Evan Mock‘s nearly-overnight rise from skate rat to fashion industry insider can be traced to a one-off video captured by Tom Sachs. From humble beginnings, Mock took the fashion industry by storm in 2019, making waves as a model and influencer without losing sight of his passions or his friends.
Sachs met Mock in the 22-year-old’s hometown of Oahu. Taken by Mock’s bright pink hairdo — which reminded Sachs of his friend, Frank Ocean — Sachs told the skater to “say hi to Frank” and “show us what you got,” before sending the clip to the “In My Room” singer. “I was like, ‘okay, that was the Frank he’s talking about,’” Mock recalls. “That’s really wild.” The next day, January 4, 2019, Ocean uploaded the video to his Instagram page and tagged Mock’s own account.
It didn’t take long for friends and followers to take note: In August 2018, Mock was selling prints on Instagram — By August 2019, Mock had photographed a star-studded Saint Laurent photo diary for V Magazine, walked for the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2020 runway and toured the world with Travis Scott.
“There are so many times where I’m like, ‘Am I blowing it by doing this? … I should just be a skater,’” considers Mock, as he visits the office of celebrity jeweler Lorraine Schwartz. “Having a good circle around you and having people who believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself is a really big, huge thing.” Schwartz sets Mock up with some unmissable gems, as the young creative soaks it all in. “I feel like I still don’t know what I want to do, but that’s a big part of paving your own path: You’re in the dark a lot.”
Of all the incredible opportunities from the past year, which specific moment sticks out? “The most major thing was having a mannequin made of [me],” Mock says, in reference the recent Louis Vuitton pop-up at Selfridges. “I used to be scared to go into [luxury stores] because I … didn’t have the money to look. I didn’t even know I was able to walk in there! So the fact that I have a mannequin made of me is crazy… Thanks Virgil.”
