How I Shop: Doechii

We all buy clothes, but no two people shop the same. It can be a social experience, and a deeply personal one; at times, it can be impulsive and entertaining, at others, purpose-driven, a chore. Where do you shop? When do you shop? How do you decide what you need, how much to spend and what’s “you”? These are some of the questions we’re putting to prominent figures in our column “How I Shop.”

Doechii has had a breakout year. The Florida-born rapper/singer had a viral hit in “What It Is,” covered Allure and even opened for Beyoncé’ at the “Renaissance Tour.” She’s been all over our timeline, and her hard-hitting bars are just part of her charm: Her style is unmissable, showing a keen ability to pull off a host of different looks with finesse.

“I like dancing between the past and the future,” she tells Fashionista. “I hated the 2000s aesthetic, but I think I’ve found a particular type of thing that I liked — the off-duty model, soft-core… But I’m not a huge 2000s girl. I usually like to focus on the future when I approach fashion.”

Doechii likes to explore time through clothes, she explains, combining the old with her prediction of what the future will be. She’s never afraid to use hair and makeup to push a look even further, whether that means wearing colored contacts, cutting her hair into a shaggy pixie or teasing bleach-blonde tresses into a bump. But her ultimate sartorial aspiration? To “be that bitch.” (It makes sense that her fashion icons are greats like Grace Jones, Solange and Lady Gaga.)

Ahead, Doechii talks about how her parents shaped her taste, which designers’ stores are her favorites and what “Mad Max”-like fashion we might be wearing in the future.

“My mom and my dad are really into fashion. My dad is a shoe fanatic — he has shoes all the way up to his ceiling in his closet. We were really big on sneaker culture, especially in the early 2000s… Everybody liked Jordans. I never liked Jordans, and I still don’t like them, to this day. I was actually a big K-Swiss fan. I liked K-Swiss and Fila a lot. 

“When nobody fucked with them, I fucked with Skechers. I always liked dad shoe-looking sneakers or sneakers that look really futuristic. I guess they’re ugly to some people, but I think they look cooler. I remember shopping, and my dad would be like, ‘You want those?’ I would be like, ‘Yeah, I like these pink Skechers.’ My mom is very much into high heels. She wore heels everywhere and still does. I always wanted to dress like my mom. I was wearing heels in middle school, in eighth grade.

“My parents were very big on how I dressed and looked. Fashion always seemed important to me, because it was important to them. Growing up in Florida, I remember when we would go to the mall, we would dress up. If you go to the state fair, you dress up. It was a lot of competitive energy around who was wearing what and who got this first. A lot of my relationship with fashion started with hip-hop culture and Florida.

“My personal style today is eclectic. I like to draw inspiration from all different types of times, eras, countries. I’ve been drawing a lot of inspiration from the 2000s. I’ve been in a lot of Fanci Club, which I feel is very soft club-wear and kind of an off-duty-model-type look. But I also like really aggressive, huge editorial looks that are kind of costume-like.

“Sometimes, I’m in a mood where I want to look like I’m on stage, but I’m just going to the store. Then, sometimes when I’m on stage, I look like I’m going to the store. It switches based on my mood. It never depends on where I’m going, but more so how I’m feeling.

“Recently, I’ve been loving Fanci Club and Blumarine. I love Gucci… I’m always at Gucci. That’s one of my favorite stores. I do a lot of shopping. I also like Coperni. I see shit that I really think is dope, and I’ll send it to my stylist and be like, ‘What brand is this? Where can I buy it?’

“My first fashion splurge… I was in high school, and my grandma gave me a $2,000 budget. I went to Forever 21, and I went crazy, bro — $2,000 worth of Forever 21, like it’s ridiculous. That’s when I got my first rush. You know that rush you get when you shop? When that card swipes and you feel relieved and everything is okay? I know it sounds bad, but I love that feeling a lot.

“I love shopping in malls. If I’m shopping in the mall, I shop very, very fast. I make my decisions quickly. I usually know exactly what I want, when I want it. I’ll walk in the store, and whatever associate approaches me first, let’s get it cracking. I’ll be like, ‘I want this, I want this, I want that.’ I usually know my size, so I don’t like to try things on. I hate trying things on in the dressing room. 

“If I’m shopping online, I’m looking for something that nobody has, so probably vintage or stuff that hasn’t come out yet. Maybe it’s on the runway and I’m trying to get it. I usually am doing it through my stylist — I’ll hit Sam (Woolf) up and be like, ‘Hey, how can I get this? How can we get this before anybody else?’

“I’m not huge on trends. For example, the trend with that giant red boot that everybody was wearing… that’s an example of a trend I avoid. I like timeless things, but I like timeless things innovated in different ways. Chokers are timeless, but they come in waves: We reference them in a ’90s type of way or a 2000s type of way, but they’re forever a staple. So I like to interpret trends based on classic pieces. I’m not big on certain type of things that feel floozy. I don’t mind experimenting, but I like for my pieces to be able to last in any era. 

“When I’m listening to music or I’m writing music, I usually know what I want to wear or what it looks like. My most recent single, ‘Booty Drop,’ I already knew that I wanted to do an ode to those Freaknik days — an Uncle Luke, old-’90s type of feeling. I’ve been kind of in that era, but I’m over that now. I thought it was going to be more fun than it was. I’ll do that all the time. With the song ‘Crazy,’ for example, I knew I wanted the fashion to just be shoes, and I was naked.

“I want to try a trashy aesthetic, like a trashy-core with a trucker hat, very Dsquared2 type of energy. I want to get into it more, which is why I’ve been embracing hats. I don’t usually gravitate towards them, but I want to master that trashy trucker hat aesthetic in a very fashionable, layered, tasteful, editorial way. I want to make it look chic, not too punk. 

“I think our style is going to fluctuate so much in the future, mainly because of the environment. The environment is so unpredictable. I feel like that’s really been affecting fashion lately. I know there are people who study this type of stuff and know way more, but I think that it’s going to get weird. It’s already getting weird. I feel like people are going to start dressing like they’re in combat or some shit — like futuristically militant. I hate that approach to futurism as well, but that’s where I think it’s going.”

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