TRANSFORMATION: From FOB to FINANCE to FASHION!

I think on our channel we always talk about hypebeast gear so much, and people are always like, yo, you guys need to get into menswear, you guys need to grow up. This is the grown up version of what we should be doing. I love your fashion bro, seriously. You're on the cover of many magazines. Hey man, it's nice to meet you. Yeah, nice to meet you too, officially. Yeah, yeah, keep it up guys. Meet our friend Leo. He's not a model, he's not born into money, and he's not a designer. So how does an Asian guy make a good living being a fashion influencer? What does that even mean? Is it as easy as it looks? Is it deeper than clothes, and does being Asian have anything to do with it? We walk around New York City with him, and he's going to explain it all. Check this out. Yo, Leo, you are a professional Instagrammer, you're a fashion guy. I'm not going to lie, immediately when I walked in, I was like, this kind of looks like MTV Cribs. Yo, let us know how you organized all of this. Yeah, for sure. This is like a walk-in wardrobe area. I got all the suits on one side, the dress shirts, got some shoes behind me, and then I got a bunch of different kinds of jackets, leather jacket, bomber, denim, all kinds of jackets, so. Hey, but I noticed you have the basketball jerseys right there. Yeah, you know, I got the Kobe, the Lakers jersey up here. You know, I grew up a Lakers fan, so I got to have them. I've been collecting them since I was a younger kid. I noticed here you have some hype pieces. You got really menswear, like designer brands. I see a Supreme monogram sweater right here. Yeah, we got the Supreme right here. Yeah. I mean, I love- You got some hype stuff. Yeah, I do. You know, I appreciate all kinds of styles. I grew up with hype-y, like sneakerhead, like when I was in high school, so I love the Supremes and the sneakers just as much as I love menswear and tailored pieces. This is definitely one of my favorite top coats here. This is from Rag & Bone, and I just love the colors and the style in this, and I can easily wear this with a Chelsea boot or a pair of sneakers, no problem. But this is definitely one of my favorites here. This is the- Okay, the Supreme Lacoste. Yeah, so from the outside, you know, it's a nice bomber jacket, but you can easily rock this with anything you like. Would you say that this is kind of indicative of your style? Because obviously that's one of the classier Supreme pieces out, but it's still hype. Right, right, right. So that's what my personal style has really grown over the years, like going to college, like studying accounting and then working in finance. I had to dress the part, but I still love basketball. I still love the NBA. I love the culture. So that never really left. It was just kind of like left behind, like at home. So you're saying that you never fully 100% bought into the finance quant, like the vest, the Patagonia vest with like the blue- No, no, no. I hate that. When you say it all to me. But then does that make the finance world look at you like, who is this guy coming through wearing the hype pieces? He ain't wearing the Patagonia, he's not fitting in. Every time you walked in, they were like, hey, I think this guy's not going to work here for too long. That's exactly the vibe. They just got this feeling like, yeah, I don't know. Obviously, it's not just about the clothing. You got some accessories. You got some sunglasses right here. Yeah. A lot of sunglasses. Are we at a sunglass store? Sunglass hype? Like what's going on? When it comes to men's fashion, it's not just about the one piece. It's all about being well-rounded. So for me, like it's all about attention to detail. So anything from accessories to the jacket, to the shoes. Some of my favorites are like Persol, Tom Ford, Ray-Bans. How do you keep from like losing your sunglasses because you know that's a pretty common thing where people are just like, don't buy the expensive stuff because you're going to lose them. So I'm very, very proud to say that I've never lost anything ever. Sunglasses, I've misplaced them. So I've put them in jackets and then like I literally haven't found them for a year. Later on, I'm like, oh, it's in this pocket, but I'm very proud to say I've never lost anything. Can we talk about the gauntlet though? Yo, do the fingers move? All right, let's go check out the rest of the apartment. All right, Leo, we have arrived in the living room. Living room. In the living room. So this is really interesting because you've got the sneakers up like paintings on the wall. Or like they're trophies. Yeah. So for me, like they're like trophies in that way. Like I like to see them out on display. Growing up, like I couldn't really afford sneakers. I couldn't really afford Jordans. So on this side, I have like my designer shoes. I got the Gucci, the Tom Ford, Tom Brown, Saint Laurent, these are definitely my favorite designers over the years. On this side, it's the different Jordans over the years. So you've got the Off-White 90s, you've got the Jordan 1s, the classics, and a mix of other designer sneakers as well. I noticed that you do not really have any like kind of shoes that aren't classic pieces here. Like the classic retro Jordans, I really want to just keep it the classic colors. I think that's kind of like the... These are the colors that Jordan wore. Yeah, exactly. So I think that's kind of like the old school sneakerhead in me, you know? Hey, you got the Balenciaga, the socks. What are these called? The Speed. The Speedrunners, I think. Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know what I like is that you actually wear your shoes. I can tell. Oh, yeah. Because some of them are dirty. You're not necessarily a collector in the sense like you buy a bunch of shoes and keep them DS. You're like, yo, if I buy shoes, I'm rocking them. I think nowadays, you know, like with Instagram too, it's like you should just wear your stuff, you know? Like show what you got and then show them how you can wear them. Of all these clothes, how much would you say has been sponsored and gifted to you? Throughout the years, like it's becoming maybe like 50-50. It's brands that I never even thought of I would own, you know, as an immigrant. I didn't think I could afford the Hugo Boss. I didn't think I could afford the Brooks Brothers, right? But now I am working with these brands on social media campaigns, on influencer campaigns. I think this video is so cool because I think on our channel, we always talk about like hype-y gear so much. Okay, yeah. And people are always like, yo, you guys need to get into menswear. You guys need to grow up. This is the grown-up version of what we should be doing. How would you describe in a few words your style? I would definitely say it's like a tailored hype. I've gone through all the sneakerhead days in my high school years. I still love basketball sneakers. I love the NBA. At the same time, I went to school for accounting. I worked in finance for five years at Morgan Stanley. So I had to wear the suits, the dress shoes. I still love both worlds and I want to combine both and this has matured to my personal style. This is a real-life Instagrammer at work, guys. Let me try. It's not bad. It doesn't feel the same. All right, Liwa, Alicia, you guys are a team behind Levitate Style. What is all the work that goes into running a successful Instagram brand? Yes, well, a lot of people, they just see the photo, right, and they think this is it. For example, like a sponsored post, like there is emails and negotiations, contracts, how to shoot the campaign, so like the theme, what to wear. The work of taking the photographs, deciding where to do that, what time, what's the deadline. And that's just like the basics of it, you know? What do you think people get wrong about what you guys are doing the most? So everyone just thinks like, oh, I like to travel and I like fashion, so how can I do what you do? But yeah, there's so much more behind it. There's a marketing plan, you know, what's your niche, how do you fit in in a saturated market now. And for me, like since day one of Levitate Style has always been to represent the Asian community, because there were not really positive, you know, Asian role models out there in GQ magazines, TV, movies, you never really saw the Asian guys, right? For me to put myself out there, I wanted to be able to represent the Asian community in that way. So I know that like my photos, my content serves a bigger purpose than just a photo to sell. I wanted to point out that you chose this place very deliberately, and this is like a tip that anybody can take away that's trying to do what you do. But you basically found an apartment where some of the built-in amenities allow you to do your job easier. We picked this luxury apartment because it's really in a way like investing back in ourselves, like investing in ourselves as a business. So in this apartment, we have a rooftop lounge, so a lot of the times, which a lot of the things people don't see behind the scenes, is the hours where we spend up here working on emails, working on new brand deals, editing photos, shooting content up here. I mean, like for us, we definitely made a pro-con list, you know, like for the past five years, we lived in a pre-war apartment with no amenities at all, and we were still very happy with that, but it just came to the point where it made a lot of sense as a business to have this kind of space. We're here in Chinatown. We've just arrived. The first thing, though, I just realized is we got to get some bao. Yo! Wow, they have an assortment of donuts, like Western pastries, and Chinese baked goods. I got the curry beef puff. Let's try this. Mmm. Got the tuna. Oh shit, tuna, like, instead of a char siu bao, it's like tuna. Tuna, yeah. Got the hot dog. Got the hot dog bun. Yo, that curry is spicy. I like that. Yeah? Wow. Alright, you guys, we have arrived at what I heard, Andrew. Leo, this is the hottest place in Chinatown right now. Alright. Yingji Changfen. Yo, we talking about tailored hype, this is food hype right here. There is a line outside for rice rolls. Oh my god. We're not gonna get it. Alright, you guys, on the Cantonese food crawl in Chinatown, we have to move on from Yingji Changfen. This line is too crazy. Alright, you guys, we have arrived at Tony's Rice Rolls. Here we have, I would say, some of the most Cantonese food, like, in the world. I mean, this is what I grew up with. Like, especially with that sauce there. I remember eating that, like, on the weekends, hanging out with my grandparents. Like, that, that smell of that. Alright, let's try it. What was it like coming as an immigrant? Because you, what, you came here when you were 10? Yeah, 10 years old. It was rough at first. Like, I didn't really speak English. I remember, like, learning to read books in my English class, and my mom would help me translate literally, like, every other word in a book. Early on, I felt like I found friends in other immigrants, like, other fobs. You know, we're all Chinese, and we stick together, we help each other. And then I remember just moving around a lot. You know, like, because we didn't have a house, so we moved from one apartment to another. So in Queens, I was in, like, Corona and Amherst. I ended up hanging out a lot in Flushing, you know. How do you think being an immigrant and really not being able to speak English that well kind of contributed to your, you know, self-expression in fashion? You know, as an immigrant, as a fob, I just wanted to fit in. And so I think fashion and style comes in very early on. It was a way to kind of show who I am. Like, for me, like, fashion has always been a way to make a statement and say something without even saying a word. But you guys, this was dope. We're at Tony's Rice Rolls. Couldn't get into yinji, but it's all good. We got to keep this food crawl moving. Yeah. This is just a... It's a fruit bowl. Oh, it's a fruit bowl, damn. Nice. Mango on mango. I thought it was going to be a little bit more cooler, but... This is the triple threat mango. There we go. Oh, man, I need this right now. It's so good. Yo, you guys, between the cheung fun and the dau fu fa, we are keeping it. HK. Yes. You and Alicia travel a lot, and you guys are at so many different events. What are, like, three things that you've learned? I think my style has evolved over time because of traveling. Early on, I really liked J.Crew. J.Crew was one of the few brands that had Asian models. But, like, as I travel more to go to Europe, I notice that, like, they don't really dress like that. They're, you know, they're much more, like, metro, casual, but sharp. You can really wear that outfit anywhere. So I love that style. So over time, as I travel more, my style has changed because of that. Another thing I learned, like, when we're traveling, you know, like, people are not used to seeing an Asian guy and a white girl couple. In Europe, like, we're always getting stared at. You know, like, I always look at things in a more positive way. Like, they're probably not used to seeing an Asian guy at all. So every time you travel, you're represented. Oh, for sure. I feel that way, too. Because every time we travel as a group, as a film group, we're always, like, the largest group of Asian guys almost anywhere we go. We might be the only Asians here, guys. I saw two Asian guys, but they were, like, in separate groups, so. And a lot of times, when I go to these events, these fashion events, media events, like movie premieres, all these kinds of different events, like, a lot of times I'm the only Asian person, not even Asian guy, person in the room. You know, I have to be on my best version of myself. People even assume that Alicia, your girlfriend, is the influencer instead of you. There are times that has happened because, you know, they just don't assume that I'm the influencer, you know. So when they see Alicia there, they thought that she's the influencer and I'm here to help or I'm just some business guy. I don't know, but. You really do want to be an influencer in that sense. Yeah. Influencing people to think differently. Were you, when you entered the space and you, like, found out you were the only Asian guy in, like, all these different worlds, were you, like, surprised? Were you, like, damn, I knew there wasn't going to be a lot of Asian influencers, but I'm the only one out of a room of, like, 100 people. There are times I was definitely surprised. You would think there's more of us out there, you know. Yeah, because there's a lot of Asians involved in the fashion industry, actually. Exactly, yeah. But I would say more so on the back end. You know, there's just a lot of times where I look around, like, I can't believe I'm the only Asian person. But over the years, I've learned to accept that and know what that means and know that, like, what I do means so much more than just a photo. And you were saying that for the influencers that are doing what you're doing that don't have that deeper purpose, you see higher rates of burnout, right? I've met influencers, personally, that have been, like, I don't know what I'm doing. Like, why am I doing this anymore? I don't know, because, like, for me, I've always had that purpose from the beginning. Some of these influencers, they're just, like, because they're good-looking. Right. You know, girl, Instagram. For me, I've always loved fashion. I love photography. I love traveling. And on top of all of that, I wanted to represent the Asian community. I want to teach guys about fashion. They can imagine themselves traveling, imagine themselves wearing this coat, imagine themselves wearing these shoes, and they can think of a better, bigger future for them, opening their minds. All right, you guys, we have arrived at Gong Sik Tong. I believe that means just Hong Kong style. This food is super HK. It smells so good. It might be the most HK food I've ever seen in America. You know why it's HK is because it doesn't look like traditional Chinese food. Yeah. But it is absolutely the Hong Kong interpretation. Here we have the truffle pasta. Chicken wings. Not always Asian, but the way they do it is different. It has sweet sauce. I think that's marmalade. And then, of course, you have the two famous Hong Kong snacks. You have the Hong Kong French toast and then the curry fish balls. If we cut this open, you guys are going to be blown away. He's got to cut it open. I'm just opening it up. You're talking crazy. This is a phoom cheese. No, that's not cheese. Yo, that's the sweet egg yolk. Wow. That is something else. It's shrimp that's deep fried in the salted egg yolk. Oh, my God. Wow. On top of fried rice that has salted egg yolk. Leo, we got to talk about the journey from Bob to finance to fashionista. When you're working at Barclays and Morgan Stanley, do you hate your job every day or are you being a good person and just trying? You know what I mean? What's your attitude? No, honestly, I didn't really love my job. It was easy. It was an easy paycheck, but I just didn't love it. I just always had my mind somewhere else. That's why I wanted to start Levitate Style and do all these things. Yo, how did you convince your parents? And what did they say when you said, Yo, I'm quitting my job. I'm going to go travel and be an influencer? For like a year and a half, I was already starting to get a lot of press. So I was in GQ magazine in a year. I was working with brands like Uniqlo. And so I was able to show them proof. They really trust me over the years. I decided to study accounting. I decided to push myself to get these different jobs. So they kind of trust me over the years to make the right decision. So that's a huge learning point, I think, for a lot of kids watching. They want to learn from your story. I think we get that question asked to us a lot at colleges. How do I convince my parents? You were saying you want to show them proof. I think this is where side hustle is so important. Everybody should have a side hustle. You shouldn't give up on your passion. You shouldn't give up on things that you love. You should continuously work hard at it. It's not going to be an overnight success. It's okay to have a full-time job and pursue your side hustle. Until that, side hustle can become your full-time and your passion. Your full-time thing. So what do you think are the most common mistakes that you see? Because I see a lot. We kind of talked about it a little bit earlier. But you have a lot of kids message you, want to do what you want to do on Instagram. Want to be at the fashion events like you do. Want to travel for a living. But it just seems like there's such a big disconnect between the dreams. I think a lot of people just think it's a very easy thing to do. They think it's just a photo. They think it's like overnight success. But it took me five years of side hustle for my bank job to get to where I am today. It's about building relationships with PR companies. And networking with so many different people in the industry. A lot of what we were doing with the blog. With learning all of this. We Googled it ourselves. We wanted to learn about it. We had that go-to mentality. That personality. Just go for it. You're inspiring people for sure. Because I saw that there was an account called Asian Menswear. And you said that it was inspired by somebody who saw you. That was really cool. There was actually a fan that followed me for a while. And that kind of opened his eyes to seeing Asian in menswear. And so he started this account called Asian Menswear. And he's featuring daily different Asian guys out there doing their thing. What advice can you give to people who are like, Leo, you're like a model. You've got the finance pedigree. I don't have any of those things in my portfolio. How can I go do what you're doing? I honestly don't think you should ever compare yourself to somebody else. Because you always push to be the best version of yourself. For me, whatever I like, whatever I'm most interested in, I wanted to get better and learn more about it. I think the biggest takeaway that I have from our talk today is that it is just a lot deeper than fashion. It's almost like, man, you're just showing people that they can do it too. You've got to try different things. Find your passion. What do you love to do? For another example, my brother Kai, he saw what I was doing with Levitate Style. He was like, oh, fashion, that's cool. I kind of want to do that too. But he wasn't into fashion. He didn't know how to pose. So I was just helping him find what he liked. He loves food. He loves fitness. So I got him started on that kind of content. And now he's able to turn that also into a full-time career in content creator. You know, one of my major takeaways from this long conversation and this journey that we've been on is I definitely think it does help having that outside perspective and in this case, being an immigrant, being a FOB. You see a lot of confident FOBs out there because like we talked earlier, they already had to try so hard to adapt and make it to one level in America that it's almost like everything after that is just easy. Yo, thank you so much for watching our video with Leo Chan, Levitate Style. Shout out to Alicia as well. Man, where can people find you at? Yeah, find me on Instagram at Levitate Style. I'm also on YouTube at Levitate Style as well. Thank you guys so much for having me. Yo, if you guys like this video, make sure you give it a big thumbs up. Subscribe to our channel. Check out his information down below. And in the comments down below, let us know who else we should link up with and do a video with. And we will be selecting one of the comments to send you guys a gift card. So definitely leave your Instagram down below so we can contact you easily. And until next time, we're out. Peace. Yo, you know what? I've seen Sway Lee from Ray Shremmer with that. Oh yeah, you've seen it? Oh yeah. How much is this? It's like $100 on Amazon. Okay.