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, what’s 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: What’s your background in designing? I know you wanted to do architecture before, but I haven’t 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 don’t 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 and…
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?
Me: Is there any big lessons you guys have learned so far?
D: For me, when you take time with your designs and everything it’ll be the best instead of trying to rush something. And stay away from stuff you’re used to seeing because you’ll see it repeated everywhere. Especially in Cleveland, if you’re trying to see something that’s Cleveland-based then almost everybody who’s 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 order—all the designs in order, getting all the merchandise and everything in—before 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 don’t have a business mind and don’t think about supply and demand…
Los: I’m 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 can’t think of the other one…
"High Chiefess" and "Chiefed Wahoo" designs from the Beautiful Beyond Measure Fall/Winter 2013 collection.
D: With the Chief Wahoo, we’re from Cleveland. The Cleveland Indians are my favorite baseball team, so when he made that design I was like, “Aww, that’s dope.” It’s my favorite team so I felt obligated kind of. And the other one I was thinking—cause 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 ‘em together.
Me: I’m glad you steered away from that because everyone’s 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 I’ll see random stuff and I’ll think that’s cool. I mean I don’t 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. That’s 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, I’m really not gonna come up with anything. I don’t know why that’s just how my mind is. Just blank. But most of the time it’s just random. Something will come to me randomly and I’ll be like, “Oh, I gotta get home and draw that up.” That’s how most of it comes along for me.
Me: That’s dope, that’s dope. I think those are all the questions I have, is there anything you want the readers to know? Why should they buy?
D: It’s 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--everybody’s doing the Egyptian thing now, people are putting words on a t-shirt. That’s done a lot now, but it’s repetitive. Instead of going toward something everyone’s doing they should be doing something different and people will like that better.
Los: Not really…. Since we are online, we’re going to be looking for people’s approval because they’re 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. That’s 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.
