Rather than designer, I would say artist. You have probably seen him on TV, or read about him in fashion magazines.
The guy that transforms an ordinary piece of cloth into a tempting sexy statement?
Yes, that is Adam Saaks.
Recently, he was in Lisbon shooting his collection of slinky fashion, and I had the unique opportunity to interview him.
A worldly man with a serious air, he simultaneously shines with gratitude.
Although he works closely with many celebrities – and is a celebrity himself – he’s very down to earth.
Many people have seen Adam’s face either on TV, Youtube, or through other media channels, but they would like to get to know the person behind the artist.
I had the pleasure to ask him some questions and these were the results.
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What did you do before becoming a designer?
A: In the 90’s I was a Wardrobe Stylist for 10 years.
During my styling era, I spent a lot of time in nightclubs and raves, watching people, and getting inspired from all the different styles I saw.
I was living in San Francisco, so it was a very international city, and fashion was predominant in the underground scene.
From being exposed to all this, I took style ideas from people I’d see and became a bit obsessed with getting my look perfect.
My goal was to be the best dressed raver, if there ever was such a thing. LOL.
Oh, how crazy those days were. Wow!
What happened next was something I didn’t see coming, people started to ask me for fashion tips.
I soon got clients for personal shopping, and shortly after that I ended up getting styling agents in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
I did 10 years of fashion styling, commercial styling, and corporate advertising styling for the .com boom that came to be.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTCTwERBd8e/?taken-by=adamsaaks
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Who inspired you to be the person you are now?
A: Looking back on my life, there have been so many experiences and events that have changed the direction of my life to get me to where I am today.
The one that keeps coming to mind is kind of a selfish answer, but it’s the one that resonates the most with me: Myself.
Not to be pompous or self-centered in any way, but in reality I learned from myself and still do to this day.
I’ve had uncountable amount of times of personal failures and successes.
Let me explain properly.
Even though I’ve been around a lot of friends, and in the public eye to some degree, I’ve always felt I was alone in my journey in life.
I’m kind of a lone rebel and have done things in my own fashion, no pun intended.
Having this attitude for as long as I can remember, I’ve accumulated years of trial and error, and every single time I can consciously say that I’ve come out stronger and more experienced working through those lessons.
The trick for me is remembering what I’ve learned, because I have a terrible memory.
Sitting here looking back on all of this, each lesson has shaped the person I’ve become today: relaxed, patient, self-aware, and more creative everyday in how I come up with my crazy new ideas and challenges to keep me entertained.
That’s the key to my happiness, creating bigger and better through my life lessons.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BVGAzWhhFMj/?taken-by=adamsaaks
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You wrote a book titled “Love at first cut.”
What is it about?
It’s about love.
Finding it, recognizing it and pursuing it for no other reason than love.
Basically, it’s the story of my t-shirt cutting journey.
How I came to cut my first shirt, what happened to me when I did, and how I stuck with it through all the difficulties and worries of pursuing something that’s never been done before; at least to this caliber.
It’s a cool story of how it all happened, and how my love and commitment to my craft became a success story.
Not just financially, but internally.
It gave me a purpose and drive that connected to something bigger than myself, the flow of the Universe.
I was fully aware that I was meant for this and the Universe kept reminding me as long as I just kept the love for what I did: cutting custom designs live on the body.
Thats the heart of what I do.
It’s a great book of love, my relationships with celebrities, world travel, culture and design, but most importantly it shows you how to find YOUR love and pursue it for no other reason but love. It’s all in there.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BL_oHL2Bz6k/?taken-by=adamsaaks
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Your book is dedicated to the Universe.
What do you mean?
In short, if you do what you love you’ll be in the flow of the Universe and things will expand on a level that money can’t buy.
Let me explain how I see it.
The Universal flow works like this.
Let’s say it flows in a clockwise circular motion, it’s the Universal flow.
I believe if you’re doing only what you like or even worse, dislike, you are going against that flow and things are not as easy and could possibly become a burden or just crazy difficult.
But if you’re doing what you love, and I believe the Universe is made of love and only connects to love, then you’ll get caught up in that Universal flow and what you’re doing will speed up and expand to unimaginable levels.
Abundance will come.
It’s fun when you’re in the flow.
Life expands and all becomes worth it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLoEjkdhWOG/?taken-by=adamsaaks
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Most exciting experience cut-styling a celebrity?
There’s been so many.
I cover a few of those in the book, like Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, and Lenny Kravitz, but there’s been hundreds of celebrities that I’ve cut on.
The one that stands out is Heidi Klum.
We did a cover for US Weekly Magazine in Los Angeles a couple years ago.
We had known each other from before when we took a private jet at 6am in the morning with a couple friends together from Los Angeles to New York for the America’s Got Talent Finale.
She had just won an Emmy the night before for her show, Project Runway, and was still carrying the Emmy award with her onto the plane.
I held it. Hahha.
So a year after that, just by chance, we found ourselves working together.
She was really great to work with.
We also did a behind the scenes video of me making a piece on her for usmagazine.com that went viral.
When we worked together and got the cover a lot of things changed for me then.
I decided to rebrand my logo and turned everything that I cut my designs on in to one color: black.
Even I started to wear only black.
I basically streamlined the whole look of my brand.
I heard you’re planning a new collection.
What new creations will you surprise us with?
This collection is semi-luxury wear with a cutting edge that’s targeted for the masses.
It’s a whole new direction for me.
A lot of loose fitting pieces that are easy to wear for all shapes and sizes.
You can expect outerwear such as hoodies, and bomber jackets, drawstring pants, shorts, hats, dresses, skirts and tees.
For 15 years I’ve been cutting incredibly super sexy dresses, shirts, leggings, bodysuits, swimwear and catsuits for a very small market: young, thin, sexy girls.
I’ve been on television, my fashion travel web show “Shredded,” all types of social media platforms and years of online and hard press.
In doing so, I’ve created a worldwide market of onlookers and fans of men and women of all ages that seem to love and support what I do.
All sounds good right?
The problem is, 98% of them can’t wear or possibly are not able to afford my creations.
So, now the new direction of the Adam Saaks Brand is to cater to the that 98%.
Taking what I’ve already done in the custom cutting-style which over the years has organically become part of our culture, and then taking the streetwear culture which is already built into our society, and merging the two into a hybrid collection.
Wearable Adam Saaks Clothing that will keep in the spirit of my cuts, but for the masses.
It’s time to dress the world!
They’ve been waiting patiently for it.
I think the time is right.
My feeling is either it’s going to take off really quickly or it’s going to be a gradual build-up, but either way I promise you this: it will become part of our culture just as my custom cutting designs have done!
Unfortunately, there won’t be any photos in this interview for you to see.
I am holding on to the surprise until the launch but don’t worry, it’s going to be everywhere soon enough!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKlu8Myhigi/?taken-by=adamsaaks
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Will there be menswear too?
Yes. Half of the collection is men’s.
It’s been really fun to come up with creative design ideas for men that are realistic and wearable.
The design part isn’t the difficult thing, it’s the putting my ideas into a reality with all the technical issues that come up in production of a garment within the realms of manufacturing abilities.
For years, I’ve created intricate masterpieces within five minutes with only scissors and my own two hands.
So, dealing with factories and their time frame is a whole new wake up call for me.
My philosophy is if they can make an Apple Computer then they can make my designs. Right?
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What are your goals for your new collection?
The plan is to sell strictly on the new Adam Saaks website that will be going live when the collection is done.
We plan to do a soft launch with all the millions of organic traffic I currently have on the internet.
Once the website goes live, we will do a pre-sale of all the items two months in advance and see what styles are more popular and see how the public reacts to the new designs.
I am treating it like a marathon, not a sprint.
I’m taking a different approach with this collection.
I feel it’s better to take my time and analyze the data and get a feel for the customer.
I plan on being in the clothing business a long time.
This collection has been for 15 years in the making and I want to treat it as such.
I’m not going to Hail Mary it by just putting new styles on Instagram and Facebook and saying, “Hey, I have new shit. Check it out,” and see what happens.
I’m going to treat this with devotion and care and make sure we all get the most out of what I’m offering as a designer in the market place.
The big post-launch for the collection will be the next step.
Once I’m ready, that’s when I’ll pull out all the bells and whistles to promote the new collection on a grand scale.
It’s all a process that takes time.
Success doesn’t come overnight.
I’m in it for the long haul.
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Can we expect more from you in the future?
Always. I’d like to get into home furnishings.
I think my designs would translate well into beddings, tablecloths, seat covers, pillows, draperies, silverware, you name it, it’ll look amazing.
I’m also planning to do a swimwear collection, activewear, and then kids.
My gut feeling is when my first collection gets more established, all of these new ideas will fall into place in the perfect time.
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Watch out for his new collection, which is going to be produced in Portugal and Italy.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUhqjGyhqkN/?taken-by=adamsaaks
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