Princess Nokia grins. Her wide mouth drips with blood, her t-shirt is emblazoned with the words Toxic Shock over the image of a little lamb. The image is the original cover selected MadeMe’s creator Erin Magee made for her new Rizzoli photo book. For mass release they went with a more toned down Princess Nokia holding her hands like a glock, though there’s a 500-issue run of Magee’s cover with limited availability. Shot by photographer Mayan Toledano, the bloody picture is a photo that perfectly captures the MadeMe girl. She’s singular: a punk rock demon princess guided by her own defiance. She’s the little lamb who’s eaten the wolf.
The eponymous MadeMe book is a sturdy 240 pages that documents the streetwear brand’s early years and subsequent rise in the streetwear scene. Magee (who has also been Chief Creative Officer of Supreme) understands that what makes a streetwear brand excellent isn’t necessarily the clothing but the community around it, and she has an unparalleled eye for spotting talent. Over time she has become the ultimate arbiter and matriarch of a certain sect of downtown It-Girls: Coco Gordon-Moore, Paloma Elsesser, Lourdes Leon, Amandla Stenberg, Beatrice Domond, and Petra Collins to name a few. The first time I interviewed Erin was for a Dr. Martens collaboration featuring a then mostly unknown Lola Young. Within the month Young’s music shot off on TikTok, skyrocketing her into the mainstream.
Beyond identifying talent, Magee also fosters it, encouraging a queer female perspective that has historically been left out of streetwear. Her collaborators are her community and this new book is the ultimate product of that; women who never have time for anyone always find time for Magee. British Vogue’s Chioma Nnadi wrote the foreword, Lourdes Leon handwrote the introduction, Princess Nokia is reading at the launch dinner.
Initially the interview was just going to be with Magee but she suggested Mayan, who shot the majority of the photos in the book, join as well. This is exactly the type of person Magee is. She’s always eager to give more and not less. It’s also exactly the type of brand MadeMe is: inclusive and unfussy. Ahead of the launch I chatted over video with Erin Magee and Mayan Toledano about the new book.
How did you two meet?
EM: Through Petra Collins. Almost 10 years ago, Petra sent me a DM or tweet or whatever and was like, I want one of your leather jackets. She sent me a selfie at Opening Ceremony. She was like, “But, it’s expensive. Can I do a project for you, and then you can give me a leather jacket?” I was like, of course. We did this cute zine together, and Mayan came. I have a very clear memory. You had this big bag, with your stickers and all your girly compacts, and you just turned my bedroom into this Barbie paradise. I was like, “Wow, this girl is so cool and cute.” Then later Petra was like, I think you should be friends with my friend. And she really introduced us. We’ve kind of have worked together ever since.
MT: The shoot for the cover [of this book] has to be one of my favorite memories in my entire life.
EM: It was such a special moment. Destiny [Princess Nokia] had just put out 1992 and as a person, she was exploding. She was that generation’s Kathleen Hanna or Lady Miss Kier, just changing how women were perceived downtown, musically.
Was the shoot before, after she threw soup, hot soup, on the guy on the subway?
EM: We did the shoot before, and the week the photos came out is when she threw the soup. So the photos went like, VIRAL because it was like you shot the girl that threw the soup.
Soup?
EM: This guy was saying racial shit to some woman, and Destiny stood up for this woman. And someone took a video and it went viral. But that’s why we love Destiny. It was the most punk thing ever. It’s just an amazing video.
What was the cover shoot like?
MT: So there’s this gross Valentine’s motel in Pennsylvania. It has all the classics, a heart shaped bathtub, a champagne glass hot tub, a clear tower size champagne cup, and round beds and mirrors and a pool with mirrors. I think we rented two rooms for it. It was like a playground for me, those rooms, they’re disgusting, but I loved them. I think I even stayed there that night. It was a very cold day, and we took Destiny. She was so down for everything. She was amazing. Once the cameras are on Destiny, the world changes. It’s just fireworks. You need CCTV cameras when you’re with her. I brought this old red Volvo, and I really wanted a photo of Destiny in the window of the car, a really Missy Elliot photo with huge glasses. It’s in the book. As soon as we came out she sat in the car, and it was so cold, she sat in the car in this bitchy patent leather suit, and was leaning in the window of the car in these huge glasses. She just looks at me through the glasses and says, “There’s not going to be too much modeling in this car.” It sums it up. It’s so Destiny. It’s like, it’s cold, she’s not gonna do much, but what she did is also a cover photo, just like that.
EM: That’s what the whole book is about, all these anecdotes. It’s all the stories of all the girls, and all the insane things they said and we said to get them there. It’s 15 years of crazy, insane girl-vomit.
MT: I think it’s funny that we get all these girls at the right time [in their careers] and then we take them to some, like, disgusting motel. We take them to gross places that no one wants to go into! But this is our shoot. Nothing was fancy. It was like, oh, let’s tip the pervert at the front desk $20 to rent a room. Nothing was planned.
EM: But the ones not planned always turn out the best. It’s really natural and real. And I think a lot of that goes into the fact that, like, they just trusted us. They really trusted you, Mayan. They all talk about you and how you make them feel and how you would make them look. It wasn’t like I was paying anyone a lot of money, it was all my own money. So it was kind of just for the experience.
MT: When no one’s questioning it, you can do a lot. On a shoot with a bunch of men, even if they assist you, they question you. “Oh, are you sure you want to do that? That’s not gonna work.” Here, we are going for it, and everyone believes in it, and it just happens.
But it takes a lot to foster that kind of trust too. Tell me how you organized the book.
EM: Samantha Adler and Mayan really helped me through it. I didn’t want to do chronological order, because I felt like that’s a little boring. So we went by what looked good next to each other. Again, less of it is about the product and the clothes, it’s mostly just about the girls and the feeling that we got through the shoots and through the personalities. There’s some really good ones. I’m looking right now at the Akobi and Efron make-out photos.
MT: I love that one. There was a magical moment.
EM: Magical.
MT: Magical, magical…also in a gross motel.
How do you identify a rising It-Girl?
EM: I think I have a PhD in that. I did it with Lola Young too.
MT: It’s always the week the photos come out, something crazy happens with these girls.
EM: I was the first person to shoot Coco Gordon and, essentially, Lola Leon too. Then after they snowball into, like, these big stars and personalities and leave me in the dust. But it’s fine, I think that’s the magic of the brand, and why we did this book, because it’s all these beginning shoots and stories and relationships and friendships. All these friendships have lasted. Destiny’s gonna come and do the talk. We were kind of prepping for it, and she was like, you know, I wouldn’t do this for anyone. It’s because it’s a family, this cool girl family. The clothes are kind of secondary, and the art is a little secondary. And it’s more like a fun clubhouse where we get together and share stories and act up and laugh a lot. I guess for me, it’s about the fun, and laughter. I always leave laughing.
MT: Every single shoot, we say bye, we get in our cars and then not ten seconds pass until we start calling, talking through all the things and the quotes that happened in the day.
What would you say unifies the MadeMe girls?
EM: It’s a girl who just does what the fuck she wants. It takes a lot of bravery as a woman, especially as a young woman, there’s a lot at stake, you know, and so people who do what they want, I’m down for. I always look for a new Destiny. Mayan knows that.
Is there a new It-Girl I should know about?
EM: It doesn’t come up naturally. When you’re forced and you have a product to push you’re, like, scrambling for a punk.
MT: There is no other one like Destiny. There’s only one Destiny. And there’s only one Lola too. I mean, Destiny, even today, would throw the soup…but anyone at her level with a label wouldn’t throw the soup.
EM: Lola actually wrote the forward for the book. It’s handwritten. She wrote a thing about the girls getting together, how the shoots felt.
MT: It’s girl power from Lola’s eyes.
EM (reading from the book): Yeah, she goes, “Immediately there was an understanding that we were all stupid. And from there came a very natural ease. We got each other’s references. We got each other’s humor. There was an attitude of caring so deeply, but also just not giving up…”
