DOUGLAS MCCOY HOUSE OF POP
In case you’ve been asleep at the wheel in the local fashion community in Spokane, you will surely recognize the name Douglas McCoy. Douglas is what many would call the “hair whisperer”, an accomplished hairdresser extraordinaire and the man behind the brand – House of POp. He and his lovely wife Amy Smith-McCoy are the creative brains not only for House of POp but also for another Spokane-based magazine called Muse and the Mode. I had the privilege of working with Douglas two years ago when he put out a casting call on facebook about an idea he wanted to create and make into a reality. It was all about hair, what else? His only concern was to make this dream a reality and capture it in a shoot. It turned out into more than being just a shoot about a girl playing her old-style record player in a garden wearing some fashionable one-of-a-kind handpainted dress with beautiful big hair resembling Marie Antoinette. It eventually ended up in a local magazine in a five-page fashion spread. And the rest, as they say, is history. Today, Douglas is known for his work not only with hair but also with short films. Tell us how you came up with the House of POp brand? Sheer genius actually. Seriously it is my love of Andy Warhol and all that he was about and what he created. He is a non-conformist whose freedom of design challenged the established ideas of the time. House of POp is an omage to Andy and to the brilliant artists that are
in their basements, studios, looking at the expanse of space and asking themselves “What do I want from all of this? What do I want to create? How do I want to blow their minds away today?”. The House part of the name is “home” to the people that collaborate with my wife and I, a true collective of amazing people that call this brand home to their art. What specific challenges have you encountered in building your brand? None really, we create with no expectations other than our own visions coming to life. We expect our standards to be met. We don’t go off of anything particular, we set out to create our version of amazing not hoping for anyone to really understand it. The fact that they get it and want to see more is a happy accident really. What advice would you give those who are starting to build their own brand? First rule in branding, never go against your own brand. Know what YOU are about and know what you want the world to see in your brand and stick to it. Don’t go off of anyone else, do your own thing, and then keep doing it. Who are your role models and why? Andy Warhol Howard McLaren who is my hair dressing mentor and former Vice President of Bumble and Bumble showed me how to film my work, photograph it, and inspired me to be my own kind of art. Stanley Kubrick for his constant dedication to film and the arts and constantly pushing it forward to create his own vision.
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