If you follow streetwear, hip-hop culture, or luxury fashion, you have seen Gallery Dept on the biggest names in the world — on LeBron James, on Kendrick Lamar, on Drake, on the back of athletes and musicians who could wear anything and choose this.
But for all its fame, Gallery Dept has one of the most unusual ownership stories in modern fashion — because unlike almost every brand at this level, it has never sold out, never taken investment, and never handed control to a corporate parent. It is still owned by exactly one person: the man who started it in a Los Angeles studio with nothing but paint and a vision.
Who Owns Gallery Dept in 2026?
Gallery Dept is 100% privately owned by its founder, Josué Thomas — an American artist and designer based in Los Angeles, California. He is not just the creative director or a figurehead.
He is the sole owner of the brand, legally and operationally, with complete control over every design, every release, and every business decision the company makes.
Gallery Dept has never been acquired by a luxury conglomerate like LVMH, Kering, or Richemont. It has never taken venture capital or private equity funding.
There are no external investors, no institutional shareholders, and no parent company. This is a founder-owned, fully independent fashion label — and in the world of high-end streetwear and luxury fashion in 2026, that makes it genuinely rare.
Ownership and Key Details Table
| Party | Role | Stake | Key Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Josué Thomas | Founder, CEO & Sole Owner | 100% private ownership | American artist and designer; based in Los Angeles, California |
| Gallery Department LLC | Legal Operating Entity | Owned entirely by Josué Thomas | Full legal name under which Gallery Dept operates commercially |
| No external investors | N/A | Zero outside funding | No VC, PE, or luxury group investment of any kind |
| No parent company | N/A | Fully independent | Not owned by LVMH, Kering, Richemont, or any conglomerate |
| Art That Kills (ATK) | Sister Brand | Owned by Josué Thomas | Thomas’s record label and creative imprint under the same ownership |
| Chateau Josué | Hospitality Venture | Owned by Josué Thomas | Hotel or luxury resort concept — part of Thomas’s broader creative empire |
Who Is Josué Thomas?
Josué Thomas — also known as “Remi” — is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and entrepreneur who was born with what he describes as “an innate passion for drawing and sketching.”
He grew up immersed in the creativity of Hollywood, California, where art, music, skateboarding, and fashion collide into something that does not fit neatly into any single category.
He spent his early career at Ralph Lauren, where working inside a major fashion house ignited a need to do something fundamentally different.
He did not want to work within the system. He wanted to rebuild it. Thomas left the corporate fashion world and began creating custom, hand-crafted pieces from his own studio in Los Angeles — painting, distressing, and reconstructing vintage garments in ways nobody had seen before.
The turning point came when Thomas sold a self-designed denim poncho to Johnny Depp’s personal stylist. That single sale confirmed what he had suspected: there was a real market for wearable art that felt handmade, personal, and impossible to replicate. From that moment forward, Gallery Dept was more than a hobby — it was a business.
The Origin Story: Paint, Denim, and a Studio in LA
Gallery Dept began in a small studio space in Los Angeles where Josué Thomas started upcycling and reconstructing vintage clothing.
He applied hand-painted details, distressing, bleaching, embroidery, and patchwork to existing garments — treating each piece as a canvas rather than a product. The studio was open to friends and collaborators, functioning more like an art house than a fashion label.
The brand was founded publicly around 2016–2017 and opened its first retail presence on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. Thomas designed his collections with a founding philosophy of three words: “Collaborate, create, and rebel.”
That ethos is not just marketing language — it defines every operational decision the brand makes, from how it produces clothing to how it releases it.
The name Gallery Dept itself communicates exactly what Thomas intended — a brand that exists at the intersection of a gallery (art) and a department (fashion), refusing to be fully categorized as either.
How Gallery Dept Became a Global Phenomenon
Gallery Dept’s rise from a studio on La Brea to a global fashion force happened through organic celebrity adoption rather than paid marketing — and that authenticity is a huge part of what makes the brand so powerful.
LeBron James was spotted wearing Gallery Dept hoodies and sweatpants, making them immediately recognizable to millions of sports fans. Kendrick Lamar wore the brand’s accessories and apparel in both personal appearances and promotional material.
Drake, the Migos on their Culture III tour merchandise, and the late fashion icon Virgil Abloh all became associated with the brand. When someone like Virgil Abloh — who was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear and founder of Off-White — publicly embraces a label, it sends a signal to the entire fashion industry that cannot be ignored.
Gallery Dept’s pricing reflects its position at the highest end of the streetwear-meets-luxury market. A basic French Logo Lux Tee retails for $250. Hoodies start at $495 and go up to $700 for signature painted styles.
Denim jackets reach $1,400, and the highest-priced items on the current website sit at $6,650. These are not prices that accident reach — they are the result of hand-finishing, limited production, and a brand cachet that places Gallery Dept alongside established luxury houses.
What Gallery Dept Is Doing in 2026
Gallery Dept is not standing still. In 2026, the brand has been pushing hard into new categories and new markets.
On July 21, 2026, Gallery Dept launched its first-ever eyewear line — five silhouettes in premium acetate and metal, priced between $250 and $285, named after personally significant dates chosen by Josué Thomas.
“Eyewear has always been a dream of mine,” Thomas said at launch. “Speaking for myself, aside from a watch, it’s the accessory that completes a look.” The collection immediately sold through Gallery Dept’s official website and its retail locations in Los Angeles and Miami.
In March 2026, Josué Thomas personally traveled to Seoul, South Korea for the brand’s first-ever Korean pop-up event — held at the Hyundai Department Store Trade Center in Gangnam in collaboration with Spacemue Seoul.
The event fused music, art, and fashion into a brand experience and marked the beginning of Gallery Dept’s formal push into the Asian market. The Seoul debut is expected to pave the way for the brand’s expanded presence across Asia in the coming seasons.
The brand also continues to run collaborations with major names. Past collaborations include Vans, ASICS, and editorial partnerships with boxers, musicians, and athletes including David Benavidez. In 2026, Gallery Dept also created a special FIFA World Cup 2026 eyewear capsule celebrating global football culture.
The Art That Kills Empire
Gallery Dept is not the only brand Josué Thomas owns. He operates a growing creative empire that sits alongside and intersects with the fashion label.
Art That Kills (ATK) is Thomas’s independent record label and creative imprint, which officially launched publicly as its own entity with dedicated merchandise and music releases.
Chateau Josué is an equally intriguing hospitality concept — described variously as a hotel, hostel, or luxury resort — that reflects Thomas’s belief that the world he is building extends beyond clothing. Le Bar Dé Music De La Galerie was another outpost in his creative universe, though its website has since expired.
All of these ventures are owned by the same person — Josué Thomas — who manages them simultaneously, deliberately blurring the lines between fashion, music, art, and hospitality.
Why Gallery Dept Stayed Independent — And Why It Matters
In a world where brands like Off-White sold to LVMH, Supreme was acquired by VF Corporation (and later by EssilorLuxottica), and Stüssy took private equity backing, Gallery Dept’s full independence is a genuine statement.
Gallery Dept has remained privately owned, and this has kept the brand independent — not affected by external commercial pressures. This enables full creative freedom on design, scale of production, and joint ventures.
By maintaining sole ownership, Thomas retains the ability to release exactly what he wants, when he wants, in the quantities he decides. He does not answer to a board, a parent conglomerate’s quarterly earnings call, or an investor’s return timeline. The result is a brand that feels genuinely unpredictable — which, in an era of corporate fashion, is incredibly appealing to the consumers who can afford it.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. Who owns Gallery Dept in 2026?
Gallery Dept is 100% privately owned by its founder and CEO Josué Thomas — with no outside investors, no parent company, and no corporate backing of any kind.
Q2. When was Gallery Dept founded?
Gallery Dept was founded by Josué Thomas in Los Angeles, California, around 2016–2017, growing from a small studio on La Brea Avenue into a global fashion label.
Q3. Is Gallery Dept owned by LVMH or any luxury group?
No. Gallery Dept is completely independent and has never been acquired by LVMH, Kering, Richemont, or any other luxury conglomerate.
Q4. Who is Josué Thomas?
Josué Thomas, also known as “Remi,” is an American multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Los Angeles who founded Gallery Dept and serves as its sole owner and creative director.
Q5. What is Gallery Dept’s price range?
Gallery Dept prices range from $65 for accessories like socks to over $6,650 for premium one-of-a-kind pieces, with most core items like tees and hoodies retailing between $250 and $700.
Q6. What other brands does Josué Thomas own?
Besides Gallery Dept, Thomas owns Art That Kills (ATK) — his independent record label — and operates Chateau Josué, a hospitality concept, under the same private ownership.
Q7. What is new from Gallery Dept in 2026?
In 2026, Gallery Dept launched its first-ever eyewear line on July 21 and expanded into Asia with its debut Seoul pop-up at Hyundai Department Store in March 2026.
Q8. Has Gallery Dept ever taken investor funding?
No. Gallery Dept has never taken venture capital, private equity, or any external investor funding — making it one of the few fully bootstrapped independent brands operating at this level of global recognition.
Gallery Dept is 100% owned by its founder Josué Thomas — a Los Angeles-based artist and designer who built the brand from a single studio, a paint bucket, and a pile of vintage denim into one of the most respected independent fashion labels in the world.
The brand operates under Gallery Department LLC, with Thomas as its sole owner, legal controller, and creative director.
There are no outside investors, no luxury group ownership, and no plan to change that. In 2026, Gallery Dept is expanding into eyewear, pushing into Asia through its first Seoul pop-up, and continuing to dress some of the most recognizable people on the planet — all on its own terms, all under the vision of one man who decided that collaboration, creation, and rebellion were worth more than a corporate buyout.
