When Smoke Clears: Nothing Is Accidental

When Smoke Clears is brand born in fire, and they have returned to New York 10 years in the making. I had the opportunity to visit When Smoke Clears’ “D R Y MUSEUM” at Capsule NYC in Harlem on August 21st. Rather than organizing a standard popup, K$ace and Thermal curated an exhibit that tells the story of the brand and captures the resilience that fuels this brand’s progress.

In the center of the sales floor were plinths covered in burnt fabric. On them sat a picture of When Smoke Clears’ original studio, an incident report, and a burnt piece of jewelry. They were all relics of the fire that destroyed their original Yonkers studio where they were just beginning to make jewelry in 2016. As a result, the brand includes handmade jewelry in many of their designs. Every piece in their collection has handmade elements either through printing, sewing or intentional distressing that makes each piece truly unique.

When Smoke Clears already had their name before their studio fire, but a major setback so early in development forced the artists to reapproach the brand with more intention. After moving to Atlanta, WSClears expanded their line from just jewelry to full collections of jeans, tees, flannels and sweats. They built a presence in the scene by participating in Avid and YSN, but their return to New York has brought them even more growth in the last three years.

“They’re way before trends,” says Daniel Zakkour of Capsule NYC. Capsule has carried WSClears for two years. This is the first popup the store has hosted since their Harlem location reopened after a renovation.

K$aci and Thermal enlisted the help of multimedia artist Bria Josephs in order to curate a variety of pieces to visually demonstrate WSClears’ origin. What she set out for, and achieved with WSClears was a high-end display of the art rock style “There’s a spiritual [element] around the brand... fire follows [them].”

When asked one word to describe the future of the brand, K$ace gave one word: “Fire.”