Without a doubt, Russell Simmons has set out to raise the bar in all of his endeavors. In many cases, he’s set the bar so high in the music, fashion and community outreach that few can attain his level of success.

He took the Phat Farm and Baby Phat brands to the top of the streetwear fashion game, and while his companies grew, he realized that his core consumer was also growing up.

He made some career transitions, and although it looked as though he’d moved on from Phat Farm, he was actually making a new plan. These days, the mogul is enjoying the fruits of his labor in an unconventional way… by working more!

With the new Argyle Culture and Atman lines on the come-up; the Baby Phat, Phat Farm and Simmons Jewelry Company brands still evolving; and the new American Classics line on the way, there’s just no stopping his groove. We took some time out of Russell Simmons’ busy day to get the scoop on his ever-fascinating fashion business.

AllHipHop.com: With Argyle Culture you’ve coined the term “urban graduate.” Can you explain what that term means to you?

Russell Simmons: Well, the urban graduate is a term because billions of dollars have been made in the clothing business in “urban” clothing. We always had this idea that our audience would grow up, but it’s very difficult to take the name Phat Farm and put it in the men’s department.

Even if a lot of the first consumers have grown, 17 years later it still has a youthful [connotation], and I’m not that youthful. My spirit sometimes is, but it’s what I design that speaks to my gut, it makes me comfortable and it’s in Macy’s in the men’s department. It’s the first time I’ve had a men’s buyer come to my office, he came and bought, we had tremendous sell through.

There’s a void, the urban graduate is not being served. Those that grew up with Hip-Hop are not necessarily growing into Ralph, they grow into their own brands in this case.

AllHipHop.com: You’ve set a lot of trends in Hip-Hop attire over the years and your consumer has grown up. How would you like Hip-Hop culture now to be inspired by Argyle Culture?

Russell Simmons: I just think that we have to keep evolving all the time, if it fits then wear it, if it doesn’t… A lot of people I think see it. There’s another brand I have, American Classics, and I’m going to announce shortly about its distribution. It’s a dramatic shift for a lot of people and for our brand in terms of the way it’s distributed and what it turns into.

My fashion business has been completely transitioned. I just had Atman and them opening a store. The name Atman means higher self, I’m wearing these jeans now with an ohm symbol on the back and t-shirt has a Lakshmi on it, although you can barely tell. It’s organic cotton and kind of pricy but it’s inspired by the Deities, Lakshmi, the Images, the Seven Chakras. So it’s kind of a fun denim company, but it’s a contemporary jean line and the fabrics are very expensive.

The American Design Group is my company, we have Atman which is the spiritual company, Argyle Culture, the Simmons Jewelry company, and American Classics by Russell Simmons. American Classics by Russell Simmons will be for a mainstream department store, I can say that much. It will be huge distribution, and the first year predictions are dramatic.

That idea is kind of like dressing America - some of the designs we worked so hard to get is not really available everywhere. We need to make sure that everybody can get to it, and that’s what American Classics is about. Our restructuring of our fashion company has taken us not that long, but it’s been in the works for years and now it’s really starting. We’re opening the Atman store within the next month and opening one in Canada as well.

AllHipHop.com: Are you doing that with each brand?

Russell Simmons: No, American Classics has its distribution. Argyle Culture is almost exclusively in Macy’s now. Atman is a contemporary jean store, so it’ll sell to those who buy a lot of the competitive contemporary brands.

AllHipHop.com: What type of brand loyalty are you hoping for with Argyle and any of your other brands, and are you hoping that your older Phat Farm crowd comes along with you for that journey?

Russell Simmons: Well, with Phat Farm I still have the same economic interest in it for the next four years, and I always will love that brand, so I’m hoping that Baby Phat and Phat Farm will just keep growing. Overall, internationally there’s still growth and it’s kind of incredible when you see the decline in urban business in general, but Baby Phat is growing all over the world as is Phat Farm.

I hope that they can figure out how to re-position the men’s brand in America. I think it’s tough for everybody if you look at any of the urban companies, they’re not doing what they were. That’s the reality - I think it’s generational to some degree. [As for] Argyle Culture, our people have outgrown Phat Farm already - people just don’t wear it anymore. It’s an urban brand, but it’s a young urban brand.

It’s funny, my number one selling sweater this season is an argyle vest. A cardigan sweater vest with argyle, that’s not something I could ever sell with the name Phat Farm on it. I thought it would be nice, but I didn’t think it would sell just because of my experience making something kind of like that before - all my vests also, the golf sweaters, the argyle sweaters, the oxford shirts, the khaki pants, the classic American ideas. They have a little twist. Those are things that I made for my other brands but they didn’t sell. Now they sell like crazy.

We’re probably the hottest brand in Macy’s. To be the hottest brand in Macy’s with this classic American idea is a dream, because although I wore them, they brought more aggressive younger ideas from Phat Farm. No matter how much I grew and some of our audience grew, the company was difficult to grow and change. It had a certain image and following, and sometimes new people join, but sometimes some people leave - and those are the people that I believe are following us into Argyle Culture.

AllHipHop.com: Are you finding that when people buy a vest they’re buying two or three to get the different color palettes?

Russell Simmons: I know one thing, the vest that we used in our first season’s ads sold out in days in every color. I don’t know if they bought more than one, but it sold out in days. I couldn’t believe it… so they wanted that argyle vest. But this season that cardigan is the epitome of the brand. When you take it that far to make a cardigan, it’s not what’s in style - it’s what’s in style for our core consumer. That’s a special thing.

AllHipHop.com: With the Simmons Jewelry line, you’re still working a lot of different angles. Last year you had the Green campaign…

Russell Simmons: That green bracelet is still growing, we wrote a check the other day for another $360,000 to the school from the bracelet. I believe that’s nice, and we’ve raised millions of dollars from the support of the De Beers and Oppenheimer family, and they just now played another commercial about the Diamond Empowerment Fund which will be run.

So, there’s a lot of work that’s being done to set up this idea, but I wanna raise that whole $35 million for this school, and were at three or four million now but we need to raise the rest. If I sold a million bracelets, that would do it. I don’t see why I can’t sell a million, every place I look I see somebody wearing them.

During Fashion Week I saw all these people wearing the green bracelet, I see all these people wearing the bracelet and the money just came from the last few months of selling. The bracelet just ht the store, and I think it takes time to translate from the celebrities of Beverly Hills to the Zales and Fortunoffs and Kays and Gordons.

There’s a whole bunch of other stuff [aside from the green bracelet] obviously which is not for charity, but the green initiative is what I believe brings our company to the forefront of that business where no one of color is. We’re alone. I’m the keynote speaker at the JCK convention which is the jewelry convention in Las Vegas. There won’t be a person of color in the room but me - maybe the ambassador for Botswana, which is the number one diamond producing country, other than that nobody’s Black.

I want to bring more people into the industry and change the mindset of the industry to be even more sensitized to the plight of the people where the diamonds come from. That’s why I think Simmons Jewelry is successful, I believe, because of the good karma associated with the original intention.

AllHipHop.com: What else do you want people to know about what you’ve got coming up?

Russell Simmons: It’s nice to talk about Argyle Culture because it’s in Macy’s and it really does speak to the core consumer that we’ve worked on and needs the next level. I don’t mean level price wise, it’s the same price as Phat Farm which is still pretty expensive I guess. The American Classic line is gonna be announced soon, it’s totally different distribution but kind of the same energy, I believe the urban graduate is a big void. Then like I said, Atman - we’re opening a store downtown - and Simmons Jewelry.

I can’t call it an empire because they’re all small companies, but those are my fashion aspirations. We have very talented and creative people, and I can bet on all of them.

AllHipHop.com: Your nieces are doing really well with that whole Pastry line…

Russell Simmons: Yeah that’s from Run Athletics. I didn’t mention that… how could I not say we’re still in the sneaker business with Run Athletics and the girls are paying all of the bills? The Arthur Ashe sneaker is doing pretty good, but Pastry is paying all of the bills. Pastry’s is on fire, I’m very excited about that. They’re another new company.

[People] said, why would I leave Phat Farm? To focus on what? That doesn’t sound like a lot to you? I still gotta worry about my Global Grind [website], I want you guys to get more [news] feeds so I can do more [with] Global Grind [and] AllHipHop!