New Threads Put Fabric Over Fish Scale

Change the narrative and turn it into something positive. Change the hustle and turn it into something good for the ​‘hood.

Those words, from co-founder Gaylord Salters Jr., sum up the mission of Double G.I. (short for Go Get It), a new clothing company, which recently unveiled its Fabric Over Fish Scale streetwear collection at New Haven Apparel on Dixwell Avenue.

The meaning of Fabric Over Fish Scale, which includes windbreakers, sweatsuits and T‑shirts, is not immediately obvious. According to its co-founder Gaylord Salters, the author, reform activist, 2023 New Havener of the Year, and now fashion designer, that’s the point. 

“It’s meant to start a conversation,” Salters, also known as L.O.R.D. (Life Of a Resilient Dude), told the roughly 30 attendees at a press conference last Tuesday in the pocket-sized shop to celebrate the launch.

“Fish scale is the street name for powder cocaine in its purest form,” he said. ​“When the ​‘80s hit, the influx of cocaine in America drove the prices down, opened the floodgates, and every inner city across the country was flooded with it.” The impact: ​“households folded, prison populations exploded, and the war on drugs has left a lot of people believing there’s not much more out there for us.” 

The Fabric Over Fish Scale brand is part of a broader effort ​“to make people, especially young people, aware that there are better options to benefit yourself and your community than the drugs side of things and the crime side of things,” said Gabrielle Salters, L.O.R.D.’s daughter. ​“Developing this clothing line” — choosing fabric over brick (a kilo of cocaine) — ​“or any kind of creative entrepreneurship, is one of them.” 

Salters said he’s choosing to shift his focus from fighting what he maintains was a wrongful 24-year sentence. In a 2018 affidavit, a witness recanted his earlier testimony implicating Salters. While a law providing for sentence modification afforded his release in 2022, his conviction still stands. 

“I could continue on that path, just talking about my case, the wrongful conviction, but that’s the past and this is now and this is urgent,” he said. ​“We want to grab the attention of young folks to do something productive with their lives through myself and others that have already been through it.” 

Rev. Iona Smith-Nze, pastor of Bethel A.M.E. Church in Bridgeport, highlighted an obstacle faced by those — predominantly Black and brown people — affected by laws dating back to the so-called war on drugs in the 1980s. A member of Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut (CONECT), she referenced her work on the Clean Slate Law, which requires the state to automatically erase most low-level convictions after a period of time. Gov. Ned Lamont signed the law in 2021, but it has been stymied since then by technical challenges.

That means, she said, ​“if cannabis is now a legal substance, then those who were wrongfully convicted — well, at the time rightfully convicted — now should have the right to have their cases erased, and find a job without being penalized for a former conviction that has been erased.” 

Connecticut NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile referred to ​“our long history of doing for self and looking out for one another,” from Black Wall Streets, to Black-owned businesses, to HBCUs. 

“It’s very, very difficult to try to bang on doors to get others from outside of our community to give us opportunity, so it’s important for us to do for ourselves, to create businesses and opportunities and, as Gaylord has, lines of clothing.” 

Said Ray V. Boyd, program manager at the Yale Law School Law and Racial Justice Center, as well as co-founder of the Next Level Empowerment Program: ​“Our recidivism rates haven’t changed over decades either in the state or in New Haven, so we continue to lose the war on drugs.” 

He commended Salters for at once bringing attention to the issue and seeking to flip the script. ​“I always tell people you can keep the same hustle, just switch your product,” said Boyd, who served 30 years in the state Department of Correction.

James Jeter, co-director of the Full Citizens Coalition, who grew up four apartments away from Salters in the Quinnipiac Terrace public housing development, sounded a similar refrain. ​“By the time we came into this world, forget about second chances, we were born into a reality that was ​‘chanceless,” he said, after outlining the impact on their community of the war on crime and the war on drugs, as well as deindustrialization. 

Fabric Over Fish Scale, both in name and product, represents ​“how you take it back,” Jeter said. ​“It’s the transformation we need in our communities where men and women can actualize their potential and have real opportunities.” 

Co-founder Gaylord Jr. directed attention to the T‑shirt’s cotton terry fabric and distressed embroidery. ​“These were a long time coming because we thought out every detail,” he said. Gaylord Jr., who’s pursuing a music career under the name JunThatsIt, said the Fabric Over Fish Scale collection is available at New Haven Apparel and DA’W.O.R.L.D Clothing Store on Whalley Avenue; a website will drop soon. 

“Our idea has always been to get the attention of the youth and we want to show that you can be fly and also carry the message that there is a more positive path,” he said.