Meet Dorian Webster | Creative Director and Fashion Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dorian Webster and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dorian, what principle do you value most?
The principle of following your own path. This principle is distinctive to me because for many years I wanted to be in a group and felt like I belonged to a certain factor of people, and that even translated to early on in the brand wanting to showcase the same style of clothing and designs that I thought were good brands. It wasn’t until college and I was on my own figuring the world out on my own that I realized that I can’t journey in someone else boat that I had to really master myself and learn who I was and that transcended into my designs and the brand, really becoming my own and following my own path because this was my brand so the path had to be my own.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
So I am the Creative Director and Owner of Grand Avenue a clothing brand that centers around a clash of streetwear and High Fashion. I am both proud and excited about my process and journey because both have put me in a place of where my name IE the brand had been brought up in many different mouths and seen in many different apparatuses via magazines, instagram to the point that I’m in the place of making clothing for people over seas. I got to this point because I continue to enjoy my process and my time doing what I do and that alone has impacted the approach and visual I take and what people see of Grand Ave. To really signify how I got to this point professionally, I would say that it was because growing up I would go to clothing stores looking for clothes and I would never find what I would be looking for, whether it was almost what I wanted but it had this picture on there or it was the correct design but wasn’t the right fabric and color and I got tired of that and just thought if I’m doing this I know other people are having this problem too so why don’t I start a brand that I know people won’t have that same problem with. It definitely has not been an easy road and it still isn’t easy because you go through so many emotions of do people really like it ? Can I really scale this and make it big? Will I run out of ideas and concepts? How do I get people to see it? Daily and those emotions overwhelm you I’ve gone on periods of time where I wasn’t drawing out new designs or making anything because I had no inspiration to do so, but you have to be consistent and have the right core group around you to push you through those moments. I want people to know that the brand is yours! Yes it’s my brand, but in the same token it’s yours as well because I’ll never make it past the Louis Vuitton‘s of the world without you so it’s as much yours as it is mine. And the story of the brand will write itself nothing I can do to change it, it’ll be what it’s supposed to be.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Thankfully my best friend already lives in the city so we do these things almost every other day! We are a peculiar group of friends because everyday of the week we would reminisce our time in highschool, turn on episodes of “Roast Me” on YouTube and recite all of Kraig Smith’s best lines, go and get some chicken and Birria Tacos and then find a couple thift stores and compete on who can configure the best fits from what we find and then search the city for the best “flics” spot to take pictures and then rinse and repeat.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Really it would be my family and my close friends that I consider family, because they’ve seen me at my lowest and have probably believed in my dreams and goals more than myself at times. Steady pushing me to be my best throughout each piece and each idea.

Instagram: @Grandavenue1042 / @dwebster_34

Image Credits
Model: @drewtrulove @kyistoofly Photographer: @kdot.media @jacktaylor1771