He’s 25 and full of jokes. Can he troll his way to the top of the fashion world?

livemint.com:

Trevor Gorji has jokes. Over the past several years, through his puckish clothing brand Fugazi, Gorji, 25, has made a Jordan-lookalike sneaker that swapped the Swoosh for a revolver. He’s made shirts with “Willful Infringement" embroidered along the back in reference to trademark lawsuits and made sherpa hoodies with wrong-looking zig-zaggy zippers.

Every single article of clothing in Gorji’s collection seems to include some kind of joke or comment on something, anything. Penny loafers are designed with coins that bear his own face. A T-shirt that reads “LVMH & Kering & OTB & Richemont & Fugazi" thrusts his own infinitesimal company alongside four of the largest luxury conglomerates in the world.

In recent years, major companies (see: Crocs, Balenciaga) have trotted out shoes and clothes full of in-jokes targeting either the wearer, onlookers or both. But these mammoth well-known entities are trading on the notion that it’s novel for a multimillion-dollar apparel company to behave like a junior Mad Magazine writer. Gorji, on the other hand, doesn’t have a built-in audience.

He’s trying to court that audience through his stunty clothes. Some people fake it until they make it; Gorji has been trolling until he makes it. Now, half a decade in, Gorji, like Adam Sandler acting in a drama for the first time, is pivoting toward a more earnest fashion business—one with wit, yes, but also more wearability.