What is The Meaning Behind Fear of God brand? Everything You Need To Know About Fear of God

His L.A. label made him a streetwear king, but his current collection is different. He’s close to becoming the next Ralph Lauren. Jerry Lorenzo was in Paris when he met Barneys’ then-important buyers. Lorenzo had just started a clothing brand he called Fear of God, but he didn’t yet know how fashion houses and aspiring fashion houses operated. Men’s and women’s collections are issued only at a few agreed-upon times a year. When he saw the executives at Barneys, he immediately offered to show them his garments, but he’d missed his window: “They said, ‘Well, it’s not our buying calendar, currently, but we can meet you in New York in a week or so if you just want to show it to us.’ ” A polite meeting. Unfazed, Lorenzo answered, “Okay.”

He was known for throwing parties in Los Angeles at the time. T-shirts, sweatshirts, flannels, and tank tops with exaggerated vertical proportions looked like streetwear, a disparaging name for the casual trend that was just forming and has since engulfed men’s fashion. Virgil Abloh introduced Lorenzo to the Barneys buyers when he was developing Off-White and working for Kanye West. Abloh was taken less seriously at the time, he told me, referring to their “streetwear” label. Abloh remarked, “To label it streetwear is to say: That’s not fashion design.”

After Paris, Lorenzo wasn’t sure if his work was fashion design, but he exhibited it to a department store nevertheless. How should things be done? Lorenzo was unaware. Barneys believed in the clothing, which channeled The Breakfast Club, Kurt Cobain, and Lorenzo’s wandering American childhood. The retailer bought the collection on the spot, despite what they’d told Lorenzo in Paris. “I knew then I didn’t need to play,” Lorenzo stated.

Barneys bought five of his collections over the next six years as his reputation developed. On Abloh’s recommendation, Kanye West engaged Lorenzo as a design consultant. Their partnership spanned West’s Yeezus tour, his debut collection for A.P.C., and Yeezy seasons one and two. Jay-Z, Rihanna, and John Mayer donned Fear of God, and some pieces and silhouettes became ubiquitous, replicated by everyone from Lorenzo’s contemporaries to Zara and H&M. Jared Leto, who modeled for Fear of God’s sixth collection, said, “He’s a pioneer in premium streetwear.” His work goes beyond that.

Fear of God was formerly part of a trend—”luxury streetwear”—but as the business has transformed, Lorenzo’s garments have become mainstream. Fear of God endures after Barneys and much of the old establishment disappeared. Lorenzo half-jokingly blamed us for Barneys’ demise. Fear of God, Off-White, and other brands formed by Black designers that merged streetwear and high fashion were gate-crashers when they started, but they were talented gate-crashers. Their success opened the door for hundreds of other streetwear firms and designers, most of whom lacked creativity and ambition. Lorenzo claimed retailers like Barneys assumed what he performed was easy or repeatable by someone who looked like him. “Barneys proceeded in this way, like ‘Oh, there must be so many other companies like this,'” Lorenzo remarked. “No, there isn’t. This room has some strong opinions. After we broke through, all kinds of brands came in. I thought, “Perhaps we indirectly killed Barneys.”

Tattooed and gorgeous Lorenzo told me this story in Fear of God’s temporary headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, where the firm is building a permanent facility. He sat at a huge table surrounded by his latest collection. Fear of God utilizes a few Italian manufacturers to make tailoring and knitwear, but most of their clothing is made in Los Angeles at 13 separate factories. Lorenzo chose to remain in America in Southern California. Abloh moved to Europe, the traditional fashion powerhouse, after Off-success. White’s So did Matthew Williams, currently the creative director of Givenchy. Lorenzo remains. Partly, he told me, this is because “in my heart of hearts — and this is maybe the Blackness in me — I’m not really wanted there anyway.”

Lorenzo has stayed in America because of his ambitions. “My strengths aren’t in artistic, conceptual fashion,” he said. “How do you make sophistication everyday?” Fear of God may have looked frivolous or rarefied at first, but Lorenzo had broader, more universal goals. He told me he wants to create clothes for everyone, like Ralph Lauren. “That’s it,” Lorenzo said.

Lorenzo believes this despite the vastness of Ralph Lauren’s empire. He feels his distinctively American upbringing makes him the candidate to succeed the most renowned American fashion designer of the previous 50 years. Lorenzo informed me Lauren had an American perspective. Now, 50 years later, the world is more diverse and style clues are everywhere. Whereas his stylistic cues came from one group or one desire, mine come from a wider range of American aspirations.”

Lorenzo puts out a new Fear of God collection when he’s ready, once a year or so. His seventh collection features jeans, sneakers, and a graphic ode to the Negro Leagues, but for the first time, it also includes upgraded knitwear, louche suiting, and loafers: casual but well designed items to be worn inside the gates.

Since its August debut, the collection has been hailed as a breakthrough—”a punctuation mark between ’emerging’ and ’emerged,'” as Vogue put it. Lorenzo’s collection takes the same enthusiasm he put into revolutionizing streetwear and applies it to the full male wardrobe. Fear of God no longer makes merely T-shirts, as his old sweatshirt may have said. Makes anything you put on.

“He’s really sophisticated,” remarked Zegna’s artistic director Alessandro Sartori, with whom Lorenzo partnered this year. “Not just one element. The mix of materials, colors, attitude, and mood is stylish and refined. Abloh: “Jerry’s current collection is the peak of contemporary American luxury.”

Fear of God’s mix of God, baseball, Nirvana, rap, suburban malls, and rare vintage is genuine. Born Jerry Lorenzo Manuel, he is the son of former MLB manager Jerry Manuel. He grew up traversing the country as his father changed positions, always being the new kid. “I’ve crossed worlds my whole life, going to an all-white school and attempting to blend in with a small group of Black students and punks and skaters,” he said. “And Fear of God has been able to take all those signs and say one thing. It’s not hip-hop, grunge, or Wall Street. We’re saying, “This is American style.

Jerry Lorenzo wears what he designs, and many of Fear of God’s classic silhouettes are on him. Fear of God outfits are narrow on the bottom, enormous on top, and often layered inside out, short on top of long, as though the person got dressed in reverse. “Even though my dad coached in the minors, we never had money,” he remarked. “Being in certain circles and not having the money to buy the things you wanted to represent, I tried to use what I had in the best way possible to have a point of view—whether that’s turning my T-shirt inside out to show I’m not caring or playing on proportions, with a hip-hop jacket and Hedi Slimane jeans.” Jared Leto: “His work is founded on his personal experience, interests, and goals.” When you wear Fear of God, you share that vision.”

Jerry Manuel coached the Montreal Expos and Florida Marlins before managing the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets. Manuel: “I think he derives his motivation from those athletes he was around who had swagger.” “He never considered the sport’s strategy.He knows less about strategy than my other kids. But he was looking at the uniform, the ballpark, and what should be on the uniform: ‘The logo should be over here, Dad, and not over there.’ I’d say, “I’m winning games.” I don’t care!'”

The Manuel household had great faith (the moniker Fear of God is literal), lofty expectations, and persistent self-confidence. Renette, Lorenzo’s mother, stated, “In Him we live, move, and have our being.” When you’re confident, you live and move in that. She said Lorenzo was a “easygoing but deliberate” child.

Lorenzo’s goals were unclear to him for years. He played baseball at Oral Roberts before transferring to Florida A&M. “I was fine, but I… If I’d been drafted, I’d have spent four or five years in the minors and never reached the majors.

Instead, he got an MBA from Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles and worked for the Dodgers. In 2008, he returned to Los Angeles after a year in Chicago as a sports agent. He was Matt Kemp’s manager and dated Meagan Good, who introduced him to L.A.’s nightlife. Lorenzo: “Every night.” “I had a Rolodex of promoters, nightclubs, and socialites from my Hollywood lover.”