bradley soileau x ruhi

Sugar come by…

by Josh Madden

Bradley Soileau x RUHI

When pictures of

Bradley Soileau

started flooding Tumblr a few years back it was hard to open my laptop without seeing the tattoo-covered dude. It seemed everyone knew him, wanted to know him, and wanted to take a photo of or with him." What is this dudes deal," I thought? He's got "War Inside My Mind" (a Suicidal Tendencies song) scrawled across his forehead and...well that seems pretty rad, but what's his deal? Then I got an e-mail from him...

Here's the deal:

Bradley Soileau

is, from what I've experienced, a super creative guy who's kind just put himself out there, and being in the mix has gotten him noticed. In my correspondence with Soileau he's just been really honest about his desire to try--and try openly without really caring about much else--and that's the coolest thing I've taken away from talking with him. People like him because he's just free like that.

So when the folks at RUHI hit me up to give me the first look at a collaboration they did with Soileau, I was pretty stoked. I think it's super awesome when a brand gives people the chance to exercise some creativity because although we don't all need our own fashion brands, it's cool when we get to design things we like, right?

The collaboration features a hemp pattern button-up and shorts for bros, and a tank top and short set for the ladies. What better day to drop this capsule than on Mary Jane's birthday--April 20th. When I spoke to Soileau about the collection here's what he had to say:

"I started smoking about five years ago. I was straight edge 'til I was 22, then I started drinking a lot and went to a pretty dark place. When i first moved to NYC was when i first started smoking, and honestly it changed my life for a positive. For the first time in my life I felt like I was free of worldly chains. I really got into it when Wiz Khalifa dropped

Kush & OJ

. Lots of people were doing cool 4/20 drops, but I felt like a lot of people weren't doing anything cool with it, like "Cool, lets make a weedgraphic tee." Great...and eventually that gets played out and boring, so I thought to myself, "Why dont I just find a way to make a pattern out of weed. people really love patterns," and I feel with this I've created a wearable pattern out of weed, that isn't completely childish. Something that the grown up potheads could wear under their suit jacket, or at a yacht party."

The result is a couple of really rad pieces for both those who do and those who don't partake. I personally think the pattern is beautiful and I hope RUHI's practice of dropping capsule collections with creative individuals catches on. The brand, barely three months old, was founded by Silke Labson, who cut her fashion teeth with fashion mainstays like Marc Jacobs and Betsey Johnson. Shop this limited edition capsule

HERE

, and follow Bradley Soileau on Twitter 

HERE

and Instagram 

HERE

. Check out RUHI on Instagram 

HERE

and keep up with all of the newest news 

HERE

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