Dig Magazine

Issue date: 5/1/09 Section: In Depth

Gone are the days of concert venues and festivals being dark and dreary with alternative, punk and rock shows being filled with young crowds in black tee-shirts. A new burst of color has been added to the music scene and is making festivals like Bamboozle and Warped Tour bright and shiny. Twenty-three year old Mark Capicotto is the man behind these intensely-hued designs who got these music listeners to taste the rainbow.

"I wanted to do something completely different, bring a whole new element of color and vibrance to the style of music and the culture of it," says Capicotto about the idea behind his clothing brand. "I wanted to do the opposite from whatever brands were out then."

In 2005, Capicotto was a college student in upstate New York with a passion for graphic design, but wasn't too sure what career he wanted to pursue. He was doing freelance T-shirt designs for several bands and companies and then began creating some original designs for himself.

"It was just something that kind of made sense for me to do myself," says Capicotto about creating his own designs and line. "And it just started out as something that I was like kind of half-serious with while I was going to school, and it ended up being a full-time thing."

That full-time thing actually turned into Glamour Kills, a colorful line of T-shirts sold in an online store and fully operated out of Capicotto's parents' basement. Because of his passion for music and previous involvement in designing for bands, Capicotto began attending local shows in the Hudson Valley area and merging his designs and brand with music culture.

"I grew up listening to all these bands in the scene and you know music's like such a huge part of my life that it just kind of made sense that we were a part of that," explains Capicotto. "So I guess from day one it was part of the plan to just always be within the music scene with the brand."

One of the first bands to sign on with the band were pop-rockers Just Surrender from the nearby town of Poughkeepsie. "I knew those guys [Just Surrender] and they started wearing the stuff, and they would introduce me to other bands that they would be on tour with, and they would see them wearing the T-shirts and they'd be like 'Where'd you get that?' and then they'd put them in contact with me."

This was how Capicotto met the young pop-punk sensation All Time Low, a band that now works closely with Glamour Kills with a blog on its site and guitarist Jack Barakat's own line of designs. "The guys in Just Surrender were like 'Hey, you gotta check these guys out, they're awesome,' and I was like 'Oh yeah, we'll check them out' and when they were playing in New York I went and watched them and became friends with the band ever since and the rest is history."

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools