When Tremaine Emory founded Denim Tears in 2019, after living in London for nearly a decade, “the main inspiration was to express this feeling I had upon moving back to America,” he says. The feeling wasn’t good.
“When I left, Obama was president, and when I came back, Donald Trump was president. What I saw on the internet, and more importantly, what I saw in person, made me understand white supremacy. It made me understand racism and capitalism. The mask was coming off, and I realized how far we haven’t progressed.”
Though Emory was compelled to respond by making artworks, he grappled with a thought: “I won’t reach the kids and people I want to reach by going the gallery route.” Instead, the Atlanta-born, Queens-raised designer launched his label, which he aptly dubbed “African American sportswear.” Seven years into the brand’s journey, Emory has subverted the gallery route with “Denim Tears from the Pool of Black Genius,” his first solo exhibition, on view through Jan. 11, 2027, at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Museum of Art.
Emory’s relationship with SCAD dates back to 2006, when he was working for Marc Jacobs and traveled to Savannah, where co-founder Robert Duffy owned a home. The label opened a store that was largely staffed by students and alums. “The students who worked with us, I know some of those guys and girls to this day,” Emory says. Two decades later, with top roles at Yeezy, Stüssy, and Supreme padding his CV and the staggering success of Denim Tears to his credit, the designer was contacted by SCAD Museum of Art Chief Curator Daniel Palmer about staging his own exhibition.
In bringing “Denim Tears from the Pool of Black Genius” to life, Emory mined a vast array of influences, from his Queens childhood and the museum’s permanent collection to the entire Denim Tears archive and works by close friends and collaborators. “Seven years of Denim Tears is in the exhibit, but really, it’s 45 years of my life,” Emory says. “And there’s stuff that’s older than me.”
A salon-style wall of works by Black artists greeted guests on opening night, among them SCAD Museum of Art trustees, press, Emory’s friends and family, and Denim Tears devotees—some sporting exhibition-exclusive merchandise. “We literally sat and went through every single thing that SCAD has,” Emory says of the artwork selection process with Palmer. The result includes a Romare Bearden collage beneath a William H. Johnson painting and Faith Ringgold’s Tar Beach #2 silkscreen next to Charles White’s sketch of Frederick Douglass. All, like Emory’s label, are rooted in Black heritage and identity. The first pair of Denim Tears jeans that Emory designed is encased on the opposite wall. The garment was inspired by a pair of Levi’s 501s that Emory owned, which were so distressed that his late friend and collaborator Virgil Abloh joked that they appeared to be crying. Thus, the brand’s name was born.
Sixteen scarecrows command the main room, each dressed in pieces from a different Denim Tears collection and arranged in a circle. “I’m always playing with metaphors and similes,” Emory says, nodding to the scarecrows as a visual confrontation of Jim Crow’s legacy and racial discrimination. One scarecrow wears a pair of Champion sweatpants printed with a photo of legendary Alvin Ailey dancer Judith Jamison. One wears a bedazzled NAACP logo tee. Another is dressed in a denim set embossed with Emory’s signature cotton wreath motif, which was inspired by a photo that artist Kara Walker once shared on Instagram. Much of the artwork surrounding the scarecrows is from Emory’s personal collection, including pieces by Walker, Lauren Halsey, and Eric N. Mack.
The exhibition’s third room, housed in the museum’s André Leon Talley gallery, features a vast wall collaged with 150 T-shirts that Emory has been collecting since high school. “One of the beginnings of my learning about art and design was T-shirts,” he says, “and I kind of realized that while making this wall.”
Graphic tees with the phrases “Black Don’t Crack,” “Sorry We’re Here,” and “Polenta Is Fancy for Grits” hang alongside others featuring photos of Lauryn Hill, Omar Little, and the Grinch. Emory calls the installation Autodidact as a nod to his self-education. All of his work, including the Dior collaboration pieces also in the Talley gallery, “really started with collecting and designing T-shirts,” he says. “And not just designing [but] seeing them as more than T-shirts, because they are. Seeing them as a form of communication.”
Of all the things that people can potentially learn from the exhibition, “I hope it makes them curious about the glory and plight of the Black experience in America,” Emory says. “And not just curious about Black folk, but about all folk. The brand has left me more curious than when I started, and I’m a pretty curious guy.”
The day before the exhibition opened, Emory was on SCAD’s campus in conversation with his friend, music producer Acyde. When asked if he ever envisioned having a solo show, he said he had not. But he added that in light of his mother dying in 2015, losing Abloh in 2021, and experiencing a life-threatening aneurysm in 2022, which left him hospitalized for two months, the professional success that led to the exhibition wasn’t all that important. “It sounds so cliché, and maybe I’m speaking from 20/20 hindsight, but it actually didn’t mean a damn thing when I was lying in bed,” he said through tears.
“It’s great to have ambition and aspirations and all that, but if you don’t have people, it doesn’t mean anything,” he continued. “Keep the right people around you. Not the famous people, but the people who really do something for your soul and mind, and stuff like this exhibition can happen.”
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