CHRIS CADAVER for CULT CLASSIC

“Remember in middle school when it was like, are you a rapper or a rocker?” Chris recalls always feeling the most comfortable being able to elude categorization. This is our final chat at the end of a six-month collaboration and correspondence. We debrief on process and the creative ecosystem employed to craft this collection of wearables that express some of his more fleeting in-between feelings—how to be, “more like a cloud and less like a building.”

Born Christopher Charles Jr., Chris has been going by the name Chris Cadaver for so long that even those close to him believe that’s what’s on his birth certificate. The MySpace moniker first conceived in middle school has grown with him through the years. At one point, worried the name “Cadaver”, which he had decidedly been answering to, was a bad omen; Chris repositioned it to hold new meaning, referring to a body of work and rebirth. Now the name with equal parts mystery and iconoclasm is tethered to some of the more exciting graphics in streetwear for brands like Heaven by Marc Jacobs and Stray Rats. With his signature graphic style worn by a generation of millennials and Gen-Zers, finding renewed motivation over the years has shifted with the seasons. While battling imposter syndrome, New York stacked his portfolio with formative projects that opened doors as he worked to make a name for himself in a city dense with talent. An escape plan to LA provided the breathing room and space to reconcile with the fact that he is doing what he loves. Middle school Chris would be proud, and that's more than enough. Now speaking to each other from his couch in Mexico City, Chris is settled with a post-metamorphosis clarity, shedding all the ideas that he thought he had to live up to.

Some time into the planning of this issue, I took a trip to the city he now calls home. Covid restrictions had begun to ease, and I was eager to get back to feeling inspired again. I met Chris for the first time outside FÁBRICA, the popular Mexico City haunt frequented during February’s art fairs. The perfect place for IRL run-ins with all the arts and crafts pen pals you’ve only corresponded with on IG. As the show let out and everyone spread across the city, Chris and I spoke briefly in a “let’s build” kind of way, the type of non-committal pleasantries you offer as filler to get to the second base of a new friendship. Upon returning to the states and unpacking a suitcase of marketplace hauls, I made good on my party promises and sent the brief: What would a Cloudspotting collection look like? A prompt that fueled a collaborative series of iterative exercises and conversations around change, a shift in mindset, a new approach to an art practice and sense of self.

-Justin Morris

Shop the Chris Cadaver for Cult Classic collection now.