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

Alright, Cassell thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

It was a transition from my life as a photographer into a journalist creative. I started my career and spent the larger portion capturing fashion and lifestyle on camera. I went on to make short films of my own while working on larger commercial sets and independent films.

I would end up a Head Photographer at an apparel company, but ultimately, my job was outsourced to China where the clothing was made. This is when I decided to find inspiration in Paris and attend fashion weeks the year of 2019. After my first visit that year, I was tapped to cover street style for Fashion Week Online and additionally asked to do a write-up for the images.

I saw this as an opportunity to really assert my voice in fashion and took to the task with the luster of a child. I wrote about my experience at Fashion Week being one that reminisced high school without the acne and bullies. Awkward teens were now stylish fashionistas, and so on, and describing the experience was a journey of elementary days.

I spoke to the nuances that made high school fun; matching class schedules, lunch breaks, and parties. More so, I saw the opportunity to create a platform that made fashion feel just like that.

This is where PAGE was reborn from a senior project at university into an online platform and annual print issue. This is what drove me to a more creative space in content creation and product design. It was in the midst of “print is dying” that I decided to launch a magazine – a printed version at that. But the notion that things are more artifacts nowadays, gave me the notion of a premium magazine that made sustainability fun.

Cassell, 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?

I started my career in photography well before any formal training. As I. progressed through school I would get involved more, interning and assisting with professional photographers as I would find my own lane. The digital era was evolving and as the camera’s improved the digital quality of photographs, so did the video quality. Inadvertently I was asked to shoot some video and from there I would get into filmmaking.

I produced two short, silent films of my own while working with individuals and production companies to create commercials, music videos, and other scripted pieces of content. I happen to pivot back into photography full-time from videography and film to the head photographer at apparel. company based in New York City.

Photography at this level was very technical and limited creative freedoms, which was fine, but I wanted to get more involved in fashion and how it is interpreted from the street level up to the corporate offices of high-end fashion. I left my position as a head photographer to pursue new endeavors that took me to Paris Fashion Week and helped me narrow my discipline to commentation on what I believe fashion meant to me and an underrepresented sector of fashion that has stimulated the mass appeal of fashion.

I would revive a college senior project, Reverie: PAGE, that would become the magazine PAGE, and Reverie, my idea of a publishing company, where I intend to launch meme-like books, and series. I discuss sustainable fashion and inclusive conversations from a streetwear, and sneakerhead’s perspective. With a lot of research and day-to-day work, I launched the first issue of PAGE, apart from launching the website one year prior.

This effort to produce a print issue in a digital era would create a lane for myself and my work. I would go on to find outlets to continue my conversation of fashion and ultimately utilize my creative skillsets to create other forms of content for myself and for other agencies.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

NFT art and the blockchain are smart ways to secure your work as an artist. There are many ideas wrapped around the crypto space but for some creators, the idea is to be in beta mode when joining an NFT platform and to give yourself a headstart or just more certification behind what it is you are creating.

As technology evolves, it serves the consumer best to be aware, not necessarily involved, and that is what can be perceived as beneficial in the case of NFTs.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I spent time believing that certain things in the world weren’t designed for everyone, And this led me to believe I was essentially less than those who have access to the best society has to offer. I was stuck in my own way of doing things without a full understanding. I started reading about things I was interested in and wanted to learn about. That’s when I figured out that someone with privilege is only a privilege – not a superhuman ability.

My mind opened up and the ladened thoughts led me to do things that hindered my growth; didn’t read at first, then I started to do so more, didn’t write then started to do more writing. Simply I had a glass ceiling over my own head and discovering that only made me upset at the realization.

I was freed of my perception of my place and others like me in this world. In the beginning, I relegated my success to my thoughts and beliefs, and today I have changed those thoughts to grandeur with an acute understanding of hard work, and smart work.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://cassellinc.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cassellinc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cassellinc/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassellinc/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cassellinc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cassellinc
• Other: https://www.reveriepage.com/

Image Credits
Sean Q. Munro, Denny Balmaceda, Max Hoch, Luís Gonçalves, Cassell Ferere, BFA [Me and the designer and a guest at Mr. Saturday’s collection launch Dinner].