How JJJJound Defined Good Taste for the Internet Era

In the mid-aughts, Justin R. Saunders pioneered the internet mood board: an endless scroll of aspirational images that helped define (and democratize) cool for an entire generation. And then he set about turning his discerning eye into a very 21st-century sort of clothing brand.

- NOAH JOHNSON

IN 2006, Saunders Justin R. was living aimlessly. He was in his early 20s, working part-time as a security guard and an art teacher, skateboarding and writing graffiti in his off time. He did not yet know what he would do with his life. As a hobby, he started collecting images he found online, things he liked or found amusing or wished he could afford-classic cars, rare sneakers, "Calvin and Hobbes" comics, brutalist architecture. He was as interested in the style of the '60s and '70s as he was in the frequencies of modern fashion and streetwear. Adult life was looming, but he hadn't yet let go of the things that defined his youth, and this new pastime gave him a way to arrange his feelings into a visual compendium. It was a little like the mood boards designers create to arrange their references for a new collection. Except Saunders was not yet the influential designer he is today. He was simply creating a mood board for the life he wanted to live.

Saunders's sensibilities had been informed by an unusually worldly childhood. Born in Montreal, he spent much of his youth in Germany, where his mother, a first-grade teacher, got a job teaching French. His family spent summers driving across Europe, camping out of their minivan. He saw the entire continent, the museums and the farmlands. It was a crucial experience for the development of his eye. But he was also a teenager, increasingly obsessed with Bart Simpson and Michael Jordan and Foot Locker. These two worlds-highbrow Europe and lowbrow America clashed spectacularly in his mind. Just before he entered high school, his family returned to Montreal, his mother having recognized that her son, who was a little socially awkward, would likely be better off back home. He fell for skateboarding and graffiti. He silk-screened T-shirts. He attempted college but decided it wasn't for him and dropped out after two years. In his website, finally, he found a purpose.