Somewhere deep in Bed Stuy is a brownstone that was rumored to belong to the Woolworths family somewhere around a century ago. This brownstone is now home to the living space and closet of Jake Fleming, a creator who is best known for his eclectic style and outlandish, loveable personality. Fleming is not your average, stuffy fashion person. Part of his charm is showing up as enthusiastically online as he is offline. When I walk into his apartment on a Wednesday morning, I walk directly into what Fleming has turned into his closet—a street-facing primary bedroom with three, mahogany-clad windows and a fireplace with what appears to be its original tiling. A rich Persian rug fills the space, passed down from his grandmother. Almost all available walls are filled with clothing racks or cupboards, which reveal more rails of clothing.
For most people living in New York City, a singular wardrobe is a luxury, least of all an entire bedroom (Fleming’s actual bedroom is situated towards the back of the apartment). Here, light streams through the ornate windows, illuminating a collection so impressive that my team and I can’t help but utter “this is crazy” at least once every 10 minutes.
Noah Shaub
Fleming has been obsessed with fashion since he was 12 years old and fixated on an original Gianni Versace-style (he can’t confidently verify if it was authentic) shirt. “It was so gaudy and just insane. It was black and it had all these ombre effects going on and a huge Medusa head. That's kind of where my interest in luxury fashion began.” From there, there was a pivot to acting and a stint at FIDM, the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandisng, in Los Angeles. That’s where he met his now business partner, Jillian Foisie—recently, the pair launched a vintage venture, Lait New York, which offers a range of curated vintage pieces available to rent and buy.
Plenty of these pieces are on display in his closet. The mantle above the fireplace is lined with women’s vintage pumps from Prada and Celine; the exposed racks are heavy with Galliano jackets and Comme Des Garçons blouses. In his personal collection is a floor-length wool Saint Laurent Jacket, an original (real for sure this time) Gianni Versace suit with western gold metal accents, a Birkin from TheRealReal, and a shelf dedicated to his collection of novelty bags: Moschino lunch bags, bedazzled Balenciaga chip purses, Cult Gaia flower vases and resin grapes, JW Anderson animal figurines, and more. One might think they’re only there for content purposes, which Fleming agrees is part of the reason he collects them, but ultimately, they have become an extension of his style. “[They] made me fall in love with the art of creating something crazy, and that just fits so well with my personality of being chic, but also a little bit weird,” he tells me.
Ahead, step inside the closet and inner world of Fleming, where we discuss his approach to collecting, his relationship with having a style evolution online, and how he stays organized.
Noah Shaub
Tell me about your first memories of being interested in fashion.
“It started with this Versace shirt that I made my stepdad buy for me off of Amazon or something. I don't even know if it was real. I was 12. I was like, ‘this is the best thing ever.’ I would wear it all the time. Everyone knew that I would pull up in that shirt at least some point in the week. And it was so gaudy and just insane. It was black and it had all these ombré effects going on and a huge Medusa head. That's kind of where my interest in luxury fashion began.
And then just from 12 onwards it really blossomed. I started shopping at this store, or at least being interested in it because it was so expensive, called LF. They did reworked vintage and they had their own line and all their silhouettes were just so different from what everyone else was doing. But it was so fucking overpriced that I could never buy anything. And I remember saving up to buy this shirt that was two button downs sewn together. And I was like, ‘This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.’ What's funny is I ended up working at the store in LA when I first moved to LA. I was like, ‘I need to work at LF. I need to work at LF.’ And I worked there as a stylist when I first moved to LA at 18.”
When did you start collecting?
“When did I start collecting? When I had enough money to.
I don't think I really started building an archive and a collection until I started doing social media because that's when I had the funds to be able to invest in pieces that were actually quality and noteworthy. That's when I feel like I really got in touch with my own personal style, because I had access to things that I didn't have before. I think that's when it all blossomed.
Noah Shaub
Noah Shaub
Tell me about that journey with your style. Was it something that has always felt organic to you? How does it tie in with your identity?
“I've gone through so many different style evolutions. Even within the last two years or so, I was bleach blonde before this and my style was completely different. I was dressing more androgynous and I look back now and I'm like, ‘God, what the fuck was I wearing?’ But it's nice because it's cool to see different times of where I was at in life. Even before that, when I was still living in LA, my style was, personally, I look back now and think it was atrocious, but you all have to start somewhere.”
And then the vintage store, that's relatively new?
“Yeah, within the last year or so. I started it with one of my best friends, Jillian. Her and I went to FIDM together. She's a stylist and had her own vintage store that she would just run through Instagram. And I pitched her the idea of us creating our own company. We've launched one collection so far and we run a rental service where you can rent all the pieces and also purchase them. It's been great. We've been focusing a lot on doing editorials and stuff like that and getting some fun pulls and kind of just building that trust with a customer base that we have sick pieces.”
Where do you source from?
“All over the place. eBay has been a great partner with us because they partner with me as an individual, but they partnered with our store too. So they help us get access to stuff that we wouldn't necessarily be able to get, whether they've gifted us the items or they've given us a discount on the items or even just helped us in any way, shape or form. But we also source a lot whenever I go to Europe for fashion weeks. So like Milan, Paris, we get a lot of good stuff in Canada from Toronto and Montreal, which is kind of random.”
Noah Shaub
You just moved to New York too.
“Yes. Like a year and a half ago.”
Tell me about how that has affected the way you dress?
“It's helped my style so much. I think moving out of LA was the best decision to find myself a little bit more and find the way that I want to be perceived. New York really helps build your character, and I think I've ironed out how I want to look, and the silhouettes that I like to wear just by seeing how people dress here. It's so inspiring. And I think I align more with that more grungy city vibe rather than like warm, cutesy LA. Me moving here and being in this culture has helped a lot.”
What’s your approach when you're building your wardrobe?
“It took me a moment to get my shit together to figure out what I should keep in my closet and what I should get rid of. I kind of was at the point of just overconsuming and I had to have that realization of like, okay, pull back and only buy things that you know you're going to wear and are going to last. Because I remember when I first started this, all I wanted was just a closet full of clothes with no meaning to it. And now that I've matured and realized what I actually want; it's very much curated with pieces that I wear all the time and every single piece has a meaning.”
What does that look like for you when you talk about meaning?
“I need to feel something when I purchase it or how it looks on me. If it gives me that feeling that I just look hot, that's when I know. And I'm sure that goes for a lot of people, but you may think you look good in a piece one day and the next day you're like, wait, I fucking hate this thing. So before I really fall in love with something, I have to wear it a bunch of times before I'm like, wait, thank God I bought that.
I do rotate a lot though. It also just comes with the job. We get sent so much shit, so it's like going through and not overconsuming the amount of stuff that gets thrown at you and figuring out what you actually like and not getting lost. I feel like a lot of creators or fashion people get lost because they get sent in so much shit. So they're like, ‘Do I just like this because it was free?’ Instead of actually enjoying it. So I've had a hard time trying to balance that.”
Noah Shaub
Noah Shaub
How do you balance honoring your personal style while maintaining fruitful relationships with the fashion brands you work with?
“It is a lot, but you need to have a strong vision for yourself and not be, I guess, jaded by free stuff being thrown at you because you can't be a puppet. You need to have your own aura and energy and what you like. So obviously not everything that these brands send you is going to work, and that's okay. And I'm sure the brands know that, but I think having a strong sense of self and knowing what you're looking for and what you're aligned with is the key in that situation.”
How do you organize your closet?
“I organize it in a way that works with my ADHD brain—so, seeing everything in a clean, organized manner. Whether that's [organizing by] color, style, type, I need [the clothes] to be in a specific section so that when I want to grab something from that section, it's right there. If I had a typical New York closet—which I'm so grateful that I don't—I don't think I'd be able to get dressed. I need to physically see everything to know what I have and to test the waters of what's going to work and what's not going to work. I've always been like that. Even when I had my small closet growing up and I first started getting into fashion, I used to organize the shit out of that thing and it was like one of those sliding door closets.”
What's your favorite part of your closet?
“Honestly, the whole thing. It's also new because I just moved in here, so I feel like I'm just overzealous about everything in here right now, but I do love that the insides of the closets light up. Sometimes I come in here at nighttime and don't turn the lights on. I just open it and then it's like angels singing.”
Noah Shaub
Tell me something about your style that you feel like might surprise me.
“What's surprising? I feel like I'm such an open fucking book. Perhaps that I like to dress very masc sometimes. That's just something that I found myself doing, I guess, within the last year or so, is giving less androgynous and more masculine. I think I'm more aligned in that realm now. I think that the way that I want to be perceived and the way that I'm liking clothes fitting my body now is more masculine rather than feminine. I like being able to mix women's and men's clothes. Also, I'm a smaller individual, so I think women's pants and tops fit me better, but then sometimes I like things that are bigger and more bulkier, which is usually menswear. That's kind of what we try to do with the vintage store too. We try not to make it too gendered. Everything can be pretty much mixed matched.”
When we first came in, you were telling us about acting and that being your first love? How does that intersect with what you're doing now and where do you see what you're doing now push into acting?
“So I started acting when I was 10 and I think having that theatrical side and a classically trained brain to perform at such a young age helped me be able to perform in front of a camera, which is what I do every single day. It's still my organic self, but I think it's definitely helped me in feeling comfortable being able to film and do things like this and be in front of a camera crew or whatever. It's definitely helped me be a lot more comfortable. It's also given me the confidence to just do whatever the fuck I want without thinking. I'm just a psycho, honestly, that's what it comes down to, but it really has opened a lot of doors and avenues for me, especially with the show that I do now called ‘WYD?’ The show's not scripted, but there are scripted moments where acting does come into it.
Noah Shaub
Tell me about the novelty bags. Is it more like how the internet reacts to a piece like that?
“I'm so happy you asked this because I talk about it all the time and this goes with my personal style too. I used to dress for the internet, not for myself because I would see that it would do well, and I had to step back and be like, ‘I don't fucking like any of this.’ It's just, the crazier it is, the more views you get, and now I need to pull back and figure out what I actually like. And the bags started that way because I knew that it was going to get attention, but then from that, it made me fall in love with the art of creating something crazy and it just fits so well with my personality of being chic, but also a little bit weird. And so collecting them, they're kind of like art pieces now to me, and I still wear them. I wear them out not as often as I would a Birkin or something like that, but I enjoy them. I think they make me happy and I love the conversation that it starts.”
On the note of dressing for the internet, what was that like, shifting aesthetics?
“It kind of was an internal battle. When I switched my hair from being bleached to brown, that's when I felt the biggest transition in my style happening. I was looking back and I was like, ’What the fuck was I doing?" I look back now and I see that this is what people were eating up on TikTok and Instagram at the time and I'm just like...Yeah, that's where I was at the time too. I thought that's how I wanted to dress, but now I've never felt more aligned with where I am now because I've had the realization. I feel like I turned 25 and woke up and was like, ‘Okay, you're mature now and you don't need to only do things based on what's going to get you money and views.’ And that's when I felt like I really fell in love with the art of what I do and it made me understand myself better. I think my connection with my audience has gotten better because now it feels more organic, rather than just throwing things in their face for a view. It actually feels authentic.”
Credits:
Photographer: Noah Shaub
Editor-in-Chief: Faith Xue
Senior Fashion Editor: Ella O'Keeffe
Social Strategy Lead: Kala Herh
Social Creative Lead: Natasha Sheridan
