We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Coty Clothing Co a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Coty , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I am extremely happy being a clothing designer, nothing in my life has ever made more sense.

I started sewing in 2015 in Westerly, Rhode Island, I moved out there from Minnesota in 2012. I was doing sales for an exterior company after hurricane Sandy whipped through and I stayed out there for four years until 2016.

In 2014 I got a sewing machine for Christmas from an ex girlfriend and I thought it was a joke. Men don’t sew? And especially not young wild ones. Jokes on me, sewing changed my life forever.

I didn’t touch that sewing machine for many months after I had opened it, I actually thought there was going to be something else inside of the sewing machine box and was slightly let down when it ended up being a sewing machine. I never would have thought I’d get into this.

One day early spring 2015 I couldn’t go to work because was raining outside. I took one of my favorite hoodies, cut it a part, traced that cut up fabric onto new fabric, cut it out, and it took me over six hours to make my first hoodie. The hoodie was slightly slanted and threads were hanging around everywhere, I still have that shirt in my closet as a reminder of how far I’ve came.

I started an Instagram almost right away, and named it Coty Clothing Co just messing around because I only intended to make clothing for myself. I’ve been obsessed with sewing ever since that first day in Rhode Island and I’ve sewn nearly everyday since. It took me a solid 100 shirts…… tshirts, hoodies, and buttons ups…. before I started to really get the hang of it, but hey, I taught myself.

I remember when people started asking me what store I got my shirts at, and that’s when I knew something awesome was coming. I would show up to parties and would hand out free shirts to my friends. One of my friends, Tyler Povlitzki, told me that I shouldn’t be giving my hoodies away and he gave me $40 for one. That was the very first time I sold a shirt, after that it took a couple more years to start selling lots of things.

My construction sales job is seasonal so I have 5-7 months off because of winter every year. Winter time in Minnesota is no joke, perfect time to sew! It’s tough to make a living sewing by yourself, and I have many different money things that I do, with sewing being my favorite.

My end goal is to own a super giant custom clothing factory that doubles as an event space/venue for art galleries, music, and fashion shows. I’m only ten million dollar away from my opening day haha

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Coty Schooley and I’m the only designer, actually the only anything, behind Coty Clothing Co. Everything you see was made by me. I make colorful clothing (mostly menswear) for people who like to wear their personality on the outside.

Menswear these days is absolutely terrible. Black, white, tan, navy, blahhhhh

I make clothing for people who like to express themselves through what they are wearing. It’s easy to stand out when you don’t fit in, and this is definitely not your fathers clothing company.

I used to be embarrassed to tell people when I had first started sewing. For one, I was super bad at it and my shirts sucked, and for two, sewing just didn’t seem like a skateboard punks style. I grew up in the Midwest where sewing meant quilting……

I draw most of my clothing patterns from scratch, and have made things like tshirts, hoodies, tanks, button ups, jackets, pants, leggings, skirts, dresses, backpacks, hats, wizard outfits, zerbras, men rompers, girly body suits, swim suits, and house shoes…… I’m sure there’s more.

I’m obsessed with sewing and usually blow every last dollar I have on more equipment. My friends think I’m insane, but whats more insane than their 9-5s that don’t allow for much creative time? The whole reason my clothing company got to where it’s at now is because I’ve never had a 9-5 job. I’m a free bird for life.

I started a YouTube channel recently called Coty Clothing Co and I want to make videos on how to sew. I had such a hard time learning in the beginning, I literally taught myself through trial and error with very few lessons along the way. One of my end goals is to create a space, whether in person or online, for people to explore their creative sides with all of the tools/knowledge that it takes to get the job done.

It was very hard for me to learn all of this stuff, and hopefully in the future I can help jumpstart more people like myself.

I do everything start to finish. I source my supplies from all over the United States, I hand draw most of my sewing patterns, I cut & sew every single piece, I handle the social media pages, the marketing, the website, and package up all of the orders to ship by myself.

If you don’t truly love sewing then this isn’t for you. I see this as the largest opportunity of a lifetime to express my creative side while at the same time raising awareness about the industry I’m a part of, hoping to make it a better place for everyone as I go.

My real goal is a giant Willy Wonka style custom clothing factory that doubles as an event space/venue for parties that can hold up to 2,000 people. I started taking music production classes at Slam Academy in Minneapolis and have a lot of tunes that I’ve worked on in the past couple of years. Maybe 40 of my songs are pretty decent, give me five more years.

I’ve done seven record label merch collab shirts with artists like Dirt Monkey and Super Future, and have made several outfits for other touring artists. That’s what got me into the music scene, I used to run around like a wild man all over the US selling clothing at EDM music festivals. I’m on a more serious wave now trying to fine tune my ideas.

Someday I’ll be throwing my own music and fashion shows in my own venue with my own team that all gets paid fairly. I dream about it every single day and I feel closer than ever. I’ve never been more obsessed with anything, sewing changed my life forever.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to help bring back sustainably made clothing for everyone. That wasn’t my goal at first but now it’s a huge part of what I’m about. The more you know, the more you can grow.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of what’s going on overseas in some of these factories, but it’s absolutely not ok. Forced labor left and right, villages having water diverted to these factories destroying the environment with harsh chemicals, and foreign govts allowing first world businessmen to come in to literally do whatever they want.

44% of the worlds govts are ok with forced labor, some even jail their citizens for not going to work…….. after their villages were destroyed by businessmen and they had no choice but to go work there. Then mega corps throw away fast fashion clothing by the ton when it’s out of style. How does this make any sense? That’s not even the tip of the ice berg. It’s even happening here in America, American businessmen are allowing parts of Asia to literally ship workers in and out to some of these factories paying them very very low wages, it’s a huge loophole to get that “Made In USA” tag. I’m sure it’s in California where this mag is based out of too, it happens in other areas of the world too, especially Italy.

It makes me feel sick when I see all of these companies with a positive message using slave labor shirts to promote themselves. It shows that they are only in it for the profits, it’s beyond backwards and needs to be exposed.

I can’t change the world right now, but I can take steps every single day to make my surrounding a better place. I believe in the ripple effect, and hopefully my ripples can cause waves in the future.

Clothing is my industry, I live it everyday, and it’s up to me to tell the rights and wrongs of what I’m seeing. I hope you do the same wherever you’re at too, it’s up to us to make the change.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Society can best support clothing artists by not buying clothing from companies that use areas with poor labor practices. It’s unethical, it skews the market very negatively for anyone who wants to do things fair, and it’s literally giving money to people who don’t care about their own people. There’s just too many things that are wrong with that. All in the name of higher profits or cheaper clothing. Clothing shouldn’t be cheap, it takes a very long time to produce for what it’s worth.

Pay attention to where you give your money to before it hits home harder than it already has.

“Let’s give trillions of dollars yearly to people who don’t even take care of their own people, and let’s see how this goes for us as a whole”

-fast fashion

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cotyclothingco.com/
• Instagram: @CotyClothingCo
• Facebook: @CotyClothingCo
• Youtube: @CotyClothingCo

Image Credits
Amber Griffin was the photographer for a few of these Instagram @amgriffin.was.here Facebook @Amber Griffin