Smooth like Silqq: A take on Fashion in the Music Industry
By Sophia Vossoughi
At the intersection of business and fashion lies a variety of different industries. Fashion is not only an art and business in itself, but the means by which artists are able to build their brand.
With the theme of “Back to Work” in mind, we wanted to meet an industry outside of fashion at the intersection of business and fashion—preferably one producing new content in the fall months. Naturally, this brought us to the music industry.
With a single on the horizon in mid-November and a growing following, LA-based, Santa-Barbara-raised duo, SILQQ, is the pearl lying at the heart of this cross-section.
So, who is SILQQ? Buckle up while your “cosmic guides”, Mauricio Lopez and Lamont Stiff, take you on a journey toward the answer.
Although Mauricio Lopez and Lamont Stiff are the talent behind the name, they’d tell you that SILQQ is an entirely separate entity. The two grew up in the same town within Santa Barbara, California, but didn’t connect until the summer before beginning their first year of college at Santa Barbara Community College. They’d both played guitar for a while, though not very seriously, so upon connecting, decided to pick it back up. One thing led to another until Lopez’s house became their make-shift studio and the songs they were messing around with became the foundation of what would later become SILQQ.
With inspiration from acts such as Daft Punk, Stevie Wonder and Rick James, the music SILQQ creates is deeply rooted in 70s and 80s funk. When I asked them to describe the identity of the music they are currently creating, Stiff answered: “something you can dance to, groove to…” and Lopez joined in to echo: “something you can make love to.” They concluded that their mission was to make music if it was made with heart and love that you could feel. Lopez pitched the name “Silk” to Stiff on the grounds of silk being smooth and sexy, an idea that stuck and evolved to its double-Q final form.
A large aspect of creating their sound, they noted, was growing to appreciate music that doesn’t necessarily fall under what they’d consider to be their taste. When asked about which genres have influenced this sound the most, Stiff answered by explaining that he sees each genre as a blueprint. Stiff sees the genre they want to create as a piecemeal — grabbing inspiration from a variety of different songs similar to how you’d create a Build-A-Bear. This has created a layered sound that is completely unique to SILQQ. So when asked what their genre is, they confidently answer “SILQQ.”
With that said, Stiff considers the way he views music as being a student of it. Contrary to that, the way he views fashion, both in the way he dresses himself as well as SILQQ’s look, is much less structured. Rather than keeping up with runways and major fashion houses, their inspiration is drawn from the runway made up of the streets of Los Angeles. For personal style, they draw inspiration from icons such as Steve Lacy, Daft Punk and Tyler, The Creator. They thrift the majority of their clothing and create outfits by applying the same eclectic inspiration that they do with their music. Stiff epitomizes this by saying that Lopez skates in flared jeans because it feels good and makes him happy and that feeling is what they chase in the way they dress. They play with blurring the lines of wearing clothing manufactured for men and women because, at the end of the day, it’s just fabric. They play with boldness and confidence more than following a formula or the latest trends. To encompass the genre of their style, they concluded that they’d consider it “extravagant as hell,” and SILQQ’s is a “cosmic evolution.”
When I asked SILQQ who their audience is, they seemed focused on making their music accessible to as many creative people as possible, ones that can fully appreciate what they are doing. They believe these people will be pioneers and the rest of the audience will follow. They want to establish that SILQQ has a story and a voice — one different from that of just Lamont Stiff and Mauricio Lopez. They see themselves as the audience’s “cosmic guides” using their music as a vessel to create feeling within listeners. This draws back to their main mission of creating feeling and communicating with their audience in a way that fosters connection. Their main point of focus for live shows is curating an environment that promotes inclusivity, exploration, memory-making, and above all, psychological and physical safety. This all adds to the all-encompassing experience they want to create for their audience.
Style, genre and feeling run deep in the fabric of the image SILQQ has created for themselves and the evolution they will experience. Stiff and Lopez utilize fashion just as much as music to build an image that resonates with their audience. It is for this reason that meeting SILQQ at the intersection of fashion and an industry of business looks less like a crossroads and more like a collision of the two. The two are entirely intertwined and allow the duo to better communicate with their audience about who they are and what they stand for — an added layer to the art they create.
With the theme of “Back to Work” in mind, we wanted to meet an industry outside of fashion at the intersection of business and fashion—preferably one producing new content in the fall months. Naturally, this brought us to the music industry.
With a single on the horizon in mid-November and a growing following, LA-based, Santa-Barbara-raised duo, SILQQ, is the pearl lying at the heart of this cross-section.
So, who is SILQQ? Buckle up while your “cosmic guides”, Mauricio Lopez and Lamont Stiff, take you on a journey toward the answer.
Although Mauricio Lopez and Lamont Stiff are the talent behind the name, they’d tell you that SILQQ is an entirely separate entity. The two grew up in the same town within Santa Barbara, California, but didn’t connect until the summer before beginning their first year of college at Santa Barbara Community College. They’d both played guitar for a while, though not very seriously, so upon connecting, decided to pick it back up. One thing led to another until Lopez’s house became their make-shift studio and the songs they were messing around with became the foundation of what would later become SILQQ.
With inspiration from acts such as Daft Punk, Stevie Wonder and Rick James, the music SILQQ creates is deeply rooted in 70s and 80s funk. When I asked them to describe the identity of the music they are currently creating, Stiff answered: “something you can dance to, groove to…” and Lopez joined in to echo: “something you can make love to.” They concluded that their mission was to make music if it was made with heart and love that you could feel. Lopez pitched the name “Silk” to Stiff on the grounds of silk being smooth and sexy, an idea that stuck and evolved to its double-Q final form.
A large aspect of creating their sound, they noted, was growing to appreciate music that doesn’t necessarily fall under what they’d consider to be their taste. When asked about which genres have influenced this sound the most, Stiff answered by explaining that he sees each genre as a blueprint. Stiff sees the genre they want to create as a piecemeal — grabbing inspiration from a variety of different songs similar to how you’d create a Build-A-Bear. This has created a layered sound that is completely unique to SILQQ. So when asked what their genre is, they confidently answer “SILQQ.”
With that said, Stiff considers the way he views music as being a student of it. Contrary to that, the way he views fashion, both in the way he dresses himself as well as SILQQ’s look, is much less structured. Rather than keeping up with runways and major fashion houses, their inspiration is drawn from the runway made up of the streets of Los Angeles. For personal style, they draw inspiration from icons such as Steve Lacy, Daft Punk and Tyler, The Creator. They thrift the majority of their clothing and create outfits by applying the same eclectic inspiration that they do with their music. Stiff epitomizes this by saying that Lopez skates in flared jeans because it feels good and makes him happy and that feeling is what they chase in the way they dress. They play with blurring the lines of wearing clothing manufactured for men and women because, at the end of the day, it’s just fabric. They play with boldness and confidence more than following a formula or the latest trends. To encompass the genre of their style, they concluded that they’d consider it “extravagant as hell,” and SILQQ’s is a “cosmic evolution.”
When I asked SILQQ who their audience is, they seemed focused on making their music accessible to as many creative people as possible, ones that can fully appreciate what they are doing. They believe these people will be pioneers and the rest of the audience will follow. They want to establish that SILQQ has a story and a voice — one different from that of just Lamont Stiff and Mauricio Lopez. They see themselves as the audience’s “cosmic guides” using their music as a vessel to create feeling within listeners. This draws back to their main mission of creating feeling and communicating with their audience in a way that fosters connection. Their main point of focus for live shows is curating an environment that promotes inclusivity, exploration, memory-making, and above all, psychological and physical safety. This all adds to the all-encompassing experience they want to create for their audience.
Style, genre and feeling run deep in the fabric of the image SILQQ has created for themselves and the evolution they will experience. Stiff and Lopez utilize fashion just as much as music to build an image that resonates with their audience. It is for this reason that meeting SILQQ at the intersection of fashion and an industry of business looks less like a crossroads and more like a collision of the two. The two are entirely intertwined and allow the duo to better communicate with their audience about who they are and what they stand for — an added layer to the art they create.