This story appears in the May/June 2025 issue of ESSENCE, on newsstands April 24.
When asked why his clothing brand, Emline, sells over 100 types of socks, owner and fashion designer James Mayes responds that he hates when people’s socks don’t match their outfits.
“If you’re sitting down and you cross your legs and your pants roll up, I feel like you still should be in coordination,” Mayes says, as I chuckle in agreement over our Zoom call. “That’s just me. I hate when people have on all black and then you see their white socks. I feel like it just messed the outfit up. When I design, I want to have every color of socks, because you never know the occasion.”
Mayes himself is sitting in front of a floor-to-ceiling wall of sneakers during our interview, each shelf organized by color, and I can see why he’s picky about his socks. To him, they’re not just socks; each piece of clothing, and each accessory he chooses, plays a role in telling his outfit’s story. As the designer of a high-end streetwear brand with weekly sold-out releases—including socks—he has, I think, earned the right to be particular about what fabric accessory he puts on his feet before he pulls on his shoes.
Mayes has always been a sneakerhead. As a child growing up in New Orleans, he recalls going to the shoe store with his father and crying until he could take home a new pair of sneakers. Decades later, his collection of more than 160 pairs of sneakers would become his saving grace—providing the seed funding that helped him get his clothing brand off the ground.
Mayes, 38, introduced Emline in 2017. He’d gotten the idea to start a clothing line two years before, when a friend suggested he leave his budding personal-shopping and stylist career behind and launch an apparel line instead. “In my mind, I just wanted to wait ’til I got more recognition behind what I was doing,” he recalls. “But what I didn’t know was I wouldn’t get that recognition until I actually started my own brand.”
He originally collaborated with a New York designer to transform his hand-drawn sketches into digital sketches—but the designer started working with Nike and Reebok, which put him out of Mayes’s price range. The self-starter didn’t let that stop him. In 2015, he bought an electronic pen pad to make digital sketches of his designs. He went on YouTube every day for a month, studying how to make the tech packs himself. Once he got the hang of it, he began churning out artwork for future designs, while listening to music late into the night.
Now all he needed was the money to finance his vision. From 2016 to 2017, Mayes lived in Houston, where he worked at a chemical plant to save funds for Emline and his soon-to-be second-born son. While in H-town, he sketched more Emline designs and traveled to Los Angeles, in order to make factory connections and create his first clothing samples.
In 2017, he moved back to New Orleans. He still needed more money, to give Emline the full roll-out he envisioned. He decided to sell his prized sneaker collection for $14,000, to a friend who was a reseller, and poured most of the proceeds into Emline. He returned to Houston to work at the chemical plant for three months; and finally, in September 2017, amassed the funds he needed to launch his brand.
He started by selling Emline-branded T-shirts and hats, a denim jacket with 36 Emline patches and a plain denim jacket. Though scared, he was determined not to fail. Every Sunday, he and his friends would go to a day party at the now-closed Handsome Willy’s Bar & Cafe, in New Orleans, wearing Emline shirts. Before he knew it, his T-shirts were selling out. Next, he was ready for his hoodie release in early 2018.
The organic support he has received from friends since the launch of his brand is a testament to how the city of New Orleans stands behind him and Emline. “I was already into fashion,” Mayes reflects. “My friends felt like this was what I should be doing. I already knew a bunch of people in the city, so I had the relationships to get started. When you tap into something that’s organically you, you get more genuine support.”
In 2022, Mayes opened his first Emline store in New Orleans. Like a sneaker store on a release day, the Emline shop often draws a line of eager customers waiting to acquire the latest product drop. Emline clothing has an effortless swag about it. Mayes’s cool-cut designs are the byproduct of everything that has influenced him. Some of his tops and coveralls look like chic work uniforms, nodding to his time at the chemical plants. His urban women’s wear is bright and colorful, reminiscent of the bold colors seen in New Orleans.
Mayes estimates that about 75 percent of his customer base is in New Orleans. If you live in the Big Easy, it doesn’t take a mathematician to see that: Emline apparel and accessories can be spotted all over town, and they’re worn especially by the who’s-who of the city. When Mayes teases Emline clothing and accessory samples on his Instagram, his comments are flooded with people ready to purchase the outfit. That’s his way of testing the waters and assessing customer demand for a particular product. His modern approach to marketing has led to his clothing being worn by celebrities like Chad Ochocinco Johnson and GloRilla.
Even with Emline’s growing fame, there’s a reason why its slogan is “For the city.” Mayes’s designs are intentionally crafted with the people, culture and events of New Orleans at the center. Raised in the Magnolia Projects, Mayes honors his upbringing through clothing marked with phrases like “Real flowers never die” and “Project league.” He has his finger on the pulse of the culture and knows what people want. Emline’s Mardi Gras lines—featuring purple, green and yellow jerseys, stockings, tracksuits, leggings, bodysuits, varsity jackets and, yes, socks—regularly sell out.
Mayes hosts an annual Emline Ball, putting his fashion-centric spin on traditional Mardi Gras balls. He honors two to three local legends each year and has featured performances by Juvenile, Mia X and 2 Chainz. In January, Mayes was named the 2025 King of the Six Ward Steppers. He wore a custom off-white Emline suit with metallic-gold Louis Vuitton Nike Air Force 1 Lows, designed by the late Virgil Abloh. The rest of his krewe was dripped out in burnt-orange Emline suits and matching sets, Emline-patterned scarves and sunglasses.
“A lot of people that aren’t from New Orleans don’t know what’s going on in New Orleans,” Mayes says. “I don’t expect them to. But if you knew how to cater to that, it could make your business more successful. New Orleans has [many] local holidays throughout the year. And those are times when we here in New Orleans just want to go outside, look good and have fun.”
The name “Emline” is based on spelling out the first letter of his last name—“Em”— combined with “line,” evoking Big Easy second line parades. For Mayes, “Emline” means family. He wanted to create something that would inspire his friends, family and loved ones, plus the people of New Orleans and everyone else.
As he inches closer to a decade of being in business, Mayes is ready to enter new markets. He wants to open stores in Dallas and Atlanta, cities where he has family and where it’s easier for him to gauge the culture. His ultimate goal is to have a fashion house: He wants to own different brands, sell a variety of products and invest in other rising companies.
“Emline has a special place in a lot of people’s hearts here in New Orleans,” Mayes reflects. “I think a lot of people want to see the brand take off and get to a national level. We have good sales out of state, but we have a lot of room for growth.” From the looks of his sold-out clothing and accessories, his thousands of engaged online followers and his loyal customer base, he is already on his way to making his dreams come true.
