Written By Hunter Craighill
Julian Edwards is the designer and owner of Pocket Nails, a fashion project in Nashville. Edwards is originally from Los Angeles, but moved to Nashville to pursue his fashion dreams and build the Pocket Nails brand. At 20 years old with already an online store and new line of clothing dropping soon, Edwards has a lot to look forward to as he grows the brand and builds out the store. Nuance sat down with him for an interview earlier this month.
What were the first things you did that put you in the position you are in now?
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been kind of restless, like always fiddling with something. So the first little project I did was when I was maybe fifth or sixth grade I had a white pair of sambas and I just took a red sharpie and outlined everything on it. It looked kind of dumb, but it was what kind of kicked me into fashion stuff. The first kind of more organized thing that I did might have been on Microsoft Paint or something, but I made a design and printed it and just handed it out to all of my closest friends.
So what is “Pocket Nails?” What allows it to be what it is?
I guess it’s just kind of an homage to self and just like true authenticity of my creative state. I just think its a very good broadcast of the way I feel and the way I dress.
Biggest Design inspiration?
I mean I point to a couple, but number one I would have to say Kansai Yamamoto. The late 80’s early 90’s designer from Japan. He was just kind of the first to do that crossover between western style and street wear. Like Bombers with fringe and big bold letters across the back that said Yamamoto or whatever.
How did your family of entrepreneurs influence you?
Oh I mean they are my biggest inspiration by far. In terms of entrepreneurship. My family started as starving artists and creatives, and they just tried to make it work for years before it finally clicked. I saw that my whole life and was really a pretty big part of a lot of it, so that was kind of the “American Dream” that I saw.
How did you meet your mentor?
Well, it’s kind of a silly story. I broke my knee cap in half so I was immobilized for six months. After month three and a couple surgeries I was on crutches. I was living back in LA at the time, but my brother who lives here was a personal assistant for Amanda Shires. I needed to get out a bit so I just shadowed him for about a week. After following him around and not doing much for most of the week, we ended up at Manuel’s shop. I was wearing one of the western shirts that I had made that just said Pocket Nails. The secretary liked it and told me to come do an internship. By the time I could walk again, I did the internship for a few weeks and they offered me the full time job.
Talk about your upcoming collection.
A big part of where I am is just legitimizing and getting things as tight as possible. The designs are already kind of there, but now it’s just the production, logistics, like the photoshoots, the publicity, all that stuff. Currently I have this project that’s still small, maybe 10 pieces, but they are high intensity, extreme focus pieces that I’ll spend days on. It’s nearly complete, but I feel kind of like I’m working on my Magnum Opus right now. I’m really excited for this one to come out.