James Mayes

How this self-taught designer built Emline into New Orleans's hottest fashion brand

- Cynthea Corfah

When asked why his clothing brand, Emline, sells over 100 types of socks, owner and fashion designer James Mayes responds that he hates when people's socks don't match their outfits.

“If you're sitting down and you cross your legs and your pants roll up, I feel like you still should be in coordination,” Mayes says, as I chuckle in agreement over our Zoom call. “That’s just me. I hate when people have on all black and then you see their white socks. I feel like it just messed the outfit up. When I design, I want to have every color of socks, because you never know the occasion.”

Mayes himself is sitting in front of a floor-to-ceiling wall of sneakers during our interview, each shelf organized by color, and I can see why he's picky about his socks. To him, they’re not just socks; each piece of clothing, and each accessory he chooses, plays a role in telling his outfit’s story. As the designer of a high-end street-wear brand with weekly sold-out releases—including socks—he has, I think, earned the right to be particular about what fabric accessory he puts on his feet before he pulls on his shoes.

Mayes has always been a sneakerhead. As a child growing up in New Orleans, he recalls going to the shoe store with his father and crying until he could take home a new pair of sneakers. Decades later, his collection of more than 160 pairs of sneakers would become his saving grace—providing the seed funding that helped him get his clothing brand off the ground.

Mayes, 38, introduced Emline in 2017. He'd gotten the idea to start a clothing line two years before, when a friend suggested he leave his budding personal-shopping and stylist career behind and launch an apparel line instead. “In my mind, I just wanted to wait 'til I got more recognition behind what I was doing,” he recalls. “But what I didn’t know was I wouldn't get that recognition until I actually started my own brand.”