Known for wearing both a long blonde beard and skirts, Austin McCaffrey is a sophomore studying religion and psychology. He was recently featured on the fashion blog, The Satorialist, founded by Scott Schuman, a photographer whose work has appeared in both fashion magazines and national ad campaigns.
First and foremost, congratulations on your photograph in The Satorialist.
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
What was your experience like talking to and being photographed by Scott Schuman?
“He was startlingly pleasant and cordial and was very sweet, and you could tell that his focus as an artist wasn’t to promote himself but to genuinely and respectfully highlight the choices of his subjects.”
And you have his book, too, so it’s almost like you as an artist became a piece of someone else’s art.
“Yeah, it was very exciting. I, like, secretly squealed to my mother after he shook my hand because he’s at least a slightly famous person. Like, in reality, it was just exciting to be appreciated.”
You’re actually an artist in many different mediums. What types of art do you make?
“I do photography, poetry…I don’t even remember what I do…acting, singing, songwriting, dancing, sketching, painting, clothes-making, and various peculiar crafts for my room.”
Your style, both in your art and in the way you dress, is so distinctive. How would you define it?
“Oh my god. Alright, you need to give me a second here because I’ve definitely thought of this. I mean, my style differs depending on the medium because of all the bizarrely diverse influences I’ve sort of succumbed to over the years. But I would say that my biggest influence has been the surrealists in terms of I try to pull from a world that is so deeply internalized that few facets of society or genuine aesthetic for aesthetic’s sake could actually do it justice. I kind of try to pull from that layer of identity within the hypothetical subconscious that sort of loftily floats over the point at which you realize that your identity doesn’t exist. In essence, I attempt to express a vision which most feel is too deeply hidden within humanity to find or are too frightened to search for themselves.”
I remember last year someone started a Reddit thread asking about who you are. Do you ever feel like the way you present yourself overshadows you? Like people are more interested in your “character” than who you actually are as a person?
“I don’t really like the term ‘judge’ because I always felt it had too much of an everyday Fundamentalist Christian vibe to be used in everyday conversation. But I’ve always repeated a phrase to myself: ‘If people are going to judge me, I must give them the tools in order to be correct.’ So I don’t feel I portray any more of a character than I actually am. If somebody genuinely expresses themself through fashion, those who are meant to know them will understand perfectly.”
Because your style is so vibrant and sometimes chaotic, it seems like people make snap judgments about who you are even if they’ve never met you. I feel like this is especially evident in the comments on your photograph in The Satorialist where the commenters pin all of these issues of identity and gender on you even though they literally only know you from a picture on their computer screen.
“Yeah, a lot of people said I seemed like a confused person. But, to be honest, they weren’t entirely wrong. Confusion, chaos, and a diversity of thoughts and ideas that don’t always add up to a whole that has precedence in mainstream society are part of what I love to express. So according to their preconceived ideas of gender identity and what it means to be a normal person, I am very confused. What they fail to see is that I embrace a wide range of what gender and style have to be. It’s not that I don’t know what to choose, it’s that I willingly choose all of them.”
Besides the fact that the comments were often quite mean, they were also pretty funny. Did you have any favorites?
“My favorite is ‘I would not hit it.’ It’s so beautifully defiant.”
I think my favorite is when they go off on a long rant about something vaguely related to gender norms and style and then punctuate it with discussion about the length of your purse strap.
“Yeah, my purses are always the subject of much discourse. People will go out of their way to convince me that I do not carry a purse, but a ‘man purse’ or a ‘satchel.’ I don’t know why I’m not allowed to name my own objects.”
Especially because so many of your pieces are vintage, so your traditionally feminine pieces definitely were at some point worn by females.
“Yes, absolutely. When I wear a piece, it’s because there’s something about its color and form which seems to suit how I feel very deeply. I’m disinterested initially in if it is meant to be worn by a male or female, although I do take pride in that disinterest. So I guess you could say the femininity is very much a part of my aesthetic.”
What advice would you give to someone who is trying to find their personal style?
“It sounds kind of intense if you’re largely unsure of what your personal voice is, but I’ve always found it most inspiring to listen to absolutely nobody at all, not a single human being. Don’t let anything about other people and their ways of doing things influence you. Your style is not going to keep you alive, so you can be as careless with your sense of style as you want before finding yourself. It’s really important to think of yourself as a fairly clean slate so that something inherent and deeply personal about you can emerge and overtake the influences that would have bid you become more derivative.”
If you want to learn more about Austin through his art, he just released an EP under the name The Convincing Actor and has a Behance photography page. You can also see him performing throughout the New Brunswick DIY scene or just strolling around College Ave and the sketchy parts of town.