CONSTANT ELEVATION: NOAH
Twitter: @beamskii1 Instagram: @beamskii @gardenpartygp Site: https://gardenpartygp.com/
OTH: For the people who don’t know who you are, could you give us your name, your age, what is it that you do?
B: I’m Beamskii, but my real name is Noah and I have a brand called Garden Party and I’m 17 years old.
OTH: A lot of people, especially now in the IG age, know and refer to other people via their @’s right? Can you talk about how your @ came about, and how you chose Beamskii?
B: I’ve never actually publicly said how I found it so I guess this is the first time I tell anyone really but I just recently remembered why this is my name. At first my username used to be my full name, Noah Helman, but after a while I changed it. I was watching some YouTube video and some guy messed up how he was supposed to say something and said beamskii, and I was like, yo that sounds kinda sick I’ll make that my Instagram username. So I just changed it and thought, oh I might change it back in a week and I just forgot about it and kept using it.
OTH: It seems like whenever it comes to having one of these different online personas, they’re chosen randomly, almost out of nowhere.
B: Yeah bro, the best things literally always happen by accident.
OTH: Kicking it off with what was more or less your first entry into the fashion game, you and your friend Finn became the face of a Malice Studios campaign just like that. How did you guys even get there?
B: It was kinda random, I was like 13 or 14, and I was really fucking with Montreal internet fashion and one day I just saw that there was an event happening so I just went over there. I just kind of hit it off with some of the guys there and then they were just like “Yo, do you wanna shoot one day?” and I was like “Yeah sure why not?” Then we shot for that one trucker shoot.
BEAMSKII FOR MALICE STUDIOS FW19 BETTER LOVERS V2 CAMPAIGN
OTH: From there do you think that had a pretty big influence on you in regards to going the route that you did, or do you think had you not met some of the people you did you still would’ve ended up where you are?
B: I probably still would’ve done something, maybe it just would’ve been a bit slower. ‘Cause after meeting a bunch of people who did fashion shit I realized that I was just more open to doing something from being exposed to it.
OTH: Would you say had you not made those connections, meeting people like Lee, Adamo, Richie, Nicholas Crow, Kyron, you would still be where you are today?
B: Wait, who's Lee?
OTH: Adamo and Lee, they helped you with your manufacturing for Garden Party, no?
B: How do you know that? That’s wild?
OTH: We do our research.
B: That’s so crazy, are you Narduar? What the hell? What was the question again? I got hella caught up in how you knew who Lee was, that’s hella random.
OTH: Would you say you'd be where you are today with Garden Party had you not met those people?
B: I probably would’ve, but I never really wanted to make a brand. I did want to make a brand, but I went through waves of wanting to. Like I had waves of thinking I had something but then it wasn’t that cool so I just stopped it, I never made anything official.
OTH: You’re still in school and doing Garden Party full time, so how do you find time to juggle both?
B: Honestly, just whenever I have free time where I don’t have to study or anything, I’ll just work on stuff. But a lot of my ideas I just get from doing random shit. Like I’ll be taking a walk and I’ll see something and I’ll think that’s sick, then when I’m thinking of ideas that will come to my head and then it just forms a new idea. But I never really spend time trying to think of ideas because when I do, it feels a bit forced.
OTH: Is that how the current logo with two bunnies came about? Just randomly came to you?
B: Yeah, kinda.
GARDEN PARTY PRE FIRST RELEASE
OTH: So Garden Party, you never really wanted to start a brand but you started off your fashion journey you could say by buying clothes left and right on Grailed. Was Garden Party created out of the desire to create clothes that you wanted to wear, or literally just I want to do something?
B: Like kinda. I just wanted to make stuff to give to my friends, because I always saw people giving free shit, then giving me free shit, and giving other people free shit and I wanted to be the one giving people shit. Then I realized why don’t I make this so I could sell it? So I just started making clothes.
OTH: How did you come to make all of the clothes that you did? Because your drops are doing fairly well, your first drop sold out right away and then your pop up did pretty well. Moving forward, how many more collections should we be expecting?
B: I don't know man, I try not to take that stuff too seriously. Like I take it seriously as a brand, but just keep it relaxed. I’m always making new stuff, whenever I drop something I’ll already be making something new. So I’ll probably do another collection in the next couple of months and probably do a pop up in a different city.
OTH: Are you eyeing a particular city right now?
B: Probably Toronto.
OTH: Have you built up a fanbase there already?
B: Yeah I think I know enough people there and people who would buy there so I could have a successful pop up.
OTH: And right now ever since your first drop, have you expanded your team or is it just mainly you and just a few of your friends?
B: It’s just me mainly and then I’ll get people to do stuff that I can’t do. Like I’m not a photographer so I’ll get Boris Halas or my friend Finn to do it for me, or graphics I don’t entirely do so my boy Michael does most of my graphics.
BEAMSKII AND FRIENDS
OTH: So you just ask people, like hey can you help me with this or that, and you get stuff done? And you reach out to other people for manufacturing and everything else?
B: Yeah man like that’s the best way you could do it. It doesn’t hurt, the worst thing they could say is no.
OTH: That’s a very straightforward approach. Your approach to design isn’t necessarily so meticulous and by the book. Granted you haven’t gone straight to LaSalle College and you didn’t learn to be a designer or anything but you’re still finding these ideas to make things out of nowhere. Say for example your bandana drop, you accidentally made 250 instead of 25 or 50 and you said "You know what, with all these bandanas I’m just gonna make a fit out of it." it’s very on a whim.
B: I think it adds to what the brand is, it’s a very childish feeling brand, very youthful feeling brand. I feel like if it had a really strong identity, it wouldn't be on brand.
OTH: That’s one thing that was challenging when doing research. Looking into Garden Party and even you, it's hard to really pinpoint a specific identity, because everything is very much out there. Even your own personal IG is a mish mash of whatever's in your camera roll.
B: Yeah, it’s just whatever cursed thing I feel like posting today.
OTH: With you not thinking about what you do and being very open in the thought of what you’re doing, is there anything that you’re meticulous about?
B: I try pretty hard with marketing.
OTH: Where do you learn most of what you would do with marketing for Garden Party?
B: Honestly, just from picking up from what other brands do. I know a lot of people are ashamed of saying they pick up from other brands, but really there’s no other way to find out what to do than from other people. It’s not like watching other people, it’s just keeping an eye out for what could be cool.
OTH: Keeping along the theme of how your IG is very casual, even your Garden Party page, could you tell us why you would stop your Yung Nuggz page?
B: Crazy thing for you to know about, wow. Yung Nuggz was definitely a joke. It was something I did when I was like 12 or 13 and I just wanted to make jokes songs. And people found it really funny at school so I kept doing it until I got bored. I thought I just didn’t get anything out of it so I kinda stopped.
GARDEN PARTY X SCATTERBRAIN SHOOT FOR JULY POP UP
OTH: For Garden Party, you make clothes, accessories, etc., but do you plan on trying to release other stuff through it?
B: Oh 100%. I think the next big thing I want to do is shoes, but I also want to do some sort of music thing. I just thought of this today, but I want to get a bunch of songs that I like and put them onto cassettes and throw them into orders.
OTH: That’s sick, like old mixtapes type of vibes. That’s a neat marketing campaign. But shoes are gonna be hard to break into.
B: Yeah it might be a one time thing or whatever but if it happens, it happens.
OTH: You’ve said in the past you don’t like one off things. Like one pair of unique shoes type of thing?
B: Yeah, I find it a little bit lazy. Like you only found a way to make one pair. You made one but didn’t find a way to make a whole batch.
OTH: So would your take on shoes be something like you’re going to create your own silhouette or you’ll customize an existing silhouette?
B: My own silhouette for sure. But it’s the kind of thing that probably won’t happen soon, but it’s something I’m working on.
OTH: What’s been the biggest difficulty so far with Garden Party and how did you overcome that?
B: This is just a general thing, but thinking that somethings gonna happen and then it doesn’t. What I realize from that is you can’t announce anything until you’re 100% sure. Say something is not fully ready, you can’t make anything seem like it’s official until it is.
OTH: Is that something you learned the hard way?
B: Kind of. For the last denim I did, the first place I got it done with fucked me over and gave me a way higher quote than I needed like 2 weeks before the drop, so I had to improvise and do it with a whole other place.
OTH: You switched manufacturers in the middle of the production process?
B: Yeah, right before I was about to make the full thing, all the pieces, they told me I had to do like 3 times more than I wanted to and I just said I’m not gonna do that and found another place to do it super quickly.
OTH: That obviously pushed back your release schedule a little bit?
B: Kind of, not in the biggest way, just a little bit. I thought it was going to be worse than it was.
GARDEN PARTY "LET'S PARTY" SS21 CAMPAIGN
OTH: What do you think would be the coolest thing you’ve done so far since you’ve started Garden Party?
B: I’ve just met super cool people. Even meeting Night Lovell, I was a huge fan of his for a while. And another thing that I feel like a lot of people think but so do I, I think a younger version of me would see me now and think I’m the coolest person. That’s such an accomplishment.
OTH: In the future, maybe even 5 years from now, how do you want people to remember you from Garden Party or other ventures that you do?
B: As just some kid who was doing something he wanted to do. Just a kid having fun.
OTH: Do you find sometimes when you do these interviews, people just kind of ask you these questions that are kind of pretty heavy cause you are an up-and-coming brand but at the end of the day you’re just a kid trying to have fun?
B: I don’t think the questions are that heavy, I just don’t think I have all the answers yet.
OTH: Apart from Garden Party, is there anyone in the local scene that you’d like to collaborate with?
B: All sorts. Definitely Saintwoods, Pierre Bassene, Paye-Moi the glasses company, and probably Atypic too. And they’re all people I already know and I’m friends with. I’d rather support the homies than big fast fashion brands.|
OTH: Music has come up a lot during this interview. Would you say your love for music is something that plays a big role in the direction of Garden Party?
B: Uh maybe. Kind of, I’d say so. It’s really just random ideas I get. There’s nothing really set.
OTH: That’s the one thing that’s hard to get a real feeling for. Your ideas are solely your own and they come at you out of nowhere, so it’s hard to find an explanation for them.
B: Yeah, but of course they have to have something to do with at least something with recent culture. It needs to have something that people will want to buy. For example, people really like full zip hoodies, and I really liked the writing on Supreme Clientele by Ghost Face Killah, so I thought it’d be a cool design to use that font for my sweater, and I wanted a Bape full zip hoodie so I figured why not make my own?
OTH: For people starting off their own hustles, as somebody who just did it on a whim, what kind of advice would you give to people?
B: I know everyone says this, but honestly just have fun with it. If you realize you’re not having fun with it, just stop it. If you don’t enjoy it, it’s not gonna go anywhere, it’s not going to feel authentic.
OTH: When new opportunities are coming up, how do you deal with the stress or the feeling of having more expectations? Do you find your mentality changes from you wanting to have fun, to having to deal with an audience who expects things from you?
B: It’s still having fun but it’s also realizing that I can't just make stuff that I want. It has to be stuff that other people want too. Because some things that I think are the coolest are never the things that other people find the coolest. So I need to find the balance between that. I also feel that something a lot of people get caught up with is other people telling them stuff, I think the best solution is to just typically not listen and do what you want. If everyone wants you to do something, but you really don’t want to, then you shouldn’t even if it's gonna make you a lot of money. I don’t think it’s worth giving up what your brand is to make money.
