Telfar Clemens

Founder and Creative Director, TELFAR · 1 appearance on the record.

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Telfar Clemens is a Liberian-American fashion designer who established the unisex luxury label TELFAR in 2005 alongside creative director Babak Radboy. He is best known for creating the widely popular vegan-leather Shopping Bag and winning multiple CFDA awards.

7statements → 1claims → 0claims resolved → 4.14/5average certainty → 1.71/5average debate potential → 2said about them ↓

1 not checkable as stated how the 1 claim stands · each chip opens the sources

1 assertion · 1 opinion · 1 insight · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertion are the 1 claim: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Telfar argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Telfar Clemens on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said7 What others said2 Episodes1

Everything Telfar Clemens said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight

Clemens: Formal fashion training is unnecessary to direct and create design

“I don't think you need any kind of formal training to do that, or necessarily, it's like, sometimes ripping something and telling someone to do that thing that you just did is like the thing that you need to do, you know, to get what you want. It's not a refin…”

Telfar Clemens Feb 14, 2022 ▶ 13:01 Telfar: Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy

Opinion

Telfar Clemens: Early unisex fashion was superficial before Telfar

“There's no line that was Like unisex at that time, that was coming from the place that mine was. Everything was like, oh, a dress on a man meant unisex.”

Telfar Clemens Feb 14, 2022 ▶ 23:58 Telfar: Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy

Disclosure

Telfar Clemens cannot sew and relies on collaborators to construct garments

“I was bad at it, and I'm still bad at it. Like, I can't sew for shit, and I wouldn't want to. That's when I, you know, I really, like, you know, I'm blessed enough to have, like, great people that work with me that make things the way how they should be made”

Telfar Clemens Feb 14, 2022 ▶ 12:51 Telfar: Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy

Disclosure

Clemens plans to open physical retail stores with apparel and lifestyle goods

“I want it to be accessible. Like, you can go to a store and get the things that you want to get, you know. A Telfar store. Definitely clothes, definitely accessories, and definitely an experience. Candles, pianos, bath bombs.”

Telfar Clemens Feb 14, 2022 ▶ 1:11:28 Telfar: Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Clemens intentionally failed private school placement tests to avoid wearing uniforms

“Every single placement test that I would take, I would mark A-A-A-A-A-A all the way down to placement test so I wouldn't get in.”

Telfar Clemens Feb 14, 2022 ▶ 5:39 Telfar: Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy

Disclosure

Clemens concealed his age starting out in NYC to avoid industry disrespect

“I had this whole thing that I wouldn't tell anyone how old I was. Like, my best friends, they didn't know I was 18 until I was 21, you know? Like, they thought I was 21 the whole time, because I always just immediately would just feel, like, this amount of dis…”

Telfar Clemens Feb 14, 2022 ▶ 15:00 Telfar: Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy

Disclosure

Supima gifted fabric samples to Telfar when Clemens could not afford it

“I was getting the fabric as a gift from Supima. You know, I couldn't even afford the fabric that they were giving me.”

Telfar Clemens Feb 14, 2022 ▶ 29:57 Telfar: Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy

The other half of the tape: Telfar Clemens's own voice is left out of every number here. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Statements about Telfar Clemens, by other people (2)

Opinion

Radboy: Fashion industry is overwhelmingly white and uses tokenism conditionally

“You're dealing with an all-white industry. Right? And who know it. And you symbolize something specific that's useful up until a point, you know.”

Babak Radboy Feb 14, 2022 ▶ 37:21 Telfar: Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy

Disclosure

Telfar based signature bag price on DJ earnings, making it initially unprofitable

“That, that was a big part of it, is that Telfar wanted to base the price on how much you would make in a night DJ. And that absolutely didn't square up with how much it cost to make the bag. Like, at all. But it's like the price of the bag was part of the conc…”

Babak Radboy Feb 14, 2022 ▶ 54:00 Telfar: Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
Telfar: Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy	Feb 14, 2022	24m

Telfar Clemens

The record, in short

How they sound: not measured why? →

Statements about Telfar Clemens, by other people (2)

Appearances (1)

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