to be an architect, but I donāt like math so I said to hell with that.
Me: So as far as mentors or idols go, do you have anybody you look up to?
D: Mine is Kanye West andā¦
Me: How long have you guys known each other?
Me: So you met at school?
Me: What neighborhood are you from?
D: Down the way [30th Street].
Los: Same spot. A little further down the street.
Me: Does your closeness cause any problems as far as decision-making goes?
Ā Me: Is there any big lessons you guys have learned so far?
D: For me, when you take time with your designs and everything itāll be the best instead of trying to rush something. And stay away from stuff youāre used to seeing because youāll see it repeated everywhere. Especially in Cleveland, if youāre trying to see something thatās Cleveland-based then almost everybody whoās trying to do the same thing will have the same designs.
Los: For me, basically get everything in order for real. Because the first time we dropped some shirts, we only had a few but they were in high demand, and I wish we would have had more. But this time around we started to get everything in orderāall the designs in order, getting all the merchandise and everything inābefore we started moving it.
Me: Which one of you is the business mind? Or is it both of you?
Los: We both handle business, we both do design.
Me: Most people donāt have a business mind and donāt think about supply and demandā¦
Los: Iām going to major in business and minor in graphic design [when he transfers to another college/university].
Me: Are you guys in school right now?
Los: Tri-C [Cuyahoga Community College]
Me: So, I had to ask this question because someone else brought it up to me when they were looking at your designs. You know how some Native American communities feel about the Indians and their logo. Do you have any thoughts on that in relation to your High Chiefess and I canāt think of the other oneā¦
"High Chiefess" and "Chiefed Wahoo" designs from the Beautiful Beyond Measure Fall/Winter 2013 collection.
D: With the Chief Wahoo, weāre from Cleveland. The Cleveland Indians are my favorite baseball team, so when he made that design I was like, āAww, thatās dope.ā Itās my favorite team so I felt obligated kind of. And the other one I was thinkingācause at first I was gonna do a kind of Egyptian thing with it. But I like how the Native American head dress is so I just wanted to mix both of āem together.
Me: Iām glad you steered away from that because everyoneās doing that.
D: I was salty when I saw it [laughs].
Me: As far as designs go where do you get your ideas?
D: Sometimes Iāll see random stuff and Iāll think thatās cool. I mean I donāt try to copy it or anything, just random inspiration comes into my head and I just try to draw it down and keep revising it.
Carlos: "We were tired of wearing the same thing everyone else was wearing, so we started making our own clothes for ourselves. Thatās how that came about really."
Los: If I tried to draw something or if I got my mind set on making a design and I got a piece of paper and a pen in front of me, Iām really not gonna come up with anything. I donāt know why thatās just how my mind is. Just blank. But most of the time itās just random. Something will come to me randomly and Iāll be like, āOh, I gotta get home and draw that up.ā Thatās how most of it comes along for me.
Me: Thatās dope, thatās dope. I think those are all the questions I have, is there anything you want the readers to know? Why should they buy?
D: Itās going to be way different than anything everyone else is doing. Most people are trying to do what they see mainstream people do, for real. I already know our stuff is going to be completely different than all that. Some of our stuff is simple, some of our stuff is complex. But stuff everyone else is doing--everybodyās doing the Egyptian thing now, people are putting words on a t-shirt. Thatās done a lot now, but itās repetitive. Instead of going toward something everyoneās doing they should be doing something different and people will like that better.
Los: Not reallyā¦. Since we are online, weāre going to be looking for peopleās approval because theyāre going to be the ones buying our stuff. But when we first started out, we were making stuff for ourselves. We were tired of wearing the same thing everyone else was wearing, so we started making our own clothes for ourselves. Thatās how that came about really.
Me: Do you guys have a website in the works or where should readers hit you up to see your shirts?
Los: Right now just hit us up on Instagram, Twitter [Dalontay: @jimmyhippy & Carlos: @itsjasper_], and we have an email for our brand.
