RIP Dylan Rieder, the Skater Who Changed Fashion Forever

The talented skater, model, and designer passed away yesterday at just 28 years old.

Skateboarding was once thought of as a pseudo-sport strictly for weirdos and outcasts, but today, skate tees, jeans, and Vans are telltale signs of people who know style—whether we're talking a $60 pair of Old Skools or a $1,000 Vetements hoodie. Skateboarding's inherent counter-culture appeal—plus the fact that skaters tend to be lanky and look great in samples—made it an easy source of inspiration for high fashion. But there was one skater who, more than anyone else, was responsible for skateboarding's crossover to the runway. His name was Dylan Rieder, and yesterday he passed away due to complications from Leukemia at age 28.

Rieder was already a phenom when he went pro at 13. But towards the end of his life he was just as much a fixture of fashion spreads as skate videos. In 2013, Rieder was in Vogue alongside Alexander Wang and A$AP Rocky as part of the magazine's "Untamed Youth" feature. In Spring 2014, he posed for a DKNY advertisement with Cara Delevigne. And for what it's worth, though we're sure he didn't wear one often, when he had to, the guy looked incredible in a slim black suit.

But even before the big fashion ads and magazine spreads, Rieder was worshipped for his personal style, which seemed to perfectly complement the effortless way he skated. While many still think of skate fashion as baggy jeans, baggier T-shirts, and wallet chains, Rieder was more commonly seen with his tee tucked into a pair of slim-fit black denim. He was an iconoclast among iconoclasts, someone who refused to abide by any neat definition of what being a skater was supposed to look like. When he designed a shoe for Huf, the result was something that mimicked a dress shoe more than the bloated mall-brand styles most might think of as skate sneakers.

Of course he was handsome as hell, too, which made the crossover from skater to model easy. His hair was often greasy and his skin tatted up, but he had the face of a movie star, a sort of hybrid between a young Johnny Depp and Kit Harrington. Of course, none of this would have been possible if Dylan Rieder wasn't incredibly talented, and it's the thing he cared about most. His part from Supreme's 2014 video Cherry is as good a four minutes of skateboarding as you'll ever see.

Without Rieder, Dover Street Market in New York City might not have a dedicated skate tee section (one where his friends like Alex Olson and Sean Pablo sell their brands Bianca Chandon and Paradis3, respectively), while fashionable dudes might not be so obsessed with things like keychains and perfectly cropped trousers. In a 2011 interview with Hypebeast, when asked what being fashionable means to him, Rieder said, "Fuck, you’re asking the wrong person. What does fashionable even mean?" Whenever we see a picture of Dylan, we'll be looking right at.

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