Behind Paradise NYC is Sean Pablo, aka ‘Streethassle’. Sean is a professional skateboarder, musician and artist based between Los Angeles, Miami and New York. He skates for Supreme, Fucking Awesome, Edglrd and Converse.
In 2015, he founded Paradise NYC, as...
PARADISE NYC
Behind Paradise NYC is Sean Pablo, aka ‘Streethassle’. Sean is a professional skateboarder, musician and artist based between Los Angeles, Miami and New York. He skates for Supreme, Fucking Awesome, Edglrd and Converse.
In 2015, he founded Paradise NYC as a DIY brand with a clear vision of the world around him. His universe is deeply rooted in dark subcultures, punk iconography, religious imagery, and recycling culture. Paradise functions as a culture-sampling machine, transforming raw cultural impressions into irreverent, wearable conceptual art.
Paradise NYC offers classic pieces: T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, caps and beanies, but with a unique character that makes the brand a benchmark for skate and street culture.
Duchamp created the idea of the 'ready-made,' which is basically the idea of sampling. You look for something in culture that's already played out and rich with connotations, and try to re-present it to change the way it functions and to make new feelings and meanings. Bootleg T-shirts, cheesy advertising, strip bar signs, and found religious images are kinds of readymades that we often play with. I like thinking of the concept of 'paradise' as a ready-made, it has a lot of associations. It's a great word because it can be used and read ironically or sincerely (or both at the same time) in all kinds of situations, creating a kind of ambiguity that's really interesting to me. By using it with different images, in different contexts, it can kind of capture and comment on the weird, conflicting, bittersweet feeling of existence.
