Sam Finger and Jonah Almost on Their NYFW Collab ’24 HRS’

Designer Sam Finger and “World Trade” singer Jonah Almost threw NYFW’s unofficial afters this February. On the final night, the pair took over Ella Funt’s under construction basement (once famously a gay sex club) to unveil Finger’s collection, “24 HRS,” featuring a debut capsule collab with Almost. “We work, we party, we have sex, we make art, we hustle, all in a day,” the show notes read, explaining that “24 HRS” was an “examination of the cycle of life.”

Like exiting the ramp of Basement at sunrise, models (Raven Valentine, Merlot, Fabiana Love) stormed the space one by one, some flirting with the front row and others barely making it up the stairs as if strung out and dragging a half-empty jug of Poland Springs. Women’s outfits were sleazy, clubby and clung to the body, looking like lovers for all the men who emerged in Almost-branded streetwear. Everyone gathered around a DJ booth in the center, smoking cigarettes and cruising each other.

“Every 24 hours, you get to choose,” Finger writes. “What do you want to do next?” Below, him and Almost tell us.

How did you two first meet, and what inspired the desire to work together creatively on a fashion product?

Jonah Almost: I guess we first met when you cast me for your last show, and I think it was like around that time that–

Sam Finger: We realized that we were living on the same block.

Jonah: Yeah, so we realized we’re neighbors, and then a couple months later I started working at Temple Bar and you were also working at Temple. It really came together out of one night after work, me, you and Merlot went for drinks.

Sam: And you’re like, “Do you want to film something for my new song, ‘Icarus,’ tomorrow morning?” [Laughs] What’s crazy is well, firstly, living on the same block, working at the same bar, doing the show, but also I didn’t know you were making a song about wings flying too close to the sky, right? Like, when I made those [metal wings] and thought for you to wear them [in my show]. So it adds to the crazy.

Jonah: There’s weird levels — the subliminal, subconscious.

Sam: But you were already writing that song by then.

Jonah: It was in the works, yeah. I was like, “Yo, my song’s coming out this Friday and I haven’t done visuals.” The label’s like, “Where the fuck are these visuals at?” And I’m like, “Sam, do you still have those wings that I wore in the show?” So the very next day we linked up and we shot all this like shit on the roof. I was wearing the wings and it would go on to become the visualizer for my song. I feel like that was the birth point of our collaboration.

Sam: I had this graphic collection that I was trying to figure out and it wasn’t happening. I was just staring at this wall trying to find the message. How do I make graphics for this brand that’s never done graphics? Then you were like, “I want to make a merch tee.” I was just like, “Yeah, sure.” In my head it was a Jonah Almost t-shirt, but then I sat down and started thinking about it and I was like, “Wait, this wall–”

Jonah: That was a synchronicity moment. I came over to your studio, I saw the wall and I was like, “Damn, this mood board is sick. Mine would be very similar.” It all came together super fluidly. I remember,I was like, “I don’t just want to do a t-shirt. I’ve never done a merch item before and I want to do something special.” I was like, “Have you ever done jewelry?” And so it kind of started with this key to New York idea.

Sam: That was the first piece we made.

Jonah: From there we were like, “This graphic is sick, what if we started throwing this on other things?”

Sam: And then I was like, “I’m doing a [NYFW] show, we should just put this in a show.” It just started rolling, it wasn’t forced.

Jonah: You know I love a side quest, so why wouldn’t I? The pipeline from, “I want to do some merch to a runway show at fashion week.”

You know I love a side quest.

Why are you both drawn to this sort of rave, sex energy that the show gave off? What inspires you about that space, creatively?

Jonah: Both of us working in nightlife, there’s something about meeting Sam. We’re on these shifts where you’re working 6 to 2 AM or 10 to 4 AM. Then afterwards we’d be going for drinks. On our off nights, we’d meet up with our other nightlife people and be going out to different spots in the city. We’re always converging in places where we get to drink for free. There’s just this community aspect of it coming together.

Sam: And so many talented people are working in those environments. For me, it’s always been about community. The “rave, sex energy,” I always like playing with impulsiveness and not these ideas of control. I’m always curious about what that looks like creatively, and I feel like your music does that. So it was cool for me, because I’ve always been inspired by music, but I never used somebody directly as music [inspiration] and then funneled it into [my work]. When I started the graphics, the song would play, and then I would be drawing and that would create the graphic.

Jonah: It was really special to have you engage with my art so quickly, you were really listening.

Sam: It was cool to be able to actually tap into the music, versus put music on just to get inspired or feel a vibe. It’s like this song is going to literally inject into this graphic right now.

Jonah: I think we did such a good job about really creating that universe with the show. It was tapping into the sound that I’m making, the designs that you’re doing and the world that we inhabit, just trying to reflect that. It was our little slice of life.

Sam: And for me, it’s always personal. I’m just looking at whatever I’m feeling in that moment towards life.

How do you see your two aesthetics mixing together?

Jonah: I feel like they mixed really well. From the first show that I did with you when I wore the wings, it was very Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 mixed with nu-metal. Your favorite song of mine is “Powder White.” The Prodigy, Linkin Park energy.

Sam: We’re both inspired by ’90s skate culture. Also, classic old-school New York motifs and just living the New York story. For me, growing up here and you’re very New York in your music and energy. There’s a lot of commonalities there.

Jonah: You’re really good at execution. I would have a loose [idea], and then your ability to synthesize. I trust in your taste. The differences really just came in sizing. Just like, “Make this a little small.”

Sam: Which was a clutch move, I was gonna make those so big. What’s cool about musicians and you specifically in that realm is that this idea of identity is really solid: it’s your lyrics, it’s your sounds. You’re not dressing somebody else, whereas, as a designer, you’re dressing different people, you can shift per season, you can tell different stories. It was cool to ground the collection with an identity, your identity.

Jonah: It’s giving yourself an intentional box of parameters. I also feel like my approach to music is much like a designer’s in that the sound changes per my eras of Jonah Almost. The next project I’m working on is a departure from this ravey, 24-hour world I’ve inhabited. So in a way, it was also like a sunset. In music, people get so stuck in a sound, but I think the best artists are ones that are evolving.

Sam: But your identity stays there.

Jonah: That also ties into the title of the show, “24 HRS,” and trying to create these archetypes in this world and what they’re doing.

I have to be in the world that I’m trying to sell to the world.

Sam: The show title came to me because I was so fucking overwhelmed this season. I even said to you one day and I asked pretty much everybody involved at one point, “Do you think I should do this show?” And everyone was like, “Yeah.” I was like, “I’m tapping out, somebody else has to jump in.” The 24-hour cycle was moving so fast for me. Because of the nightlife jobs and going out and doing the collection, it was like the speed in which I was moving was so crazy. I’d never experienced that speed before. I was just like, “This is next level, this 24-hour cycle I’m living on,” and that’s where the name came from.

Jonah: Even the people we were casting, we were going out to the club and picking cute people.

Sam: That’s where most people in that show came from, knowing them from somewhere, having met them somewhere. There were so many musicians in this show, basically my whole Spotify.

Jonah: I would be working one day, the next day doing the door, then the next day taking the time off to work on the show. Originally I had tried to cast a DILF and the amount of DILFs I reached out to in New York, and none of them were down. So DILFs of New York when you hear this, step your shit up. We need more DILF representation on the runway, let me put you on, c’mon.

Jonah, how did it feel to walk in the show?

Jonah: I feel like you need to lead by example. This is a moment that I’ve created and I’m putting, quite literally, my identity onto these consumable products. Music is a little bit more nebulous as an art form, because people can’t directly buy into your art. It’s different from creating a product and selling it. So I was like, “I have to be the model, I’m the lifestyle.” It’s an aspirational element to the fantasy.

Sam: I never even thought about you not walking.

Jonah: I have to be in the world that I’m trying to sell to the world. Because this was the Sam Finger x Jonah Almost collab, I needed to be present and storm the runway. I was having fun, I was living in it. We were kiking backstage, everyone took shots. I was giving motivational speeches before I ran out.

Sam: Backstage was a little bonkers. I loved backstage, because it was also part of that 24 hours. I cast Fabiana at 7 AM the day of the show. She had just gotten off her shift and was like, “I’m gonna go to sleep. I’ll see you at 3 PM.” Like, perfect. She had never walked, we didn’t even have a rehearsal. I was like, “Girl, just walk like you are walking home from work.” And she takes the water jug and struts out. Tripp [Jones] and Ize [Gonzalez] were like, “Can we smoke on stage?” That’s how last minute we were. I was like, “Yeah, in the pit in the middle and hopefully I don’t get in trouble.”

Jonah: One of the most affirming moments of that experience was, after the show, someone came up to me and they were like, “Wow, you guys really created that vibe. When everybody was waiting in the middle, it felt like Basement had just ended and we were trying to figure out the afters.” That’s crazy, because that was the idea. How many times have you left the party and you’re like, “I’m not ready to go to bed yet. What’s next? What are we doing?” There’s that anxious in-between moment while everyone tries to secure the spot. You’re trying not to share the address with too many randoms. There’s gotta be some fierce edits. But that was the vibe, so it was really cool that people got it.

Sam: It was in the casting and movement with each model. We started playing with that idea of you guys together, hanging out. To me, it was sort of like brotherhood, there was community.

Jonah: We wanted it to be a little theatrical, but not too campy. Trying to find that right balance.

Sam: And authenticity at the end of the day, because it was real. Nobody did anything that wasn’t true to themselves.

Jonah: But still served. I didn’t want to just give nothing, but I didn’t want to give too much. We found that right balance because we chose people from that world.

A big part of my message is this underdog. We’re out here trying to make it, we’re in our New York hustles.

Sam: There was a lot of realism. It’s always about working with people that I admire, that I think are cool and are doing something interesting. Bringing those people together. This season, I felt like that really naturally happened. With Ize, we had talked the season before and if Izzy had been in that season, it wouldn’t have made sense. It was perfect that he was in this season.There was a lot of natural camaraderie with the cast and people wanting to be there and wanting to support each other.

Jonah: I had a full fan girl moment when you told me Ize was walking. I’ve been watching this dude make sick fucking music, like in the pandemic going to raves on the pier in deep Gowanus or whatever. He’s performing out of the trunk of some fucking drug dealer car. He’s fucking badass. Yeah, it was really special to have all these people show up for us.

What do you think the show said about New York and New York fashion?

Sam: The key to New York was very New York, the whole collection was very New York.

Jonah: A big part of my message is this underdog. We’re out here trying to make it, we’re in our New York hustles. And the key to New York, symbolically, is someone who has made it and is given it. It was about being like, “Fuck that, I’m not gonna wait for it. I’m gonna give myself the key to New York.”

Sam: I feel the same way. The whole collection was very much about New York, tapping into a more streetwear direction. Everything about it was New York: the space, Ella Funt, the basement, boys.

Jonah: I have a background in streetwear. Before music, I worked at HBA, I worked at Supreme. So I have this background of working for all these iconic New York streetwear, skater fashion brands, and learning from them.

Sam: I grew up in the city next door to the Twin Towers. For me, it’s like heritage.

Jonah: And this idea of what classic New York was. I really loved the Uggs.

Sam: Oh yeah, that was such a fucking move.

Jonah: Even when we had the casting, and Ize showed up and was already wearing Uggs and a hoodie. They all were wearing it.

Sam: Raven [Valentine] showed up in her UGGs too.

Jonah: Just seeing people show up to the casting in their own New York swag. They’re already wearing, basically, the clothes we designed.

Sam: They would wear us, and I feel like this collection was really that.

Jonah: We were really obsessed with this idea of running to the deli looks at 2 AM. It’s like, you get home from work, you smoke the joint, the munchies hit you. You’re like, “Fuck, I gotta will myself out of bed to the deli,” and you throw on whatever’s around. But somehow those looks end up being the most fashion. I wanted the stuff to be wearable. I’m speaking just for the Jonah Almost collab, you did a lot of actual fashion. This is more streetwear, stuff that’s meant to be casual and wearable. I want you to throw it on at the door and feel hot.

Sam: There was definitely an energy of wanting this to be a very sexy collection. I felt sort of this desire to see people looking fucking hot and feeling good in the clothes in a much more literal sense. The brand has had more artisanal creative energy in the way the clothes looked and I was really interested in boiling it down to something sexy and wearable. I feel like we did that with the menswear, and then the womenswear was the perfect complement.

We were really obsessed with this idea of running to the deli looks at 2 AM.

Jonah: It was giving “His and Hers.”

Sam: It was, right? [Laughs] As a brand that’s LGBTQ+ and repping all kinds of people, it was fun to be very “His and Hers,” but in a very New York way.

Jonah: Tripp and his girlfriend, I could totally see them wearing it.

Sam: And speaking of your background with product making, Jonah showed up at the clutch moment to make everything come together. It was a do or die day, where it was like, if we don’t get these graphics screened and finished in the next 24 hours, literally, we don’t have a collection.

Jonah: Bitch, we were storming the garment district. I felt like I was an intern at Supreme all over again. But that’s what was cool, it was made in New York and if you’ve worked in streetwear in New York, you know the places that we went to. You go in, you see everybody’s samples. All the stuff is really made here and it was all very of New York, which I thought was cool.

Sam: We definitely were fucking doing it.

Jonah: What was that show on HBO with the two fashion designers? How To Make It In America. It was like the gay version of How To Make It In America, I swear to god.