JoVaughn Salaam

Hometown: Dayton, Ohio
Collection in three words: Chic. Polished. Effortless.
Instagram: @vonnoapparel

During the pandemic, JoVaughn Salaam spent a lot of time with his dad, learning about his life and the hardships he overcame to become the man he is today. The stories, particularly about his teenage to young adult years when he was a street hustler in the mid-80s to early-90s nicknamed Wheatstrow, inspired Salaam’s collection, Vintage Wheatstrow. “I wanted to dig deep inside his head to portray the life of a drug dealer from a young age growing into a man through my collection,” Salaam says. During the summer, Salaam got into his father’s mindset, listening to the music he once did, dressing like him, and talking like him. He found inspiration by shopping for clothes of the era at thrift stores and pushed himself as a designer by using fabrics he hadn’t worked with before. Salaam says he hopes people will respond to his work with an open mind and feel the emotion and compassion he put into the collection.