There is something distinctly New York about Knoxx. Of course you notice it in her accent, but it’s also in the way she moves, the way she thinks, and the way she speaks. It was something the judges of The Hype, the HBO Max streetwear design competition show on which she became a fan favorite, couldn’t help but mention. After presenting her first look of the contest, a guest judge asked if Knoxx had made the pattern herself.
“I did everything,” she replied. “I sewed that whole shit with the lining and everything. No offense, but I did everything.”
Super stylists Law Roach and Marni Senofonte began to crack up, as another judge yelled, “That’s that New York right there!”
That relaxed but confident swagger, which has been on exhibit for the entire season, also comes through in her line Dvmn Pigeon. Hailing from Elmira, New York but now based in Los Angeles, the self-taught designer started the brand in 2009 with the original name Damn Pigeon — a slyly cocky reference to the idea of “shitting on the competition.” At the time, the label was part of a new generation of designers fusing cut-and-sew high fashion with the silhouettes and sensibilities of streetwear. Over a decade later, it’s still going.
On the show, Knoxx, born Brittney Brooks, turned out look after look that earned praises from the judges while also opening up to audiences about working in streetwear as a woman (with pieces that would largely be considered menswear) and as a masculine-presenting lesbian. “I thought I was going on here for design,” she tells Them over Zoom. “I didn’t know I was going to get emotional and vulnerable.” But audiences, she says, are “fucking with it.”
Ahead of the recently aired season finale, Knoxx talked with Them about her entry into the world of fashion, being intentional in design, and what it’s like being a female boss in streetwear.
How did you initially come to fashion?
I got into fashion initially as a kid, just doing the sneaker thing, buying all the fresh sneakers. In high school I was one of the first girls to dress like a boy. I started wearing Nike tracksuits and all the sweatsuits you can think of. I had so many tracksuits. As I started to get more comfortable in myself and with this more masculine style I got more into it. [Hip hop group] Dipset really had an instrumental voice in my style back then; I thought they were so fresh.
But early on, it wasn’t anyone on television or anything like that. I was like six years old and I saw this girl at a basketball game. Her name was Keisha and I knew she was a girl but she dressed like a boy. I just knew that’s how I wanted to dress when I grew up. I was like, that’s exactly what I’m going to be giving, right there. And my parents never tried to push me to be feminine. As soon as I started dressing like a tomboy, they let me.
They really let me do me.
How did you go from being interested in your own clothes to wanting to make an actual line?
At a point, I was just addicted to shopping. I felt like I had to buy something every day, I would get anxiety if I didn’t. It was very weird. One day I just thought, I’m spending a lot of money on other people’s stuff, like Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, I should try it and see what I could do.
I got kicked out of college but I met a girl who could sew and I told her that I’d pay her rent and buy her food if she would sew for me. So we did that and I started fabric shopping and I would give her all my ideas to sew because I didn’t know how. It started off really because I just wanted to be fresh and wear my own stuff but, as soon as I started designing, I started making shit I wasn’t seeing. Now I really think maybe that’s, inadvertently, why I started it, not only to save money but to make stuff that fit my style that I wasn’t seeing. I wasn’t seeing a lot of pattern work in streetwear at the time. At the time, it was a lot of graphic tees and not as much cut and sew.
But this was about a decade ago, so you were really in the first generation of designers doing that. And you were getting some major celebrity moments like Zendaya early on.
Yeah, I met Law Roach and he was working with Zendaya at the time. Back then, I was really making stuff no one else was making, and so J. Cole, Kevin Hart… a lot of people were wearing it. It was high street, this cross between streetwear and high fashion, and I was really one of the first designers to do that. You know, like using lambskin to make a full tank top with a zip on it. The clothes were premier but with a streetwear silhouette, like the brand En Noir.
But when I look back at my big moments, I think about how after I had made some money, I went back home and did a school supply giveaway. You know, just feeding the people. Or just having regular people save and buy something custom from me. Celebrities are dope but when somebody saves for three months and they hit me in the DMs and they get something custom and it fits like a glove and raises their confidence, that’s what I'm doing it for.
You mentioned you own your own factory, which is unusual for most American designers. How did that happen?
Funny story! When I first started out, I used to sublease in the back of a factory for $400 a month. I had one person and they would just use the space. One day I come in and the owner is like, we are going to close down in two weeks. I asked if he was going to tell anyone and he said no. I told him he should and that if he didn’t I was going to take some of his employees when he fired all of his workers. He didn’t care. A few weeks later, he closed the factory, I went in and talked to five of the people and told them I would hire them. A week later, my mom helped me get a space that was smaller but a few floors up, and we started like that.
Owning your factory is a gift and a curse. You can do better, more tasteful pieces — like I can really go crazy — but the overhead is crazy.
There aren’t a lot of women working in menswear, specifically as designers. Can you talk to me about what it’s like being a boss as a woman in streetwear?
It’s tough to be in menswear as a woman, I’m not going to lie. Especially when you present like me. I said it on the show: a lot of people said it’s a lesbian clothing line at first and it's not. I just know the men’s silhouette really well. It’s crazy, you know it’s a man’s world. People don’t like to say it, but I can feel their disdain in the way that they move. They call me “him” all the time and when I say it’s “her” they’re like “huh?” I spent a lot of time having to learn the language. And now I know it and now I’m known in the manufacturing district in Los Angeles and I’m grateful for that.
I just want to get up and get wealthy so I can pull other people up. That’s the goal for me.
You mentioned this on the show, but is it important for you to be visible as a part of the brand?
Representation is what it is. Now I feel proud that I am the face of the brand, and I’m OK if someone says that’s a gay brand. Like alright, cool, let it be that because we need one. Especially for studs. We don’t really have brands or people in positions of power who really stand on that. Lena Waithe is one of our trailblazers, and Sam Jay, but there’s not a lot. I feel like my generation is really taking a stand and saying it’s no code switching, we just are who we are: we like females and we present how we present all the time.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
All episodes of The Hype are now streaming on HBO Max.
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