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UPDATE: 12:30 PM Aug. 31.
Designer Tremaine Emory has broken his silence and revealed that reports that he’s no longer the creative director of Supreme are true. In a lengthy Instagram post, Emory admitted that after resigning he had an open and honest conversation with Supreme founder James Jebbia. He cites wanting to remove systemic racism from the brand while working within.
“Supremes statement in the @bof article is a lie to hide the systemic racism that lies deep within supreme and almost all white Owned corporations. I wanted to work with supreme to change these things and instead I told I was racially charged, emotional, and using the wrong forum by bringing up systemic racism in a meeting…” he writes in part.
He also recalls an idea of putting an image of a Black man being hung on t-shirt. However the idea was nixed and never went into production.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CwnMOKfOvqc/?img_index=1
That was quick; Tremaine Emory has reportedly already parted ways with Supreme.
Emory was only creative director for the legendary skate brand for two seasons, but sources told Complex his time is up.
His first collection with Supreme was the Spring/Summer 2023 collection, and his last will be the upcoming Fall/Winter 2023 collection.
During his short stint, Emory worked with Cactus Plant Flea Market to feature founder Cynthia Lu’s artwork on jackets and a separate release with the help of NBA YoungBoy.
He also collaborated with Coogi, which put its infamous pattern on tank tops, shorts, and more memorably, durags.
Despite being unable to provide many wares for Supreme, he still is moving strong with his own brand, Denim Tears, having released a collection with Dior, aptly dubbed Dior Tears, earlier this year. That’s a huge accomplishment for his brand, which was established in 2019.
Professional life aside, Emory’s also got a great deal going on in his personal life after suffering an aneurysm in his lower aorta last year. The medical scare left him in the hospital for months, and with the condition having such a low survival rate, he built his body back up with therapy.
“You know, eight of 10 people pass from having it so I was fortunate enough to survive it. I went in the hospital in October and [by the] end of December, right before New Year’s, got out,” he explained on Justin Richmond’s Started From the Bottom podcast.
The designer was also embroiled in a beef with Kanye West last year. At the time, West critiqued him for getting the coveted job at Supreme and called him a diversity hire.
“Tremaine’s new name as the BLM officer at Supreme is Tremendez … You only got the job since you were Black and you used to work for me and you knew Virgil [Abloh],” Ye said at the time.
Social media’s having mixed reactions to Emory reportedly parting ways with Supreme. See the reactions below.
