Soul Skater Evan Mock Can Be Anything He Wants To Be
All Clothing and Accessories by SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO. Gold Necklace (worn throughout) EVAN’S OWN.
Welcome to Saint Laurent’s Interview: a collaborative project between our editors and Saint Laurent’s Creative Director Anthony Vaccarello, featuring Q&As with some of our favorite creatives of the moment. You’ll also find original fashion editorials and a portfolio of archival Interview photos of the likes of Bianca Jagger, Winona Ryder, and Keanu Reeves, all reimagined in Saint Laurent by the collage artist Fabrizio Massimiani.
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INTERVIEW: What did you want to be when you were growing up?
EVAN MOCK: Growing up in Hawaii, my natural instinct was to think that I was going to become a professional surfer or skater. Moving to Los Angeles opened my eyes to so much more. Do I want to be a stylist? Do I want to be a photographer? Do I want to be a designer? Or do I want to be an air traffic control person? That’s the beauty of being young and moving to a new place: You can be anything.
INTERVIEW: What’s your favorite thing about skating and surfing?
MOCK: Being in that zone where nothing else in the world matters. It’s therapeutic.
INTERVIEW: How did you transition into modeling?
MOCK: I used to work on a boat in Hawaii, taking people out to swim with sharks. We went on a tour, and I met a photographer who was shooting for Maurie & Eve, a women’s clothing brand from Australia. She asked me to come and stand behind the model she was working with, and that was kind of my first shoot. It was fast money, and things just snowballed from there.
INTERVIEW: What does it mean to be an icon?
MOCK: Being an icon means creating your own path and sharing it with the world.
INTERVIEW: Who are some of the icons you look up to?
MOCK: Essentially every name in surfing, or surf photography and videography. I was around a lot of my heroes who were surfing the best waves in the world. Then the skate teams would come to L.A. and those guys are the ones I looked up to. I became a tour guide for anyone in those circles. I was a local park rat who would skate around and they’d see me, and we’d end up talking.
INTERVIEW: What was it like when you first got into photography?
MOCK: No one really had phones yet. There were shitty phones out, but no one was taking pictures with them. At the time, I was only shooting on film, using my grandpa’s old cameras, and seeing those pictures for the first time was really special.
INTERVIEW: Have you gotten used to seeing your image all over the place?
MOCK: Having your photo plastered everywhere will always be weird. That’s what this generation is all about, and it’s not something I wanted. My parents don’t even know what’s happening with me in this world, aside from surfing and skating. It’s not like they don’t understand it, but they’re from a different generation. They know who Calvin Klein is and they know that there are models who make a lot of money, but they don’t understand the process of it.
INTERVIEW: What is your relationship with social media?
MOCK: I think it’s needed, but I also believe that we can surpass that need. You get to a certain level in life where social media becomes irrelevant—for example, famous actors who don’t have Instagram. We don’t care, because we know we’ll see them in the movies they make. It’s definitely a good platform to broadcast your work, but it shouldn’t be our main focus.
INTERVIEW: Have you ever shared something that caused you anxiety?
MOCK: I overthink a lot of things, and it happens that the things I overthink the most are the things people care about the least. But then the things that I don’t care about, people talk about way more. I guess the moral of the story is to not worry and just do your own shit.
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Read more stories from Saint Laurent’s Interview.
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Grooming: Thomas Dunkin at Bridge Artists
Fashion Assistant: Dominic Dopico
Special Thanks: Jack Studios
