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About Us
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Visual artist and audio composer, J. Stroke, believed socks were an often-overlooked accessory lacking in both style and quality. He traveled extensively at home and abroad and realized the world also lacked striped socks. Taking matters into his own hands, J. designed his own striped socks and unleashed two sock designs in the winter of 1999. They sold out in two weeks. He added two new designs in 2000, which proved even more successful.
Based in Atlanta, Georgia for over 10 years, J. Stroke was first exposed to fashion while producing beats for the designer/rapper, Haute Couture Prophetic. Their critically acclaimed underground EP matched bugged out beats with fashion metaphors. The single "Down with the Hand-Me-Downs" acknowledged creative expression through the joys of thrift store shopping.
Stroke continued his Couture explorations dee-jaying at fashion shows, art openings, warehouse happenings, and in the various cutting edge clubs of Atlanta. He's known and appreciated for soulful and eclectic musical excursions blending Dub Reggae, Hip-Hop, Rare Groove, Dancehall, African Jazz, Brazilian, and various other styles for dance floor aficionados.
J. Stroke's original productions are heard in various compositions for independent films, animation soundtracks, modern dance scores, electronic improv ensembles, and underground hip-hop. J. is also an accomplished sculptor/painter blending cast multiples, found objects, repetitive imagery, and colorful graphic painting into a unique aesthetic for an ever expanding body of work. J.'s artwork has been exhibited in Museums and galleries in Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, DC, Memphis, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and New York (where J now lives and works) J.'s art and music background is integral to understanding the development and concept behind Stroke's Striped Socks. In music, especially hip-hop and dance styles, there is the ever-present rhythm of looped samples.
In J.'s art, the use of odd color juxtaposition and the linear repetition of images and objects prove to be a vital testing ground for the sock combinations. Working within the limited framework of striped socks, J. Stroke is able to push his own and others concept of what a deceptively simple fashion accessory socks can be.
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