Prodigy Designer, 20, Turns Heads Worldwide

Spaced out on the walls of Time A Tell, a clothing store and smoke shop at 1700 Dixwell Ave., are black-and-white photos. Each shows a celebrated rap artist — Baby Money, DThang, Cuban Doll, Skilla Baby, and Babyfxce E — wearing Time A Tell clothing made by Joshua McCown, the shop’s 20-year-old owner.

Since April 2022 — and on the eve of the shop’s two-year anniversary — McCown’s trademark green- and pink-saturated varsity jackets, as well as his hoodies and T‑shirts, have been showing up at their concerts and on their music videos, as well as all over New Haven, across the country, and in the U.K.

“I always had an eye for fashion,” the soft-spoken McCown said on a recent afternoon in his high-ceilinged, warmly-lit space. ​“People would say ​‘you look fresh,’ ​‘you look fly,’ and I just enjoyed it.”

His inspiration, he said, comes from his girlfriend Nevaeh, who owns two hair salons, and his father, who owned P & C Variety Store on Newhall and Huntington. 

“She’s her own boss, and so was my father, and that’s what I want for myself at the end of the day,” he said. ​“I want to be able to do my own thing and work toward financial freedom at the same time.” 

McCown described himself as a perfectionist. ​“The quality of the material is so important when you’re selling clothes,” he said, taking a hoodie jam-packed with logos and slogans off a rack. ​“This one, Graffiti Drop, there’s a lot going on, a lot of stuff everywhere, but that quality is there.” 

That goes to the shop’s name, a reference to the patience and care he practices in realizing the fruits of his labor.

“You gotta put your heart into everything, your clothes, your designs, for them to really sell,” he said. ​“When I make my clothes, I wanna say ​‘yeah, I want that,’ like I’m on the outside looking in.” 

The biggest challenge, he said, ​“is making sure I’m not burning myself out. Sometimes I get backed up on orders and sometimes I don’t have the size, and that’s when I feel the pressure. It’s like the bigger my brand gets, the harder it gets because people got a big expectation.” 

Among his followers are Kristen Threatt, co-founder of Gorilla Lemonade. ​“I saw a lot of people wearing Time A Tell, saw him on social media so I’m like ​‘who is this guy,’” Threatt said. ​“To me, Josh is the voice of what his generation looks like.” 

For McCown, the goal is simple. ​“I want to franchise in different states, that’s in the works, and have a global impact, which is already happening,” he said. ​“I’m maybe the youngest business owner in the state, and I want to motivate people every day to know that it doesn’t matter how young you are, you can do whatever you want to do.”