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PHOTOGRAPHED BY NICK KNIGHT
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WWW.STONEISLAND.COM
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KINSHIP
PUBLISHER KEVIN MA EDITOR IN CHIEF KEVIN WONG EDITOR VANESSA LEE DESIGN ED O’BRIEN DESIGN CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MALLORY CHIN AKIHARU ICHIKAWA KEITH ESTILER TORSTEN INGVALDSEN EMILY JENSEN PETAR KUJUNDZIC ARBY LI JAKE SILBERT JACK STANLEY MARC WONG JEFF YEUNG CHARLIE ZHANG GUEST EDITORS JONATHAN POH COORDINATOR TANKI TANG ADVERTISING JAMIE CHAN ZOE CHENG CRYSTAL CHOI ZOE GAUNTLETT MIKO LAM PAUL LE FEVRE HUAN NGUYEN LILY RICHARDSON JACQUELINE RUGGIERO ALYSIA SARGENT TIFF SHUM DIGITAL PRODUCTION SERENA CHENG JADE CHUNG KAREEM COOPER HEISON HO JULIUS IGNACIO ALEX LAU EDDIE LEE PRIYASHI NAHATA KYLE REYES JON SEVIK RYAN STALEY SPECIAL THANKS GRÉGORY BRANDEL PETE BROCKMAN
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ISA CASTRO MATHILDE CAUD MIA CHAMPETIER DE RIBES YUME CHEN NICK DIERL DAVID FOESSEL SKY GELLATLY CHIERI HAZU HUFTON+CROW RYO KASAGI LAURENCE KLEINKNECHT KRISTINA KOSTA REBECCA LAM KEVIN LEE HSUAN’YA LIM HERMAN MA CHAIS MINGO LIAM PILOTIN JONATHAN ROS ROBERT SERRETTE SARAH UETA KINJHIYANA VINCENT CAROLINA VOGT GREGORY WERBOWSKY THOMAS WU JONATHON ZADRZYNSKI CONTACT MAGAZINE@HYPEBEAST.COM 10TH FLOOR 100 KWAI CHEONG ROAD KWAI CHUNG HONG KONG +852 3563 9035 PRINTING ASIA ONE PRINTING LIMITED IN HONG KONG ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ISSN 977-230412500-0 13TH FLOOR, ASIA ONE TOWER 8 FUNG YIP STREET CHAI WAN, HONG KONG +852 2889 2320 ENQUIRY@ASIAONE.COM.HK HYPEBEAST.COM PUBLISHER HYPEBEAST HONG KONG LIMITED
2019 OCTOBER © 2019 HYPEBEAST HYPEBEAST® IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF HYPEBEAST HONG KONG LIMITED
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KINSHIP
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HIGHLIGHTS
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CLEON PETERSON
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ALAN CROCETTI
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FUTURA
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UNDERCOVER
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INTERVIEWS WITH ANGELO BAQUE
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GIDDY UP
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ILLEGAL CIV
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WITHIN OUR ROOTS
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
HELMUT LANG
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CACTUS STORE
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GOODFIGHT
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GHETTO GASTRO
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CAST & CREW
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HAVEN
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BODE
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CAMP HIGH
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GUIDE
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Kinship
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KINSHIP
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HYPEBEAST MAGAZINE ISSUE 27 THE KINSHIP ISSUE
Armies may fight in the name of a nation, but soldiers fight for each other as brothers: men they’ve trained beside, fought beside and are prepared to die beside. Much in the same vein, employees are not bound to the company they work for; their true loyalty lies with their leaders and teammates. No matter how influential an organization becomes, in the end it comes down to person-to-person relationships. At the core of every impactful, truthful endeavor—company, label, film, piece of music—are human relationships. The process of doing creative work can be vulnerable one. Thinking and conversing freely means trusting: trusting the listener enough to blurt out whatever hare-brained idea comes to mind at the time, and trusting that they won’t laugh at you—or at the very worst, laugh with you. Our ideas, our work, and perhaps most of all our egos, re like bubbles: shiny, tremulous, fragile. We can all be a bit squeamish about people bursting them. Which
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EDITOR'S LET TER
is why some of the most successful partnerships are formed from relationships that are tight like family, with people we stand behind and stand up for.
In life, we need to work with others. It can be challenging, scary, annoying, infuriating—yet only through forging connections with others are we able to find the people who understand us, fit with us, share our ideals and see our visions in ways which reach beyond even our own imaginations.
Chalk it up to trust, chemistry, shared values, or all of the above plus some other stuff thrown in. And yet the way we fit into each other is often an intangible, unquantifiable feeling. If you click, you click. And if you really click, then it’s for life: through the successes and failures, through the bickering, the fights, the mistakes, the silent treatments.
“Kinship” is traditionally defined as blood relation, but the following pages elicit a broader definition of the word. This issue places less emphasis on literal family than it does on our adopted families, because we choose the company we keep. And the ones we choose to be with—if they, too, choose to be with us—become our kin.
It’s just as transparent when a relationship is purely transactional—as in the collaborations or partnerships that are often concocted for the sake of affiliation, profit or “clout.” When we find people we want to build up and build with, it brings us into a whole different stratosphere compared to just working with someone. It creates a new reality of care, dedication and commitment—whatever it is we’re building.
Kevin Wong & Vanessa Lee Editor-in-Chief | Editor HYPEBEAST Magazine
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MCA Chicago X Virgil Abloh Air Force Ones painted by Cass Hirst
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Virgil Abloh has always had a special affinity for fine art. Such is the case with the MCA Chicago x Virgil Abloh Air Force Ones painted by Cass Hirst, a unique limited edition release of just 20 hand-painted pairs. Brushed with white and silver strokes, along with tiny hits of red, the sneakers were introduced as an MCA-exclusive artist collaboration, with 19-year-old Cassius Hirst commissioned for the project. Apart from familiar details like its red zip tag and “AIR” branding, each pair includes a unique number out of 20 on the insole, marking each as a oneof-one edition. Overall, this collaboration strikes a certain DIY sensibility, offering an authentically human element to a much commercialized silhouette. The sneakers are currently available at MCA Chicago’s storefront for $3,000 USD.
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@carharttwip carhartt-wip.com
Flickerings of a Fiery Youth. The clashing patterns in the room blasted time out of sequence. Lulled by bad television programs, minutes stretched into hours. He rejected the call and decided to dream. But dreams don’t come when you call them. They do as they please. When this one finally drifted toward him, the present blended into a high-frequency version of some turbulent past. There were random anecdotes, a montage of messed-up, discordant rhythms; underscored with shreds of conversation he didn’t recognize or
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remember. Pictures, the kind you want to look at forever, or into which you might subtly slip – a guest at the party, a face in the crowd. His inner eye was blinded by the flashing of strobe lights, riotous colors. On the other side, nothing new was waiting; but here he felt alive, though this life wasn’t his. The space between, trying to hold onto a moment just out of reach; words meant to last, but the order broken. He awoke at dawn to an avalanche of messages, millions of neon bright moons turning back into screens.
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Le Labo Baie 19
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New York-based fragrance purveyor Le Labo has expanded its lineup of scents with the addition of its new Baie 19. The product was developed around the concept of petrichor, the pleasant olfactive phenomena that often comes with the first rain after a long spell of dry weather. Mimicking the natural effects of petrichor, like ozone air, negative ions and oil secretions from plants like juniper berry and patchouli, Baie 19 is a luminous concoction of all these things. The scent gives off lingering notes of ambrox, cade and musk for a refreshing olfactory experience. Le Labo’s Baie 19 is currently available at Le Labo stores and select boutiques in sizes 50ml and 100ml for $189 and $275 USD, respectively. 018
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Human Made Crazy Work Jacket
HIGHLIGHTS
Nigo’s stalwart label HUMAN MADE is a good example of how to tastefully recreate vintage silhouettes. The Crazy Work Jacket bears all the classic design elements of a ’50s denim jacket, except it’s been given a colorful twist: paneled with an array of bright pop colors that range all the way from light blue to cherry red. While loud at first glance, the jacket also comes with subtle nuances. Details on the jacket, like its reinforced seams, engraved buttons and special embroidery, can only be produced using old factory machines that have been preserved by manufacturers like Warehouse Japan. HUMAN MADE’s Crazy Work Jacket is currently available at select Human Made boutiques and retailers for $360 USD.
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NEEDLES Bandana Scarf
KINSHIP
NEEDLES has been gaining overwhelming popularity in recent years, worn by the likes of A$AP Rocky, with its Steve McQueen-inspired butterfly logo. But the brand has a history that dates all the way back to 1988. At the time, Japan was leading an expansive resurgence in Americana, taking staples like denim and giving them a unique spin. The bandana is one of those staples, and NEEDLES has been reworking the silhouette for years. Coming in palettes of dark purple and green, intricately detailed floral and paisley patterns are mixed with vivid butterfly prints. Both pieces are delicate and crafted in Japan using only 100% silk; they can be worn as light scarves for the windy days or folded into decorative bandanas. Available at HBX and select retailers for $145 USD.
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Nike X Tom Sachs Mars Yard Kids
HIGHLIGHTS
After the wide success of the Mars Yard 2.0 and Mars Yard Overshoe, Nike and Tom Sachs have decided that kids and toddlers should have a chance to wear the sneakers as well. A big influence for this decision was Sachs’ toddler son, Guy Louis Armstrong Sachs, whom the artist first made the shoes for. Meeting the ergonomic needs of tiny feet, Sachs stripped away some of the original parts of the shoes and added functional details like flexible soles and velcro collars. At the same time, signature motifs like red Swoosh logos and ripstop pull tabs have been kept intact to maintain its original look and feel. The sneakers are currently available at select Nike locations and retailers worldwide for $80 USD. 021
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INTERVIEW
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Upon looking at his pieces, filled with shadowy figures and sinister scenes, viewers may acknowledge some close ties with the present reality. There’s an omnipresent fear encircling our world, and Peterson is painting its many faces.
The sort of work produced by the hand of Cleon Peterson raises many questions about violence—most importantly, who, or what, is causing it. His artworks are rampant with murder, brutality and all the wrongdoings imagined in today’s almost-real Orwellian future.
The artist spent most of his youth in constant fear. He suffered from chronic asthma attacks and was considered one of the ten sickest kids with respiratory disease in the state of Washington. He was admitted to the children’s hospital so frequently that the staff would let him enter the emergency room without proper check-ins. To help ease the anxiety and stress of his condition, he took to drawing violent battle scenes that stemmed from his fascination with WWII and James Bond movies. “I didn’t know if I was going to be alive forever because I was so sick,” he says. “So the way I saw art was like, you could make something, and then it would be around after you.” Peterson’s obsession with art only grew throughout middle school. Instead of drawing, he imagined new apocalyptic scenes onto paintings. At 15 years old, he produced 50 pieces for his first show at a Unitarian church down the street from his house. The artist says that the solo exhibition was a huge success and local newspapers were even writing about him. “I was a total failure at school, but I could make art,” he says. “So I kind of looked at art as the only thing I was actually going to be able to do. It was the only thing I was getting any kind of positive feedback from.” Peterson continues to be a master of telling dystopian stories through his bold paintings. The Seattle-born artist’s compositions are predominantly black and white with splashes of blood red to represent acts of war, terror and killings. With this signature color palette, he explores the various aspects of man’s unpredictable
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behavior, the dark side of the human consciousness and global crises. One of his most recent exhibitions, “Stare Into The Sun” at Pilevneli Gallery in Istanbul, sheds light on climate change through various landscape paintings. With these new works, he emphasizes mankind’s destruction of nature at an unprecedented rate; humans are threatening the survival of a million species, as well as their own future. Classical art forms also inform Peterson’s bold figures, reminiscent of those created by the ancient Greeks. The artist champions this figurative resemblance to show how history and violence never seem to progress. Instead, the concept of a righteous world seemingly remains an impossible reality. Still, Peterson attempts to speak up on these issues with every piece he creates instead of remaining silent. We talked to Cleon Peterson about his obsession with art at an early age, being a social outcast and the history of violence within his paintings.
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Q&A
were wearing flippers, so I wouldn’t have to draw the feet. It was kind of like a cheat for me.
What kind of art interested you as a kid? I was into painting and learned a lot from people that were creative in various fields. One of my babysitters was a filmmaker. She made this new wave punk film in Seattle with stop-motion animation type of stuff. I also hung out with this guy named Jacob Lawrence, who was the head of the painting department at the University of Washington. He was a great painter. I was constantly surrounded by people that were doing cool stuff around me.
Let’s talk about your signature characters, who do they represent? Did they evolve over time? After I had been making art for a while, I got into trouble with drugs and became really messed up for 10 years. I was a social outcast living in my car in San Diego. I always had this feeling that I wasn’t part of society, but when you’re living on the margins, you feel almost stigmatized, like you’re not part of the world. So at first when I started painting the characters that I’m known for now, I was painting scenarios that I’d encountered. Whether it’s with my personal experiences with police officers or with social deviants like myself—people that were drug addicts or thieves.
I was also really sick as a kid. Whenever I wasn’t able to go to school, I would be drawing and making art at the hospital.
When did you start to paint about global issues beyond personal experiences? It was during post-9/11 when everything was going on in Afghanistan. We were fighting these endless wars, seeing the refugee situations and the United States was demonizing Muslim—creating this sense of “otherness.” I started seeing that violence and apathy that we have in the United States toward the actual role that we play
What kind of pieces did you draw? I liked to draw battle scenes. My friend Andy and I were really fascinated with World War II and James Bond. Weird fact, but I couldn’t draw faces, hands and feet. You remember that scene in one of the James Bond movies where they were all fighting underwater with spears and stuff? I drew that a lot because they had masks on and
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INTERVIEW
in the world. I started making paintings about violence that was going on across the globe. Societal violence. Tell us about the scale and violence in your paintings. What scenarios are you portraying? I like two different scenarios. Seeing it on a big scale, where there’s a lot of stuff going on and a lot of things to look at. It’s almost like a Peter Bruegel painting, where there’s all kinds of weird little situations happening in the painting that you can pay attention to, but on a global level.
“I LIKE THE IDEA OF THE VIOLENCE IN NATURE, BECAUSE IT’S THE NEW THING THAT WE'RE CONFRONTING TODAY.”
And then I also like to show how grotesque certain situations in the world are with small pieces that portray two or three subjects. Those are more structured and more about gesture and power within the actual composition itself. It’s all about showing power, then victimization and then form. I went to school for design, so I studied a lot of compositional stuff. I’m really aware of just the way a curve has an emotional value or like the way light and dark work in a composition. Let’s talk about your color palette of black, red and white. Why do you choose to paint using only those colors?
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Now more than ever? It’s an unfortunate thing, but say if I’m painting a dystopian work, it’s not because I’m focusing on that. I’m highlighting the negatives in the world because I think that people need to be aware of them instead of just being kind of anesthetized to what’s really going on. For me, I feel like I’m capturing a form of reality that’s not spoken about as much as it is in comparison to what I see. Are you trying to introduce some sort of “call to action” in any of these works? I don’t implicitly try to make work that’s about going out and doing things or call to action. I think, if anything, it would be like showing a reality and then having people look within themselves to kind of figure out how they’re acting in the world. Do you know what I mean? So what sort of themes are you looking into now in your current work? I’ve been making a couple of landscape paintings, actually. And they’re about the sublime, this idea of nature and disaster. I like the idea of the violence in nature because it’s kind of the new thing that we’re confronting today. We’re almost dealing with an apocalypse situation that’s scientifically verified. Like a spiritual and scientific crisis all at the same time. All my work has been about people and violence between people before. But, because we’re in this crisis now with the environment, I think it’s a different kind of thing, man versus nature.
They have a history. The colors black, red and white have a historic presence in authoritarianism, especially. They also just have a general mood that you can see. For me, I use a palette that’s white, a kind of neutral color that’s a natural canvas color and then a black, that’s very kind of classical and dark to evoke evil in that sense. And then the red to portray evil in another sense. Mostly I’m connecting the emotional feeling of the color itself. Whenever I do really colorful stuff now, it’s hard for me to get the form right in the composition. And it’s also hard for me to get the mood right in a composition because it ends up feeling like a birthday party or something like that instead of a serious kind of painting.
What does your family think about your paintings? Well, I think my kids can deal with more than they’re given respect for generally. And it’s good to expose kids to what’s going on in the world and let them have their own opinions about it. So they see all the work that I do, and it’s great because we get to have a dialogue about what’s going on. I think it’s a way of being involved in what’s going on in the world. I’m open to it. So I think that the more art and different perspectives of the world that I can share with the kids, the better. Regardless of whether it’s an aesthetic or something truly violent. These are the stories we tell, you know what I mean?
Would you say you’re nihilistic? I don’t think so, but in a way, I’m cynical. I think I’ve had enough life experiences to know that the deck is stacked, kind of. I feel like I try not to let that overwhelm me in my daily thoughts, but that’s my natural inclination. It might be because I’m looking for those things, but that is how I see the world. I think a lot of people can identify with that right now, especially in this current political climate.
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Q&A
Alan Crocetti is one of the most in-demand jewelry designers at the moment: his work currently adorns the likes of Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus and Ezra Miller in addition to being featured in Helmut Lang’s show for FW19. His pieces can be found covering the bridge of a nose, resting on the fingertips, curled so extravagantly around an ear that the underlying skin is rendered almost invisible; all at once sensuous and sculptural, Crocetti’s pieces are not merely accessories, they’re often the main event.
Alan Crocetti Q&A What got you into jewelry design? I was in my final year at Central Saint Martins in London, England, when I started experimenting with jewelry. I fell in love with it, from the beauty of the materials to the intricacy of the making process. I didn't understand why jewelry was regarded as simply an accessory and why there was nothing out there to disrupt that idea. I wanted to elevate it, bring it to center stage, and redefine its importance in the industry.
INTERVIEW VANESSA LEE PHOTOGRAPHY SAM PYATT
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What do you see as the purpose of jewelry? To begin with, there’s nothing more empowering than a sense of self-awareness and self-love. In my experience, finding your armor helps you to stay in touch with those feelings. And that’s how I see jewelry. It grounds those feelings in the material, in something you can see and touch, and so it becomes an extension of your body. Most underrated body part to adorn? Ankle. Very sexy. Can you tell us about some past inspirations? In its early stages, my last collection, EROTICA, (in stores now), was about sensations—the exploration and exploitation of elements that appeal to our imagination in ways we can’t understand. It was about turning the jewelry into a fetishist matter. I wanted to disconnect the piece from its purpose and simply appreciate it for what it is in all its forms and then turn it into an extension of the body.
think it was just the catalyst to imagining this season but also that it was present as a literal reference (the GLOOP earrings were born). I also took reference from Robotics and bionic parts— something to represent a new organic whilst playing with shapes that can be reminiscent of an erogenous zone. I always knew I wanted to highlight the knuckles. They felt like unexplored territory, and I was interested in how sensual they could be. So, I created the Armadillo and Halo joint rings. They convey the idea of restriction in an area that is made to be and to feel free. I wanted to show these rings could still be BDSM relatable, yet also liberating and functional—that they could extend to one’s fingers with no limitations. What is your design process like? There’s never a formula. My mood always interferes so much from beginning to end. Whether I’m happy or melancholic…they both count the same way. That’s how I wind up having a strong relationship with all my pieces and they become so personal to me.
The idea of making this collection started after I came across some Japanese Slime Hentai images. I took that idea from beginning to end because I wouldn’t like to
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I love sketching and I love to fantasize about things that at first glance won’t even seem feasible. Then wax carving and 3D. But things always take different turns during fitting, when I get to play and analyze the pieces better. Can you explain the meaning behind the scorpion and rose motifs? The rose and the scorpion are both fragile and powerful creatures that I have always been fascinated with. The rose is defenseless without its thorns and so is the scorpion without its stinger. I merged them in a way where you have very powerful beings stripped off their physical weapons. Sensitivity is a weapon I want my brand to be associated with. Tell us about the first piece you ever made. The Core Pearl earpiece. I designed it when I was at Central Saint Martins and it has always been in my line sheets.
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PHOTOGRAPHY
KEITH ESTILER
R YA N P L E T T
In Conversation with Futura
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CONVERSATION
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You've been traveling a lot and there's no signs of you slowing down. Are you used to this fast pace or has it just gotten more hectic recently? It's been more. My whole life, I think, I've been a nomad. But certainly on a professional level, like this last year, '19, it's been very accelerated with a lot of things happening. I'm here with you now, obviously. We're at the show here in Brooklyn. I'm headed to Morocco to pursue some opportunity there in a public arts space, in addition to a public art project for 2020, which I hope to bring some other artists along to as well.
to drop. Reconnecting with my Tokyo community. The year started off also doing the installation at Supreme's new store in the Bowery, so it's been a great year. But then again, I'm only revisiting friendships that I’ve had for a quarter century. With certain people, obviously— like personally with James—my relationship in Tokyo goes back that far also. I feel timing and this whole move coming back around. You know, everything comes in circles. And I’m just grateful to still be relevant and healthy. In the past I used to be a little more, “Yeah, it's cool. Let it all happen when it happens.” Now I am trying to help it happen. And it feels great. It's wonderful just to have the support from my community and the culture at large.
Speaking of collaborations, you're kind of killing it this year with ACW, Off-White, New York Mets. Not only in fashion but also in the fine art sphere, too. So how are you approaching these collaborative issues? It's not all-encompassing, and everything is not just looked at in one specific way. The Mets thing was a miracle, in a way, how that came to be. I've been a Mets fan since I was a kid, so for that to happen was awesome. Meeting Virgil some five, six years ago, having that friendship arrive to where we are today, and the stuff we're doing and that's still about
When you're talking about recommitting relationships, specifically in Tokyo, are you saying you're going to have that sort of homage exhibition? Yes. I know one of those guys is Jun Takahashi. Can you tell us how you first met him? Yeah. Jun and I also go back probably... He's one of the first ten people from that kind of Harajuku 043
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crew community. The NIGOs, the Hiroshis, the Juns. Everyone who was part of that initial Tokyo. So many years ago—specifically with Jun. Jun was different, even from the very beginning. I knew Jun was a real fashion designer. He wasn't just someone trying to do a company and or have these products and all of that. Back in ’99, maybe 2000, we did a collection together that he had called “Generation, Fuck You.” And he did some remarkable pieces of mine that were…He made some umbrellas and some really wonderful pants and just really odd pieces. They weren't T-shirts and hoodies and whatever. It was not proper couture in the sense of high fashion. Even seeing Jun last season in one of his runway shows, he’s still using the garment bags that I designed 20 years ago in his exhibition events today. So we've had a long friendship. Who do you consider your graffiti peers? Lee Quiones, and this show specifically; as far as my roots in New York, Eric Haze, Lee, Crash, Daze. I mean, I think that this show here at Beyond the Streets is really amazing in a historical context, right? Because we're celebrating what is considered
today a very much accepted art movement that lives all over the planet. We like to think we're the mecca [in New York] for this whole story: someone like Lee, who was painting trains in the mid-’70s; Crash, Daze, and work that can be seen through photography of Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper with artists; Rammelzee's work is here, rest in peace. Dondi White, rest in peace, Stay High. So many of our lost graffiti alumni, not to mention the Jean-Michels and the Keith Harings. And the Andys. There's a lot of people who are gone who were also very much part of this whole story. Shoot to 2019, 2020, and here I am, you know, in my sixty-fourth year. You're turning 64? Yeah, which sounds… I'm a November baby. I'm late in the year, so I try to ride out that youth as long as I can. It’s pretty amazing because I don't feel like that. Forty years ago, like 1981—oh my God! Nah, 1980— I sold a painting for $200. A small square painting. I remember going home later that night thinking, wow, that thing took me a couple of hours. That's a hundred bucks an hour. That's really good money. I thought, wow, maybe you can be successful as an artist, right?
CONVERSATION
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Even though like in 1980 or ’81, I wasn't much of an artist. Yes, I had painted the famous break train, but still the crossing-over from this street world to a legitimized culture was very intimidating. And now I'm not so intimidated by someone's money or the facility or the venue. I remember I used to go into museums and be like, oh my God, so impressed with the structure. It seemed so exclusive. So high end. In reality, art is for the public, you know? And one shouldn't be intimidated by those structures.
probably got the worst penmanship in the world, but give him a camera or some tech and he's like a little genius. As a kind of first-generation IG guy, capturing the imagination of all these kids at the moment. I feel like he's very much a product of his time. What's the difference between the old school and this new school? My school comes from a little bit of angst and rebellion. We were a part of a society that was not really happy with everything, and we wanted some change in life. That's how the graffiti thing happened. I think we really wanted to express ourselves. We were willing to break the law to do that.
Tell us about the creative parallel between you and your son, Tim. It's funny. In the very beginning, obviously, I told Timmy, hey, haters gonna hate. It's just the way of the world that people will look at you as, oh, you're Futura's son, blah, blah, blah. You know, this was all doors open because, well duh, what do you think a parent is going to do? They are always going to try to do the best they can.
Today, there's no climate for that. Everybody's settled in and just doing what they're doing, and they don't want to mess anything up. And that's it. And, of course, all the security measures… It's a different world. So it's not possible to be as wild and like, ah, yeah, fuck it, as we were. That's just the nature of it. I'm so happy. I've lived almost like a couple of lives— a couple of worlds, even.
But I didn't want my son being an artist. A child of someone famous is always going to be subject to a kind of legacy and like, “Oh, your parents have done something for you.” I was so pleased when Timmy pursued his own avenue of creativity. He's
Right now you're building a catalog, right? 045
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The name of that is called the catalog Raisonné. And it's a very legitimate academic [effort.] And every artist of any stature has one. It’s basically every work that has been catalogued through. They have staff and whoever organizes an artist's catalog Raisonné. I've looked at other artists’ just as a reference. They're very extensive. I never thought I would have one for me, but it's nice. There's that much work out there. I was able to find income without selling paintings or relying on painting as a means to an end. I get bored. It's why I like painting and then characters, products. I just hate doing the same thing over and over. When you talk about characters though, you’ve been carrying the Pointman throughout your whole career. Thank you. Giger. 1979 H.R. Giger. Is that where it comes from? Without question. Even Charlie's rendition, this FL002, the whole pointed head figure, that's how it came to me. In the early ’90s, I don't know why people never were getting it, but I was always like, “Oh man, somebody's going to call me on the carpet.” But yeah, I mean Giger was my influence for that. But at the
same time, I was trying to do robots. Giger's characters were pretty anatomical or biological. They were more like creatures from real life rather than robots. And I had come from robots—like ’50s, ’60s sci-fi tech. Though 2001: A Space Odyssey is the movie that made me. It’s the movie that gave me direction in my life as far as a vision of something.
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And that's how I became, in 1970, Futura 2000. Because it was like, “Well, it was clear I got something from that film, and I'm going to steal from it and at least a four-digit number.” And that's how I arrived at 2000.
I saw that and I liked that question because I laughed. I was like, when? I even have had that chat with myself. How am I going to do it? Because honestly, yeah, I'm the Beatles when I'm 64. Okay. Who cares? But I need another 30, okay. I need another 30 for sure. So maybe at 94.
Is retirement even a question for you? 047
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“WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OLD SCHOOL AND THIS NEW SCHOOL? MY SCHOOL COMES FROM A LITTLE BIT OF ANGST AND REBELLION.” 25/10/2019 下午3:01
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The Dark Beauty of Jun Takahashi
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FEATURE
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We’re discussing his Spring 2020 menswear collection, an endorsement of tailored elegance that he sent down the runway in Paris just over two months ago at the beginning of summer. “The collection was meant to serve as my answer to the street fashion that’s so prevalent in the world right now,” Takahashi says over email. He chose the collection’s soft-edged, impressionistic images—photographs by American artist Cindy Sherman—specifically because they were “completely different” from the brash streetwear graphics that have flooded the runways and retail. “They’re a quiet element that stands out among the dark suits,” he says. As he’s gotten older and more self-aware, the collection is also, quite simply, a reflection of what he’s feeling right now when he gets dressed—more tailoring, less color, fewer graphic tees and sneakers, less of the edgy streetwear he’s so well known for. “I just designed the clothes that I wanted to wear right now,” he admits. “I have always been honest about the changes taking place within myself. The collection challenges my own lack of elegance.”
Jun Takahashi is tired of streetwear. Or so he says. As he approaches his fiftieth birthday—and the thirtieth anniversary of his Tokyo-based label, UNDERCOVER— he wants more polish and more refinement. More beauty.
Despite his newfound appreciation for sharp, sophisticated sartorialism, Takahashi clearly still has a thing for graphics. He still has a thing for horror movies, too. In the collection, alongside Sherman’s ambiguous artwork, are pleated spiderwebs and the ominous outline of Count Orlok, the vampire from F.W. Murnau’s 1922 film, Nosferatu. Takahashi, at times, gives off the impression that he enjoys creeping people out. In his dark, anarchic universe, anti-heroes abound, apples are almost always poisoned, scabs and wounds serve as design inspiration, and teddy bears carry their severed heads underarm like helmets. Maybe more than any designer of his generation not named Rick Owens, Takahashi embraces the macabre, the grotesque, and the gothic. “I have never been interested in things that are merely beautiful, or movies with happy endings,” he says. “The expression of the ugliness inside beauty is one of the most important concepts in my work.” UNDERCOVER’s Fall 2019 range, out now in stores, is another exercise in the beautiful ugliness that has become Takahashi’s signature. As with many of his collections, it contains an unlikely collage of graphic references. There’s Alex DeLarge, the ultraviolent, bowler-hatted anti-hero of A Clockwork Orange; Edgar Allan Poe, the literary master of the mysterious and the macabre; the surly-looking classical composer, Ludwig
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van Beethoven; Italian painter Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus; enough aliens and UFOs to trigger another “Storm Area 51” campaign. This season’s women’s range, meanwhile, took as its main inspiration Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria, a film about a prestigious dance academy that doubles as a witches’ coven. It’s pretty dark stuff, coming from a designer who, according to the New York Times, was supposed to be softening with age and family life, becoming “dreamier, more playful.” Then again, Takahashi has never been one to adhere to expectations, or to shy away from facing the things that scare him—even if they come from within.
he does—as he graciously did here—he shies away from discussing his personal life (“I prefer not to talk about myself,” he writes at one point). And while he is happy to talk about UNDERCOVER, it’s also clear he wants to avoid over-intellectualizing his work, as if its magic might somehow diminish in the process. Adding to UNDERCOVER’s mystique is the fact that like Comme des Garçons, which Takahashi reveres (Rei Kawakubo was one of his earliest supporters), the label remains fiercely independent in its ownership, direction and operations. To this day, with an apparent disregard for creative block, Takahashi personally churns out four collections a year for men and women, in addition to his diffusion lines and an ongoing Gyakusou running collaboration with the Swoosh. As he does on his thrice-weekly runs, which have expanded in length over the years, Takahashi simply keeps on cruising along—sometimes with others (Nike, Dr. Martens, Uniqlo, Supreme), but mostly alone— happy to chart his own path.
UNDERCOVER, like its founder, is hard to pin down, hard to pigeonhole. Like its founder, it’s ambiguous and a little mysterious, and seemingly deals in contradictions. Owing to its origins in Tokyo’s Harajuku neighborhood—the birthplace of Japanese streetwear—during the early ’90s, UNDERCOVER is something of a fashion unicorn: a cult brand with genuine street cred that’s also an avant-garde runway fixture.
This season, Takahashi’s path took him into new collaborative territory, thanks to an invitation from his friend (and unabashed UNDERCOVER admirer) Pierpaolo Piccioli, Valentino’s creative director. After meeting in Tokyo last year, the pair decided to partner on images that could be shared between their respective Fall 2019 shows. Takahashi was given
And yet, neither UNDERCOVER nor Takahashi has ever really seemed all that interested in their status or success. The label quietly—and astoundingly, by 2019 standards—debuted its online store this past July. Takahashi himself seems disinterested in digital media or self-promotion. He rarely gives interviews, and when
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FEATURE
“I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HONEST ABOUT THE CHANGES TAKING PLACE WITHIN MYSELF. THE COLLECTION CHALLENGES MY OWN LACK OF ELEGANCE.”
the task of creating the logos and graphics that would appear in both collections. For the first time, his dark vision would be mirrored on another house’s runway. “Pierpaolo provided the season’s theme and some keywords,” Takahashi explains. “Based on these cues, I interpreted the ideas and designed the images and clothing. Later on, I connected with him to get his opinions and we made adjustments to the designs and direction of the graphics. I am a big fan of his worldview, so I was honored to be a part of it.” The images, predictably, turned out pretty dark and pretty twisted, but were all incredible. Piccioli loved them. At the Paris men’s shows in January this year, Takahashi’s graphics— the images of Alex DeLarge, Poe, flying saucers, Beethoven, Caravaggio—graced the catwalk at Valentino, where they gave Piccioli’s slouchy, ’80s-era Italian tailoring a sporty, streetwear vibe. Then, a few hours later, at the UNDERCOVER presentation, they reappeared on Takahashi’s contemporary reimaginings of 17th-century, Renaissancestyle silhouettes. When asked to distinguish his design philosophy from Piccioli’s, and also how they complement each other, Takahashi simply says, “I am much darker than he is. In our approach to beauty, he expresses the bright side while I tend to express the darker side of beauty. That, to me, is the biggest difference.”
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UNDERCOVER’s muses certainly tend to represent the darker side of humanity. Like Alex DeLarge, or Count Orlok, or even Caravaggio, they’re the sort of characters you might want to avoid in a back alley after midnight. But, as Takahashi says, they’re also beautiful— or relatable, at the very least. Necessary, even. In his eyes, beauty and ugliness, good and evil, light and dark, heroism and villainy aren’t mutually exclusive. They’re simply part of what makes us human. Takahashi has several tattoos on his arms, maybe the most significant of which are located above an ethnic pattern resembling jagged-edged razor blades. On one arm is the word “chaos” and, on the other, “balance.” Chaos and balance, like its slogan “We make noise, not clothes,” are central, not entirely contradictory, tenets of the UNDERCOVER brand. The words don’t just appear inked on Takahashi’s skin but on the label’s clothing and accessories, resurfacing most recently as graphics for its latest Nike collaboration, a capsule of blacked-out athletic gear and a riff on Nike’s Daybreak running shoe. The juxtaposition between “chaos” and “balance” is reminiscent of a scene from Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987), the scene in which Private Joker, a war reporter played by Matthew Modine, catches the attention of a colonel next to a mass grave full of bodies. Private Joker’s wearing a peace symbol button on his uniform, but he’s also got “Born to Kill” scrawled in black marker over his helmet. The colonel demands to know the meaning of this sick joke. “I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir!” Joker barks. Taken aback, the colonel demands clarification. Joker repeats himself: “The duality of man. The Jungian thing, sir!”
The “duality of man,” of course, is a recurring theme in Stanley Kubrick’s work, one of a couple of big ideas that tie his films together. It’s also a common thread that runs through many UNDERCOVER collections, one that makes sense of chaos and balance, of order and disorder. Takahashi, not coincidentally, has returned repeatedly to Kubrick for inspiration, especially in recent years. His Spring 2018 ready-to-wear range took the idea of twins and duality as its theme; the inclusion of The Shining’s Grady sisters was a no-brainer. For Fall 2018, he channeled the paranoia of a techcontrolled world with a collection inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, before returning this season with his latest homage to the director. Undercover’s Fall 2019 collection is titled “The Droogs,” after the Nadsat slang term for “friend” in A Clockwork Orange. Takahashi, characteristically, both acknowledges and downplays Kubrick’s influence on his work. “There are many artists besides Kubrick that I like,” he says. “So I wouldn’t say I’m especially inspired by him more than others. I have always been fascinated by movies that express humanity’s duality, or make me feel anxious. I think that is the reason for my style.” He’s more forthcoming when I bring up Kubrick’s belief that humanity cannot be at peace with itself, cannot move forward if it doesn't recognize the darkness inside us. “I totally agree with him,” Takahashi responds. When the subject circles back to UNDERCOVER’s Spring 2020 men’s collection, to its necessary darkness, Takahashi points me in his email to the show’s title, which he took from the poet Dylan Thomas: “I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman in me.” It’s a line that explains the collection’s disparate visual elements, he says—why vampires and Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills share the same spaces—but it also hints at something more profound. Sure, there’s evil within us all, and the possibility of insanity. But there are also angels. In this dark, mad, and beautiful world, it seems, there is hope for us yet.
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ANGELO BAQUE IN GOOD COMPANY WORDS
TO R S T E N I N GVA L D S E N PHOTOGRAPHY
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INTERVIEW
INTERVIEWS WITH JAMES GILCHRIST SHANIQWA JARVIS JON GRAY JUNE CANEDO 063
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Kinship binds us individuals as a collective. It allows us to connect with others, to commensurate value and to effectively create. The thriving cultural and arts communities of New York remain a hotbed for this concept, and much of the connection individuals have with their friends remains the basis for their creative outlook.
Baque recently sat down with four of his co-conspirators to delve into what this coming together of community entails. From Ghetto Gastro co-founder Jon Gray to renowned artists and social activists June Canedo and Shaniqwa Jarvis, and lastly DSM general manager James Gilchrist, the ideas of diversity, community, the creation of value, and mandating a basis for future generations of creatives are starkly highlighted. For Jon Gray, co-founder of Ghetto Gastro, community is the very ethos of his being. He’s the self-proclaimed “underwater ceramic technician” of Ghetto Gastro, the four chefs that flip ghettoization on its head, rocking authentic Bronx street fashion while slinging out culinary cuts fit for royalty. Gray is a cultural provocateur, using his lifestyle as the medium to showcase his own upbringing as well as his passion for food culture. What Gray and Ghetto Gastro have crafted is a vision of bringing the unedited Bronx, their culture and their food, to the world at large. For famed photographer and creative Shaniqwa Jarvis, authenticity is everything. Jarvis’s long-standing career in empowering and invigorating long-misrepresented communities reflects her way of spearheading knowledge and inclusiveness. Even though these contradictory rules exist, her resilience for continuing to share her voice is the key to helping to highlight these deep-seated issues. Similar in scope to Jarvis, multidisciplinary artist June Canedo seeks to diversify the scope of the creative industry by embracing and showcasing the various women of color embroiled within it. Much of her efforts illustrate her own background as an immigrant from Brazil, exploring the motifs of migration—or rather, the cultural flavoring of the world’s globalizing core. Canedo seeks to reveal a story often shoved to the side of the visual narrative, going above and beyond the lackluster conversational and geographic borders and walls to reveal deeply seated narratives of the human experience and its relation to fashion.
While many would attribute an artist’s work to their individual scope, what remains starkly clear are the individuals who have influenced these pursuits, the intersection of creativity and diversity that allows artists to bring their ideas to fruition. For Queens native Angelo Baque, much of this definition is relayed into the New York melting pot that he himself has developed alongside—the influential community that he and his friends are tethered to, including the locale’s values that they’ve imbued their creative catalogs with. From his lengthy stint as brand director at Supreme—which saw him nurturing the brand into a global fashion phenomenon—to his current creative endeavors with Awake NY, his Baque Creative studio and Social Studies endeavor, Baque’s narrative is as much an ode to his individualistic passions as it is to the creative community he is ensnared by. Growing up with the likes of boom bap and streetwear-heavy hip-hop culture as well as the city’s extensive Chinatown, Baque’s creative vision remains a reflection of his New York upbringing.
James Gilchrist initially developed his love for fashion from his global identity, one that eventually led to his passion for Commes Des Garcons, and now his role as general manager of famed global retailer Dover Street Market. In many senses, DSM remains an extension of Gilchrist’s own narrative, one posited by global fashion influencers from the Antwerp Six to Rei Kawakubo, furthering fashion’s industry in a manner that influences and motivates the next generation of creatives via curated brick-and-mortar locations, and more. 064
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ANGELO BAQUE AWAKE NEW YORK
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JAMES GILCHRIST DOVER STREET MARKET NEW YORK
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Q&A
That was the beginning of the Comme story. That trip to Paris and meeting Adrian and Rei that time, and then doing my thesis, having them contribute to my thesis. And that was it.
So was there a specific designer who, the minute you saw their clothes, you were like, “Fuck, I need to know how this is done”? I think Comme was really the first one. In my late teens, early twenties, at the time we were wearing a lot of Prada, Prada Sport and stuff like that, when I was just coming up. Comme was kind of always there and that’s when I started to get into that brand. I remember saving to buy my first shirt. I had no money, so it was a big deal. I think it was £400 or something, which was a lot of money. I remember saving up and like, Well, I'll just not eat for a week and I'll have this amazing shirt.
That’s a great fucking story, man. I didn’t realize how much of a hustler you are. So I just did an interview yesterday and someone asked me, one, is retail dead, right? And two, depending on how I answered that question, how does it affect my business? How I operate as a small streetwear company right now. So I guess I want to throw you the same question. Do you feel like retail is dead? No, it’s not dead. It’s changing, that’s all. I mean, it’s what we do. And we just opened a store in LA last year. We’re opening another store in Paris in a couple of weeks. Business is growing really good. And what we do is primarily
Do kids even experience that anymore? Because I remember working my summer job in high school basically to be able to buy two Polo pieces at the end of the summer for back to school. I don't know, man. I don't know.
brick-and-mortar retail. And how do you feel streetwear has influenced the way you do business now? Because I remember there wasn’t a lot of streetwear presence when New York first opened up. I feel like Supreme was a big deal having its own space... I don’t even know if you guys were stocking Palace at that time. I mean, in the past six years, [retail] has just gone completely crazy. And in a funny way—maybe I’m totally wrong about this—it kind of feels like it started around the time we opened Dover New York a little bit. Not in terms of Supreme and other brands like that which were just doing their thing. What I mean is, maybe the way it affected fashion in the bigger sense. It feels like maybe six, seven years ago to me.
So, at what point did you start working for Comme? I met this guy on the first day of the course. He was a legendary retailer in Glasgow. He had this very famous shop there in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s. It was called the Warehouse. It closed in the late ’90s. This guy was writing Paul Smith’s first order in 1970. And he had Walter Van Beirendonck, John Galliano, the Antwerp Six and Comme… they had everything. He was like the don in Glasgow. But he decided, just totally coincidentally, to close the store and get a master's in fashion. So he was one of my course mates. And on the first day of the class, they asked us to go around the room and just introduce ourselves and tell each other what designers we liked. And he and I both said Comme. We were best mates after that.
Almost every kid that comes to intern for me, their favorite spot to hang out is at Dover Street, New York. I want to know, are you conscious of that? How DSMNY has become a cultural hub for New York City youth culture, and whether you guys try to hold onto that or make sure to keep an environment for them? Because part of my work is to help build a platform for the kids, to make my work transparent and to inspire and give them aspiration to continue in this line of work. But are you conscious of that? Well, now that you say it, I see it. In my day to day, I guess
He became a mentor for me, and one of the parts of the course was to go to Paris Men's Fashion Week and visit all the trade shows and all that shit. And he actually took me to the Comme des Garçons show and introduced me to Adrian and Rei on that trip. I met Paul Smith himself. It was insane. It was a really... Yeah. That trip was crazy. And then when I was doing my thesis at the end of the degree, I used a lot of the connections that I got on that trip in Paris to do the thesis. So, Comme des Garçons contributed to my thesis, Raf Simons contributed to my thesis. It was pretty cool how I managed to get the connections going, even from just one trip to Paris.
I’m not so conscious about it, but what I am very conscious
about and what’s very important to what we do is building the community around the store and all of the stores. And that’s really important. And I think in the New York stores, the community’s very varied, and I really liked the fact that you said we have a really strong community within that group of people. It’s super cool. I hope we keep it, I really do.
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SHANIQWA JARVIS PHOTOGRAPHER
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Our relationship—us coming up together, growing, and fucking having all these different creative ideas— started because you hit me up about wanting to go to art school, being a photographer, and talking about that. Our conversations haven’t changed that much from that first one. We’re both very honest with one another, and we also are super competitive. Those things really help bring out the best work in both of us.
A lot of people don’t know the story of how you got from point A to point Z. I’ve known you for over 20 years now, I’ve seen your struggle, not only as a creative, not only as an African American woman. It’s all those things combined, you know? When I was interning for Paper Magazine in the late ’90s, I went to Kim and David, who were the editors and chiefs of that magazine. After them sending me out on multiple photo shoots, I was like, “Oh my God, I just remembered that in high school I wanted to be a photographer. What do you guys think?” They were like, “Oh, you should go take a class.” I always looked back on that time and wonder: if I weren’t this young, impressionable and naïve black girl, if I was a white dude, would they’ve been like, “Oh, here, go
A lot of people don’t know what Social Studies is about. Can you describe our baby, Social Studies, and the significance of its creation for those who don’t know? Social Studies came about after working on the Virgil 10 project. We were both thinking about different ways to get certain projects that we had in our brains out there. You and I always are trying to help our younger selves. The things that we weren’t given, the things that we weren’t
follow this person and shoot this thing.” You know? I didn’t question that. I wasn’t like, “Hey, why don’t you just let me shoot something?”
allowed to do, the people who tried to shit on us back then—we are trying to make the space different so that it doesn’t feel the same for kids who are trying to come into this game now. Then also the wanting to give to others because we have been relatively successful. You can’t just take. You have to give.
Every time I look back on my journey, I feel that was always going to be a part of it—having to do one step more than other people who don’t look like me. The first 10 years of me doing anything, I think I had a chip on my shoulder, like, “Eh, I have to do so much more. This is annoying.” Like, “Eh, it’s never going to be right.” Then I finally came into a space where I was like, “You know what? I can’t sit around and try to impress people who aren’t even checking for me. I can’t sit around and try and make art that’s for them. I have to just do me.” That really changed what my work looked like, how I felt, what I would work on. It really, really, really changed me, not having that imposed chip on my shoulder.
We then came up with workshop ideas, talks and all these other things, but everyone’s like, “How does it work? Why is it successful?” I truly just believe it’s about our community, our family. We always rise to the occasion for each other. That’s what Social Studies is. It’s not corporate. It really is family. It’s like when your family is working properly and having a good time at the family function. That’s what Social Studies is to me. Yeah, yeah, a lot of people just don’t understand that this is definitely work created from love. That’s not the norm in our industry.
Now, the whole point of this conversation is HYPEBEAST wanted to do a feature on me, and I was like, “No, I’d rather have conversations with the people that have helped shape my post-Supreme career.” Because a lot of people want to talk about Supreme. I feel I’ve done a lot since leaving Supreme. You’re a big part of that first, you coming on board to be my creative partner when Nike commissioned my agency, talked to creative, to come up with the programming for the Virgil 10. A lot of people don’t know that. I don’t think even Virgil knows that.
What words of advice do you have for this next generation of young creatives? The most important thing is to know yourself. Once you know yourself, then you will only attract other humans who also know themselves, or will need to lean on you to help them know themselves. And build your family, build your creative family, build your financial family, build all the families you need to be there for you. Don’t just link with someone because you think that they will look good next to you. Link with someone because you like the way they think, you like spiritually how they move. I think... And be prepared to work all the fucking time. All the time. And with that, love what you do and the people you do it with. That’s all I got.
Why is it, do you feel, that we bring out the best in one another when we work together? At the core of it, maybe the theme is our community. When it comes to us working together, it goes back to our very first conversation that we ever had. It was just very easy, and we were also very connected. Maybe we knew each other two lives ago or something. 069
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JON GRAY GHETTO GASTRO
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could happen. This is another frontier that we’re able to blaze.
I was born in the Bronx. What hospital?
I remember the first time I met you guys like, all y’all just pulled up the Social Studies, all in du-rags and sweatsuits on, and I’m like, this is beautiful, you know what I mean? Because nobody’s pulling up like that, you know? And I think always there’s a stigma that goes to wearing a track suit. A lot of these kids don’t understand that shit today. They think it’s some shit that Palace or Supreme invented, and it's like... Nah. That’s gangster.
Jacobi. Oh, shit. Well, my man, when he got shot in the face over some shit I did, he ended up actually at Jacobi. So full circle, man. That sounds about—Well, there was my birth, and then people getting shot in face. He survived, though.
That’s some hood shit. You know, go watch New Jack City. You know what I’m saying? And then even we got to give love to the Italian brothers. The good old boys, the main men, man. My neighborhood is close
Amazing. You know, they brought you into this world, and they kept
by a lot of Italian Americans uptown. So I still got some of the homies that will just rock tracksuits all day. That’s the vibe.
him in it. I feel like a lot of your work has been de-villainizing the stigma that the Bronx has. Can you tell us a little bit about your upbringing in the Bronx and the impact that it’s had in your life? Well, I’m going to just say something. I’m not really trying to de-villainize it because that would be me censuring white supremacy. Whereas for us, it’s really about just celebrating the culture and the people, the creatives that exist in the town, you know? Not necessarily making it feel appealing to people that might still think it’s like Fort Apache or motherfucking rumble in the Bronx.
So, yeah, I think it's important, man. I think it’s really important that it’s intentional and it wasn't just a fashion decision. It’s social sculpture, man. It’s trying to reshape minds and just provide counter-narratives because it’s like, you're taught to be afraid of me. You’re taught when you see me to maybe cross the street, or if you’re on the elevator squeeze your purse a little bit tighter, you know what I mean? So I want you to probably rethink when you see some brothers, black or brown, dress a certain way, if you watch that TED talk, think about us a little bit differently, you know?
I’m not someone that’s super knowledgeable on all the TED talks, but I can easily say that maybe you’re the first one to go up there with a du-rag and a tracksuit and really lay it down. Can you walk me through the thought process of that TED talk and the significance of that to you? Well that was, you know, it’s all intention. It was super intentional because I realize these rooms are probably majority white or super intellectual. I got banned from all high schools in New York City, so I got a GED and a few college credits because I wanted to make my moms happy while I was moving at work.
What legacy do you hope to leave, and what do you hope to be your lasting impact with Ghetto Gastro? Shit. If I think about my life as an art practice, which I do, I’d love for Ghetto Gastro to become like how people look at the Bauhaus school of architecture, where it’s a reframe and a reprogramming of thought. Hopefully, arming people with the tools to just think outside the box and maybe create something that represents where they’re from and gives them a sense of hope and joy and also a revenue source to put food on the table. So it’s really leaving behind those tools, and also on the Bronx level, foundational wealthbuilding for many families. Creating wealth-building tools, and also leaving behind some type of cultural institution, whether it’s in the brick-and-mortar sense or it’s transient.
So I wanted to really celebrate that someone like me could be on that stage and just be blatant with it, throw the du-rag on, let the chain hang over the track suit, rock the Jays. I could have easily went up there with some black Rick Owens and just been like Steve Jobs on the stage. But for me, I think the visual is very important for the generations that are younger than us, to see what’s possible. Like yeah, you could do these things, you could face ten years of life in jail and you could do a TED talk. You could make mistakes and come from these places, this
That’s like how Nipsey said. He said the highest act of God is inspiring, right? So I just want to really inspire and encourage as many people as possible to reject and unlearn some of the things we’ve been taught. And then once you deconstruct and unlearn those things, the sky’s the limit. Like you said, we create our own stories. 071
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JUNE CANEDO CHROMA
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imagery have the power of pop culture. I have always been a believer in utilizing the tools in front of you to get a message across, in the most accessible way possible. And doing a project like that was a direct reflection of that. It was us, thinking about ways in which we could uplift the work of people who are already working at the border. For us, it’s really important to recognize that we can’t just parachute in. We have to learn and understand what people are doing first, before we can help. And then once you do help, it’s a matter of uplifting people who have been doing work for far longer than us and the benefit there is just to learn from them.
Can you tell us what Chroma is about and what Chroma’s purpose is? Chroma started almost two years ago. It happened because me and two people that I knew at the time were meeting with other women of color around New York. And often, we were talking about how a lot of our conversations should be recorded and should be accessible to other people. That led us to put together Chroma. Chroma is a creative studio that centers the work and perspectives of women of color. We curate events, we conceptualize ideas, we bring communities together and act as a middle person between said brand and, you know, institutions, to then bring together communities who are in the creative class who do all kinds of work. So we do a bunch of different things, but
We all have very direct experience of what’s happening at the US—Mexico border. But I think the execution was also personal. Those were our friends that showed up to wear the tee shirts. Those are friends that promoted the work. The two organizations that we selected for this campaign were organizations that were really vetted and suggested to us by, again, people in our community. I think that the whole process was really intentional, and that's what we need.
essentially it’s a studio that cultivates ideas and activities. Sort of responses to things. Okay. What I find really interesting about you, June, is I think it’d be really easy for you to allow yourself to be just single-faceted, and just, I guess, settle on being a photographer shooting editorials and fashion. But you choose to have more depth to your work and focus on migration and cultural assimilation. Why focus on themes of migration, culture, art and what inspires us? I think people have been making work around migration for a really long time, but they’re mainly folks that are in other fields, not necessarily fields that translate into fashion work. So it’s complicated because that’s so much of my identity. Like, my family is of mixed status. So there’s not, you know, a moment that goes by that I don’t think about that, and fucking naturally that’s going to be incorporated in my work. But I think one of the reasons I’m not focusing that much on fashion is because I feel maybe it’s quite difficult to communicate experiences in migration through fashion. So, it’s one of the reasons why I feel my current focus is within archives, history, and video work, because I’m finding it a lot easier to communicate.
But, I mean, I think all through the whole, each step of the process, it was very collaborative. There was a lot of love that went into that project. And I think also with streetwear right now, collaboration is almost like onenight stands now. You know what I mean? It’s not like you take somebody on a date and you court them. It’s kind of like, “Oh, you're cool. I'm cool. Let’s just do this.” You know? Oh, that’s so interesting. I didn’t know that. No, it’s very transactional, is what I'm trying to say. It ain’t that deep. And I feel like the project that we did, there was a lot of depth to it, and that’s why it was well received, you know? That was huge. It was just—they had a definite impact on us.
Recently, we collaborated on a borders tee, where the objective was to bring awareness to what’s happening at the border right now and to raise awareness. And, ultimately, be able to raise funds to donate to organizations that you selected. We were able to… We’re able to sell $26,000 worth of tee shirts, right? Can you explain, because I can’t take any credit for that project, besides providing the platform. I think one of the positive aspects of working in the fashion industry is that it’s one of the most accessible ways to communicate a message. You know, clothing and fashion
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Designers Mikio Sakabe and Yusuke Hotchi are the minds behind shoe label GIDDY UP, who, through 3D printing techniques and otherworldly soles, aim to reimagine our relationship with the simple act of walking. Both designers are alumni of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp— Sakabe was in the same graduating class as Demna Gvasalia—and now they lead us into a new class of footwear that merges fashion and tech to create a new perception of our surrounding environment.
GIDDY UP Q&A Can you take us behind the concept of GIDDY UP? What kind of ideas do you want your product to communicate to your audiences? Through shoes, we want to bring about a new way of ommunication with the earth. We want to make people more aware of the time-gravity link and make them dream of a connection to higher dimensions. By making a shoe where the sole itself is connected to the earth, with a shape fit for going for a stroll, the burden of
INTERVIEW VANESSA LEE PHOTOGRAPHY AKIHARU ICHIKAWA
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walking is lifted and becomes a more buoyant action. The transparent soles of the shoes will have you feeling as if you’re walking on air. With the shape of the shoes, walking delivers an extra punch. We want people to almost be able to feel their consciousness flow through the soles of the shoes. Pursuing weightlessness and losing consciousness of what’s on your feet is not a thing of the future. By manipulating the shape of the shoe, we want to evolve the consciousness of humans and our relationship with gravity through comfort. What is the importance of new and developing technologies to the fashion industry, in your opinion? Fashion must be always fresh for everything, even behind the existing systems. How did the idea of GIDDY UP first develop? Our inspiration lies in thinking about the relationship between humans and the earth. We are always inspired by nature, our environment and words. We don’t really have any visual inspirations. What’s the story behind the name “GIDDY UP”? “Giddy up" is an English phrase used when someone commands a horse to go faster. GIDDY UP was established with the purpose of accelerating the understanding of fashion’s future blueprints. But we also like the meaning of the word “giddy” in itself— thoughtless or lazy. Can you walk us through your design process? We don’t do research for the sneakers or shoes from other brands. Always start thinking about it as a part of fashion. The focus is on finding and playing with contrasts—for example, the difference in textures between atmosphere and environment. Obviously GIDDY UP’s designs are uniquely distinctive, but can you tell us what else makes GIDDY UP different from other fashion labels? Giddy is the relationship between humans and the environment, especially the ground because the ground is the only place humans are connected with the earth, always. It is not about the material. The design is about exploring the relationships and connections between things, so our focus is a bit different from traditional fashion labels. What is in the future for GIDDY UP? To discover new ways of living and new dimensions.
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L I A M M AC R A E 079
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“Skate culture to me is everything. Skateboarding is everything. I’ll love skateboarding till I die,” says the 24-year-old, and it’s easy to see why. At the age of 10, he had already started filming his peers skating, and it was in this community that Alfred would go on to make significant friendships with other talented individuals, including Tyler, the Creator, Na-Kel Smith, Mac Miller, and Davonte Jolly. Many would become members of what the front man now calls the First Teen Movie Studio, hoping to provide a haven of connection and companionship for youngsters all across the globe by “only making movies for teens.” Founded by Alfred when he was just 12, Illegal Civilization has accomplished, over the past decade, what other young creatives could only dream of. Securing its rightful place in the skate scene with the release of a series of skate videos and movies, the group has gone on to launch an eponymous streetwear brand, become the first skate crew to collaborate with Doritos on a graphic-heavy capsule, do a shoot with Alfred’s close friend Tyler, the Creator and Kylie Jenner for Vogue, curate and run a music festival with Redbull at the Pink Motel in Sun Valley, and even co-produce— with some members starring in—Jonah Hill’s highly acclaimed directorial debut, Mid90s.
Regardless of generation, youths have always found solace in communities who share similar interests, be it the Mod subculture of the ’60s, the Woodstock hippies of the ’70s, or the Punk movement of the ’80s. For Illegal Civilization founder Mikey Alfred, the skate community is what he calls home.
With such a track record, Alfred’s creative brilliance is unquestionable, but for the young entrepreneur from North Hollywood, it was never just about himself. Illegal Civilization always worked as a collective. Everything they have accomplished has been a group effort— or, as Alfred calls it, “just all a family affair”—directed at giving back to skate culture and the community they came from. As Alfred grew, so did his team, both in size and in talent, and though Illegal Civilization originated as a skate team (and has never forgotten its roots), they are now far bigger than its founder or any of its members ever imagined: a creative empire spanning a spectrum of sectors. In an increasingly connected age, where the likes of Facebook, YouTube and Reddit have allowed for congregations of, and bonds between, those with similar interests, Illegal Civilization and its offerings manifest an intersection of cultures that flow through all contemporary lifestyles, all the while maintaining the core value of communion found in their very origins. We had the opportunity to catch up with Alfred, who walked us through his 12-year-long journey of leading his group from just one of many skate teams in California to become the industry’s hottest collective.
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and the teacher gets on the mic, and he’s like, “Okay, next.” And I look around, crushed. Then the next kid goes up and, as he’s about to talk, I’m thinking, Oh my God, maybe film is not my passion. Maybe that’s not what I’m supposed to be doing. The next kid says, before his film plays, “I actually just want to tell you guys ‘'I’m so inspired by Jean-Luc Godard and Federico Fellini.” I'm looking at this kid, like, “Fuck you.” And his movie comes on. It’s eight minutes of people just walking up and down the sidewalk in New York with no story, no music, no nothing, and at the end he gets a standing ovation. The teacher gets on the mic, and he’s like, “I just want to say real quick, this kid is brave. This kid is inventive. This is what filmmaking is.” After that, I just sort of had this eureka moment in class. Like wow! Okay. I have to study film. I have to take it super seriously and chase it because if I don’t, kids like this are going to tell my story. So I got back and I told Mom, “I’m never going to go to college. I’m never going to go to film school, but I know for sure I can work in movies and I can work in TV.”
Q&A
Can you tell us more about the core members of Illegal Civ and what their roles are? How do you navigate/ decide what you choose to do for yourself as well as for Illegal Civ? The core members of Illegal Civ are Na-Kel Smith, Zach Saraceno, Kevin White, Sunny Suljic, Ryder McLaughlin, Aramis Hudson, Davonte Jolly, Tyshawn Jones, Nico Hirago, Kevin White, Mikey Palma and Black Mike. Pretty much everyone’s role is to skate and act. Jolly runs the skate program. Jolly’s the team manager of the skate team, and he also makes the skate videos, now that I’m making the feature films.
What is your earliest memory of skateboarding, skate culture and filmography? So I started filming skating when I was 10 years old, and I’m from North Hollywood, so I grew up Catholic, altar served. I sang in the choir under Mr. Paul Salamunovich. He directed the choir for the Vatican; he also directed the choir for Disney sometimes. He did the “It’s a Small World After All” choir arrangement. He was a legend, I have to say. When I started filming skating, I told my mom I wanted to quit all that and I also wanted to quit school. I was in fifth grade. I remember the conversation. We were at Ernie’s in North Hollywood, across the street of the school I went to. And yeah, man, we had that talk and obviously she thought I was crazy, but my mom has been the personal assistant to Robert Evans for 36 years, and Robert Evans is the producer of The Godfather, Rosemary's Baby, China Town—all the most legendary Hollywood movies ever. He says, “You want to do film?” I say, “Yeah.” He says, “Would you want to go to film school?” I go, “Yeah.”
My goal has always been and will always be to make feature films. Now I’m doing that with North Hollywood. So I just focus on that. I just focus on making features and I let Shawn Rojas kill it with the clothing and he does kill it. Jolly kills it with the skate videos. Obviously I’m still heavily involved with all of it, but my main focus is directing movies. You’ve said before in another interview, “You can go anywhere in the world and you see someone with a skateboard; immediately you connect with them and be their friend,” and that they’d have a place to stay at
The next summer, I did a kid film program at Columbia University in New York. On the last day you have to show your film, and I played mine. At the end, nobody clapped
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“SKATEBOARDING IS LIKE THE MAFIA. ONCE YOU'RE IN, YOU'RE IN AND YOU CAN'T GET OUT.”
Having known Tyler, the Creator since you were 15, how has your relationship with him or Odd-Future informed Illegal Civ? So watching Tyler build Odd Future and build himself in the GOLF brand has really, for me, been like a blueprint, where I saw him start the Carnival from nothing and build it into what it is today. I saw him start out at the Roxy into today. He’s touring stadiums. And he’s been able to build it on his own terms at his own pace with his friends. And that’s what I’m building, except in the movie industry. When Tyler did it in music, it was the first time anyone had done it that way in music. In movies, we’re doing it our way and it’s the first time anyone’s ever done this. People have never released movies, done events, done music festivals, done clothing that goes into stores the way that we’re doing it. No one else has done it in skateboarding. It’s so exciting. There’s no doubt Illegal Civ has developed and grown a lot over the years. Have there been any unexpected turns for you and your crew? Oh, there’s been lots of unexpected turns, man. There’s been lots of failures, lots of conflict. But we’re here and it’s all good at the end of the day. It’s all good, baby.
your home. Can you tell us what skate culture and its community means to you? Have you seen the impact of Illegal Civ on the community or skate culture since you’ve started it? Man, skate culture to me is everything. Skateboarding is everything. I’ll love skateboarding till I die. Skateboarding is like the mafia. Once you’re in, you’re in, and you can’t get out. I mean, I’ve definitely seen Illegal Civ have an impact on the skate community for sure. But I think I’m the wrong person to talk about the impact. You’ve got to ask other people. I think us making movies is a big impact. I think the new deal we just did with Universal is a big step in a new direction.
Finally, looking forward, Illegal Civ has done films, apparel, music and events—where do you see yourself and your crew going next? I heard you’re starting a music label? We are building the First Teen Movie Studio. That’s what I want to really drill into people’s heads. And what I want people to get from this interview is that we’re building this generation’s version of Disney or Warner Brothers or Paramount. But at the root of it is skateboarding and the feeling of being a teenager. So, that’s where we’re headed, baby.
I feel like we’ve just brought a new audience to skateboarding. Ballers—you watch Ballers, you see the Illegal Civ skate crew. We’ve really brought skateboarding to Hollywood in the most authentic way possible with Mid90s and Ballers. And we’re about to do it on a whole other level of authenticity and just like realness with North Hollywood. So I can’t wait.
Yes, we have a deal with Universal Music. Our clothing is distributed by Bravado. We have a record deal with Justin Lubliner and Interscope. It’s very exciting. The point of doing that deal to us was so that we could hopefully have our own artists do soundtracks and make singles, and one-offs and special music that’ll exist in our skate videos and in our movies. It’s so exciting, so exciting.
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P H OTO G R A P H Y & P R O D U C T I O N MONTIS SONGSOMBAT
S T Y L I N G & CA S T I N G TANAKORN HASUVANAKIT
S T Y L I N G A S S I S TA N T NATTARAT PITPATKULCHEEWIN
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HAIR PANITHA SUMMA
MODELS ARNAADA AUKCHIYAKHARN ANON CHIPALAS AKRAVET YORDHARN
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Helmut Lang ExtraOrdinary
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VA N E S SA L E E PHOTOGRAPHY
CIAN MOORE
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FEATURE
Yet in 2019, we no longer bat an eyelid at full-body tattoos or neon hair or clashing colors and patterns and bright pink platform crocs. We’re so used to it. The avant-garde has lost meaning. Without defiance, we’re no longer able to make our way up the proverbial stream but instead, attempt to out-race each other in a garish, yet stagnant pond of apathy.
For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. Often, the struggle upstream is what drives progress: the struggle for freedom in reaction to confinement; the flourishing of curiosity to indifference; the assertions of individualism to conformity. Disruption, disturbance, change, newness— whatever we choose to call it—is often a reactive force.
“It’s kind of shocking,” Thomas Cawson, creative director of Helmut Lang Jeans, comments. “Clothes are now designed to provoke social media reactions rather than keep you dry or protect you somehow, or express who you are.” When the common goal is to stand out, even if it’s just for the sake of standing out, how should we then define the extraordinary? To Thomas Cawson and the creative director of Helmut Lang, Mark Thomas, our current environment indicates a pressing need to refocus on dressing for the every day—a wardrobe of “uniform” pieces in staunch reaction to the prevalence of circus dressing—which is kind of fitting, and also kind of not, when taking into account the fashion house they both currently lead. After all, we’re speaking about a label whose namesake designer singlehandedly pioneered most of the codes prevalent in contemporary fashion, from utilitarian hardware, bondage straps, our obsession with workwear, even the current NYFW calendar. Most baseline points we often take for granted in the industry can be traced back to Mr. Helmut Lang, setting the precedents with his unique brand of conscientious fervor in the ’80s and ’90s. Legend has it that a Helmut Lang piece can be found hanging in the design studios of many a famed fashion house as inspiration—to inspire some of the most nimble imaginations in the world, such is the designer’s impact upon contemporary fashion. When we asked Mark and Tom how it felt, creating collections for the first time at a label whose founder is commonly known as the favorite designer of our favorite designers (and very likely one of their own favorite designers as well), their attention immediately flicked towards the audiences of Helmut Lang: the ones too young to have lived through Lang in his ’90s heyday but who have amassed archival collections to plausibly rival the
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designer’s own (after a warehouse fire, Lang shredded the remains of his own archive in 2010, repurposing the bits as sculptures); original customers who have grown up with the label but have also grown out of it; club kids in New York City; a younger Mark or Tom on the streets of Soho, slinking about the Milk Bar or the Wag. Helmut Lang was a faux-minimalist. Mark Thomas thinks the oft-misused term should be corrected to “utopian”—at least in Mr. Lang’s case. Simple on the surface, yet too rife with contradictions to belong to the minimalism which defined the ’90s, Mark argues that Lang was not only not a minimalist, but that he was the opposite of it. For him, Lang has always been “a contrast between something quite traditional, something very subversive, even a little perverted in places.” Tom furthers the claim by adding, “The designs were really quite over the top in a way.” He then describes the use of decorative hardware and strapping: all at once raw and sensuous, kinky, utilitarian. “[Helmut Lang] was just pulling away all of the glamour a little bit, and making things feel real.” The idea of “real,” following the over-the-top glamour of the ’80s and the ultra-minimalist aesthetic of the following decade, involved being more pared back compared to what the ’80s had to offer, yet also veered away from the flat simplicity of the ’90s. The effectiveness of Lang lay in being the antidote to two extremes at the same time, stripped down and
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managing to neither be bold nor glamorous, but instead laid bare and scrubbed raw to reveal a nuanced complexity: perverse, imperfect, slightly broken.
mentions, almost wistfully, the “industrial truth” of denim manufacturing. There’s a certain beauty, he says, in their simplicity and construction that is missing in an industry often hyper-focused upon artisanal techniques and details. “It’s a product that is clearly made by a machine,” Cawson says emphatically. He continues, “At the end of the day, I think everybody’s so busy trying to do their signature stitching and stuff, nobody really thinks about, ‘Well, what’s a really simple jean that’s going to live for a good ten years?’” Well—it will have to be a jean that manages to look good for the next ten years, we suppose.
Neither designer wants to disappoint the label’s diehard devotees, but the role of the label within the industry has shifted from its enfant terrible days in the ’90s to being a label which currently rests upon much sturdier laurels. Tom admits, “It’s big pressure. It’s kind of obvious in the business, making sure that we’re keeping the younger audience excited and drawing back some of the original families as well.” The label’s efforts to bring an essentialist attitude to dressing in an age where outfit posts reign supreme is a brave step in itself. Is it working so far? A recent campaign features Dominic Fike slouched sullenly over a sofa, lanky frame clad in black leather pants and matching jacket in a cut so classic he looks like a modern-day James Dean; French rapper Bakar in the grey, drizzling rain, tugging on a mesh graphic tee; Yung Lean perched on a chair with faded red cushions and flanked by flimsy white paper cups, wrapped snugly in an evening parka and raw denim bunched stiffly around the shins. The uncalculated candor palpable within the images evokes a certain sense of nostalgia, a longing for simple moments and simpler garb.
What would “good” feasibly look like for the next ten years, perhaps longer? “Something that is designed with gumption,” Tom says. It has to be functional, it has to have a use. It has to have purpose. Mark adds, “It’s something that feels quite effortless. Something that’s not over-thought. Clothes are designed to fit into [the wearer’s] life—they’re not just wearing a brand. They’re surrounding themselves with these pieces that fit into their life. It’s very much part of their uniform.” This mentality stretches into a general attitude at Helmut Lang that dictates their design, their reach, how they communicate to both new and old audiences. Where we see incessant product drops and microtrends passing us by in a whirlwind of prints, logos and hasty web articles, Mark and Tom seem convinced that the road to respite lies in owning less, in having pieces that we can reach for on a day-to-day basis.
Lang himself was known to favor heavy denim, created as the ultimate distillation of what a pair of jeans should be: built to last decades, modern, unpretentious. Tom
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“IT’S ABOUT THE UNIFORM, THE NEW UNIFORM TO FIT INTO SOMEONE’S LIFE. FOR ME, THAT’S WHAT HELMUT LANG IS ABOUT TODAY.”
the fashion industry being one of our planet’s highest pollutants, a streamlined, minimal wardrobe seems like an attractive direction when it’s no longer in good taste to consume in excess. “Utopian” was the word Mark used to describe Mr. Lang’s work almost 30 years ago, and yet we might need a whole new utopia of our own. “It’s something we’re constantly trying to navigate,” Tom says. “There’s a much more transparent and fast-paced democratic expression of fashion, but I’m trying to rein it in somehow, and continue to produce products people really need in their lives.” Whether we’re talking about the old guard at Helmut Lang or the new, the label lays claim to that one black sweater we always reach for, that one pair of jeans or jacket that we want to put on for our best days, our worst days, our in-between days. Mark sums it up: “It’s about the uniform, the new uniform to fit into someone’s life. For me, that’s what Helmut Lang is about today.” A uniform of our own, which seems to be old hat for top-functioning figures and omnipresent in productivity-porn listicles, right alongside touting the benefits of 5 A.M. wakeup times. From Mark Zuckerberg to the late Steve Jobs, and Rick Owens to the late Karl Lagerfeld, it seems like being extraordinary—extraordinarily—looks more or less the same every day. Not to say that we, also, need to settle on one outfit for the rest of our existence. But we can consider an exploration of what works for us, what feels the best for us; we can make personal wardrobe choices in lieu of public ones. Maybe we need to stop thinking we need to seem more in order to be special—or even just in order to be ourselves. Maybe this is how we, a generation who’s incessantly gagging on the next new thing, finally reach the cutting edge. If Helmut Lang has shown us anything, it’s that it lies closer to the ground than we realize.
In step with cries for reducing the fashion industry’s carbon footprint, groups dedicated to a wardrobe tightly curated down to a few choice pieces seem in line with Mark and Tom’s current design ethos. “We don’t need any more clothes, really,” Mark says matter-offactly. This is their gut reaction against an industry that currently churns out one novelty item after another for a customer base who wear it for Instagram only once. In this climate of blind showmanship and oneupmanship, what does it mean to belong? And what, if anything, does it mean to stand out? Tom brings forward the “wardrobe proposition.” There’s an emerging desire for people to own less, buy less, wear less—just look at the popularity of Marie Kondo: the notion of less, elevated to an art form. With 116
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WORDS
JAC K S TA N L E Y PHOTOGRAPHY
JULIAN BERMAN
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The founders even stretched out to the East Coast, where they now open a summer-long pop-up each year in New York City, where they host lectures and talks and run screenings. In 2017, the group even published its first book, Xerophile, which captures some of the rarest cactus plants from around the world.
Despite its name, Cactus Store is much more than just a store selling cacti. Since opening its Los Angeles store in 2014, the Cactus Store has continued to spread its wings, expanding from peddling plants to creating its own T-shirts, fertilizer and other tools.
All of this is part of Cactus Store’s underlying ambition: to spread a deeper understanding of cacti to a new audience. The team members came from creative backgrounds—including art, architecture and writing—before opening the LA store, and this gives them a different approach to spreading their message. “Our backgrounds allow us to present the plants in a different light,” explains cofounder Carlos Morera. “Our sensibilities have changed the way we deliver the message, which has gained us a larger audience than if we’d followed the same methods [as others].” Morera describes Cactus Store’s role in the cactus community as “some sort of liaison,” sitting between the traditional science-focused collectors on one hand and the new generation of cactus fans on the other. “We saw the value of these plants, what they could do for people and how interesting they were, but it was just in small groups and cactus clubs,” he explains. “We’re trying to bring that to the public.” Another difference between Cactus Store and other retailers is its focus on older, and often weirder, cacti. Explaining this, Max Martin, another of the cofounders, compares cacti to humans. “Human babies and baby plants are perfect and really cute,” he says. “But as they get older they gain character and scars and develop their own tastes and nature in a way that humans do as well. For us, that makes them more interesting and rich. They have a story to tell.” Morera agrees, pointing to how long these plants are able to survive. “Most cactus
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can live one hundred to two hundred years in the right conditions,” he explains. “We’re trying to exemplify those qualities. Many of the plants we get are from the collections of people who’ve passed away or they’ve become too old to care for the plants. In many cases, the plants are outliving their owners. There’s something humbling about that.” Morera and Martin, along with the rest of the Cactus Store team, hope that spreading this message will lead to a better understanding and appreciation of cacti. “Part of our goal is to change people’s perception and dialogue around these plants,” continues Martin. “They’re not just interior design objects.” Morera agrees and hopes that raising awareness of these plants can change people’s perception. “We want to promote the knowledge around these plants because that makes people respect and honor these plants in a whole different way,” he explains. “When you know more about plants and what makes them so incredible, they stop being background noise of your daily experience, and they come into the foreground. I think respect comes with that.” 124
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sometimes we’ll just go to an individual and just buy one or two of their plants. We usually try and keep on the more obscure side, but we have commercial sources of people that we think are growing interesting things, or they’re growing things much larger than other people are; maybe they’ve had something in the ground that most nurseries would have sold after a year, but they’ve had it in the ground for 10 years or 12 years, and we’ll buy that stock. We buy from Europe a lot, Italy, sometimes the Ukraine, we’ve been trying to buy more successfully from Japan. Sometimes at a cactus club, there’ll be an old grower that has something that they’ve had in the back of their greenhouse, and we’ll buy three of those plants because the quality of them is really nice. It’s really a hand-picked operation.
How did Cactus Store get started? Max Martin: It was a few of us coming from different backgrounds in art and design, but we were all very obsessed with cactus and other plants, and we’d gotten into collecting. The store started because we were trying to make the store that we would want to exist in LA. We were interested in the plants that were older and weird, stranger looking and harder to find. We wanted to have a store that would offer those plants to people who we knew would appreciate them but otherwise wouldn’t know where to get them. Where do you get the cacti for the store? Carlos Morera: It could be an old collection of a collector who has passed away or become too old to successfully care for the plants, so we will buy the collection, or sometimes we will only buy one single plant. We also operate in the cactus club world, and we’ll get a tip about someone that’s getting such-and-such a plant, and
How do cactus clubs work? Morera: They’re weird. They’re interesting because it’s a storehouse of information. It’s changing, but when we started, everybody there was over 70, and it was normally like 15 people in an auditorium or in a school gymnasium or something arguing over the species. It was pretty dry,
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“I WOULD CONSIDER OUR ROLE TO BE A BRIDGE BETWEEN POPULAR CULTURE AND THE MORE ESOTERIC COLLECTOR WORLD.”
but things are changing, and now we’re seeing an influx of younger people into the clubs, which I think is good because the information that would have died along with all of these people is being passed down, and people are looking at the plants differently. Our generation is taking a new approach, which is good. What is this new approach? Morera: I think we look at things differently. There’s a real interest in the mythology and the storytelling and the characters around these plants and the people around them, giving the plants more narrative. The older generation was much more scientific and drier about the whole plant world. We’re currently working on a TV show on plants, and it’s difficult because a lot of the interviews we’ll conduct with this older generation, we’ll try to get into the existential or the mystical or philosophical attributes or stories surrounding these plants, and it’s really hard to get that older generation to go there. They’re very cut and dry about the plant world. I think our generation is bringing more narrative.
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species of cactus that brings about philosophical musings about life and death or the show about plants, which is really about people’s connection with plants. Martin: It’s a place for us to explore our own relationship to plants and, in the process, hopefully help people create new relationships with plants or deepen their own relationships with plants. That’s the underlying motivation behind the whole thing. Did that make you want to work with T-shirts and lifestyle products? Morera: It’s delivering our interest on a different medium, like a T-shirt that’s super commercial and incredibly commonplace. We can still tell the stories or share our interests through an easier medium. The medium of plants doesn’t always need to be plants. What’s the story behind your book, Xerophile? Morera: In all these books and journals we looked at, there was a certain type of photography that we were attracted to, and it wasn’t usually championed, it was in the background. The photo itself would be this incredible image of a landscape or a natural scenario that you’ve never seen because a lot of these people that are taking these photos have been to the edges of the earth, quite literally. We started looking at the photography almost just as photography of these incredible places, memoirs of these people who have been all over the world and their photos were only shown in journals or a slideshow at the cactus club meeting on a Sunday morning. We started researching and reaching out to these people and trying to get their archives, which were these incredible storehouses of slides and digital images of plants and places that the general public never knew existed. Really mystic places. The idea was to bring these people’s work and these places and these plants that had never been seen by the public to a larger audience.
What do you see as your role in that community? Morera: I would consider our role to be a bridge between popular culture and the more esoteric collector world. Because of the way that we handle the plants, the way that we designed our store, the way that we talk about the plants. It was always an attempt to make things more informationally desirable so it would let society and culture at large get access to what's really interesting and what’s really beautiful about these plants without having to spend 40 years investigating them. We saw the value of these plants in terms of what they could do for people and how interesting they were, but it was just in these small groups and these cactus clubs, which weren’t immediately attractive or interesting. We’re trying to bring that to the public. Why is it important to run lectures and workshops alongside the store? Morera: I think the store, as Christian [Cummings, cofounder] likes to call it, is a trojan horse. The store was a vehicle to allow people into this world that they could understand, it was immediately approachable. We started as a store because that was the most accessible, immediate thing that people could enter through, and behind it there’s a lot more going on. Beyond the store, we’re constantly doing research, whether it be the Xerophile book or our own brand of fertilizer or the connection between human beings and plants or different
So it’s not so much about the cacti as the people who took the pictures? Morera: They’re sort of like minor histories. These people aren’t famous, and for a lot of them, this is their passion, but the rest of the year they’re high school art teachers or janitors. For us, there’s a fascination around those stories and these people and trying to shine a light on things you would never see. It’s also amazing for us because we get to forge relationships with people who are incredibly knowledgeable and have seen so much of the world.
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The quartet behind Goodfight started the label with 10 years of experience in fashion and retail, bringing their unique skills together to create a label grounded in ethical practice. The self-described shop kids “make clothes for fashion nerds” and have released a series of impeccably designed products made for day-to-day wear.
Goodfight Q&A Can you walk me through the beginnings of Goodfight? Christina: Caleb, Julie and Calvin all met each other at Opening Ceremony. They’re shop kids. After working for the Smith family, Caleb ran the buying program at American Rag and brought over the team. I think one of the reasons we wanted to start Goodfight was that we had both been working at big, institutional companies. Those are wonderful experiences, and I’m still working for one, but at the same time, we saw that you can only change cultures so much. I think a big part of the ethos of a company is it doesn’t matter if you win, it’s how you win, and there’s some companies where it’s really about the bottom line, it’s about competition, and there’s some unhealthy things. So we knew that we had to start something together, and that desire for sweating the process is a lot of the inspiration for the name too.
INTERVIEW JAKE SILBERT PHOTOGRAPHY CARMEN CHAN
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Fighting the good fight. Christina: Fighting the good fight, that’s right. When we first started, we weren’t sure which path we were going to take. We knew we wanted to do something together. It was also great because a lot of times, working with your friends is not necessarily a good thing, but we’d all worked with each other before we became friends, so I already knew what everybody was bringing to the table. There’s always other dynamics and stuff that you’re working through, but for the most part, everybody had a really special superpower. For us, that’s what it was about, and we also realized that we have the experience. Most of us have worked in the industry for over 10 years. That’s when we decided to pursue the fashion element.
don’t realize that the images on the shirt aren’t mirror images. They’re slightly different. And when people look closer, they’re like, “Oh there’s a Venus fly trap here, why?” A lot of that is going back to our exploration of duality. Usually when you see a version of this shirt, you see dragons or something very strong, but Venus fly traps are very delicate and hard to grow. I’ve killed like seven of them.
Who do you see as the Goodfight wearer? Caleb: We’ve always said that we make clothes for fashion nerds. That’s our background—we love the art behind fashion. It’s such a personal thing, whether it’s coming from the designer’s perspective or people who wear it. It’s such an art of expression, it’s such an art of appreciation to details and things like that. So for us, when we’re making clothes, that’s why we’re so anal about the fabrics we pick, how it’s made, little details that some people will notice and some won’t. We’re shop kids too, so we also don’t just shop with our eyes, we shop with our fingers. I think our brand has done well in stores because when people come to the store and try things on, it has a whole different element.
Caleb: The Venus fly trap itself is a hand illustration that we worked with a Japanese designer to create. All of our artwork is always custom, we never just grab stock images or anything like that. Particular to this piece, a lot of people see the flowers, and they’ve never seen Venus fly trap flowers. But we specifically picked the Venus fly trap because traditionally, they have a kind of violent and aggressive connotation to them, or death. But it’s also what Christina was talking about—we were trying to illustrate the paradox of strength and weakness, strength and vulnerability, and how the juxtaposition of those different kinds of things occur in our world all the time.
Tell us about one of your signature pieces. Christina: Going back to how we really do sweat the details. For example, our Venus Bowler shirt, most people
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From where you sit, what do you see for the future? Caleb: Before we started Goodfight, I remember asking Christina what her definition of success would be. What she said to me was, success to me will be if, in ten years, somebody who has worked for us carries on our DNA in terms of the things that we stand for—creativity, integrity, kindness, excellence—they leave us and start something bigger than us. They carry on that DNA of everything that they learned with us, into that new thing that they’re doing. Then we have succeeded. Once they’ve eclipsed us.
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Of course, as life goes on, you grow out of having time to just “hang out” or sit around and play video games as the pressures of adult life propel you to reach for things that don’t allow you to bring your friends along: job interviews, first dates. But regardless of where you are in life, the idea of being able to not only coexist but to collaborate alongside your closest mates is nothing short of aspirational.
Growing up, the only thing you want to do is spend time with your friends. It doesn’t matter what you are doing or where you are; simply being with the people closest to you, the people you’ve shared a myriad of experiences with— nothing compares.
For Jon Gray and his friends, however, this idea is more than just a shiny object in the distance. The boys from the BX have successfully been living the dream. Jon, along with his childhood friend Lester Walker and fellow Bronx natives Pierre Serrao and Malcolm Livingston II, make up a new age culinary collective that has carved out a unique spot within the food space: progressively reimagining the F&B world and, along the way, redefining what it means to be a modern chef. Ghetto Gastro came from humble beginnings, getting its start catering house parties in and around New York City. With their unique take on traditional cuisines and similarly polarizing personalities, the band quickly found themselves hosting and cooking for people like Rick Owens and Michele Lamy, as well as working alongside brands like Cartier and Off-White. Spending just one afternoon with the crew, I could already feel how their collective energy can be contagious, which translates to what I can only imagine as a charming dining experience when all four of them are present. Inside their new atelier—smack-dab in the heart of uptown New York—the chefs were hard at work, toiling over ingredients of all shapes and sizes. While it was just the four of them surrounding the gleaming industrial kitchen counter, the space was clamoring with laughter, the whirling of various culinary equipment and of course, bickering. The disputes weren’t like ones you’d typically hear: one debate broke out between Pierre and Lester about how the fridge should be organized; another with Malcolm (whose past life marked him as the head pastry chef of NoMa) on whose baking skills reigned supreme.
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“A LOT OF TIME, YOUR FIRST IDEAS ABOUT A CULTURE CAN BE ESTABLISHED THROUGH FOOD.”
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While Ghetto Gastro is all about food—from their conversations to their creative efforts—the four chefs agree that in reality, their focus is less on food and more on people. Their appetite for connecting, getting together with peers and like-minded individuals, is what ultimately drives Ghetto Gastro. “It’s amazing to see what you can accomplish when you apply yourself with people who are like-minded, with the same sort of work ethic,” Jon enthused. While together, the guys are four connected minds: GG prides itself on being “polarizing” or, in other words, on fusing together seemingly disparate elements. “Bringing Bronx to the World & Bronx to the World,” declares the pink neon sign. Opened this past past September and ripe with full-size industrial fridges, stainless steel tabletops and an ice cream machine, the Ghetto Gastro space has already brought together a tableful of guests from all over the world for an ALYX Studio event during New York Fashion Week. Another recent milestone for GG was forging the Bronx Brasserie, a pop-up food space during Paris Fashion Week. For the chefs, the pop-up marks a journey that has taken Ghetto Gastro around the world and finally brought it full-circle in Paris with the Bronx Brasserie at the Place Vendôme. To them, this is not only the dissemination of culture but also the disruption— something they remain eternally focused on. Whether it’s in the act of propelling cultural connections or simply in successfully melding business and pleasure, Ghetto Gastro is breaking the mold, upending traditional modes of thought in any and every way they can think of. 143
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How did you first connect and eventually realize, “These are going to be the guys I’ll build with?” Jon: Les, me and Pierre grew up on the same block. He’s one of the brothers that I saw growing up, working in the food game when I was doing other things. I’ve always had a big love of food and communing with my people around food. Les and I had spoken about it for years, thinking how to bridge our neighborhood and where we’re from with our culture and dominate in the food space with that. Then I ran down on Mac. I was on a date and a friend of mine, Cat, recommended I go to the wd~50. I go on the website—I typically don’t go to restaurant websites— and I start seeing the “About Me,” the “Team” section. I’m reading the bios, and I see Mac. He had the pinstriped apron on and shit. And I’m like, “Yo, he’s from the Bronx. Head pastry chef. That’s crazy. A brother from my borough in this spot?” So I go eat. I have a dessert. If the dessert was trash, I probably wouldn’t have cared about meeting him. But I had a dessert that was crazy, it was this aerated root beer ice cream. [To Malcolm] That sounds about right, right? Yeah, it’s an aerated root beer situation. I had that, and I was like, “Yo, this is crazy. Got to meet this cat.” That’s how me, Malcolm and Les kind of got together, and then we just started doing house parties and stuff like that. The term “ghetto” gets used in a lot of different contexts. The definition changes with use, but for Ghetto Gastro, what is that term in relation to what you do? Malcolm: For me, Ghetto Gastro is like a new letter of the alphabet, or a new term in gastronomy. When you think of other cuisines—Japanese, Thai, French—think of Ghetto Gastro as almost like a culture. I feel it has its own language. How do you see it growing? Malcolm: Well, I think what’s really important for us is it
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put the room together is really like, the food is a part of it, but it’s really the connections that are forged. It’s people that have had babies, gotten married, built businesses together and built long friendships, just coming to a Ghetto Gastro function because it’s intimate and it’s like, when you’re breaking bread, it’s like, really breaking boundaries, you know what I’m saying? Pierre: And they’re all different too; it’s like any Ghetto Gastro experience is not going to be duplicated. You’re not going to do the same thing twice. So if you’ve been to one, you might have come to a seated dinner, but then you might have caught us in Paris doing a party where we’ve got everybody from No Vacancy to Siobhan Bell and Anderson Paak in the building. We might have some exotic dancers upstairs, ladies getting it on and popping, chicken and waffles slinging. Or catch us in Venice doing something with Michele Lamy at the Biennale. Any Ghetto Gastro experience is going to be different. One of the things that I think is a constant with us is that nothing’s guaranteed. Other than a good time.
not just being the four of us. We want, to take one of Jon’s terms, to kind of make clones of ourselves. We don’t want to see just the four of us. We want anybody who comes to our space, or who comes to work with us, to take knowledge, to take the information and be able to apply that to their day-to-day. We did it with food, but there’s so many different ways and different mediums that you can approach and disrupt.
What do you think it is about food that connects people? Pierre: Breaking bread. Jon: Yeah, breaking bread, and I think it’s also a super important cultural nexus. You think about how you introduce the culture. A lot of the times, your first ideas about a culture can be established through food. Whether it’s the ’hood Chinese store that’s not even selling real Chinese food, but you see chopsticks. So you’re like, “Oh, there are places in the world where people eat with sticks.” There are places in the world where people eat with their hands. Having that base knowledge like, “Oh shit, so this thing I’m doing right here is not the only way it happens.”
Jon: For me, this project, and I think all projects, that’s part of my life journey, I always knew it was about freedom and revolution, I just didn’t know how to get to it. That’s why I was so torn when I was in the streets hustling, because I’m a part of the problem. And I know better. That’s like, the worst type of villain. I have homies that grew up in situations and came from families that have more hardships and didn’t have the opportunity that I had. And I still made the decision I made.
Do you think that it’s because of that shared connection and understanding that you guys are well respected? It feels like everyone I talk to speaks highly of you all and respects what you’re doing. You have a TED talk. Jon: I think it’s honesty, and it’s like—people can smell it. And they know. Malcolm: We’re not lying, we’re not putting on a façade for anybody. It’s like, we’re not trying to be in fashion. We’re not trying to be in art. We’re just doing what we do, and the story is kind of telling itself, and it’s opening up doors for us to get into these spaces.
So that kind of always was the underlying theme. The stories have always been about freedom. Food, the art that we make, our practice, it’s an exercise in not letting other people set the tone or value. Being able to establish your own value. You started describing it a bit already, but how do you guys describe the Ghetto Gastro experience? Jon: I think one of the major takeaways about how we
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LO OK
P H OTO G R A P H Y MICHAEL KUSUMADJAJA
STYLING FREDERICK MARFIL
HAIR AND MAKE UP PRAT SRINAK
LIGHTING FAISAL MOHAMMED
MODELS CODIE ROBINSON NATALYA PIRO
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“We’re not twins,” Arthur tells me after a slight pause. “I’ll just hang up the phone now,” I reply half-jokingly, palms sweating. Besides their physical similarities, Arthur and Daniel always seemed so in sync. I berated myself for thinking they were twins. Even over the phone, I’m sure the brothers could sense I was beginning to flounder. “It’s okay. Everyone thinks we’re twins. It’s pretty bad,” Daniel reassures me. My heart slows to its usual beat.
The interview with Arthur and Daniel Chmielewski was going well. We were bonding over being proud Canadians, growing up in a small town—they in Edmonton, Alberta and I in Windsor, Ontario— and our constant travels around the globe. However, my next question was met with an awkward silence.
Daniel’s laid-back sense of humor is evident as he describes how their mother dressed him and Arthur in identical outfits, despite their age difference. Daniel is now HAVEN’s head of operations; Arthur, one and a half years Daniel’s junior, is tasked as the company’s creative director and exudes a more reserved demeanor. Together, their personalities form a yin-and-yang relationship, which has worked as a key factor in HAVEN’s core success and drive. Of course, occasional brotherly arguments are hard to avoid. “If there isn’t a healthy debate between us, then I think something’s probably wrong,” Dan tells me. “But we quickly sort it out,” Arthur chimes in. “I still get to see him at that next family vacation.” There is something magnetic about the brothers and the way they are able to pull people into their selfcreated sanctuary. It’s palpable even from several time zones away. Whether it be Vancouver’s red brick walls, or Toronto’s post-and-beam structure and white oak finishing, it’s easy for anyone to find themselves quickly engrossed by HAVEN’s minimally decorated interiors and racks filled with obscure Japanese labels cozying up against old favorites, such as visvim and WTAPS. In a bid to encourage dialogue between customers and staff, only single sizes are put on display.
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The brothers pride themselves on their curation process, making sure everything passes through what they have dubbed the “HAVEN filter.” Arthur elaborates: “There’s this hyper-consumerism that’s going on right now that we’re not really into. So we have to ask ourselves: is this actually good product? Does it deserve to be on the shelves of our stores?” This filter upholds quintessential Canadian values which the Chmielewskis hold dear: purposeful, utilitarian, functional, performance-driven. Everything must go through the filter: globally sourced brands, collaborators, the HAVEN collection. This filter also helped the pair to streamline their e-commerce store and now-defunct print publication, intelligence Magazine. While no longer in print, intelligence Magazine became something of a bible to fashion lovers around the world. The story of leaving their day jobs in the finance industry to embark on the entrepreneurial path sounds like a familiar formula, so we talk to Arthur and Daniel about how “the filter”—ideals that have resonated with them since their youth—has physically manifested into a cultural haven. 173
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open the store, from the initial idea to the construction. We built the store entirely on our own alongside a group of close friends and our dad, Stan. He’s a carpenter and generally a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to construction, and he’s helped us with every store we have made.
How did HAVEN start? Art: Daniel was living in London working an entry-level desk job in finance, and I was still in university finishing up my business degree. I went to visit Dan in London and saw stuff like Slam City Skates, The Hideout…BAPE had a store out there as well. This was when sneaker culture and streetwear was in its infancy and North American brands were starting to mash together with Japanese brands and aesthetics. Then we had a chance to travel to Asia, and we saw brands and retail concepts that were entirely different to North America. We saw a lot of brands we loved in the flesh for the first time, like NEIGHBORHOOD, visvim, WTAPS and UNDERCOVER.
How did you go from opening your first brickand-mortar into starting your print publication, intelligence Magazine? Art: I’m actually not 100% sure when the magazine started. I should know this. Daniel: We did it for two and a half years, so I would say maybe 2015. Art:Things have consistently been growing very fast for the company. We were doing buying for the stores; we were travelling to Europe and Asia. I was going to Japan six to eight times a year and ended up working with a lot of great designers. We developed a lot of relationships over time and, as the business evolved, we were like, “We should tell some of these brand stories no one else
When we were working in our finance jobs, we were constantly already bouncing ideas back and forth like, “What if we started this type of store in Edmonton?” We had no idea what we were doing. We both moved back in 2005 and it took us about a year and a half to
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has access to.” Intelligence actually started as a little thing we had on our website, and we released a very early newsletter that went to just in-store customers. Then we got pretty ambitious and we were like, “Okay, let’s just start a magazine.”
“WE PUT EVERYTHING THROUGH THIS HAVEN FILTER AND WE ASK OURSELVES: IS THIS ACTUALLY GOOD PRODUCT?”
Daniel: Then we realized we wanted to start telling our own story, so we decided to discontinue the magazine, take what we learned, and focus our resources and knowledge directly on our own brand. We learned a lot from this experience and have a new appreciation for the work that goes into storytelling and print publishing. We also got to meet so many interesting people and form new friendships, not just with people from fashion, but also artists, architects, designers and musicians. Rubbing shoulders and talking to these creative people all over the world has helped us shape our own message and helped us look at everything through a forward-thinking lens. Do you remember the day when you said “Okay, let’s start a clothing label?”
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now evolving and working with premium technologies companies synonymous with the outdoor market like Primaloft, Polartec and Cordura, alongside more traditional techniques like hand knitting. We have also been able to work alongside some iconic brands like Clarks and Timberland, and we have some really exciting collaborative projects coming. Do you have any deciding factors when it comes to curation? Tell us about the curation process. Art: We put everything through this HAVEN filter and we ask ourselves: is this actually good product? Does it deserve to be on the shelves of our store? We apply that same kind of mentality to what we’re doing internally with our own product.
Art: We’ve actually taken a stab at brand building before. We had this smaller project for a couple of years called “Cypress” that was developed in Canada, and we were just learning manufacturing at that time. That was the start of building our own product, and we learned a ton of stuff from that.
Are we really bringing something new to the table? Are we raising the bar? Are we making product that speaks to our purpose-driven customers? Is it masculine and utilitarian? Is it high quality and functional? Those are our core values. We get hit up all the time from brands and people that want to work with us. It’s pretty easy to see through them right away. We know exactly what our customer wants, and that’s what we are really trying to dial in on.
Daniel: What we were doing was amazing, but it felt like we were building multiple companies versus one strong voice. Art: We wanted to show people a new kind of Canadian perspective on functional men’s fashion. We have a tight-knit design team with experience in both fashion and outdoor apparel, and we split production between Canada and Japan, leveraging the best of both countries’ rich manufacturing heritage. We also source most of our fabrics from Japan because the quality is unmatched.
Have your inspirations changed since the early days of HAVEN? Art: I don’t think they have changed that much. I think from the onset we were really focused on bringing the very best to Canada. Over time it has evolved to us having our own interpretation and we want our own HAVEN collection to tell our own story. Right now, there is an over-saturation of product and a focus on image and marketing over substance and integrity. We have always prided ourselves on staying true to our values of quality, timelessness and functionality, and HAVEN is the evolution and extension of those beliefs. We’re still trying to bring the best products to our customer. That’s our responsibility to them.
How many seasons did it take for the current direction of the HAVEN collection to take shape? Art: Fall 2017 was the very first season. We released a small collection of workwear and military staples and graphics. Daniel: We are really excited about our FW19 line, and we are continuing to fine-tune our direction and solidify our voice. The quality continues to rise and we are
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Emily Bode crafts her tailor-made pieces out of her Chinatown studio in New York City from antique textiles and found material such as Victorian quilts, bed linens and grain sacks. Bode is just beginning to hit her stride, being named Emerging Designer of the Year at the CFDA Fashion Awards this year, on top of finishing as a finalist for the LVMH Prize just a few months prior.
BODE Q&A Was it at Parsons that you started to formulate your current design ethos? Yeah. I was making things out of vintage, though, long before that. In high school, I made a dress from a vintage crocheted blanket that I bought at a thrift store in Massachusetts. I don’t know if that was project-specific, like we had to make a dress and so I decided to do it out of a blanket, but I took a skirt making class, and that I made out of vintage and, yeah, I’ve always done that. But it wasn’t necessarily an idea to strategize into a business until after college.
INTERVIEW EMILY JENSEN PHOTOGRAPHY EDDIE LEE
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Was it challenging to learn the techniques of working with these antique fabrics? I never really looked at it as a different technique than anything else. It just was something that was more natural to me. You know, growing up going to flea markets and antique stores. We have these amazing antique markets in Atlanta once a month; it was just part of my DNA and my family’s DNA. They’re from Massachusetts and their parents collected antiques. So it just was always ingrained in me. When did you begin to see starting your own label as a viable business opportunity? When people would ask me if I made the clothes I was wearing. I always wear my clothes. Before I’d go out on Fridays, I’d quickly make a little top or a sweater out of jersey, and a lot of that stuff was vintage. So that’s kind of where it started. When it comes down to creating a volume of different clothes, how do you source all of these pieces? Around 30 to 40 percent of our business is made from antique textiles. So it’s not everything, but what you’re looking at here, these are corduroy. The corduroy itself is not vintage, it’s just the narrative around the handcraft of drawing on the cords that commemorate a person’s life, that’s a historical narrative. Where are some of your favorite places to source the fabrics? New England is probably the best place that I enjoy because my family is from there. I’m always in New England in the summer, and so it’s nice to take the time there. Do you have a favorite fabric that you’ve sourced, or a piece that holds more sentimental value? I love pieces that come with a little note or an anecdote. We got this vintage linen, and it had who had hand woven the linen, back in the early 1800s. That was awesome.
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Where do you see the brand expanding in five years? I view retail as really important, just because we do have such a demand to shop the product in the studio. We take appointments almost every day, and that’s something that I foresee us investing in, having retail locations where you can envision the world in which this was created but also how you go and wear it in your own way.
Do you feel like it’s sort of a lost art, these certain techniques? Yeah. Even like looking at something like this, these are not pieces that are a seasonal-specific garment that you would then dispose of after it’s fallen out of trend. Something like our cords, when private clients order them, they’re made to be inherited. So they have grandparents’ names, family names, street names, funny anecdotes, inside jokes, your parents’ favorite movie—they’re so rich with the historical narrative of your life that it would be strange to lose them.
Do you feel like you want to market your brand as a sustainable fashion brand? Is that something that’s important to you? Yeah. It’s less about marketing and more about the foundation of the brand. The foundation of the brand is not only the idea of reusing historical textiles, but it’s also looking at the processes that happened to have been sustainable historically. So quilt-making or handloom, things that didn’t require buying yardage or didn’t require electricity and seeing what was important to these people that were making and spending all their time and energy and even money into making these exquisite pieces that actually were really early sustainable practices.
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Originally from Toronto, Dacyshyn lived most of his life in Vermont but is now settled by the beach with his wife in Santa Monica Canyon, Los Angeles. Dacyshyn was initially skeptical about life away from city stimuli but is now a convert: “I kind of see the light now. There’s a great community and a great vibe right now in Los Angeles. I didn’t think that I’d love it here, and I love it more than I could imagine.”
Greg Dacyshyn is the Santa Claus from Santa Monica Canyon, both in the sense of his majestic beard and also that he delivers gifts made from clouds, soft to the touch—in other words, Camp High, a cozy cult that champions comfort “as a lifestyle, and not a hobby.” As cofounder, Dacyshyn leads the Camp High outlook by example—“Positive Vibes Only 365"— and he says he’s never been happier.
Camp High, the love child of Greg Dacyshyn and Greg Johnsen (making them the only Greg duo you will ever need to know), hit the streetwear/comfort-wear scene in 2018, making one-of-a-kind effortless unisex apparel that walks as much as it talks, from South Americaninspired kimonos and the finest tie-dye and embroidery work to extra fine Italian lambswool blended-yarn robes, all of which are made in California. The duo first met before the term “streetwear” was invented, when it was simply known as skateboarding and snowboarding apparel. Johnsen was a designer for Supreme and Stussy, and a buyer for Union; Dacyshyn had been with Burton Snowboards for over 20 years, first as Chief Creative Officer and now as a consultant. The idea of Camp High came about when the two were staying at storied Los Angelean hotel Chateau Marmont. “We were at the pool of this magical place, and seeing this serendipitous vibe and shared vision, we just decided to do something together.” Today, in an era where fashion is fast and its seasons are strict, Camp High operates outside of that demand, not following a fixed production schedule, with each collection ready in its own time, and a fondness towards working with family and friends, who also happen to be expert craftsmen and artisans. “Both Johnsen and I are very blessed in having a long Rolodex of extremely talented people that we’re great friends with,” says Dacyshyn. “John Mayer, who is also a business partner in Camp High, sees our vision and what we’re trying to do. Like he said, instead of focusing on a destination, we’re walking through the forest and enjoying a good time. And hopefully that reflects in Camp High and people appreciate the things we make.”
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Let’s start with the philosophy behind Camp High. People talk about luxury goods but the greatest luxury is to not give a fuck about anything, being comfortable in your own skin and being able to do whatever you want to do. So, if you can create clothing that makes people feel physically comfortable but also look really good, I mean you’ve won, right? And you’ve done a good service. That’s truly what we’re trying to do. It’s also one less thing to worry about. If you feel great, then you can be better at doing other things you might want to do. If you’re going to play tennis, wear tennis clothing. Here we’re trying to make clothing for life, make you better at living. It’s a tough job, but we’re going for it.
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For us, it’s similar. We just want to make good things and hopefully people will really like it and spread the word. So, like what the Grateful Dead did, we’re just out in the hot sun in a parking lot selling grilled cheese sandwiches. And Hiroki Nakamura is an incredible designer and a longtime friend. I was around him when he was first starting visvim and I saw the passion he had behind it, sort of creating a new look and his value in not only making great-looking things, but having a real story behind them. He really understands making a great product. So, yeah, I would say that definitely permeates what we’re trying to do with Camp High. Hiroki has been a huge inspiration and I love him to death. And maybe people don’t understand that doing appliqué on a sweatshirt costs us $100 to do, but hopefully some people appreciate it.
What is the design process behind Camp High? I hate to sound clichéd, but we’re kind of doing whatever we want to do. I don’t think we’re following a trend, or maybe a trend could be on with whatever we’re doing, but maybe that’ll pass, or hopefully not. I always say that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. And I’m not claiming we’re inventing anything, but our concept is soft clothing that fits our lifestyle and the people around us. There’s nothing better than feeling nice and comfortable and have someone come up to you and say, “Wow, you look really sort of chill,” right? The biggest compliment in the whole world is to see some girl that had a fight with her boyfriend come over to you and be like, “Can I talk to you for a minute? You look like I can tell you what happened.”
Besides your wife, can you name three definitive people in your life? Well, for sure Jake Burton, right? Jake, owner/founder of Burton Snowboards. He’s inspirational because he took a chance on me, and I’ve had a really great career with him creating not just a sport’s brand but also a movement. The next person is Hiroshi Fujiwara, who has been a great friend and mentor. I met him in the early days when I was going to Japan, and maybe a lot of people who grew up sort of in my time will say the same thing. Hiroshi was not only a great friend but was also very into snowboarding, so together we did a very cool line called iDiom, which was myself, Hiroshi, and Hiroki Nakamura. We did this sort of capsule collection early that allowed us to sort of operate outside, do something completely different than what was going on in outerwear, or snowboarding, or any streetwear. I truly do think it crossed lines, the first time snowboarding outerwear was being sold in streetwear shops. And Hiroshi’s just a smart dude that I respect very much.
In all the online comments about your brand, people always reference either the Grateful Dead or visvim. Do you, in fact, take any inspiration from either of these? I mean, I grew up with the Grateful Dead, and you could say they did marketing the original social media way, which sort of allowed people to take their own music and spread it, sell counterfeit goods, that sort of thing.
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The third person, and not for nothing, is John Mayer. I met John a really long time ago, with Timmy McGurr, who is the 13th Witness, Futura’s son. We sort of hung out a few times, but it was when John started with Dead and Company. He DM-ed me, saying, “What’s up, we have a lot of the same friends, I’m in Vegas, want to meet up?” And we hung out that night, and from that time on, we’ve been solid. He’s an incredibly creative guy and he makes me feel very lazy every day, because he’s sort of doing ten things at once, all the time, and never seems to go to sleep.
“PEOPLE TALK ABOUT LUXURY GOODS BUT THE GREATEST LUXURY IS TO NOT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT ANYTHING, BEING COMFORTABLE IN YOUR OWN SKIN AND BEING ABLE TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO.”
Speaking of collaborations, you recently did one with one of our cover stars, Matt McCormick. Are there any more Camp High collaborations in the pipeline? I’m friends with Matt from a while back. We did some things for Burton before. He’s an incredible artist and a great friend. When we work with people, it’s kind of like people that we hang out with all the time. As far as future collaborations go, nothing planned. But don’t you also get sick of talking about collaborations? It should just be in what we do. I don’t want to sound like that kind of guy, but it’s just that we work with everyone all the time. Even tonight, I was with a bunch of people bouncing ideas and
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ISSUE 27
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it could be a collaboration, but it’s just sort of bringing great people together. The collaboration thing… I’m not going to shit on it—it’s a great sort of marketing tip—but I want to make things that people like because of what they are. I mean, I have the biggest collection of shoes in the world, but I’ve worn them all to death. I collect things but I want to wear them and use them. We want to make great things that people want to use—get your shit grimy, roll in the sand on the beach in your new Camp Highs, and hopefully that makes it better. It’s not streetwear; it’s shit to live in. Last question, and it’s about your majestic white beard. Where would you place the importance of your beard in your kinship tree? To be honest, I never really noticed my beard. Like I have a lisp, right? But you don’t hear your own lisp until you hear yourself on a recording. I think that’s the same thing with my beard. I never really noticed how big my beard is, but then you see a photo, and you’re like, “I kind of look fucked up. What was I thinking?” But I'm glad you called it majestic. Some people might call it hopeless.
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KINSHIP
ISSUE 27
F E AT U R E D :
F LU C T UA R T LICHEN V& A D U N D E E D S M PA R F U M S 8DIVISION THERE VND THEN
N E W YO R K , U SA
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Within the following pages are a few places around the world we have handpicked for the Kinship Issue. We chose spots which had the ability to bring people together, whether it be over art, fashion, beauty or a cup of coffee. Relationships are inadvertently formed through travel—with places, peoples, cultures, cuisines—and we hope our choices will have a hand in fostering a few more.
DUNDEE, UK PA R I S, F R A N C E
S E O U L , S O U T H KO R E A
H O C H I M I N H C I T Y, V I E T N A M
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PA R I S
FRANCE
ISSUE 27
2 P O R T D U G R O S CA I L LO U
Fluctuart
KINSHIP
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GUIDE
The flow of water into the heart of the space through an opening in the building’s shell connects the outdoors with the interior. Each floor of the building is distinct: the cave offers a perspective under the water and the first floor boasts waterline views. The terrace on the top floor, rendered completely in clear glass, offers an unobstructed 360-degree view of the Seine. The façade is a modular steel frame which comprises the building’s infrastructure, lighting, and a base for the furniture design as well a support system for the art displays. The glass, water reflections and steel frames comprise an optical vision that appears to stretch into infinity.
Perched on the Seine in the center of Paris, Fluctuart is 850 sq. m. and three floors of art and event space. Fluctuart is dedicated to contemporary art and houses permanent exhibitions of both young talent and established artists such as Shepard Fairey, Futura and Invader. Visitors are welcome to view many of the permanent exhibitions by world-class street artists, attend events such as urban art fairs or creative workshops, or stop in for a drink and some food while taking in prime views of the Seine. Entry is free and the space is open to the public year-round.
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U SA
B R O O K LY N , N Y
ISSUE 27
1 31 M A N H AT TA N AV E N U E
Lichen
KINSHIP
Nestled in Brooklyn, New York City, Lichen is not your average furniture store. It may not even be accurate to call it a furniture store at all. Often, meandering customers may enter for a coffee at Lichen’s coffee bar and exit with a new chair in tow. A carefully curated assortment of books, home goods, and furniture is sourced both globally and locally by Lichen’s owners, who cite empathy as a guiding principle behind each choice. “We feel that the homewares industry is a natural progression of the average creative who’s into fashion and culture. The strategy is to meet them halfway, combining the two worlds in a way that’s apparent, educational, but also seamless.”
Lichen got its unofficial start as a storage unit in Brooklyn, out of which the owners started selling vintage designer furniture. Now, the store is on a corner of East Williamsburg in what used to be a delicatessen— with respect for the surrounding neighborhood and the building’s humble history, the duo are not simply selling expensive furniture in a gentrified area. The goal is to stock items which are “unique, priced well and empathetic for Brooklyn and NYC living.” At least if most of us can’t afford homeownership, we can certainly make our space feel more like home.
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UNITED KINGDOM
DUNDEE DD1 4EZ
ISSUE 27
1 RIVERSIDE ESPLANADE
V&A Dundee Museum of Design
KINSHIP
To celebrate Scotland’s rich design heritage and introduce groundbreaking projects from across the globe, the V&A Dundee Museum of Design opened to the public in September 2018. The museum’s opening marked the first V&A division located outside London. Those visiting the institution for the first time will immediately notice its bold and dynamic exterior, envisioned by the brilliant architectural minds at Kengo Kuma. The 8,500 sq. m. structure boasts sprawling façades constructed using 2,500 cast stone panels—a stunning architectural feature inspired by the dramatic cliffs along the east coast of Scotland. At the center of the museum is a restored oak-paneled room originally designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1907 as
a Glasgow tearoom. The museum continues to host a slew of design-inclined exhibitions displaying works drawn from the V&A’s archives, various museums, and private collections. The V&A Dundee’s opening exhibition, “Ocean Liners: Speed & Style,” chronicled the golden age of ocean travel and explored all aspects of ship design including unparalleled engineering, architecture, and opulent interiors. One of its latest shows sheds light on the little-known stores of Scottish design ranging from architecture to fashion as well as video game design. The museum continues to attract visitors from across the globe, having wrangled an impressive 830,000 design buffs in its first year alone.
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FRANCE
PA R I S
11 B I S R U E E L Z E V I R
Dover Street Parfum Market
KINSHIP ISSUE 27
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Marais district, Dover Street Parfums Market keeps true to the Kawakubo aesthetic, with plain, white-painted surfaces throughout the store. Inside, columns rise nearly floor to ceiling, some adorned in clean white tiles and others coated in silver glitter. Lining the shelves are well-established brands like Byredo or Gucci, but the store also prides itself on stocking up-and-coming labels from around the world. Even long-standing fashion brands like Thom Browne have taken the opportunity of a presence in DSM’s new space to debut its fragrance line with six scents in a custom display decorated with the brand’s signature gray wool.
Dover Street Market already does it all. From setting the bar for shop design and progressive art installations to offering the most diverse range of brands, the brainchild of Adrian Joffe and Rei Kawakubo has conquered the retail market in major fashion destinations around the globe. The all-encompassing retailer has staked its claim on yet another space, the multi-million dollar beauty market, opening its first beauty-specific brick and mortar, Dover Street Parfums Market, in the heart of Paris. The shop carries not only fragrances, including its own Comme des Garçons fragrance lines, but also skincare, make-up and grooming products. Located just a few minutes’ walk from the Musée Picasso in the
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SEOUL
S O U T H KO R E A
JUNG-GU
ISSUE 27
49 TO E GY E - R O 1 8- G I L
8DIVISION
KINSHIP
There is a lot of shopping in Seoul, particularly in the central Myeongdong area. One of the long-standing stalwarts of the city is 8DIVISION, a subdued space that offers an eclectic mix of streetwear goods with well-loved labels such as Takahiromyashita the Soloist, Engineered Garments, Bed JW Ford and Kolor, as well as their in-house label, 8DIVISION. The storefront is easy to miss, tucked under a nondescript black awning with only a small bronze plaque to indicate the store’s presence. The interior feels like a very large, very well-stocked walk-in closet, with rack upon rack of a mish-mash of clothes begging to be rifled through. Dark wooden floorboards and white-washed walls give the space a rustic, homey feel which invites guests to stay just a while longer and explore to their heart’s content. 212
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VIETNAM
HO CHI MINH CITY
DISTRICT 1
11 5 H O T U N G M AU, B E N N G H E ,
There VND Then
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GUIDE
While Ho Chi Minh City is one of the most lively cities in the world, this progressive concept store is one of the first of its kind in the city. Bringing new energy to the cultural core of Vietnam, There Vnd Then aims to bridge the gap between Vietnam’s rich heritage and the new surge of global awareness and outlook. The store is located inside Saigon Garden, a distinctive commercial space on Ho Chi Minh City’s busiest street. The 2923 sq. m. space will include a courtyard for food and beverage on the ground level, a curated retail store for fashion, accessories and footwear on the first floor, and a barbershop on the top level. The all-encompassing lifestyle location creates a unique space to focus
on nurturing and developing culture in Vietnam. The retail arm brings together brands from all over the world, from Gentle Monster and OAMC to staple streetwear brands like Nike and Stussy, as well as many other international labels including Maharshi, Y3, Mastermind and Alyx. A real treat for its community, There Vnd Then reflects the innovation and progress the city has made and will continue to develop as a cultural hub in Vietnam.
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Directory
ADER ERROR ADERERROR.COM
ENGINEERED GARMENTS ENGINEERED GARMENTS.COM
ILLEGAL CIVILIZATION ILLEGALCIVILIZATION.COM
ALAN CROCETTI ALANCROCETTI.COM
GENTLE MONSTER GENTLEMONSTER.COM
LOEWE LOEWE.COM
AWAKE NY AWAKENYCLOTHING.COM
GIDDY UP GROUNDS-FW.COM
NIKE NIKE.COM
BALENCIAGA BALENCIAGA.COM
GOODFIGHT GDFHT.COM
PUMA PUMA.COM
BODE NEW YORK BODENEWYORK.COM
HAVEN HAVENSHOP.COM
PRADA PRADA.COM
BOTTEGA VENETTA BOTTEGAVENETTA.COM
HELMUT LANG HELMUTLANG.COM
THOM BROWNE THOMBROWNE.COM
CAMP HIGH CAMPHIGH.COM
HOKA ONE ONE HOKEONEONE.COM
UNDERCOVER UNDERCOVERISM.COM
DR. MARTENS DRMARTENS.COM
HUMAN MADE HUMANMADE.JP
VVON SUGUNNASIL VVONSUGUNNASIL.COM
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