Vic Lloyd: Sensei Says

Vic Lloyd is a Chicago-based entrepreneur who has welcomed the spotlight onto him through his dabbling in various artistic and business ventures. The Chicago Southside native is a DJ, designer, brand consultant, rapper, producer, brand owner, and was part store owner of Fat Tiger Workshop. As a fashion designer, for which Vic Lloyd is most well-known, Lloyd focuses on menswear. His fashion lines are influenced by Chicago street style culture, and he has collaborated with many brands to put Fat Tiger Workshop on the map of Chicago fashion.

However, according to the founders, Fat Tiger Workshop is more than just a retail outlet for clothes. In Vic Lloyd’s own words, it is more of a vehicle for other people to express their visions and ideas through clothes. Moreover, as someone who knows Chicago and Chicago fashion trends like the back of his hand, there is no better person than Vic Lloyd to lead the way for others to express their ideas.

Born and raised in the Southside of Chicago, Lloyd attended private school. Vic Lloyd already knew that his passion was in fashion during his early childhood and was constantly disheartened by his school’s lack of space for creative pursuits and dreams. He remarks that there was nothing he did while attending this private school that suggested that he could do fashion for a living.

However, as someone who dabbles just as much in music performance and production as he does in fashion, on any given day of the week, you might find Vic Lloyd performing a DJ set at a gig that he had a part in putting together. He remarks that as hardworking as he is and as few vacations, as he takes, he still has the space to exercise creative control within all his creative pursuits.

Vic Lloyd attributes much of his inspiration to the Chicagoan culture of hard work, struggle, persistence, and community. He believes that Chicago culture has never been given the credit it deserves for always being ahead of its time. His recent collaboration with Adidas featured an intersection of various aspects of Chicago culture, including Chicago work-life, basketball, and music.

As Vic Lloyd continues to make his name in menswear Chicago fashion, he follows in the line of many creators in the past whose work directly influenced Chicago streetwear and street-style culture. After all, his followers don’t call him sensei for nothing. The future of Vic Lloyd seems to be one filled with perpetual innovation, creativity, ambition, community, and hard work, everything that makes Chicagoans proud to be themselves.