ELYJAH MONKS
NEW IN TOWN
Elyjah Monks is an absolute force in the Tulsa ecosystem.
While we know him to be a creative director, designer, and entrepreneur we are barely scratching the surface of what this man carries.
In this Edition of New in Town, Jon and the team at REVISIONstudios sit down with Elyjah Monks as he reflects on his experience moving his business to Tulsa. From his start in Oklahoma City to his observations of the polarized creative culture in Tulsa. Monks critiques the current state of creativity and gives insight into true artistic authenticity and expression. Challenging for a deeper understanding of influences rather than gaining a superficial following.
His vision for his store, by.everyone, involves creating a unique aesthetic that reflects both local and high-caliber influences. He emphasizes the need for a community that values quality and craftsmanship over fast fashion, advocating for sustainable practices and artistic integrity.
Monks also emphasizes the necessity of open dialogue and collaboration among creatives in Tulsa. Urging a shift away from fear-based competition to a mindset that celebrates shared growth. He envisions a culture where diverse groups can collaborate, breaking down barriers between differing beliefs and backgrounds.
Ultimately, Monks looks to elevate the standards of creativity in Tulsa, encouraging a more supportive environment where artists can excel and engage in meaningful conversations shifting the culture.
Make sure to check out by.everyone online and in-store.
Thank you Elyjah for your time, insights, and transparency in this conversation.
- Jonathan Vendryes
photography by Anthony Diaz
hosted by Jonathan Vendryes
How has Tulsa felt culturally?
Nobody here is taking themselves “too seriously.” I really enjoy the light-heartedness that Tulsa has. I really think we're in the best neighborhood in Tulsa for what we’re trying to do.
Coming on six years and doing the majority of that time in OKC I was by far the youngest business owner. Everybody was approaching their 40’s and while that's really cool and you got a lot of OGs doing it,
I think being around so many people that are a lot more youthful and ready to try new things has been really fun.
Where do you look for inspiration?
My inspiration is always going to be my friends.
A lot of my friends are musicians, photographers, graphic designers and people that are in creative fields. Honestly, the people I’ve learned the most from are people that have blue collar jobs.
Culturally, nothing's been the same since Virgil died. Martine Rose is somebody I look up to a lot, I’m blanking on the name but the head designer over at Enfants Riches Deprimes.
I don't really need a lot of guidance creatively, and I've always needed guidance to maintain a business. To have that work ethic and learn how to problem solve. Nobody knows how to problem solve like blue collar workers.
You said that you appreciate the kind of lackadaisical side of the culture in Tulsa, that they're not taking themselves “too seriously”. There’s this other side of. “If I'm gonna accomplish this, I have to take this seriously.” Where do you land?
All the people that I really admire that excelled in their craft creatively were always people that did what they love first. They were just obsessed with what they were doing and then they were like, “oh shit, I have a business”. “Oh shit, the song popped off.”
I think the biggest problem I see in creatives nowadays is that people start building the business before they even perfect their craft or get good at a craft.
Most people that are in fashion don't even know how to sew, hand stitch or with a machine. I think a lot of OGs see that as just being kind of like, well, do you even really like this? Honestly, you just have to get good at being good at one craft first.
Get really good at something. Have a tangible asset to yourself.
If all else fails, you know that you're really good at making denim or you're really good at illustrating or something.
I think we're at a time now where social media has made people feel like everything is so accessible to them that they never spend the time to learn.
Now, with social media,
everything is just one BIG amalgamation of all styles.
Style used to be very ubiquitous with the area that it came from. That's why New Yorkers, they had the fitted, the butters, the big pants. Atlanta people had the tight jeans, the vest. And LA people, they got the chucks and the high socks and all that.
Now
there's no real sense of geography within it.
Why are there so many people in Oklahoma that look like their whole hair, aesthetic, tattoos, everything comes from LA, but everything that they're wearing is like a New York style?
There's parts of that that are cool because you're seeing the mixing and melding of all of that. But then there's parts of it that are absolutely just not true.
Everybody that's from Oklahoma has family that works blue collar jobs, that's just what it is here. So like, workwear here is the only thing that's really true to the Midwestern aesthetic. That's something that I personally try to pull from when I'm thinking about my wardrobe then obviously, I mix in other things that I like, but it always comes from this place that's true to our geography and our city.
I think about that often in music. I'll get into conversations with people about that.
You know, whenever it's good the example is, people like A$AP Rocky. He took Houston style and made it New York. What was cool about that is it was homage to the OG and then still made very New York. It gets bad whenever you steal from Houston, you live in New York, and then you're hopping on like, Chicago 808s. That's kind of like where there's no real sense of identity anymore because you just stole it from all these other cultures.
There has to be something that's true to YOU
true to where you come from first, and then you can start borrowing and paying homage to whatever culture.
You can tell tho, you can feel it.
It's like the difference between inspiration and plagiarism.
When you're young like a teenager, you honestly should be straight plagiarizing. You should be copying other artists while you're finding yourself. But, when you get in your 20s, you don't need to sound like Tyler or Frank anymore. You don't need to be making clothes, like whatever LA designer you're super into.
You need to find your voice.
I'm seeing a lot of, especially in the fashion world, people plagiarizing other Instagram brands to make an Instagram brand. Like, damn, dude, if you're gonna steal, at least steal from the best.
Nothing is original so everything is your reference. So your references have to be a deeper cut.
Again, it all goes back to what's true to you.
A lost art in creativity or artistry is creating worlds for people to operate in. I feel like when we first stepped into by.everyone, you have successfully created your world here.
Yeah, it took a long time.
I started the store way before I knew who I was. I started the store way before I had real interests that I was really about.
Through the store and through OKC, I did find those things that I'm obsessed with that I love, that make me happy. And back to like Martine Rose, I think she's inspired me to not always be in such a rush. Nobody knew who she was until she was in her 40s and already had her first kid. I think in the art world, everybody's in such a rush to get poppin’ so young that people think you have to figure it out and make it by the time you're in your mid-20s, or younger than that. I think that's just really not true.
So with this space, it was kind of the first time I had a blank slate.
There was absolutely nothing here.
I was kind of getting over that whole imposter syndrome and realizing
People come here because of my taste and the things that I like.
We'd have stuff in the store for like $400+ and at the time that was insane, especially in Oklahoma. I mean, It's still kind of insane in Oklahoma. But those were always the things that, we thought were so sick, we were like, we don't care if it sells. This is fire, we want this in the store so people can see it and those would be the first to sell out.
You know, so taking that to like the broader scope of creating a world. When I had this space, I was like, I'm gonna be here 40 hours plus a week, It better be somewhere I really enjoy being.
My favorite thing is when somebody comes in here, picks up some magazines and just starts flipping through ‘em. So I guess when it comes down to building the world, It was the first time I felt kind of sure of myself in terms of the things that I like, the things that I'm into. And I don't care if anybody else is ‘cause I am. It just made it a lot easier.
I used to buy things for the store that I thought people would like versus things that I like. What I found is that backfires 90% of the time. So when we started seeing any first signs of success was whenever Joe and I would just buy shit that we liked, and took big risks too.
Maybe even just internally, how have you been navigating feeling supported by people versus people coming here saying they love it, and there's not the follow through of it?
I’m not blind to the fact that not everybody can spend an exorbitant amount of their funds on clothes. I always joke with people that I can't afford to shop at my own store. I never take offense, you know, I mean, obviously I gotta keep the lights on. I gotta pay a mortgage and do all that jazz. So I do need to make sales, but if I didn't have to make sales, the only thing I would care about is that people come in and, like, enjoy themselves. Maybe find out something about themselves they know that they liked or find a piece of themselves with all the shit that I like. And if they don't, no harm, no foul.
How can somebody be supportive of you while not necessarily being a patron of you?
It's about participating
in the culture
If you are coming in here and having conversations about the clothes or about the music that's playing in the store, you're participating. Covid really put the nail in the coffin when it came to people feeling comfortable enough to start a conversation with a stranger.
I really think it's important that people get back to a place where they're like, “dude, what song is this? This song is crazy, put me on” or, “show me what this is” or whatever. Let's talk, and nerd out about this thing.
To me, that's equally important as making a sale. Without that, then the sales will never happen.
The way to be a patron, even when you don't have the money to buy things, is to get involved and participate in whatever kind of culture a space is trying to cultivate.
I have noticed in Tulsa that I have had a lot of interactions with people that have never experienced a space like this. So it's been a lot of fun re-engaging people in that way. Whereas in OKC, I was one of the first, but by the time I left there were three brick and mortar retail stores like ours, and then there were also a bunch of resale shops, hypebeast resale, all that type of stuff. So the average client walking in the door was already kind of accustomed to it. Which does make the job way easier, I can't lie.
But I learned to enjoy that conversation. Because I know a lot of retailers that hate when a customer walks in and they're like, “do you only sell men's clothes?” They see a price on a shirt and they're like, “oh my God, why would you charge that much?” When you're from Oklahoma, like we are, that's every day. So instead of fighting that, I've kind of learned to, like, try to enjoy it the best I can. It’s an opportunity to change somebody's perspective.
Like you said, In OKC, there's existing circles where people are coming there to spend “x”amount for designer. This needs to become more normal here. Not just because we don't want Tulsa to get left behind in progression, but more so, artists or creatives, shouldn’t walk into a place and be caught off guard by valuing somebody else's product. If that makes any sense.
It does - I mean, I’ve sold a few paintings at the old store and it was one of those things where
I could tell who really valued their work and who didn't.
When you see an artist that has a 3x3ft painting that took them weeks of work to do, and then they priced it at like a couple hundred bucks. In my head, I'm immediately like okay, so you're a minimum wage worker.
When you start breaking it down that way, you start seeing why the value of art is so much. I think the same thing goes for clothing. It's called the true cost, right? So if we get into the true cost of fast fashion.
A lot of these factories are costing people their livelihood. So that's the true cost. So the true cost of a garment that costs quite a bit of money is because whoever made that garment is getting paid a livable wage and they have a roof over their head and they're not working an exuberant amount of hours. They're working in a factory that's not chain smoking cigarettes and has rats on the ground. I mean, the conditions of these factories are insane.
There's brands like Story MFG, who literally created and cultivated an entire, essentially like a farm, that they hired a team of makers that are all professionals at their craft. They pay for them all to live in this complex and all get paid wages. Their garments are expensive, but their garments are incredible because every single one of them was touched by an artisanal maker. Somebody that is a pro, somebody has years of experience.
To me, we gotta get back to a place of respecting that.
If you can't afford to buy new clothes, there's literally no shame in that. There's so many incredible second hand stores. I'm right next to one, right?
If you are gonna buy new clothes, you should budget for that.
That should be a priority for you to actually respect this garment to be like, “oh, I'm gonna have this for a while." You know? Somebody worked on this, so I'm gonna have it for a while. Like, make smarter decisions. I don't know what the fear is, people think they're gonna lose their job in the fashion industry if people start buying smarter and less.
Do you guys know the brand Noah? NYC, I strongly recommend. They shut all their doors and close their online store on Black Friday. They do it every single year because they're like, we're not going to participate in this market frenzy of people feeling like they have to buy shit they don't need. To me, that made me respect the fuck out of them. I was like, damn. Black Friday gets us through the month. I have to do that. I think it is kind of a luxury that they don't have to do that.
I hope to be able to afford that luxury one day, to have my morals stand above it.
I'm just not quite there yet.
This place is insane. The standard has been raised.Where do you see this going? Tulsa wise, by.everyone wise?
So for me personally with the store, the next step is 100% going to be working on our first larger scale in house collection. What that's going to do is change by.everyone. It's gonna make us be a brand. I think right now because we are one of the first multi brand retailers in Oklahoma, let alone Tulsa.
I'm trying to say this in every interview, but by.everyone does not mean “by everyone for everyone”. This is not a FUBU knockoff by.everyone because it is a collaboration. It is by whoever we work with. It's by Sunflower. It's by Carne Bollente. It's by fucking Star Wars.
It used to be called by.Elyjah. The first year we were open was called by.Elyjah because it was only things that I made, you know. So what I want to do for the future by.everyone is actually take that name and use it and create this space in a way that is more of an incubation process. Kind of doing things more localized, continuing to carry brands that produce things at the highest level like Boiler Room.
I think when you come from a small city, it's important that
It's pretty confusing for a lot of people. And that, I mean that's a little bit of what I was just talking about, I like introducing people to things but what I've realized is like if I'm gonna put so much work into explaining why I love this other brand, I might as well explain why I love my own brand. I love what I do.
when you showcase locals, you need to put them next to other things at a higher caliber.
So next time somebody sees Zeal, they're like, that was in that store that carried APC. Now they have this thing in their brain that switches like, “oh, Zeal's carried like this.” You know, It keeps elevating.
I think in local, in smaller cities, everybody is like, “keep it local.” There's elements of that that are great because it is more sustainable, but there's elements of it I don't like because then nobody's ever elevating. You're only looking towards the person next to you versus, like somebody that's doing it at the highest level from somewhere else.
So for us, us, we're going to be creating our first big collection to kind of show what the by.everyone aesthetic or idea is. I want to get it to where the by.everyone in house label is like 50% to 75% of the store.
As far as Tulsa goes, I'd love just to see people expect more of themselves. I think people need to hold themselves to a higher standard. I think people here have gotten away with a lot of… Oh, man, it's so, It's really harsh, but like mediocrity. And it's not just Tulsa, OKC was really bad about it too. So I think people just need to have higher standards for themselves. Me included. I'm trying to raise the bar every single time I come out with something.
I mean, if By everyone's trying to grow, then that's not gonna hurt. It doesn't put somebody else down to be like, “hey, let's all get better.”
Yeah, I mean. My friend group and I talk about it all the time. We need critics back. We need real critics, because critics are what create the push to get better. Most people post Covid take criticism as like, you're hating or you don't fuck with it. You don't understand the vision. And it's like, no, I think what you're doing is sick.
It's just having a critical opinion about something. It’s not hating. My first full time employee. He was a professional hater, bro. I hired him because I was like, I don't need a “yes man” in my life. I need somebody to tell me that I'm fucking up.
How do you think Tulsa, as a city can be better collaborating with industry friends and with seeing potential in others as opposed to seeing them as competitors?
I think first and foremost, people need to get rid of that fear. I used to feel the same way where It was just so fear based. “Well, I can't work with them because what if we do this and they blow up and I don't or something?” It's just extremely limiting and it's just no way to live life really. I think a lot of collaborations nowadays especially with shoe brands and shit, they just don't make sense and they're forced.
There's a lot of ego that goes into creatives and small business owners.
Everybody is too afraid to admit
that they might not know something.
Solovair and Doc Martens, the greatest example that I've ever seen. Solovair opened a factory to start making boots for the military. Dr. Griggs moved in across the street, and he was a phenomenal leather worker, so he created the upper for the first ever Doc Martens. But the Solovair was the basis for it and then because they were extremely talented and knew how to build a proper sole, they knew how to build a proper top. That's the perfect collaboration. Dr. Griggs didn't go to Solovair and say, “hey, I think we can figure out how to do this sole better,” and vice versa.
So I think when you come into a collaboration, you have to completely eradicate any fear of looking stupid or any fear that it's not going to work out. Then you have to have trust, and you have to really trust that whoever you're working with knows what they're talking about. It goes both ways.
Then the final part is working with people
that aren't doing the same thing as you.
I think the best collaborations are whenever it's people doing different things, and that's when there's different things on the table that mend together.
So how can people in Tulsa do it better? I think the first step is just everybody just needs to chill out. I really think everybody just is so afraid of working together because, “If I work with them then that group over there is not gonna think I'm cool anymore.” Or “if I work with this person I don't think I'll ever get to work with them because of this.”
Personally, I'm not Christian. I'm very vocal about that. I'm in a very precarious city to not be Christian, but I'm not gonna not work with Christians because we have a different belief system. That’s a very unpopular opinion with other non-Christians in Tulsa. They think if they work with that group that it, I don't know, you succumb to some weird group or something. It's just like everybody just has to figure that out. If you want to collaborate, you can and you can do it with putting that stuff aside. That's honestly one of the main things I've seen while I'm out here.
Tulsa culture and where it can go, a lot of times gets barreled in this pipeline of “religious beliefs” versus “non-religious beliefs”. There's a synergy that should come together that doesn't come together
It's very much, “you're either in this crowd or you're in that crowd” which are very much butting heads. But we don't really have any figures outside of these two very large communities that are both very echo-chambered and neither one of them are talking to each other. So unless there's a third kind of Venn diagram where it overlaps, they'll never talk to each other. I've always kind of thought of by.everyone and just my, I mean, I'm a fuckin’ Libra to a T, so I just believe in like being the middle ground, being balanced. I see it and it’s extremely polarizing out here.
So I think until we can get those echo chambers to talk to each other, which might be impossible, it’s going to make it hard for collaboration to happen.
We see the creative/artist side of things being the middle ground that you're talking about. So it’s really refreshing hearing you say that.
