Miguel Gomez

Perhaps you have seen the highly coveted Love You 222 The Cozmos trucker hats, the black Young Thug-inspired spider beanies, or the experimental flyers and graphics for various organizations and events on campus. These are all products from the talented Miguel Gomez. Creatively known as VESOU, Miguel is a multifaceted designer from Savannah, Georgia, studying Political Science and Graphic Design.

Miguel has been making art his entire life. Beginning with his mother’s deployment to Iraq in first grade, he would write letters and poems to his mother, conveying his love and appreciation. Now a senior, Miguel has continued to communicate a sense of purity and peace through fashion. When asked about his inspiration for his trucker hat, he spoke emotively about the power of love. “Love is the motif” he said, as we toured The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. “At the time I was going by COZMO, and I was trying to capture how much I love love. Whether it be through heartbreak, loss, or grief, that’s when you realize how much you love something. People may be hesitant or scared, but that is another facet of love that is fueling for me. I made that hat at a time when I was in and out of a lot of important relationships, and I was trying to find what love actually means. And for me, it means loving infinitely to the end of the cosmos. It’s limitless. It’s a continuous cycle.” Miguel’s inspirations are as multifaceted as his designs. Citing Blood Orange as a chief inspiration, he spoke on his sense of self-expression and honesty. “His album Negro Swan came out when I didn’t have any answers and I fell in love with the album. He talks about certain things on the album that resonates, like finding your own space, and how your childhood sculpts how you walk into a space and how you carry yourself.” Further inspired by the vulnerability of Frank Ocean and his cleverly constructed aesthetic, he said what we all know to be true: “You may not resonate with his words, you may not even be listening to the words, but it’s the way he says them. It’s so powerful.” After speaking with Miguel, I realized that his influences and earnest worldview allow him to actualize his dreams. They simply bleed through his work, coloring his creations with a tangible sense of Black vulnerability. “Something I tell myself is that it’s ok to be open and vulnerable, and it’s ok to be true. It’s ok to be an emotional person,” said Gomez. But perhaps most importantly, he hopes that young Black men and women will resonate with his work, as he understands the difficulties of being Black in America, and being Black at GW. Now sitting on thousands of designs, we cannot help but wonder what he has next. Giving me a preview into his next body of work, he told me that his next creations would be inspired by universal design. “It’s inclusive to everyone. It’s human. I want to cater to the human experience.” Support Miguel’s journey @vesoux on Instagram. Witten by: Alfred Taylor

Wrtitten By: Alfred Taylor

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