Beau Gosse

Student entrepreneur Max Foucaut (’16) takes his art to a new canvas.

A drawing of a snow-capped mountain peak against an attention-grabbing hot pink sky has become ubiquitous around campus this semester. ThThis Para- mount-Pictures-meets-Bauhaus graphic seeped itself into the Samo conscious- ness through its constant appearances on shirts, tank tops, backpacks and stickers around school. We see it seemingly everywhere, always accompanied by some fancy-looking words, but what exactly is the story behind the mysterious crest?Max Foucaut (’16) is the man behind the attention-grabbing graphic. It is the logo for his clothing brand, Beau Gosse. The name is French slang for a “young and well-dressed kid,” the opposite of its homophonic counterpart, “bogus,” which means fake and fraudulent. This dichotomy remains consistent throughout the brand’s identity. Some designs are minimal and refined while others are colorful and hand-drawn.Beau Gosse started in January 2015 when Foucaut, a life-long artist, decided to take his artwork and designs to a dif- ferent canvas.“The more I showed my designs to homies and kids in class, the more I wanted to pull through with this idea that I could sell my art on clothes,” Foucaut

said. “All clothing is art that someone created, whether they had a message for it or not; in a sense each and every one of us are walking art galleries.”Foucaut’s artwork is currently on exhibit on the torsos of the “young and well-dressed kids” around campus. For a startup brand like Beau Gosse, a high school campus is an invaluable advertising platform. A brand image can be spread just as quickly as lunch bench gossip. A young business owner like Foucaut is constantly surrounded by more than 3,000 members of his target demograph- ic, who are all potential customers, col- laborators and models. For Foucaut, networking is the name of the game. (In fact, during this interview he asked me if I was interested in modeling for Beau Gosse.)“I network by sliding in those [direct messages] on Instagram to models and photographers to see if they’re interested in shooting and collaborating,” Fou- caut said. “I mostly just use my friends as models and my homies Jared Hassim (’16) and Jared Klann (’15) for photography and videography.”When students leave campus, their exposure to Beau Gosse shifts from the blurs of passing T-shirts to their phone screens. A social media presence is, of course, vital for any startup company nowadays. The visuals Foucaut makes for

Beau Gosse with student photographers, videographers and models serve as more than just promotion. The visual side of Beau Gosse online is just as important as the clothing itself.“Our generation is very technologically advanced, so posts on social media are crucial,” Foucaut said. “Also, having a unique and visually appealing page setup such as the clothing website, Instagram or Twitter attracts the viewer.”Hassim and Klann have both photographed lookbooks for Beau Gosse. According to Hassim, the photoshoots are planned off of the style of each piece of clothing. They try to shoot in a location that emphasizes the theme or message of the clothing. For example, in a recent shoot for Beau Gosse’s Japanese-inspired pieces, Foucaut and a few other students modeled the clothing amid lush Japanese gardens.Before each design ends up on the bodies of stolid-faced models in Beau Gosse’s lookbooks, it is nothing more than a concept in Foucaut’s sketchbook. He always starts off on paper before going to the computer. He says he has sketchbooks full of ideas and designs for new clothing.“I start off with drawing in my sketchbook, [then] I reproduce it onto nice paper, nice and clean, then scan or reproduce it once more with Photoshop,” Foucaut said.

After Foucaut has the garment’s design laid out digitally, it’s time to get it manufactured.“Once I have my design I get in contact with my print shop homie and tell them the exact measurements of all designs for the clothing and how I want it,” Foucaut said.The pieces released upon Beau Gosse’s launch consisted of screenprinted graphics on short sleeve T-shirts and tank tops. Recent pieces, however, utilize embroidery and long-sleeve screen-printing, a process Foucaut says is more time consuming and expensive, but the quality of the finished product makes it all worth it.To pay for shirt orders, Foucaut gets loans from the bank or his parents and eventually repays them when he sells products.Foucaut’s AP U.S. History teacher, Matt Flanders, says he sees promise in his budding student.“He is a very smart kid, with a ton of potential,” Flanders said. “I think that it is fantastic that he has started a business at such a young age, and I hope that it is successful.”As a business-mogul-in-training, Foucaut draws inspiration from an array of sources: streetwear heavyweights like

Bobby Hundreds, hip-hop artists like The Underachievers and entrepreneurs like Pharrell Williams.“The fact they began their careers so young truly inspires me because I’m doing what they did in my own way,” Foucaut said.Most of his inspirations started out when they were in high school. But how exactly does a junior manage a business and grades at the same time? Foucaut says school comes first, but he occupies all his spare time with work.“I use any free time I get to draw or think of new ideas for clothing no matter where I am,” Foucaut said. “Although Beau Gosse is my number one priority as a career, I never know what might happen and everyone should always have a safety net in life so schoolwork is always what I get done first.”As far as what’s in store for the future of Beau Gosse, Foucaut declined to answer.“I’d rather keep my future designs a mystery and let everyone experience the growth of my clothing rather than have a set plan for the future.”