How Evan Mock Skated His Way into High Fashion

It’s hard to pin down Evan Mock. He’s a skater. He’s a model in upscale ads for Calvin Klein and on Saint Laurent runways. He’s an actor who played Aki on the Gossip Girl reboot. This summer, he was on the cover of VOGUE Man Philippines—though you might recognize him better as the boy with the pink buzzcut Frank Ocean posted on Instagram in 2019. 

I sat down with Evan at the episode premiere of Skate Tales, a Red Bull docuseries hosted by Madars Apse, one of the world’s most respected skaters with the scars to prove it. “Evan has this whole lifestyle around him,” Apse said. “The vibe that comes from his skating and how he carries himself is so cool and unique.”

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Mock is originally from the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, and he moved to New York after living in California for some time. His effortless street style is accompanied by his brand Wahine, a collection of clothes inspired by Hawaiian skate and surf culture.

We talked about skating, fame, and why he’s never tried New York’s best Italian ice despite practically living at the skate park across the street.

VICE: Tell me a bit about this episode of Red Bull’s Skate Tales. What did you and Maders do while filming?

EVAN MOCK: It seemed like two weeks, but it was realistically four or five days, just pretty much getting a little deep dive into my life living in New York, skating, playing pool, eating at my favorite restaurants, hanging with my friends, and once again, skating. We skated a lot that week and had a great time. Maders is great. I met a lot of cool people who I’m friends with now. 

One might say you’re a man of many talents. What gives you the confidence to jump into different fields?

One might say that, my mom probably. But, if I did one thing in life, I’d be so bored. I have to keep myself occupied and into things that I know nothing about, throwing myself into these worlds that I have to figure out while I’m thrown into the fire. 

Honestly, I think all the things I’m into coincide with each other. I grew up surfing, then I found skating, and that helped a lot with each other. Everything I do is like a whole movement, and I always said as a kid that I want to live for a living, so I’m trying to do my best with that. 

Since you grew up with a seemingly normal childhood, is fame everything you expected? Traveling, meeting people you may consider your heroes—does anything about this world surprise you?

I mean, it’s cool to meet the people you see on your Explore page all the time. It’s cool to see their little quirks if you get to know them a little better, but also, at the end of the day, you realize that they’re all humans, and maybe some of them are a little weird and some of them are really cool, you kind of just treat them like anyone else. 

I think the whole fame thing is not really anything any of us ever asked for, but it just comes with what we’re doing and what we have a passion for. I think that the easiest way to go about all this is figuring it out not even day-by-day but almost hour-by-hour. 

I have to ask: Did you watch the OG Gossip Girl?

I started watching a few episodes when I realized I got the job. My sister watched it, but I always heard about it. I liked their ads back in the day because they were pretty racy at that time. It was kind of crazy to see people making out on buses in the ads. I guess it was pretty progressive at the time, which now, you wouldn’t even blink twice if you saw it, but back then, it had a way bigger impact. 

What about now? What was it like to see yourself in the reboot? 

Because it was the first season, I watched the first couple of episodes, but I’m such a perfectionist that I would always find something I wanted to do differently when I watched it.

I looked at the footage as if you’re going out skating, and you want to review it and see what you could do differently, how it felt, or how it looked. Sometimes, it feels really horrible, but then it looks amazing on camera. So I was looking at it like that, which is like the skate connection to my acting career, kind of just mushing it all together. 

But then I would ask my friends, “What parts am I in?” And would just watch the rest of the episode and skip my scenes.

Where do you pull your style inspiration from? I know your brand Wahine is an ode to your home, but do you look anywhere else for inspiration?

I get the most inspiration by going on trips, just seeing things visually and physically. Hawaii is where I’ve spent most of my life, and growing up there, I think with at least designs and the cuts, I kind of try to glorify what I’ve seen there. The sole purpose of me creating the brand is to elevate what I’ve seen growing up in Hawaii to more of a modern but still historical outlook. So it’s a mix of mostly old but new endeavors. 

I see you skate at Tompkins. Are you familiar with Ralph’s Italian Ices across the street? What’s your favorite flavor?

I honestly have never gone there. I feel like New York is like that, where you live downstairs from the best Japanese restaurant you’ve ever seen in your life, and you’ve just never gone for some reason. Or also, things that you’ve never seen on your block in your entire life, you’re like, “When did this show up?” and it’s been there for like 180 years. You’re like, “I completely missed this. I don’t know why or how,” but that’s New York for you. 

I’m sure you’re busy working on other projects, so with that, has your relationship with skating changed over the years?

I mean, skating’s everything to me. I’ve been a skateboarder since I was 11, so roughly 16 years, and it’s a lifestyle. It’s everything that I’ve ever known. It’s given me everything I have, and it’s been the sole purpose of where I’m at today. I’ve met some of my best friends through skateboarding.

Let’s end with some rapid-fire questions. What’s your summer anthem?

I’ll probably have to say that Adam Port’s song “Move.” It’s kind of like the song of the summer.

Do you have any party tricks? Skating doesn’t count.

Not beatboxing. Laughs.

What superpower would you have if you could choose one?

Invisibility.

What’s your favorite TV show?

Gossip Girl, of course.