Starting out in streetwear can be hard. But then again, you can make it easy.
“Pick up a camera and take some pictures. Pick up a pen and start writing. Pick up your phone and start recording.”
Capturing the culture, Ewas is a photographer putting it like it is and creating an archive whilst doing so.
“People seem to think there are barriers to entry, but there aren’t. You just need to know how to appeal to the people around you. Creating is easier than you think.”
Behind so many of Archives Magazine’s recent snaps and someone heavily invested in the scene, the creative has been creating content through streetwear since 2022.
Hooked by an event IDA did in 2022, the rest is history (in his making).
“I remember my brother and I going. He’s a YouTuber (called KODJA), and I was basically filming for him—going up and down the queue, taking interviews, and just talking to people,”
“We were all given kind of lottery tickets, and numbers were called out to do tricks or skills with a football for some free garms.”
His debut event, luck would have it that his ticket got called. His brother stepped up in the name of content and dropped a few skills for the crowd.
Hyping them up, offering press up competitions as an alternative and connecting with the crowd, it was the day his and his brother’s story intertwined.
“He’s one of my biggest inspirations, and he got me into all of this. Shoutout Kodja.”
It kicked on from there. Ewas has been regularly in attendance behind the lens at streetwear events all over the country.
“The best event I’ve been to was definitely the JUDAH X SLAWN F* C (first rule is I can’t talk about it) back in July 2023.”
Without breaking the rules, he hints at checking his brother’s YouTube for the BTS.
“It was the best because it was my first proper introduction to so many people (Clint and Slawn, for example),”
“I often revisit the video to look at the crowd. It seems that every time I meet someone new that’s a part of “the culture,” they were there in the video.”
The culture he speaks of is often a word hard to define. But often what separates those who influence it is their ability to understand what it means to them.
The meaning is not lost on Ewas.
“The culture is the community,” he tells Archives Magazine.
“The real heart of any place is its community, and they dictate whats in fashion, what’s out of fashion, who’s important, and everything else.”
And if he was to control the culture, he knows exactly what makes a good event too.
It’s pretty hard not to when you put in the mileage he does.
“I’m telling you, you only really need two things to make a good event. Security—to keep the crowd at bay, things in check, etc. (usually Buffalo Security)—and a building.”
A building seems pretty obvious, but there’s rationale.
“What I mean is there needs to be a place for people to go into and to wait for. A building is always good because it feels kind of mysterious in a way—it presents this end goal. I’ve been to a few events that didn’t have a building, and it didn’t hit the same. That’s why I like the Stocked events. Always a building.”
This mindset has seem him, alongside his brother, intertwine themselves into the streetwear scene.
They’ve become synonymous at any event that is creating culture, and by that, we mean: a community.
Think CRTZ, think IDA, think YouWasntDer. They are hitting the cultural pillars Ewas talked about.
And getting into this culture as a photography couldn’t be easier in his mind, one that he says is focused on an end goal of retirement in a lakeside cabin in Canada, because it “seems peaceful out there”.
He breaks it down for anyone with similar cultural ambitions or goals in mind“Take some pictures.”
Ewasontop speaking to Archives Magazine.
All images courtesy of Ewas (@ewasontop).
Archives Magazine 