Similarly to Supreme and a host of other skate shops, Palace also hosts their own Skate Team. Unlike most other teams though, Palaceās Skate Team plays a larger role in Palaceās overall business, informing the designs and concepts. When Lev Tanju put the brand together, it was done so around the people he was hanging out with and skating with, who would eventually just become the skate team. Periodically, over the next nine months, weāll highlight a member of the Palace Skate Team, similarly to how weāve started doing with Supreme. Scroll down to check out our profile on Lucien Clarke.
Lucien Clarke
Like Na-Kel Smith and Sean Pablo, Lucien Clarke defines himself as a skate-rat, stating “Girls didnāt matter. Going out didnāt matter. I was a skate-rat”.Ā The London skater got his start when he was just a pre-teen when his step-dad bought him his first skateboard. Lucien was born in Jamaica and lived there a while before moving to New York with his mother, where theyād live for six years and then move to England.
In comparison to some of the other guys featured in our Skater profiles, Lucien seemingly got a late start, not even receiving his first board until he was 14. By the time he was 15 or 16, he knew that skating full time was what he wanted to do with his life; the above quote is a reference to that age. During those teenage years, Lucien spent time in the London neighborhood of Southbank, an area he says is āthe heart of Londonā. It was there that he met the Palace guys and really started moving forward in his craft. Eventually, he was sponsored by a small local shop and that led would lead to more sponsorships, including a sponsorship by Element.
Lucien started traveling after the Element sponsorship, allowing him to expose himself on a higher level than before. Throughout all of this, he tells Quartersnacks that heās never really felt disadvantaged for not being from the United States. Shortly after Lucien started picking up momentum as a pro, Lev Tanju (Palace Founder) started printing tees and building what would eventually become Palace. Not long after that, he was brought on board as one of the first four members of the company. As the brand started picking up steam, the group started creating a series of videos, dubbing themselves the āPalace Wayward Boys Choirā or PWBC for short. The group and series of videos served as a platform for both Palace the brand and the skaters on the team, all of which were featured in this 2009 article by ESPN, who was primarily only covering US Skating at the time. From there, the brand only expanded and skaters like Lucien have risen to stardom as a result, participating in things like Louis Vuitton Menās shows and winning most stylish at Paris Fashion Week. Scroll down to check out some of Lucienās career highlights.
Skate
Beyond his skating with Element and the Palace Wayward Boy Choir, Lucien also went on to join Supraās pro team and has since been given several signature shoes and appeared in several skate videos. Heās also still a regular in Palaceās skate videos and lookbooks, modeling and delivering parts regularly. Though heās not (yet) won Thrasherās Skater Of The Year Award, heās been featured on the shortlist for several years.
Supreme
Lucien Clarkeās relationship with Supreme is relatively synonymous with Palaceās, at least at an in-store level. Palace was featured in-store at Supremeās debut in London in 2011. Similarly, Lucien also worked at that Supreme store for one day before he was actually fired for arriving 2 hours late to his first shift. He was hired after chatting with James Jebbia at the launch party but thought he was supposed to show up at 11am instead of 9. He was reportedly fired by Jebbia himself. The relationship ended up turning out alright afterwards and Lucien would eventually go on to model for Supreme in several different lookbooks prior to Supremeās creation of their own skate team. Check out a few pics of him modeling for Supreme below and check him out in the Supreme FW 2014 lookbook here.
Lucien Clark wearing a Supreme Box Logo Tee
Lucien Clarke in the Supreme FW14 Lookbook Photo: Supreme
Lucien Clarke in the Supreme FW14 Lookbook Photo: Supreme
Modeling
Lucienās modeling career began with his work at Palace, appearing in videos and their lookbooks as the brand started to roll out. Later, heād start working with Supreme and modeling in some of their lookbooks as well. Since then, heās been a consistent talent for Palace, recently appearing in their Palace Ralph Lauren spot which received a lot of praise. Beyond skating, he recently appeared in a lookbook for Clarks Wallabees. As a part of the streetwear scene, Lucienās also been able to cross paths with some of the industries most influential, including the likes of Virgil Abloh. As a result of his relationship with Mr. Abloh, Lucien has appeared in both of the Menās shows for Louis Vuitton under Virgil.Ā
Lucien Clarke Walking in Virgil Abloh’s Louis Vuitton Debut Photo: YANNIS VLAMOS/INDIGITAL.TV
Lucien Clarke in Clark’s “The World Needs Originals” Campaign
Photography
Of Lucienās expanding creative endeavors, photography has emerged as one of his self-proclaimed favorites. One of the things that the Palace team has done so well over the last ten years is shoot excellent lookbook photos with the help of highly touted photographer Jeurgen Teller. As Lucien spent time around Jeurgen and the photo team, he himself developed a passion for the craft. He currently runs a finstagram (fake instagram if youāre reading this and also old) featuring solely his photography and was even been tapped by GQ Style to create a photo-diary of Paris Fashion Week. Check out some of his photography below and the rest on his IG.
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View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
If this profile had been written three years ago, we wouldāve written about how Lucien was āup nextā. That statement wouldāve been in reference to what he was working on at the time and now, looking back, wouldāve missed so much of what he now brings to the table. At the moment, Lucien Clarke seems to be āup nextā. Heās finding his way in the fashion industry, could make skater of the year at any moment, and has become a go-to face for advertising new product. āUp nextā doesnāt feel right, or maybe it feels like itāll always be right, weāre not really sure. But what we do know is that Lucien seems to see himself as boundless, operating outside of what people think he should be doing. How does one weigh a Skater Of The Year nomination against walking in the largest menās fashion spectacle of the year? Itās probably not our place to make that distinction, but for the forseeable future, Lucien is probably just going to continue doing what he wants, doing it well, and making headlines for being āup nextā.
