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The Maroon
Page 5
May 11997/
Masters of Design
ou've seen his pieces in
Xanadu and Armaged
don. And who
couldn't help but see
that sistah with the
blond blowout wig at
Underground Live,
wearing the wrapped
skirt and knitted top? Is she out of con
trol or what?
I decided to find out for myself and
soon discovered that both of them —
William Gilbert and Whitney Mero — are
younger than you would believe. (He’s
twenty-one, and she's eighteen.) And
no, she is not a diva — like the other
Whitney— and neither is he.
On any given day, you'd probably find
him at Kinko's in Buckhead, a favorite
networking hang-out of his. Or you've
probably seen Whitney, a Freshman So
ciology/Pre-Med major, around cam
pus, crocheting one of her signature hal
ter tops.
"I've been hellbent on making some
thing that looks good for black women
— big hips, big ass, small to medium
waists," she insists. "Just the black girl's
figure."
But what about the brothers? "What
about us?" I ask her.
"I would hook the brothers up," she
says, laughing and blushing at the com
ment. "But I don't think I could be as
creative with them. I wouldn't know
where to start."
Luckily, that's not a dilemma for Wil
liam Gilbert, who is mainly a men's
clothier, although he recently intro
duced women's apparel into his line. A
student at Bauder College, he began his
design career while modeling after giv
ing up a baseball scholarship at a small,
Christian junior college. "Man, they had
too many curfews," he recalls humor
ously.
"I used to go to fashion shows and see
other people's work. But I never did see
men's clothes," he continues. "And
"I've been hellbent on making
something that looks good for
black women --big hips, big
ass, small to medium waists.
Just the black girl's figure."
when I did see menswear, I knew I could
do better than that. I just started, and it
took me a while."
Of course, both William and Whitney
are not without their share of issues with
the fashion industry (i.e. the commer
cialism, stereotyping, politics, etc.).
"You have certain big names out there,
and those are the people who are mo
nopolizing everything," she explains.
"It’s ridiculous when a T-shirt with
Calvin Klein on it is costing $40 . . . But
you look at the art, and it’s not art any
more. It's just the name."
"They [some people] think more men
in the fashion industry are kind of femi
nine," Gilbert says of a widely-known
misconception. "That's one thing I'm
not. I don't mind working with them
[homosexuals], but to each his own."
"The other thing is when people take
your idea and say they created it. And
it's not from younger people. It’s the
by rodney b. gabriel
contributing writer
Whitney Mew
older ones," he says of past incidents
with other Atlanta designers.
In the future, Gilbert hopes to do
"movies, acting — stuff like that. Pro
duction. I'm like Quincy Jones. I want
to do it all."
Lately, Gilbert has caught the eye of
SoSoDef and LaFace Records. Does that
mean clothing Toni Braxton? (Less we
forget that dress at the AMAs.) "I want
to do her gown for the next Grammy
Awards. That's one of my projects I'm
trying to do now," he says. "So I'm try
ing to talk to them now to let me do it.
If tlaey like it, that's wonderful. If they
don’t, I know I just tried."
Within the next five years, Whitney
sees laerself at the Fashion Institute of
Technology in New York. But currently,
she tries balancing scliool with her or
ders as soon as they come in.
"I can be cocky as hell," she admits.
"I can be like 'Do you know who I am?'
But I try to be humble. Sometimes, it
doesn't work, but with my clothes, I
have to be because they are so much I
greater than I am . . . They’ll be here af
ter I’m gone."
NOTE: For more details William
Gilbert’s clothing line, call (770) 593-
3802. Info on apparel by Whitney Mero
can be obtained at (770) 753-0472.
