Canadian Devon Halfnight LeFlufy has a strong sentimental attachment to American culture – and he’s chosen to explore Los Angeles with his latest collection True Believer, presented this summer at Antwerp’s Royal Academy annual showcase before a panel of discerning judges. Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester, were two of The Antwerp Six who looked on.

Emblazoned with American iconography, True Believer captures the city’s dreamy psychedelic nature. Sinister undertones come courtesy of his collaboration with artist Brian Kokoska; together they have created nightmareishly distorted masks, representing idolatry and celebrity worship. Talking of which, the names Miley and Selena are scrawled across pastel palm tree printed sweat shorts, referring to a different dark side: US teen queens living the young, wild and rich dream. Whilst bold silhouettes, intricate laser-cut leathers and snakeskin detailing highlight his creative flair, combinations of hand-painting and digital printing provide a perfect blend of classic and contemporary, physical and digital. We caught up with the man whose name you won’t forget.

Alex James Taylor: How much does your location influence your designs and ideas?

Devon Halfnight LeFlufy: I think moving to Antwerp heavily influenced my work, but not in the conventional way.  Before I moved I didn’t consider myself particularly North American and furthermore I didn’t feel any affinity to American culture. Once I started living in Europe I began to crave Americanism and I started looking there for a lot of my references.

AJT: How did you first get involved with fashion?

DHLF: A bit by accident actually. I always loved it in my own way, but to be honest I mostly related to it through skateboarding and hip hop culture. So when I decided to study fashion more seriously it took me and my family by surprise. I think I was working as a locksmith before fashion school.

AJT: Your collection from the Antwerp graduation show was called True Believer – why did you choose that name?

DHLT: We chose the name mostly as a joke to make fun of Justin Bieber. He said that Anne Frank would have been a True Believer…. What the hell. But it also caught the atmosphere of the collection on a more serious level as well. True Believer is about the way we interact with popular culture, celebrity and escapism. En mass we believe in this more than anything else.

AJT: Yet it seems to blend together all the LA subcultures too – skaters, West Coast hip hop, psychedelia, hippies. What is it about the place which appeals to you so much?

DHLF: These interests have been with me since I was a young teenager. We grew up skating and listening to all of this LA underground hip hop, Project Blowed, CVE, Beneath the Surface and stuff like that. I grew up in Vancouver, which definitely lends itself to this psychedelic escapist mentality, or at least that is what I mean to be a teenager there around the turn of the century. I guess all of these things really inform my design process.

AJT: The collection reminded me a lot of Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, it would have made a perfect wardrobe for that film. Have you seen it?

DHLF: I really think Harmony Korine is a genius, he perfectly portrays what popular culture means and how we interact with it. Some people are disgusted by his work, and I can understand this, but you can’t deny that he always manages (minus Trash Humpers) to show us an ugly part of ourselves. I started researching for True Believer in the summer last year, which was before Spring Breakers was announced and when I found out about the movie it blew my mind. The aesthetics were so similar it was amazing. It’s really cool to sync up with someone you idolise.

AJT: You collaborated with artist Brian Kokoska on your collection, what attracted you to his work?

DHLF: Brian is a true artist. A pure talent and you don’t see this often. I certainly am not one. I have known about Brian’s work for four years now and we hung out a few times when I was working in NYC one summer and our friendship just started like that. His world is also, in my eyes, about escapism, surreal dreamscapes and teen sensuality, so when True Believer started to materialise collaborating with Brian seemed natural and essential.

AJT: The Kokoska collaboration masks bring a darker element to the collection, is this sinister theme something you also see in LA culture?

DHLF: Absolutely, but not only LA Culture, it is everywhere. Not to sound dramatic but there is something twisted in human nature and it shows itself it the strangest ways. The way people interact with popular culture is a perfect example of this. We wanted the masks to be dark or sinister, as you said, but at the same time they are painted so naively that it also sheds a more innocent light on a troublesome part of the human experience.

AJT: What can we expect from you in the future?

DHLF: We have launched our collection which dropped in store this September at Opening Ceremony and this spring it will be available in Japan and Paris. We are busy building up the new collection and that is our main focus right now, but we do have some side projects coming up. We are excited to continue to grow as a brand around the world.