From club kid to dressing Lady Gaga, Judassime has never played by fashion’s rules. The Belgian designer opens up about queer identity, gender, craftsmanship, TikTok fashion, celebrity styling, and the brutal reality of building an independent label from the ground up.
Brownfashiongal: Okay, before we get into what you’re doing right now, the brands you’re building, and the work you’re doing on social media, I would love to know how you got started in fashion. I’d love to understand a little bit about where you come from and your journey. Can you just get me started on who is Benjamin?
Judassime: I started when I was about nineteen or twenty years old as a club kid. I was going to parties and having fun with my friends, but I never found anything to wear myself. So I just started doing what club kids do: creating a whole image with makeup and outfits. I started stitching my own outfits. Little by little, people were really interested in what was happening in the clubs, the image, and the outfits. They started wearing them, and the power that I gave to those people kind of made me make my first collection, I guess. So that was an ode to my early days.
Brownfashiongal: So you mentioned that you were a club kid. I think club kid culture is quite a European phenomenon, if I may say so. You also mentioned that how you define your brand is closely related to club couture. How would you define those two terms for you?
Judassime: That was only my first collection in club couture. Every collection kind of derives from that, but my first collection was really a shout-out to my club kid days. The collection was travelling with me to the clubs and travelling around the world for me to perform. So my first collection was an actual club couture collection. But little by little, I mean, I love so many things in fashion and I want to explore so many techniques and things, so every collection is very different from each other.
Brownfashiongal: Right. Who’s a club kid for you? How would you define a club kid?
Judassime: For me, a club kid is someone that lives in the clubs. It’s like the face of the club, the image of a party, the image of nightlife. It’s like a host, someone that takes care of making the party look like it’s an insane thing. For example, in New York we have Amanda Lepore, and we have people like Leigh Bowery from the ’80s. All of those people actually create these insane looks. It’s very not-a-daytime look; it’s a very nightlife thing. Amanda Lepore and Leigh Bowery are icons for that.
Brownfashiongal: You said you started in fashion with your club kid days when you were in your late teens. Did you study fashion formally, or was it something that you taught yourself?
Judassime: I studied art first, like painting and stuff, and then I got super bored of it. My mom already saw that I was a stylish child, so she forced me into a course that was two or three months in fashion, and I loved it so much that I just stayed in the course for like two years. It was just pattern making and the very basic things about fashion.
Brownfashiongal: How important do you think a traditional fashion degree is in today’s landscape, where we have so much online information and everything is everywhere information-wise?
Judassime: These days, not that important anymore. I think we’re moving away from the days of needing an actual diploma. In creativity and art and stuff, you don’t actually need the diploma. The schools are really nice because they give you a base and a structure for you to learn technical skills or actually have a space to grow. But if you have your own tribe and your own fire inside yourself, I think you can do anything in art. It doesn’t really need a diploma. In art and fashion, I don’t think you need a diploma anymore. And you never needed one. I think the ones that are succeeding are actually the dropouts.
Brownfashiongal: Yeah, a hundred percent. Most of the people that we’ve interviewed on this podcast have been from a non-fashion background. They didn’t study fashion; they just sort of got into it. It’s interesting to see because most of these emerging designers are coming from a very non-traditional background, apart from the nepo babies, of course.
Judassime: Yeah, there are a lot of them in the schools. But I do feel like in the new wave of fashion, there’s a lot of dropouts who are actually the best. I’m not talking about influencer fashion, which is also a crazy thing for me. But the ones that actually have something to tell and create collections—because there’s also TikTok fashion, which I just don’t understand. There are two sides for me: the ones who are actually creating a full brand with a full identity and full fashion, the whole glam of an actual brand, and those who are doing just TikTok fashion, which is like one silhouette going viral and making millions of views. I’m like, okay, whatever.
Brownfashiongal: How would you differentiate a real fashion brand versus a TikTok fashion brand?
Judassime: A real fashion brand is able to create an actual identity, an actual collection on its own. You can make a show. You see a full image when you see that brand. There’s a full energy. You recognize the signatures; you recognize everything about that brand when you talk about it. As a TikTok fashion designer, it’s like, “I choose one fabric, I know my one silhouette.” It’s not really nicely shaped. No one wears it because it’s probably the creator who wears it. They make everything into a video; everything is about views, and that just throws me off the bridge because fashion, for me, is craftsmanship.
If you show everything, it loses the mystery of it. When you show all these TikTok videos, everyone knows about everything that you’re doing in that outfit, which loses the magic of fashion. When you used to look at shows by McQueen and stuff, you’d look at that show and think, “How did you make that thing?” Because it’s so incredibly insane what you can make in clothes. When the big people on TikTok just show everything, it loses the magic of it.
Brownfashiongal: Yeah, and I also think that TikTok designers, more often than not, steal from real designers to build their own sort of design portfolio.
Judassime: Also, yeah. It’s just a quick clickbait, like a thirty-second video. You literally filmed everything. You passed half of your time filming and putting the camera in place and half of your time stitching, which is so annoying. If I had to think about putting a camera every time I did something, I would be so annoyed.
Brownfashiongal: But social media, of course, is a very important part of how we market and run brands these days. How do you think you’ve been able to manage that? Even if we don’t want to, at some point and to some extent, we do have to create a little bit of content. How do you go about doing that? Is that something you actually like? What’s your approach towards creating content?
Judassime: For me, creating content is actually fun. I’m just not able to create that cheap content of a thirty-second video. I like good imagery, I like good storytelling. You can create so much content that is good for online without doing that cheap TikTok thing. So I think creating content for me is amazing. You can do campaigns, you can do video shoots, you can make movies, you can create so much content, and then send it also to shoots all around the world so everyone has their own vision. Everyone can catch your clothes in different lights and different cameras. So I think the content is not the problem. I think it’s the thirty-second TikTok video that makes it very cheap.
Brownfashiongal: Coming back to fashion education and how you got started, you’re from Belgium, which is of course one of the biggest places in fashion to be. How do you think that has shaped your fashion journey? There are so many amazing designers who’ve come out of the city and the country altogether.
Judassime: I never really got into any schools that are big and known worldwide, like La Cambre or the Antwerp Fashion Department. I got refused. Most of the time when I get refused, that’s when my power comes. I use that energy to just push and push and push because I know what I’m doing in life and I know what I want to do. I think Belgium has pushed me to actually create my brand because if I was in a school or something, I don’t think I would have become the same person whatsoever. I did learn a lot on my own, so I think the rejection actually shaped me into being the designer that I am today. If I had been in a school, I would have been too comfortable, I think. And also, it’s a limitation. I would not have fitted in a school whatsoever.
Brownfashiongal: And talking about other designers, who would you say has influenced your fashion identity and journey the most?
Judassime: I mean, McQueen and Galliano are the ones that made me re-enjoy my first glimpse of fashion. And Mugler—my God, Thierry Mugler. I think those are the people that actually made me realize what fashion was about. They were really about the theatricality, everything that is over the top, shaping a woman in every kind of way, the eccentricity, the beauty. All of that made me realize that fashion is actually a beautiful art for me.
Brownfashiongal: Your work, of course, has a very strong theatre element to it. Does that come directly from your inspiration, and how do you see yourself putting that theatre angle forward in an industry where fashion is becoming more homogenized?
Judassime: I think I’m still going to do that. I love performance. It doesn’t have to be too much of a theatrical thing, but I just love storytelling that ends with a performance, something visual that tells a story that everyone can interpret. It’s an open story: either you get it or you don’t. The clothes are there to convey that story, and you can have the attitude. I think everything comes together when you have that performance also. When the models are working a certain way, when there is certain music, when everything goes together, I think it’s the full background of making a set and inviting people to see a show. You don’t want to see people just walking straight in a line. That’s fucking stupid.
I think actually having this performance and all of this makes everything come together. When you listen to music and you don’t actually enjoy something about the music, but you’re not really sure about it, and then you see the video clip, everything makes sense and you actually like the music. That’s exactly the same with fashion. When the clothes are presented in a way of a performance, everything makes the story come together.
Brownfashiongal: Your work is, of course, a little niche, if I may say so. How do you manage the whole creative, artistic angle of it versus the business and money-making side of it?
Judassime: Well, yeah, I mean, I did push it. The first collections are very hard. When you’re a niche brand, it’s very hard to get clients or actually sell stuff. Some people love it, but then they see the price tag because everything is still made in Belgium, and that discourages some people. But I did push collection by collection, and I did have enormous clients that came to me. So I think we live in an era where this kind of fashion is going to be easier to sell. People are actually going harder in their looks.
I’m also trying to still make silhouettes that are easier on the eye and easier to wear, of course. That’s a part of the game, I think. But that still has all the details and the bazaar of my thing. I play the game, but also the full couture thing. And the couture, I don’t hold back. But then with the couture silhouettes, I’m still holding on when I loan them to people and stuff. I do make a little bit of money out of that also.
I’m trying to have a standard. My clothes are made with very expensive materials, and taking care of them is expensive. I have to archive them and stuff. All of that has to come to a price also. If someone wants to wear it, I will be happy to send it to them, but there is a fee to that also. I think that makes sense. I think every designer should have that standard because making everything for free and for PR doesn’t make sense anymore.
Brownfashiongal: How did you land on the name Judassime?
Judassime: Judassime came from Judas, basically, from religion. I was in an art school, which was a religious art school, and I was forced to go to religious class. I was fighting all the time with our religious teacher. For me, religion is not—I mean, you can believe in something higher whatsoever—but religion was bullshit to me at that time, and I was really rebellious in school.
I always had a fight with my religious teacher. Then she showed me this painting of the Last Supper, with Judas turning his back. That made so much sense. Someone in my class actually turned around and said, “You’re such a Judas.” And I loved the mindset of not just turning your back, but looking where no one is looking. Everyone is looking in the same direction, at the same person, and I am looking somewhere else, where beauty might be found.
Brownfashiongal: You mentioned that you loan your garments and all, and I remember that you dressed Lady Gaga and Julia Fox, who you mentioned were your icons. I’d love to know the stories behind that. How did the whole Lady Gaga thing happen?
Judassime: The Lady Gaga thing happened, I think, in December or January. I came back from holiday, I was sick in bed, and then I received a text message from the main stylist under Gaga that she wanted half of the collection flown to New York. But everything was already kind of everywhere in the world—in Korea, in Spain, blah blah blah. They sent people to just grab the stuff and go to New York because they wanted to fit it for the Mayhem Ball tour and then for the shows of Apple Music. That just happened in the blink of an eye. I didn’t even understand, but it was a dream come true.
I mean, Lady Gaga has shaped most queer people these days, so having a call from the main stylist, I was gagging. It made sense also with the collection. I think the collection that came out, I was already working on it when Mayhem was happening. Mayhem came out when I had already started the process of the collection. When I saw Mayhem coming out while making the collection, I was like, “This is such a Mayhem collection at the moment.” I didn’t inspire myself from Mayhem, but it made sense at that moment. I saw it happening and I was like, “My God.” So it took a little moment before she reached out, but she did. So I’m really happy with that.
Brownfashiongal: And what about Julia Fox? How did that come together?
Judassime: Julia Fox was really just a little email. It was for a protein bar commercial or something. But Julia Fox—the funny thing with her is that I always tried to dress her five times more, but it never arrived to the point of her getting the clothes. It was always so messy. My PR agency didn’t open the door to her, or the clothes were too heavy for her to go to Fashion Week, or the package was late. It was always a mess. We were sending her so many things, but she never had the time to wear it.
But this dress fit like a glove to her. I think she didn’t want to take it off. Her assistant sent the email and said, “She doesn’t want to take it off.” And I was like, “Well, that’s fine.” She looks amazing in it. Hello, diva.
Brownfashiongal: What would you say about the impact that these celebrity moments have brought you, in terms of visibility or orders? How has that experience been?
Judassime: I think the Julia Fox thing didn’t really get me anything. I mean, it’s beautiful for the portfolio online. The Lady Gaga thing actually kind of saved my company by wearing my things because when she wore it, I took the jacket back and then I made five pieces that were exactly the same. It’s like a collection piece, and I sold it to people.
It was at a time when I was actually in debt and needing money. That happened at that exact moment, so I made five collection pieces and then sold them to five people. That money actually saved a lot in my company and helped me pay my debt back. So the Lady Gaga moment actually means a lot to me—that it happened at that moment with that specific jacket and that collection, which is amazing.
Brownfashiongal: Coming back to the whole business angle of it, I noticed that you have some bags on your website as well, right? Handbags. How did that happen? Bags are, of course, famous for pushing and solidifying the financials of a company. Do you think that was more of a creative decision, or did you think it was something you needed to do?
Judassime: No, no, no. I always wanted a bag. For me, a bag is a fantasy. It’s like the little accessories, the little “oof.” It’s like the things that every girl or every queer person wants to have. It’s fun, it’s beautiful, it’s functional—you can put your stuff in it. But it’s true that the big brands are living from those bags because they make these stupid logo bags and sell them.
But, for example, my bags apparently are not that simple to sell because I still have the idea of something with a lot of accessories on it. There are rivets, there’s lacing falling from it. So I sell them, but I don’t sell them like bread at the bakery, you know? I actually sell more clothes than bags, so that’s great. But I do think that the bigger brands are living from those bags. I mean, Louis Vuitton and Gucci are making millions from those bags.
Brownfashiongal: They’re surviving on one bag, yeah. And they’re actually the cheapest-priced luxury bags there are if you compare them to other brands.
Judassime: Also, they’re not even leather, they’re just canvas. People actually think they’re buying a leather bag. Guys, you’re buying canvas! It’s crazy.
Brownfashiongal: Is there any luxury brand whose bags you would say are actually good in terms of design? Something that might match your aesthetic or not?
Judassime: My God. I think my favorite bags ever were made by Dior and Galliano—the Saddle bag. I think the Saddle bag is the perfect bag. It was made in every canvas, every color, texture, python, graffiti, everything. Everything about the Saddle bag—the handle and stuff—is the perfect bag.
Brownfashiongal: Now I want to understand a little bit more about the thought process behind you and your work and your brand. As a queer person operating in a rather underserved area and sector of fashion, do you feel the pressure to put forward your identity through your work, or do you think it comes naturally to you?
Judassime: Absolutely. I think it comes naturally to me. I’m not trying to be—and that’s the thing—I’m not trying to be political or whatsoever. But by being myself, truly myself, and having my identities show through the clothes, everything that I do becomes political because being yourself is political today.
I think I just live my life and do whatever I want, and that becomes political. It is something that they’re trying to repress us from doing. But being your true self and just doing whatever you want is something that I do. I don’t mean it like that, but it becomes a beautiful thing that you just do whatever you want without actually thinking about it. Because I think the people that are actually thinking too much about it are losing themselves. We should actually be free from our minds.
Brownfashiongal: How would you approach, for example, a hypothetical situation where something has happened in the community? How much responsibility do you think a brand has to take a stand on that or comment on that? Whenever there’s a global protest or a movement, there’s always this question of whether a brand is supporting it or raising its voice. When we talk about a brand like yours, which is fundamentally born from a place of expression and being yourself, how much responsibility do you think a brand holds in that? And can we really expect that out of bigger brands?
Judassime: No, no, no. I think everyone has—I think that we should do it every day. Bringing awareness should be done every day. I think it has to come from the heart. I can drop a project that is supporting and funding any kind of cause in the world at any day. If you can do that, then you have a good heart. You can do it. It doesn’t have to come from a protest or something that is happening at that moment. You should be able to do it all the time.
For me, that’s my perception. But then I do think that brands, if they actually think it’s a good cause, should support it for sure. When those protests are happening in the world, when trans lives matter, Black Lives Matter, all of those kinds of things—if you actually believe in those things and support those people, you should speak out for sure. Staying in silence doesn’t mean anything either.
But you should speak out throughout the whole year, every day, all the time. If something happens in the street, if something happens anywhere around you, if someone makes a comment. That’s the thing: speaking out only in those moments and then the whole year you don’t actually do something doesn’t mean a lot. You are there to support or be there, yes, but I think it has to be a very recurrent thing when you see something happening.
Brownfashiongal: It’s the equivalent of putting a Pride plaque on your profile during Pride Month. That’s what most brands think activism is. It’s really sad.
Judassime: I hate that. That’s just handwashing. What the fuck are we doing? Are we putting a flag for one month and then the rest of the year it’s straight people or something? That doesn’t make sense for me. If you’re not there the whole year, you don’t have to put the Pride flag. That’s the thing. The Pride flag is a beautiful thing, yes, but you don’t have to put that flag. You have to actually support the people behind it.
That’s like the best example. There is Pride, and that just happened in May. The whole year I could get literally harassed or beaten up on the street. But that day, suddenly I’m fine. That doesn’t change anything to me. It is a protest and I believe that Pride is very important, but everyone believes that because we have Pride, the country is safe. No, it’s not. There’s so much more that is happening. So putting that flag on your profile doesn’t mean anything to me.
Brownfashiongal: I completely agree. I think it’s so sad how performative brands still are in 2026.
Judassime: They’re trying to prove something, but don’t try to prove it if you’re not actually doing something.
Brownfashiongal: It’s shareholder pressure. If you don’t do anything, it’s going to bite you in the ass, but if you do, you just do the bare minimum.
Judassime: They’re really like, “We are here for you.” No, you’re not. My God. And most likely they’re trying to make money out of it.
Brownfashiongal: Exactly. They launch these limited-edition collections, which is even worse because you’re making money out of it.
Judassime: Yeah. The first thought behind it was not to support; it was to make money. The first meeting they had was probably to make money out of it.
Brownfashiongal: If we take another hypothetical, fashion is still very gender-defined in today’s day and age, apart from some subcultures and some nations. Globally, fashion is still very gendered. Slowly but surely, I do see a glimmer of hope. Maybe in a very, very long time it’s going to be more fluid. But if fashion was truly genderless, what conversation do you think would finally be out of the question? What conversation would disappear?
Judassime: That’s my hot take. I do think that there is a gender in making clothes. I love gender fluidity—that’s the thing. But I do feel like there’s still a gender in making clothes. For example, I could say a physical gender. When you make a pattern, when you have a breast or genitalia, that’s very different. There is a way of cutting the clothes.
That doesn’t mean that it should stop gender. I think my brand is gender fluid. Whoever puts it on has the clothes on. But I do, even if I’m the most gender-fluid person, design for an energy of a person. So it’s a feminine energy. There’s always—I do call some silhouettes menswear and womenswear. Even if you don’t really see the gender, I do see the person that is wearing it as having that kind of energy.
I do call some silhouettes menswear and womenswear, even if I don’t really see the gender, because I see the person wearing it as having that kind of energy. I think there’s still a physical thing in creating the clothes that is kind of different. Both wardrobes can switch, but there are some very tailored pieces that you cannot put on a man, for God’s sake. I’ve tried on some women’s clothes that I cannot fit, for God’s sake. I’m still a guy physically.
There are limitations in that gender fluidity, but I think gender fluidity is more about putting fragility into the clothes, making more fluid clothes, and actually bringing womenswear into menswear. I love it. I find it so beautiful.
Brownfashiongal: I’ve noticed that many brands, when we talk about performative activism, sexuality, or identity, do have a progressive view on it, but they don’t really do anything objectively for the consumer who identifies with those values. Why do you think that gap exists? A billion-dollar brand might say, “Yes, I support gender-fluid clothing,” but I’m not really catering to them as an audience. They’re not my customers. I’m just using them to seem more culturally relevant or cool, or maybe to cater to a younger audience. Why do you think that gap still exists?
Judassime: The underground culture. Everything becomes so brandy about underground culture. Everyone wants everything. They use non-binary for their careers at this point. They’re just making money out of it.
No, I think let’s make it clear: clothes are just clothes. We made it too complicated. People are having too much trouble about it. People have so many stereotypes about it, so those kinds of things happen. The brands are actually using something that shouldn’t even exist in our minds—that gender-fluid clothes should exist because they’re gender fluid anyway.
I don’t think having a womenswear and a menswear section in a shop makes sense. I’ve been in shops where I’m literally in the womenswear section and the people from the shop are like, “Mr., this is not a section.” And I’m like, “What are we talking about? This is just a piece of fabric around the body. What are we doing?”
So, yeah, I think the stereotypes already from the very beginning in our mindset are just so passive. Heels for a woman and blazers for men. What the fuck are we? This is not going to go anywhere. I think we should just delete the fact that there is gender in clothes. Of course, as a designer, as I said, for me there is a different way of creating. But we should all just delete this mindset that there’s a womenswear section and a menswear section. It’s just a piece of fabric. My God. If it fits you well and it looks good, go for it.
Brownfashiongal: I also want to touch a little bit more upon you being an independent designer. You started from scratch, and fashion design is so romanticized. Even to this day, with all the awareness, the larger audience still thinks fashion is a job about after-parties and martinis.
Judassime: Most of the time it’s depression and hard work.
Brownfashiongal: Exactly. I’d love to know a little bit more about your experience as an independent designer who’s running a brand and managing a million things. I’m sure you’re a fashion designer, but I’m pretty sure you end up doing all the jobs that exist in your brand.
Judassime: I mean, we are in an age where in 2026 you have to know everything. When you’re trained in Spring or whatsoever, if you want to start a fashion brand and you don’t have thousands and thousands and thousands of euros like a nepo baby, you have to do everything yourself.
You have to be mailing, you have to do drafting of patterns, you have to do twilling, you have to have interns, you have to travel, you have to send the package. It’s crazy. It’s insane. The glam of it is maybe one percent. The show, the one day of the show, and the little shoots here and there—it’s one percent of the time, most likely.
I’m looking very normal and very comfortable because you’ve got to work like a twelve-hour day every day. There’s no break. You can take one day off a week. I mean, fashion is not that glamorous. Yeah, I know it’s glamorized, but it’s not like glam. At the end of the day, it’s a struggle when you’re an independent designer.
Specifically in this day and age, everyone is trying to be the best. There are so many designers coming out. Money is hard to make. Clients are difficult to find. Money is running out in every—even big brands are struggling. Everything becomes very hard to do. But you’ve got to get that second job on the side for the first years and then do it if you really want to. I did it with a restaurant job on the side for the first two years, but then I stopped. And then, if you actually survive that, you can make it, I think.
Brownfashiongal: I think people often underestimate the benefit of a nine-to-five, like the stability that it can give you in the beginning.
Judassime: Crazy to me. I don’t—I start at nine, I finish at ten. What’s the nine-to-five? Excuse me.
Brownfashiongal: Perfect. Perfect. So that was actually my last question. Let me just sort of… Benjamin, thank you so much for this conversation. I learned so much about you, and I’ll continue to do so. I actually featured your brand on my page myself a very long time back. I don’t know if you saw that, but that was months and months ago, before we had this podcast or anything. So I’m very happy that I finally got to speak to you because I’ve been such a big fan of your work.
Judassime: Thank you, thank you.
Brownfashiongal: It was amazing to speak to you, and thank you so much for your time. I love it, and I hope our readers can take a lot of information from this.
