OVD debuts first showcase at NYFW, talks divine timing and duality
NEW YORK | By: Alexia Hill
With a sold-out presentation during New York Fashion Week, the planets seem to be continually aligning for Saturn, designer of OVD.
OVD, short for Overdose, is an elevated grunge streetwear brand that presented its first ever design exhibition in Tribeca at The Untitled Space gallery on Sept. 9. The showcase included four looks from Saturn’s streetwear brand, OVD, and four looks from his latest brand, We Found Sareniti.
Saturn himself is a bit of an anomaly; a designer who truly cares for the people who support him, creating a Discord community of “ANG333LS” who get sneak peaks of products, discount codes, and more. The brands and creative network, commonly known by its social media username “What Happened To God,” all started when Saturn was given a second chance in life after going to the hospital for drug addiction in 2020.
“That’s when I decided I want to do something more with my life, rather than giving myself away to drugs,” Saturn said. “That's why I started designing clothes and everything. That’s when I started taking my life much more seriously. From there, I always knew that I wanted to do the whole light and darkness aspect of drugs and show the dark side, but also show how we can rewrite the definition that overdose is an excessive amount of love instead of drugs.”
OVD has a deep-rooted passion for creating an art form in spreading awareness of overdose, while other influences inspire his designs directly.
“One of my biggest inspirations as far as designers go is Vivienne Westwood, and she heavily influences my whole punk style, pearls and things like that,” Saturn said. “And then also just using influences like Kanye and A$AP Rocky that are a huge part of my own personal style, and finding how I can apply that to my own brand.”
Ranging from affordable angelic yet punk graphic tees and distressed jeans, to designer jewelry pieces and handmade knit sweaters, the brand’s aesthetic is an amalgamation of Saturn’s heart and soul, the good and bad. Picture a fallen angel or being a badass side character in a modern Matrix movie, and you can envision OVD.
According to the brand’s website, the OVD brand is conceptualized by, “Despite the beauty you see within the art, what you’re truly seeing is pain.” The NYFW presentation represented the duality of both seamlessly.
Upon entering the art gallery, you’re immediately faced with eight models, four on each side of the room facing toward each other with intense stares. On the right side, we see the well-known OVD brand: a heavy black and white presence, pearls, starry black eyeliner, angel symbolism, reworked black denim, and an overall “Chrome Hearts”-esque aesthetic.
On the left side, we see the newer, less-known brand founded by Saturn, We Found Sareniti. This side of the exhibition showcased traditional Indian fashion full of color and detailing, such as a green crystal embroidered floral lehenga and a mens royal blue crystal sherwani.
Contrasting to the OVD brand, We Found Sareniti is a high fashion Indian couture brand that highlights luxury and purity. The two collections juxtaposing one another through colors, semiotics, and even down to the floral designs made for a curated experiential showcase.
“The whole idea was a huge juxtaposition, and I wanted to bring my world of streetwear, luxury, punk, grunge and all that into my world of where I grew up with Indian culture, and I want to present to as like one vision without kind of diverting them as two different entities,” Saturn explained.
Models on each side were surrounded by columns of floral designs of the respective color palette for each brand. On the OVD side, it was all black and white and on the Sareniti side, they were all different hues of pinks and oranges. Furthering the ambience and storytelling, models for the darker, grunge side stood on cement slabs as pedestals, while the models for Sareniti stood on golden, ornate traditional Indian Puja chairs.
“We had all the models face each other for that reason, so we can show this whole liminal effect where it's like OVD, everything is all black and white, it's the same thing with What Happened to God [as a whole], it’s all about the two sides that I just grew up with, light and darkness, love and hate.”
In the back center of the gallery, a table activation was set up, accompanied by a true-to-the-brand worker wearing the iconic OVD “Garden of Yang” couture mask. At the table, attendees could take a free sticker, informational flier and fentanyl testing kit, as part of OVD’s partnership with the nonprofit organization, End Overdose.
With a sold-out event of 1000 RSVP’s that was planned in around three weeks, Saturn’s sentiment for the art form was more than reciprocated.
“Oh my god, I felt so much love during the whole show, I felt so much love after, like it was so great. I was just so happy that everybody just came in and they could feel the energy that I was trying to provide even with such little time to plan,” Saturn said. “I’m always just kind of just trusting God's plan and I just wanted to try and give it my best. My only regret is that I wish I could've gotten everybody in so everybody could see it but next time like I said I'm definitely going to be prepared for a bigger venue so I can get everybody in.”
In fact, the amount of support was so overwhelming the space had to shut down the event earlier than anticipated due to the crowd. But this, among his addiction to creating art, only continues to motivate Saturn.
Saturn’s work lives and breathes his own intimate life experiences in the best way possible. To say his garments (under every company and brand) are intentional is an understatement, yet the visual branding components flow naturally with each emotion.
What Happened to God, the foundational parent company for OVD, We Found Sareniti, and more, is a rare, altruistic breed in the fashion industry, and legacy in the making. Sean, otherwise known as Swaat, who is one of his utmost inspirations for pushing on, would be beyond proud of Saturn.
“Everything I do now is dedicated to my best friend who passed away two years ago. At the show we were giving away a bunch of T-shirts with a picture of him on it and that picture was him wearing one of my first pieces ever,” Saturn said. “Even before I lost him he was the first person who ever wore my clothes in the first place, and then after he passed away it was so crazy because I gave him the sweater I was wearing to the grave, so it can go down with him and it was just so wild because that was the same sweater that Vinnie Hacker wore like three days later. And that was one of my most iconic pieces, so Sean has definitely helped pave such a beautiful path for me like even when he's not here, he's just sending blessings from above. So shout out to Sean, shout out Swaat.”
OVD releases new limited collections every few months, and does not do restocks. To keep up with the What Happened to God parent company, make sure to check out its website or Instagram.
