January 28, 2021

Animal Crackers | Candice Molayem and Sam Fox talk 'Space Talk'

by Taina Millsap

Candice Molayem and Sam Fox talked about working together for a long time before it actually happened, usually in passing at a bar or a discotheque. It wasn’t until around 3 years ago that the two became two creative peas in a pod.

Molayem’s new collection Space Talk for her brand Animal Crackers premieres this Thursday. The clothes are inspired by coming into the age of Aquarius, of a fresh start looking at the possible future going in a retro-futuristic direction. Molayem initially envisioned the clothes as pieces to go out dancing in. While still indefinitely in a pandemic, she often dresses down her pieces by putting on one of her collection’s vests, jeans and cowboy boots to go out to the market. After trying to incorporate neutrals into her first collection for Animal Crackers, Molayem realized people were gravitating toward the colors. Since working with bold colors is Molayem’s favorite, she couldn’t wait to create Space Talk.

The collection came to life once Fox started to model the clothes, creating individual characters with names and personalities for each look. The duo then organically decided Fox would be the star of the campaign images. Fox’s background in acting facilitated the process of embodying different women and different looks. Photographer Kabir Affonso shot most of the images with vintage lenses that were used to multiply Fox, not using a filter.

“We just get each other,” says Molayem. “[Fox] has so much range, and the characters she comes up with and the ideas she has—I don’t think I’ve ever heard her talk about an idea that I didn’t absolutely love.”

In an era of few opportunities and a lot of indoor time, Fox found herself creatively stifled for much of the pandemic, and working with Molayem made for a perfect creative team to get the juices flowing again.

“Anytime I'm questioning myself or holding back [Molayem] forces me to go bigger, and sometimes I get overwhelmed because I tend to take on too much and I trust her and her eye so much that I just let her decide for me sometimes,” says Fox. “Like maybe I don't know which color background to use, and I can't even think about it then so I tell her whatever you think looks better I know and trust it'll be the right decision. To find that is invaluable.”

While sitting in a car with bright orange dripping wet hair, Fox explains the reason for her sudden decision. “Part of the reason why I colored my hair is because of all the orange in your collections,” she says in dialogue with Molayem. “It really made me wanna add more color into my life, so whatever it is you’re doing, it's working.”

In the midst of inspiring others with her designs, Molayem stays true to something she has been committed to from the beginning: slow fashion. The collection is produced in small batches, with minimal waste. Molayem’s plan for leftover bits of extra fabric is currently in the works so as to reuse every possible material.

“It is extremely important to me that I’ve been able to find really small production partners in downtown Los Angeles, and I know everyone who's making the clothes. It's happening 15 minutes from my house,” says Molayem. “To employ people that get paid well and that do really good work and that care has been amazing. I'm so blessed to be able to do this locally. The textiles I’ve been sourcing, a lot of them are from this mom and pop shop in Barcelona. It’s been amazing connecting with this family who's been making textiles since like 1947.”

Animal Crackers is just getting started with Space Talk. Fox promises a series of microfilms to go along with the clothing and the collection. She says since each outfit is based on a character, Molayem and Fox have been working together to create content that reflects the different personalities, welcoming some new imaginary peas into their pod.