Brandon Trentham — “Fashion’s Jack of all Trades”

And by “Jack of all Trades” we mean.…he does every­thing. After estab­lish­ing him­self in the mod­el­ing indus­try, he uti­lized his tal­ents, expe­ri­ence and love of art to develop his own world of fash­ion, unique inde­pen­dence, and an over­all brand to make him­self not only one of the most ver­sa­tile indi­vid­u­als in fash­ion, but one of integrity and passion.

In the midst of his busy sched­ule, Bran­don gave Emer­ald Chic’s fash­ion cor­re­spon­dent, Patrick, a few moments of his time for some insight into his career, his expan­sion, and even a few point­ers for you men out there look­ing for some fash­ion advice.

PH: What can you say is an “unfor­get­table mod­el­ing moment”?

BT: That’s a hard one for me to answer and nar­row it down, I thank God daily for what he’s given to me in this busi­ness. Most of my guy friends would say its prob­a­bly a job I’ve had play­ing Heidi Klum’s lover for Vogue over a few days work, a sexy rolling around shoot with Alessan­dra Ambro­sio on the beach, sleep­ing in Elle Macpherson’s house or hav­ing Gisele Bund­chen top­less on me for a shoot for a jeans com­pany cam­paign but that (as crazy as it sounds) became nor­mal. I would prob­a­bly say it was stay­ing in a 17 bed­room Igloo in the top of the Alps in Switzer­land for work for two weeks and get­ting paid to be in the most beau­ti­ful place I’d ever seen while snow­board­ing, snow­mo­bil­ing, and eat­ing fon­due daily!

PH: So, what’s new with you? You are quite the DJ-​​in-​​Demand. How is the dj career going?

BT: The career is amaz­ing! It’s mov­ing a lit­tle faster than I wish but how do you com­plain about that? The prob­lem with being a jack of all trades is God only made 24 hrs in a day. Recently, I’ve been spin­ning fun stuff like Sun­glass Hut Store Open­ing with the Strokes, a celebs birth­day party with The Fugees, and a one on one gig with R Kelly with me mix­ing and him per­form­ing for the club (he’s still got it).

PH: Like a num­ber of mod­els, you have branched out into another busi­ness. For me, it has been jour­nal­ism and event pro­duc­tion. And I hear rumors of you dab­bling in inte­rior design. Fill us in on this. What is the name and what are the origins?

BT: Well I grew up with a dad that taught me how to make every­thing with my own two hands. I watched him sin­gle hand­edly build our house and teach me all of this along the way. I love being a handy­man and actu­ally think­ing out­side the box for dif­fer­ent ideas. Such as my old walk­ing stick as my cur­tain rod and recy­cling old pieces and turn­ing them into my creation.

PH: What is the focus? Are you like Cindy Craw­ford Home and Kathy Ireland’s line, focused on devel­op­ing prod­ucts for the home, or are you more focused on design­ing inte­ri­ors by shop­ping for items that fit into a client’s par­tic­u­lar style philosophy.

BT: I am actu­ally try­ing to do a triple play. I want to make my own art, sell them their apart­ments or con­dos (yes I also do real estate too), and design their apart­ment with my art inside.

PH: What are your upcom­ing design projects? Any clients of note that you can mention?

BT: Well I’ve actu­ally now been asked about putting my art in a gallery here now and I’m prep­ping for a hair salon I’m design­ing in SoHo, which should be very inter­est­ing as I have full lee­way to do as I wish.

PH: CONGRATS on both counts. What were the design cues/​inspirations for your space?

BT: I have always been in love with design­ing to look like you stepped foot into another coun­try or time era. My place is now really Moroc­can style with col­ors and fur­ni­ture that I’ve made.

PH: What else is going on in Bran­don Trentham’s life? I hear a char­i­ta­ble orga­ni­za­tion is on the hori­zon, fill us in.

BT: My Favorite Sub­ject to talk about!!!!!! I have been work­ing with so many dif­fer­ent char­i­ties and groups for many years now but never had a sole pur­pose or project. The “Hope House Hon­duras” is just that, a Chris­t­ian run orphan­age that gives them hope and light at the end of the tun­nel. I am work­ing full time with it now as well and just built the web­site for it myself. Peo­ple can find out on the site how to become a part of it and see the bless­ings that I have got­ten to. www​.Hope​house​hon​duras​.org

PH: Finally, no one can deny that you are one of the most styl­ish mod­els around. While the rest of us fall back to the “Reli­able Model Uni­form” of white v-​​neck t-​​shirt, jeans, boots, and a really good watch, you are always turned out in some­thing über-​​tasteful and edgy. Be it see­ing you on the red car­pet, bump­ing into you at a restau­rant, or even train­ing with you at the gym (yes, we are train­ing partners…lifting upper body today), you always get it right. What is your per­sonal style philosophy?

BT: It’s not about being on the brink of the new trend, it’s about being dif­fer­ent from every­one else. By the time peo­ple start wear­ing the same thing as me I wanna be over it. I like to buy a nice piece and change it to my lik­ing, whether its patches and new but­tons or cut­ting off a col­lar or half the sleeves. I once cut a whole in the top back of my jeans to have a place for my ban­dana to go through and tie. Dif­fer­ent is good. Your style should match your per­son­al­ity and never con­form. That’s BORING!

PH: What is your present fash­ion obses­sion? That one piece you have/​want to get? Mine is a Pey­man Umay bespoke suit, I wore one on the red car­pet and have cov­eted one ever since?

BT: HHHMMM well in the win­ter it was my heated under­wear (lol), but now my new bowtie obses­sion for the sum­mer. The web­site is called www​.ties​for​char​ity​.com and just as it sounds when you pur­chase them money gives back! What bet­ter way!

PH: What tips would you give guys out there for “get­ting it right”?

BT: Well that’s a broad ques­tion but if it’s about fash­ion, only wear what your com­fort­able in, if your not peo­ple can tell. If it’s about women, be your­self and never use a line, a sim­ple hello goes along way. If it’s about life, I’ll have to get back to you I’m still read­ing the book now.

Tags: Brandon Trentham, emerald chic, fashion advice, fashion news, Hope House Honduras, interior design, modeling, nyc fashion, Patrick Hazlewood, Ties for Charity
Posted in CHIC on the Street, NY Fashion News, Patrick Hazlewood - Fashion Icon at Large