When Emory walked into the restaurant for our last interview, I noticed he’d made even more progress with his mobility. The Lofstrand crutch had been replaced by a hiking stick. He also seemed to be moving faster and with more surety than only a couple months before, a testament to his ongoing PT sessions with Paler. He and McConnell were in the middle of planning their wedding, which was only a few days away. Emory’s new reality of life with a disability has even begun to find its way—subtly, of course—into Denim Tears’ storytelling, with Paralympic athlete Garrison Redd serving as the brand’s newest look book model. Although his kidneys still aren’t 100 percent, they have improved. Feeling in his right foot hasn’t returned, but he’s been starting to wiggle most of the toes on his left.
“I’m a lucky bum, nah mean,” said Emory. “Unfortunately, I can’t thank everyone all the time, every time, but there’s nothing I’ve done that I’ve done on my own. I’ve had so much support from luck and life—and support from people.” He got misty again thinking about all the friends who came from far and near to spend time by his side in the hospital and all the medical workers, from janitors to surgeons, who helped him win his life back. Despite the unfortunate outcome of his time at Supreme, Emory said, “I’d do it all over again if it meant that I’d meet Andee.”
Although Supreme hoodies and skateboards with his artwork have yet to see the light of day, Jafa has high expectations for Emory’s work ahead. “For me, Tremaine is still very much in the early stages of his journey,” he said. “I mean, even though he’s accomplished quite a bit. But he’s like—he’s at that opening. I think it’s impossible to predict where he’s gonna actually land for sure. I would say, you know, he’s anointed, man. That’s a church term, basically. Meaning, yeah, they are who they are, but they’re as much channeling things as they are producing or dictating things, you know?”
It was a miraculous convergence of luck and competence that kept Emory on this side of life. It was love—for McConnell, for his family, for the dream of a family of his own, for what he’s put into his work, for the work still left to do, for his creative tribe, for the struggle and spirit of the Black diaspora—that seems to fuel him.
“One of the aides said, ‘Always look back to remember how far you’ve come.’ That was a bar,” Emory said, recalling a rehabilitation session when he was starting to walk again. “Even now, it’s like I live in pain, bro. But I remember when I didn’t know if I could walk again. I didn’t know if I was gonna live, if I was gonna get off dialysis, if I was gonna be able to make it out the hospitals, see my little brother grow up, marry Andee, take a walk with Andee holding hands, go down to Georgia and see my grandma. So I gotta remember that, when I’m going through stuff in the present. I gotta remember what I’ve come through.”
Mik Awake is the coauthor of ‘Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem’ and author of the forthcoming ‘Playground Moves: The Story of Rucker Park & Basketball’s Reinvention.’
A version of this story originally appeared in the 2023 Men of the Year issue of GQ with the title “The Near Death and Rebirth of Fashion’s Radical Truth-Teller”
