odissea mens

From Accra to NY

JALIL

I've always been a true believer that things happen at their right timing.

I'm someone who doesn't have patience, but again and again experiences show me how this is the magic to a perfect timed life.

I was recently coming up with a new shoot idea since I wanted to launch the mens pieces. After planning, moodboarding and getting things together, tinny details still made it hard to finalize.

One Friday night as I speed-walked all bundled up down West Broadway heading to dinner I saw at a glance a guy outside of the Ralph Lauren store. I noticed he stared back at me for a second but since it was freezing cold I kept walking, but a couple of steps further, I stopped.

"I think a guy behind us would be perfect for the shoot, you think it's weird I ask him?" - "Go for it, the worst that can happen is he says no" - True that. I turned around and came over to him. "Excuse me do you model? | have a jewelry brand and I am looking for a model. If you'd be interested I can send you more info" I can be awkward, to the point that I didn't even introduce myself and I asked for his name at the end of the conversation... yes, but I left happy, with a phone number and his name, Jalil.

We decided to meet Monday January 16th.

Since everything had been so impromptu I was obviously not prepared, but took the weekend to stroll around stores and wander in the city looking for clothes. We meet at 11:20 in the LES. Since the day was nice we decided to shoot outside - it was freezing.

This fire incandescent outfit was number 1 - it was insane. The contrast, colors, the whole composition... As we were getting more comfortable all together Shane shot and I did too - We like doing this since we get more angles and because we also shoot with different types of cameras.

Jalil kept posing and with very little guidance the pictures were looking pretty amazing. We were freezing between outfits but prevailed.

As we were wrapping up and talking some more

Jalil told us that he comes from Accra-Ghana, Africa. He used to be a spice trader back in his hometown, but with COVID life in general got more complicated and about 6 months ago he moved to New York.

New York, the land of opportunity. Where many of us come to chase dreams and open a door beyond our imagination.

His short narrative touched me. It made me think how l've always loved how New York brings together people from every place in the world and from every walk of life - and this my friends, is what I have always truly treasured of my 10 years here.

I hope you can see these pictures through the real eye behind the camera.

Beyond them being just how I envisioned them, the story behind them is what makes them perfect.The reason why I like the blog is because I get to write about anything related to odissea and this story was so amazing and has much more to it, that I felt it was a great story to share.

I am very excited and really looking forward to designing new pieces for men.

Considering that I am a person who often gravitates into masculine styles I can't wait to see what we create and where this leads too. I couldn't be happier with how 4 years after I started this journey, mens came along

Xx