celeb news The 22-Year-Old Boy Wonder Shaping Shawn Mendes’ New Vibe

May 17, 2022

Quote

[…]though Mendes stepped onto the Met carpet solo this year, he wasn’t entirely alone. On this night, as on most nights, Mendes was trailed closely by Connor Brashier, the singer’s friend-cum-confidante-turned-creative director. If Mendes’ Met Gala look saw him crowned as fashion royalty, consider the camera-toting Brashier his charming courtier.

At just 22 years old, Brashier has already worked on some of the biggest projects of Mendes’ career, from art directing the single cover and promo materials for Mendes’ “Senorita” collab with Camila Cabello, to serving as creative director for the singer’s upcoming “Wonder World Tour.” The Laguna Beach native is responsible for much of Mendes’ merch too, and advises him on everything from styling to social media.

Quote

When the tour (the aptly-named “Shawn Mendes: The Tour”) ended in 2019, “[Shawn] kind of approached me and he was like, ‘Hey dude, I want you to have more of a creative director role.’ I was texting my friends to be like, ‘Whoa, this is crazy,'” Brashier says. It was the first time he had been approached for an official “creative director” role. He was 20 years old.

Since then, Brashier has been a constant presence by Mendes’ side, most recently working on the music video for the singer’s new single, “When You’re Gone,” in addition to consulting on Mendes’ Met Gala look (the two were also spotted high-tailing it to Miami recently for the Miami Grand Prix). But Brashier has been a welcome presence for Mendes as well, serving as a sounding board and companion in the midst of music industry madness. It’s something Mendes says he appreciates the most about his teammate, colleague, and now, best friend.

Quote

What’s your day-to-day like?

It depends on what we’re working on. There are two things that really stand out when someone releases a song: cover photo and music video, and so those are the first two things that kind of get in the back of our mind. Everything unravels from there. I try to be very involved with the treatments and work with Shawn and with the director. And then we just start shooting and see what feels right. A lot of stuff goes on behind the scenes that’s hard to describe. Like, my roommates are two of my friends that I grew up with and even they’re like, “Dude what do you even do?”

But there’s lot that goes on behind the scenes, a lot of long-term projects that don’t see the light of day for a year. We’ve been working on Shawn’s tour designs for a year now. So some of these things take a lot more patience than I’ve been used to. You know, so many ideas get thrown out and then we have to start over. Sure, some weeks I’m not doing much, but other weeks I’m working 16 hours.

You’ve talked about how your vision for a video treatment or photoshoot is usually aligned with Shawn’s. But have there been times where you haven’t seen eye to eye?

There have been times where like, me and Shawn have been on set and we have our opinions, but we’re all so tightly knit, like a family, that we can give each other attitude, and bounce back in ten minutes. I have such an open conversation with Shawn at all times. Once I’m proud of something, it’s easy to be like, “Shawn what do you think?” and he’s like “Love!” or “Hmm, I’m not really feeling this.”

I’m definitely stubborn and I love hearing my opinion, and it took me a while to realize like, “Hey, Shawn knows his fans better than I think any artist [does].” So whatever he says, he must be connecting to them in the right way and in a way that I am not.

What’s a concept or idea you pitched to Shawn that never went through?

At one point I remember he had long hair and I was like, “Let’s do something crazy with your hair: let’s dye it, let’s spike it up, put on some makeup; it’ll become your new look, like the Bowie look!” And he was like, “I think it’s really cool but I love my hair the way it is and I’m not going to change it.”

I think a few of my ideas took a little bit too much commitment. Plus Shawn knows how to do his hair really well.

I feel like Shawn’s 2021 Met Gala look was a big departure for him.

It was Michael Kors. I remember I went to the fitting and we had some amazing custom fit suits and they all looked great and then they took us to the archive section and there were all these black suits, which is not something Shawn would really wear but something he’s always wanted to wear, to be like the rock star. And then we were like “Shirt? No shirt?” Shawn was like “What do you mean? I want to take my jacket off; I want to go fully shirtless.”
You don’t get that edgy side of Shawn too often because that’s not him, but I think he loves to play dress up and push his artistry like, “Here’s my look today, let’s have fun today.” Shawn loves to play around and put on makeup or eye shadow for a shoot or be shirtless or something like that. He knows what people want.

It’s a long article, this is only a tiny portion. More at the link.

May 17, 2022

the singer’s friend-cum-confidante

May 17, 2022

MV5BMTY1OTA2MjI5OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzkx

May 17, 2022

LPSG has been on his ass for a minute :WAP:

May 17, 2022

there is literally 0 chance that there isnt anything fruity between these two :rip:

if they are not dating, they are friends with benefits and they have been f*cking for like 3 years now 100%. I do wonder when it could started tho, cause Shawn was with Camila for few years as well. :siptea: