We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Buju Shabazz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Buju, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Ive learned things from a variety of sources , so my learning was a bit all over the place. The way i got started though was teaching my self. At the time there were little to no helpful youtube videos on sewing and designing. Reading books, Watching videos, and more importantly, experimenting and studying the results.

To speed up my learning process, The only thing i could have done was stayed consistent with learning. You kind of get use to applying what you’ve learned and sometimes forget to teach yourself new things (before a problem comes up).

The skills that were most essential in my journey then and thus far, are my abilities to Communicate (first and foremost). Because youll need to know how to either make something or know how to communicate what it is that you need made.
Creativity is also another skill very essential to the process. Ive developed better ways to problem solve and manage my time better because those skills are very much needed too.

While learning and walking this road, one big obstacle that played a part in learning more was not having the right resources. When you dont know what questions to ask, who to ask or where to go for answers, thats a huge problem until it isnt anymore. Imagine a school with no teacher, and you have to find the answers and also find for yourself who can provide those answers. They dont just appear out of nowhere. You have to seek.

Buju, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Buju. Althought people call me “Kool Kat” thats just the name of my brand, short for Nayburhoodkoolkat. From being called “Mr Fancy by my third grade teacher Ms. Morris, to letting my friends borrow clothes, or sneakers, or having a like for distorting and damaging Tshirts and denims, I just knew id be doing something creative with clothes.

Finding a big bag of fabric randomly in soho, Ny and then purchasing my first sewing machine in 2013 solidified everything.

As a designer, the goal is to eventually take over ones wardrobe in full so I’ve started with Tailoring and refurbishing old or blank clothing, then i went into making sweatsuits and customizing those. Now were full circle providing our clients with cut and sew pieces like jackets, pants, coats, bucket hats and other accessories. All men and women and even sometimes the babies.

What sets me apart from the other brands is that the fact that im still learning and have my supporters apart of the process. Every opportunity to model or work with the brand is an opportunity to do so much more for yourself. I connect people, i share my platform and forever thinking of different ways to provide a experience for those following, off of the internet (hence clothing drives, feeding the homeless, social events, Brunches etc…)

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The goal is to foster a community ! Not just any community but a collective or creators similar to Fashion firm or Fashion house. I dont know of local ones or one big one really servicing local designers. There are many resources not used simply because people dont know about them. We should be utilizing all local services , Each other ! We should be the ones setting certain fashion trends, making statements, and making noise nyfw and such. Better yet imagine we had our own week or weeks!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist to me is the reaction from others.

We satisfy ourselves first with completion of the project. But-it doesnt end there. When i was able to see how people felt about my designs, how much they wore it or spoke about it, i saw that i had a bigger impact than i thought.

Sometimes you can never be rewarded in full with money, bc when people stop spending then whats next? But if your able to have people talk about your designs or even recommend it to others, then you know you have something going and all other rewards will come with the right steps taken.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.koolkatnyc.com
• Instagram: Koolkatnyc
• Other: Personal instagram: @1_800_koolkat