CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland designer and artist Cierra Boyd’s work has been featured in various national publications, including Nylon and Vogue. Now she’s taking her work to television on HBOMax’s “The Hype.” The first episode of the series airs at 3am on Thursday, September 22. The show, in its second season, features designers proving that their modern streetwear designs are worthy of the “hype.”
Boyd creates futuristic streetwear under the brand name Frisk Me Good. She is known for her sneakerwear — wearables, such as dresses and bikinis — that are created from actual sneakers. Her work bridges the gap between creativity and sustainability. For her post-modern creations, she deconstructs sneakers, then reconstructs them in a new, wearable presentation.
“I officially launched my clothing line in 2017 after graduating from Ohio University,” she says. “There, my love for fashion led me to pursue a major in retail and fashion product development.
“After graduation I got tired of waiting and wanting to make my dreams of becoming a designer come true,” she says. “So I started working with the materials I had around my house because I couldn’t afford to buy fabrics.”
Close cut of Boyd’s design
Serendipity came knocking during a design competition in Cleveland in 2018. For Fashion Mania 2k19, Boyd faced three challenges. The most difficult was to create a garment without fabric. “I was in a daze,” she recalls. “I didn’t know what to do. I had done everything with the other two challenges, but it was all over.”
“Luckily, one night I was watching ‘Vice’ while I was designing. There was an episode about a guy who made a sneaker mask. I was like, wait, what if I made a ball with sneakers?” she said. “So I tried to make a ball and it didn’t feel right. I moved it down a little bit and said, ‘Oh, this is kind of cute as a corset.'”
Boyd won second place in the competition.
So she rolled with her success and posted clothing on the social e-commerce site Depop. “People bought it,” she says. “I was super surprised, but it also gave me confidence. At the time I really didn’t know how to feel about it, but I just put it out there anyway to see how people reacted. The response was overwhelming. So I never stopped doing them.”
Today, Boyd uses a variety of sneakers—Nike, Converse, Vans, Puma, and even off-brand, generic shoes—for her outfits.
In “The Hype” she will be featured with different designers from around the country as they showcase their streetwear designs and unique stories. They will face challenges in time to create ready-to-wear pieces that balance art and commerce while remaining authentic to their vision. Three judges—Grammy-nominated rapper Offset, celebrity designer Marni Senofonte and progressive designer Bephie Birkett—will provide designers with constructive feedback on their concepts.
The winner will receive a $150,000 cash prize and sell their designs on StockX, a platform for the trading and consumption of current culture.
I’m a lifestyle and culture reporter — with a special interest in food and dining — about it Cleveland.com. You can contact me at pwolfe@cleveland.com. Here is one my posts directory.
