Just like his character, Sokka, in Netflix’s hit show Avatar: The Last Airbender, Ian Ousley leads a life that is constantly moving and just as layered. The actor has been busy working on his clothing brand Kaló Soil and dressing A-listers in his spare time. His label contributes to a cyclical fashion structure in which vintage clothes are repurposed and given a new life in the contemporary. Passion, creativity and holiness drive Ousley’s career ventures, and as he evolves in his personal life so does his professional image.
Hi, it’s a pleasure to speak with you, let’s start with something easy, what is a typical day in the life for you?
Hi, thanks for having me! A typical day for me starts with some iced coffee and some journaling. I try to get everything out of my head so I can start the day clear. Then, I just try to connect to God for about ten minutes a day and be present but every day, work-wise, is really different. I love coffee shops and the more mundane parts of LA. A lot of my life, I’m just trying to connect with people wherever I am and hoping that inspiration comes from those little interactions.
Are you bingeing anything at the moment?
I’m actually watching The Sopranos for the first time, which has been a lot of fun and I’m either going to rewatch Entourage or tackle Peaky Blinders next. I’m trying to knock out all the classics I missed out on. But I’m an avid re-watcher; it’s hard for me to start something new.
The new season of your show, Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered in June. What is your process for getting into the zone and channelling your character, Sokka? Has it changed since the first season?
Yeah, my process has definitely evolved from season to season. There was so much time in between season one and two that naturally you change as a person and an artist. My process this season focused on a lot of imagination work. Clothes are such a big part of my life so one thing that helped me was first thing every day, I picture myself walking around a cathedral and as I made my way around I would take off who I am and my personal clothes and put on my costume and who Sokka is in my head. I also had a ritual of taking the stage that helped me recentre on using acting as a form of service which I think is the best source for creating.
The final season has already been filmed, but unfortunately we have to wait until next year to see it. Tell me about your experience on the show, what has it taught you?
This show changed my life in every way imaginable. Some of my best friends and strongest relationships were formed while filming this show. I really grew up with all of these guys and that’s something you can never recreate. I could sit here all day and list off things that working on this show has taught me. But one thing that I’ll walk away from this show with is understanding how commitment and care are probably the two most important ingredients of making something you can walk away proud of. I was inspired by everyone, cast and crew, who showed up, bled out and cared even when it hurt to or when they didn’t want to. It really makes such a big difference. We all committed for over a year straight to make these two seasons of television so it was a boot camp and a marathon and a test of will to commit and care for that long and not lose the spark because you only get one shot at making a show like this.
Can you give us a little teaser on what’s next for Sokka?
Battle.
Fashion and film have always been heavily intertwined, can you think of a standout fashion moment in anything you’ve watched? Is there a current series you would like to work on costumes for?
I love shows that make you believe in the world through the costumes. Star Wars I think is the blueprint of doing eccentric looks while making you believe in those characters. But I always loved the fashion in Deadwood there’s so much you can do with a western and I personally love the process of aging clothes and seeing how clothes are used as a memento of people’s lives so it’s awesome to see how people fake that process and make it look so real.
Tell us about the actor side of you and the fashion designer side of you, do you approach both in a similar way?
My processes for acting and designing have similarities but are very different. The thing that I think translates in both is building a character. When I’m designing, sometimes it’s based on a character I would want to play but that comes from fully fleshing out a life for the person that would wear that jacket. It’s very similar with creating the image of a brand. What is it saying? Who is it? There is a visual language that you build and speak through when you make the clothes and the promotional videos and the feeling of the store that all have to feel cohesive and that’s similar to creating a character. How they differ is that in acting you get a lot less of a say in the creative process and you are a servant to the director and the writers if you’re doing it right, in my opinion. As an actor you’re trying to colour inside the lines of a person that someone else has made. Your job is to manifest an idea that someone else had which is very freeing and exhilarating if you have the right director that you can collaborate with.
What inspired you and your friends to start a fashion label? How did the idea come about and what was it like in those initial stages?
Sully and Hunter [Baker] were doing wholesale vintage with Kaló Soil first and I loved the world they were curating in the shop. I asked if they would be interested in making their own clothes and if I could join them in making that possible. It was maybe the most artistically freeing time of my life. We just came to the shop every day and tried to make it work for around a year and that was beautiful. There were no expectations but we were trying to make something really excellent that was for the community, not just ourselves.
Kaló Soil, your fashion label, focuses on sustainability and repurposing vintage pieces, do you think fashion is moving in the right direction to tackle environmental issues or is there anything more to be done?
There’s always more that can be done. I think it’s great that the stigma behind wearing pre-owned clothes has mostly gone away entirely. But the best thing I think everyone can do is buy second-hand as much as possible and, if not, buy pieces that you love and are well made so you can wear them for a really long time.
You have dressed some big names in popular culture, is there anyone you would love to work with that you have not yet?
Having something that I made on Donald Glover, Willem Dafoe, Fakemink, Adrianne Lenker or Spike Jonze would be highly rewarding. All of those artists are creative powerhouses.
How did dressing Timothée Chalamet and Cameron Winter come about?
Taylor McNeill found our content that we were making on Instagram and changed our lives. We were creating daily for about six months until we caught her attention.
Where do you find inspiration both for yourself and your label, is there a recurring motif you find yourself going back to?
I find myself going back to creation always. Building off of the best-designed things that are in nature like animals. The textures of wood or stone and trying to make those things more ethereal is always exciting to me. I watch movies and TV shows from my childhood like Where the Wild Things Are and Over the Garden Wall also Star Wars to get inspiration and I always try to root it in holiness. Make the things on this earth reflect the angelic and ethereal.
We have entered an era where social media has become a search engine for everything from trends to movies to unexpected cultural sensations, what is your relationship with the platforms? Does it influence your work in any way?
I have a love-hate relationship like most people with social media. I love the people that interact with me on it but reality is where real connection and inspiration come from in my opinion. I really try my hardest to not be influenced by things I see online when it comes to art because that is the source that everyone is pulling from and in my opinion the art won’t resonate if it doesn’t come from a grounded place no matter how fantastical or eccentric the art is. And social media is not a grounded place.
Personal style is an expression of oneself; how would you describe yours? How has it, and your overall understanding of fashion, evolved?
I try to dress like a wanderer. My understanding of clothes has been fluid. In my experience it starts as just trying to look cool and as I’ve grown in fashion, I’ve learned how to accentuate who I am and how I’m feeling with what I put on my body and that’s a really fun thing to experiment with.
What’s next for you, in fashion and acting, can you give us some hints about what to expect next from you?
I go into filming something I’m very excited for in early September which is different than anything I’ve ever done before. I just finished filming my first feature film in June. And I’m directing a series of vignettes /10; the first one is out and the second one is filmed. They’re very similar to the video concepts that I directed for Kaló Soil and I am finding my freedom and voice with those. I’m finding myself at a place in my life where I still design weekly but am styling more than making but I expect that to change in the next year.
