Unfinished Legacy founder and creative director Brema Brema is slated to give a virtual talk on Wednesday, Sept. 25 as part of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s “Artists Now! Guest Lecture Series.”
The program runs throughout the academic year and invites nationally and globally recognized artists from diverse backgrounds who work across traditional, hybrid, and emergent disciplines. Brema, 27, had been developing his streetwear brand for almost a decade before it gained popularity in 2020.
Unfinished Legacy combines the artist’s passion for photography, filmmaking, and screen printing. He prefers to make his shirts by hand.
“There are technologies, like an automatic screenprinting press that could print a thousand shirts in an hour now, but I enjoy the screenprinting where I’m the one physically folding the squeegee, letting the ink go through, and doing that whole process,” he said.
Brema prefaces authenticity in his brand, explaining one of the pillars of Unfinished Legacy is paying homage to those that inspire them which he does through collaborations with different estates to tell stories. He is also open about his own.
Resettling in the United States
“I was born in Sudan and then my family migrated to Kenya when I was 5 due to the war, so most of my childhood was in a refugee camp,” Brema said.
Living in Kenya, he and his family were forced to move around a lot so he became conditioned to not settling down anywhere.
“The whole war is a part of my DNA now and is something that I’m trying to confront as I get older,” Brema said.
With the help of the United Nations, he and his family resettled in the United States, relocating to Milwaukee where he spent his adolescence. By now, Brema had become used to moving around, however, he described the move from Africa to North America as a “drastic” change.
He and his family already spoke English, one of the official languages in both Kenya and Sudan, which he said made the transition a bit easier but there were still some cultural differences.
“I mean, the way people speak here is a little different. Coming from Africa, it’s very proper British English where you pronounce everything,” Brema said.
His sense of style was also different. He remembers wearing a lot of hand-me-downs and articles of clothing from Goodwill.
“It almost feels natural that kids would bully me, but I navigated throughout it. I enjoyed my school experience here,” Brema said. “Like for 8th grade, I went to Lincoln Center of the Arts. It was great. I just loved that there are so many art programs there.”
Finding himself through art
He remembers exploring all the different kinds of art forms such as ceramics, painting, and drawing. Brema also discovered he could create 2D art on the computer using software design programs like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
“Then once I graduated there, I went to Riverside [High School] where I started to find myself, find my identity. I played soccer for the first two years. Then I just realized I’m very competitive,” he said.
But rather than focus on team sports, he wanted to find something he could do himself. He then channeled this energy into his art and took up skateboarding. Then in college, he developed an interest in photography.
“I picked up a camera. I had won it from this art gallery, a film camera, and then I was shooting it all the time,” Brema said.
After seeing him develop a passion for film, his mom bought him a Canon that he would use to shoot skateboarding videos.
“I was obsessed with this thing, this tool, and for the next five years, that’s all I did. I’d skateboard and shoot all the time. Like I would I took the train to Chicago and spent 12-to-16 hours photographing from sunrise to sundown. I just really wanted to get good with this tool,” Brema said.
There are likely 10 full hard drives of photographs from this period of his life and the start of a new adventure.
Building A Brand
“So Optic Legacy was the tag I was writing around the city. Like my graffiti name,” Brema explained.
His friends had cool Instagram usernames and wanted his username to represent him. Optic refers to the eye and leaving something behind, a legacy has always been important to Brema.
“A similar thing with Unfinished Legacy. But I do want to say that Unfinished Legacy came before any of this stuff. I just didn’t have the resources or the knowledge to make that my obsession at the time,” he said.
Now, he’s a respected name in the business, cementing his reputation for his designs featuring bold fonts and striking images. Brema and Unfinished Legacy has been featured in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Levi’s official blog, Off The Cuff, and Vogue.
In the last few years, Brema has been splitting his time between Milwaukee and Los Angeles but continues to share his journey with others.
“Storytelling is important to me … in everything that I do. Either my personal story or those who look like me or have the same background as me,” Brema said.
*Click here for details about the lecture next Wednesday, Sept. 25th at 7:30 p.m. CST.
