Claw Money

• 
  Claw Money The Nuggets in White

Claw Money is a graffiti artist/fashion designer famous for her trademark icon – a paw with three claws. Her signature paw can be seen all over New York, which she dominated with renowned graffiti crews -  PMS (her very own), TC5, and FC. Claw, whose real name is Claudia, considers her moniker as “an extremely special expression of mine that I would never take in the marketplace.”

Claw Money is all about funky and vibrant apparel and accessories.

Now, Claw is renowned for her clothing and accessories business. Her experience with fashion started after attending the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan for a year, and playing as assistant designer for several outerwear lines during the 1980’s.

In 1995 she started a career in styling. After designing two lines in 1997, Claw Money made a comeback with her fashion line in 2002 and has not turned back ever since. As for her design aesthetics, Claw Money explains: “I’m a luxury brand kind of girl. That’s the stuff I wear, that’s the stuff I like, that’s the stuff I’m co-opting.”

Claw Money boasts of tees, tanks, shorts, dresses, bandannas, hoodies, bags for women, tees for men, eyewear, collectible jackets (with emblems such as Bolton Celtics, Adidas, St. Louis Cardinals, Carolina, Cleveland Indians, LA Lakers), vintage shades and bags,  pillows, and baby onesies.

Claw Money also designs jewelry such as earrings and necklaces. As for her venture into the world of jewelry design, Claw explains: “That’s the stuff I’m into; high-end accessories so it’s just natural that I would really be into making stuff like that.”

Besides these fashionable merchandise, Claw Money also sells posters, collages, and stickers, and has published a book  called Bombshell.

Besides her own line, Claw Money shares her fashion genius to major brands Nike, Calvin Klein, Ecko Red, Colette X Gap, K2, and Boost Mobile. Claw Money has also collaborated with jeweler Gabriel Urist to come up with a wide array of peacock feather earrings and pendants. The designer has also collaborated with Boosted to come up with device cases, fanny packs, laptop cases, duffle bags, boosted backpacks, laptop totes, clutches, tote bags, and DJ bags.

One of Claw Money’s warmly-welcomed collaborations is with shoe and sportswear giant Nike, in which the designer embarked on a world tour to promote her two collaborative shoe designs. Vandal, a peacock feather-embellished sneaker, and Blazer, in all its lacy glory, are Nike’s first collaborative artist footwear made for women by a woman. True enough, Claw Money has raised the bar for woman in a male-dominated strata in the market.

Vandal, a colorful shoe collaboration between Claw Money and Nike.

The Claw Money line has a number of famous patrons, such as Cameron Diaz, Amy Winehouse, Kanye West, M.I.A., Fallout Boy Bassist Pete Wentz, and Santo Gold.

Besides living a double life as an artist-slash-fashion designer, Claw is also a respected fashion writer. She edited the Fashion section of Swindle Magazine until 2008. Now she writes for Blogue – seemingly a cross between “Blog” and renowned fashion mag “Vogue.” True enough, this fashion blog has earned a ‘fashionable’ following. In 2006, she collaborated with Doug Pray to come up with the graffiti documentary Infamy, released in 2006. As mentioned before she released her first book entitled Bombshell: The Life and Crimes of Claw Money. The book, released in 2007 by PowerHouse, documents a wide range of graffiti, high style, and wild times.

With her many ventures of being a graffiti artist, writer, author, and fashion designer Claw Money, continues to push the envelope. Its no wonder why her Claw Money fashion line continues to succeed and turn heads all around the globe.