Twenty-three-year-old Kansas City area native Cory Johnson, who goes by Cory Infinite , thinks of fashion as wearable art pieces. Some of Infinite’s clothing pieces repurpose silver cutlery into a full suit, blankets into pants and shirts, denim buttons into a hat, even trash into a jacket. He’s weaved ties into a full outfit of contrasting patterns.
Infinite’s unique visions for clothing were a seemingly natural progression as he grew older. He was always finding inventive ways to be creative.
Growing up in the countryside outside of Liberty, Infinite was always doodling and drawing and, later, skateboarding and doing origami. In middle school, he got his first phone and constantly took pictures. Eventually, he graduated to a legit Nikon camera.
In high school, Infinite and his friends would try to get into concerts any way they could, even pretending to be official photographers and emailing musicians’ managers. To Infinite’s surprise, he was able to get into some concerts of rappers like Tyler, the Creator and Denzel Curry, and he began posting the photos on social media, laying the foundation for his eventual mega-following.
Infinite’s senior year of high school got cut short because of Covid, and the pandemic prevented concerts from regularly happening. That’s when Infinite realized he needed to pivot directions.
“I was like, ‘All right, what else do I like?’ So that’s when I took a fashion class in high school and my teacher basically taught me how to use an in-home sewing machine,” Infinite says. “I made my first piece for that class. I started wearing them and my friends were interested in buying them.”
The first piece he ever sewed was a sweater made from a woven blanket with a mural of Jesus on it that he found at a thrift store. He cut up the blanket and sewed the pieces together to make a tapestry sweater. Soon, he was making cut-and-sewn sweaters, pants and bags every day and selling them on social media.
“The summer after my senior year, I was working at Hy-Vee, and when I got off and before going into work, I would sew, and I would also document the process,” Infinite says. “[My social media] got some traction. The first drop I did was maybe like 10 sweaters. All of them sold out in a day or two.”
One day, an influencer with 14 million followers posted a photo wearing one of Infinite’s creations. Because of that, his social media (and phone) blew up while he was pushing carts in the parking lot during his shift at Hy-Vee. He quit the next day.
Since then, Infinite has focused on growing his brand and continuing to make his wearable art pieces. “I just stayed consistent,” he says. “I think that’s what separates people from achieving their dreams and not. Are you going to put in the work? That’s what it comes down to. I’ve just always loved clothing; it’s just always been a part of my life. Why not work hard at that and see how far you can take it?”
Infinite has evolved past making only tapestry pieces and shifted into a more avant-garde style. He uses unexpected and upcycled materials for his creations.
“Throughout my whole life, I just evolved through different mediums of art or different forms—drawing, photography, origami,” Infinite says.
Last summer, Infinite got one of his biggest breaks in the fashion world at a very unexpected place—Town Topic.
He and a group of friends had decided to get food around midnight at the beloved hamburger joint when a man complimented Infinite’s style and asked if he could take photos of his outfit. He ended up being superstar rapper A$AP Rocky’s creative director. He invited Infinite to the set for Rocky’s single “RIOT,” and soon Infinite was hired to style the rapper and models for the music video.
Since then, Infinite has exploded in popularity, with nearly half a million followers on social media. He’s made news appearances and created commissioned pieces, too.
“My style is infinite,” he says. “There’s no specific theme other than what I feel is right in that moment. I have all sorts of different styles and different clothing pieces that can just be combined together. It’s experimental, just kind of vibes or avant-garde type stuff. My style is all over the place and I like it like that. It’s just more fun. That’s kind of the inspiration—following what excites me most.”
This summer, Cory Infinite organized a trash cleanup in the West Bottoms and used some of the found trash like cans and bottles for jackets. “That’s what I do with most of my art,” he says. “I go to thrift stores or garage sales or anywhere I can find it. My dad works for a big company, and they throw away e-waste. All this stuff can be used for upcycling art. I think that’s the future of fashion—using things that are already around us to create clothes.”
Infinite is also working on a book coming out early next year that features portraits of his eye-catching fashion along with deeper personal information. He plans to keep doing what he’s been doing but on a bigger scale, with hopes of expanding to get more resources like shipping and help editing and filming content.
“I love making clothes,” he says. “I’ve never been fascinated with designer brands or anything like that. I think the trend of today is wearing whatever you like. The trend is not following a trend. That’s the new trend. The new trend is figuring out what you think is cool. It doesn’t matter what anyone says or thinks. If you put on an outfit and you’re confident in it, regardless of what you’re wearing—you could be wearing trash bags—if you love what you’re wearing, nothing else should matter. It’s not that deep. It’s just material.”
