Scrolling by way of TikTok is like sifting by way of bulging racks of next hand clothes at a thrift shop each and every product (or video clip) has a tale guiding it. Perhaps the tale is long, whole of cautious craftsmanship and painstakingly passed down awareness. It’s possible there is not a great deal to it at all, just someone’s passing whim. The story guiding Marcus Pork Sr.’s TikToks remains a little bit of a mystery, even after I spoke with the enigmatic trend designer. And that is section of what would make him so fascinating. Consider Tommy Wiseau, but much sweeter and with a superior feeling of design.
Pork’s video clips have a tendency to be quick, focusing generally on his drive to come to be a famed fashion designer and sensation a little bit like a forgotten sketch from I Assume You Ought to Leave. A single TikTok from January exhibits his encounter plastered on a CGI cityscape and a passing blimp.
“One working day, all of the cities will seem like this. The earth will know my confront. Marcus Pork. #FamousMarcus,” he intones.
The TikTok world, at the extremely the very least, is aware of his face. When I searched “Marcus Pork” beneath TikTok buyers, at minimum 60 others experienced opted to use his picture as their avatar (and that’s not counting the altered images of Pork). The hashtag #famousmarcus has racked up an remarkable 32.8 million sights on TikTok, and #marcuspork has 6.5 million.
He’s not allowing any of this go to his head, though.
“Becoming TikTok well-known, it designed me incredibly well-known, it produced me really recognizable. Folks started out recognizing me. But I’m still the exact same awesome human being, and I’m not a diva at all,” Pork tells me about a Zoom phone. He claims he’s even been stopped on the avenue and asked to pose for images.
TikTok has certainly been Pork’s leaping off stage. When his t-shirts are admittedly head-turning (more on them later on), it was his singular social media existence that at first drew me in.
When I check with why he joined TikTok in the initial place, he replies, “I preferred it, I desired to be famous, and I believe that was the commencing of almost everything else.”
A single of Pork’s benchmarks for fame is possessing his personal Wikipedia site. While he does not have a person nonetheless, he’s mocked up what he’d like the site to search like and produced it into 1 of his t-shirt patterns. In accordance to the prototype, Pork is 32 decades outdated, a assertion some TikTok people have disputed. When I mention these skeptics, he answers only: “Yes, I am 32. Usually I wouldn’t say I’m 32.”
Pork tells me that he grew up in Hollywood, California, and has usually cherished garments. He made use of to do the job in the marriage scheduling business, but left because he was not in enjoy with it, which he discusses in his documentary for the Taco Bell Film Festival (which is apparently not truly affiliated with Taco Bell). There is a Marcus Pork Jr., and in a single of his TikToks he mentions having a daughter named Sascha (“I simply cannot nonetheless explain to you about other people,” he states inscrutably). On the other hand, Pork prefers to retain the dialogue centered on his outfits.

https://www.youtube.com/check out?v=Cem4__6kwi0 
Only a handful of patterns are offered on his web-site, but they are a lot more than unforgettable. His wares consist of hats with “Hello, my name is Marcus Pork Sr.” embroidered on them, alongside with the Wikipedia t-shirt, a “Relatable Coffee” shirt (a cartoon Pork holds up a cup of espresso up coming to the slogan “Don’t wake me up right up until I’m acquiring the coffee”), and, my own preferred, “Free Bleed Friday” hoodies. He’s also included sweatpants emblazoned with either “Hello, my title is Marcus Pork Sr.” or “Free Bleed Friday.”
“I grew to become a feminist a prolonged time ago. That’s since I’ve generally loved women of all ages, you know, and I preferred to be on their side,” Pork explains when I check with about the Free Bleed Friday patterns. It’s a message he reiterates in his TikToks, declaring, “Free bleed is brave,” and, “Be feminist. Enjoy the blood.”
As for his vogue heroes, he lists Gucci, Nordstrom, and Jeremy Renner as inspirations.
“I like the way he attire,” Pork states of Renner. And no wonder—he is a self-professed enthusiast of leather jackets, a trend staple for the Hawkeye actor.
You really don’t have to be a film star to have on Pork’s garments, though. In reality, he’s incredibly happy of his inclusivity (“My styles are for everyone, even white people today,” he says in one TikTok).
“My outfits are extremely fashionable. All people can wear them. Small children can don them, developed up individuals can dress in them. It is anything that is for all people,” he tells me as our discussion arrives to a shut.
As I close the phone, I cannot assistance but imagine the environment would be improved off if extra persons ended up like Pork.

Clare Martin is a cemetery enthusiast and Paste’s assistant comedy editor. Go harass her on Twitter @theclaremartin.