Snipes and Canal St. Market joined forces Saturday to celebrate Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. Their resulting project, the Snipes x Canal St. Market AAPI Celebration, featured a spirited panel discussion with artist Sue Tsai, Billionaire Boys Club‘s director of brand partnerships Mimi Choi and chef Jordan Andino. The conversation was moderated by Rich Tumang.
During the panel, the group spoke on the importance of taking ownership of their Asian culture to increase visibility for others.
“I think it gets to a point where you do embrace being an Asian artist, AAPI, because you want people from your community to look up to you,” said Tsai.
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Within their discussion, the trio emphasized the importance of finding inner strength to gain power in their respective fields. Aside from the increase of female staff at Billionaire Boys Club, Choi also shared that the overlap of men’s and women’s fashion is causing a shift towards greater inclusivity as well.
“A lot of shoes that come out, they’re only in men’s sizes, and all the girls are like, ‘What about a men’s 4, or what’s the smallest size that you have?’ It’s good to see male friends who are in a lot of female shoes now, and all the guys are like, ‘I want that,'” Choi said, citing the brand’s popular Timberland collaboration and first Billionaire Girls Club drop as examples. “I love that as a girl, you can be a tomboy and wear mens clothes, but now as a man, you can wear whatever you want, too.”
As the panel discussion wrapped, the group reflected on their hopes for AAPI youth to grow in creative fields. In particular, Andino urged established individuals to promote younger creatives’ talents to create a more supportive future.
“If you’re young, it’s important to get whoever you idolize, people that you work with that are older in positions of power, to know the difference between endorsing and sponsoring. A lot of people constantly will open the doors, like, ‘Yeah, I love them, they’re so good, check out their stuff,’ and that has weight,” Andion said during the Q&A portion of the panel. “But as someone in a position of power, when you sponsor someone younger and you put not just your word, put your action and your resources behind them, that young person is going to have a way better shot at understanding success because you sponsored them.”
The event ended with a night market that opened to the public, where guests mingled to music by DJ Luv while enjoying food from AAPI-owned vendors Baonanas, Matsunori and Mucho Sarap. The experience was complete with on-site flash tattoos by artists Yoon Park and Jane Lee, as well as a market with vendor stalls for accessory, home and clothing brands including Savage Anchor, Mottive and Friend of a Friend.
