Atlanta has been dubbed the pop culture capital of the USA, which should come as no surprise since they have Hall of Famers in Future, Childish Gambino and Ludacris on their roster. One of their biggest stars is @FredSaintFoster, who has served as a model of consistency throughout Atlanta’s rise. Whether he was investing, designing, or creative directing for superstars, Fred woke up a lot of people with his work.
J.E.: What was your childhood like?
F.F.: I was born in London and grew up in Ghana. I grew up with 4 brothers and 1 sister in a pretty normal middle-class household. My dad was an architect and ran his own firm, after a while he moved his practice to our home. He built his office on the same property as our house to spend more time with us. Being the youngest of six kids, I was a mama’s boy by default… but I always felt like I didn’t get to spend enough time with my Dad, so I would just sneak into his office from time to time trying to figure out what he was doing. Every moment he got, he would show me how to draw something, how to doodle. Teach me little things about architecture, like how to use curves and lines. Drawing objects and perspectives. Looking back, that’s where I fell in love with design. Watching him work, and being in that environment was a warm feeling.
F.F.: Most of my siblings are boys, so growing up I inherited a lot of hand-me-down clothes and shoes. I really hated that as a kid but thinking about it now, as a parent, it makes a lot of sense. We also all went to the same school and my brothers were popular so I had to find ways to alter or customize their old looks. At least make it less obvious when we went places. I was doing botched dye jobs at like six or seven years old. I guess it was more about having my own identity but that’s where my spirit of ingenuity comes from.
J.E.: When did you travel to the United States?
F.F.: In 2001. I was a young teen. I had family in New York so I assumed we would move to New York. Growing up Hip-Hop was run by New York. Nas, Biggie, Diddy, Jay-Z, Wu-Tang Clan. We really were kids having East Coast, West Coast arguments in Africa. My brother and I were heavy East Coast hip-hop guys so we couldn’t wait to move to New York and be in that mix. My parents had a different idea. They wanted us to have a good education so they moved us to Athens, GA to prep for the University of Georgia. “What the fuck?”. I was very disappointed. I had never heard any of my favorite rappers' rep Athens, GA.
F.F.: Moving to Athens was a culture shock more than I think a major city like New York would’ve been. When we moved in 2001 there wasn’t any representation of African cool for most people. We hadn’t made our mark on pop culture with Afro-Beats yet. So most people's point of reference were those sad commercials with the kids with flies on their face. The bullshit! . I had the burden of proving we were cool. I had to be overconfident. Because it’s either that or - especially in high school - you’re a kid from Africa and they would take every opportunity to poke fun. And it wasn’t about the jokes, I could take the jokes but I felt like I owed it to my home to somewhat kill the stereotypes. So I started stunting as much as possible. I’ve always been the fashion guy. I literally found a job just to buy clothes. I had a lot of BAPE, Mitchell & Ness throwbacks, and all the Jordans. I overdid it. Fast forward now, we have guys like Burna Boy and Wiz Kid, who have helped change that dynamic a lot. Not just them but so many others have helped shape a new worldview. Ghana is one of the most popular vacation spots in the world now. I take that attitude to Atlanta, wherever we go.
J.E.: Where did you go from there?
F.F.: Well I didn’t go to U.G.A. I moved to Atlanta after graduating high school and started making t-shirts. I understood from my high school experience that fashion was a universal language that breaks cultural barriers and I wanted to be part of that. I also didn’t want to wear what everyone else was wearing, BAPE and throwbacks were old for me by the time everyone caught on so I started making my own shirts. I would give a few to my friends and we would mob out to a club or something. We would get asked questions about what we had on a lot so, I started selling them. That turned into manufacturing, branding, going to trade shows, etc. At the same time, I was just doing different corporate jobs to pay the bills.
F.F.: But I wasn’t satisfied with just making t-shirts, so I started trying to figure out the cut and sew business. The person who inspired me to do that was Scott Sasso of 10 Deep. 10 Deep was one of the companies that killed the cut and sew game early on. I really wanted to do that. So, I did a lot of research and found some local manufacturers. The work wasn’t as good as 10 deep then but fuck it, I made it work. I started taking custom orders. That’s actually how I met Future. Ebonie who still manages Future now - used to run a store in the city. She was one of the first people who put my clothes in her store. She called me out of the blue and needed some custom pieces for Future for a video. I pulled up with that heat and the video turned out to be “Love Me.” With Drake and Lil Wayne. Shout Out Ebonie Ward.
J.E.: How do you decide what to make?
F.F: I have a rule. When I get an idea, I believe that’s a higher power picking me to do something. I always follow those instructions. Any thoughts or feelings I have in fashion I tend to prioritize. I don’t rationalize. I believe that certain people are on like a conveyor belt and there are frequencies and signals sent to us. If you don’t act on it when the signal hits you, the belt will keep moving and the signal will hit the next person in line. There are certain people that are going to be hit with a signal and that signal is going to make its way into the universe. You can either be that person that receives that signal and runs with it or the person that says, “I don’t know how I can do that”, only to see someone else bring that idea to the universe. Even though everything may not land, I’m still taking every shot.
F.F.: I also have a sixth sense of what’s going to happen next. I usually see things much earlier than most people. I’ve been adjusting my timing a little bit because I don’t want to be so far ahead that I’m misunderstood. Being right on time is the true genius.
J.E.: You - talented people - make it sound so easy.
F.F: Let me say this. I didn’t know I had talent. I knew I had passion. If I would’ve waited for someone to acknowledge my talent in this industry, I might have given up a long time ago. It’s cool to have talent, but I believe it’s better to have a purpose. I’ve always been the guy that never fit in. That didn’t belong. I had to rewire my brain to keep going because I knew my path would be different. There’s no metric for passion and purpose.
F.F.: Does it hurt that I don’t get recognition? It does. I would like to. Is that enough to stop me from doing what I’m doing? No. At the end of the day, this validation of people spending their hard-earned money on something that I conceptualized and developed trumps any type of industry accolades. That’s the goal - to create and develop ideas.
F.F.: The longer it takes for them to notice, the bigger of a monster I become. It’s all ammunition for me, I have even more to prove. Doubt is a motivator for me.
J.E.: What’s next?
F.F: This is the frustrating part of the journey. I have so many ideas that I’m not able to scale as fast as my mind develops these ideas. My vision for the long term is for Cease & Desist to be its own world. Take everything I love from Sci-Fi movies to architecture to furniture and merge them into something unique. it’s a broad vision that takes a lot of time to get right but I’m staying on this journey.
F.F.: Eventually, a lot of these concepts will be realized. You’re going to start seeing a lot more of this vision. I eventually want to end up doing the family business, architecture. I want the take this world we create and put them in structures for the world to see.
J.E.: At the end we do shoutouts and inspiration.
F.F: Thanks to my family, my wife, and my kids. Thanks to my Cease & Desist team and everyone who has had my back throughout my journey. Love!