Perhaps few people in Italy are familiar with Strand Book Store, one of New York City’s most famous and beloved bookstores, located near the quaint Union Square. One of the bookstore’s hallmarks are its tote bags with the highly recognizable and iconic red logo, and it is Strand’s book tote bags that are the subject of Bottega Veneta‘s latest collaboration.
Un post condiviso da Strand Book Store, NYC (@strandbookstore)
Strand’s canvas tote is a classic, extremely functional and simple, it also represents a status that I would call proletarian, but with all the limitations.
The Italian fashion house has revisited this symbol of the Big Apple and the Strand by making three upscale renditions of the New York bookstore tote, using the finest leather and, of course, putting the bookstore’s logo on full display.
Un post condiviso da New Bottega (@newbottega)
Bottega Veneta’s new creative director Matthieu Blazy, in addition to being a frequent visitor to Strand on his trips to New York City, to push the collaboration even further commissioned The New Yorker to produce five cartoons – the New Yorker‘s cartoons are among America’s most famous – created by illustrator and cartoonist Jeremy Nguyen, celebrating the unexpected partnership.
Un post condiviso da Strand Book Store, NYC (@strandbookstore)
The three book tote from Bottega Veneta and Strand Book Store are available online at the Italian fashion house’s webstore.
Off-White unveiled its new Fall/Winter 2022 campaign shot by Brazilian photographer Rafael Pavarotti, accompanied by videos by Italian videomaker Federico Busatto directed by Dazed editor-in-chief and art and image director of the brand founded by Virgil Abloh in 2012, IB Kamara.
The campaign perfectly blends Virgil’s legacy with Off-White’s forward-looking and ever-evolving gaze, highlighting tensions and necessary conversations between past and present, culture and subculture, skatewear and high fashion.
The backdrop to the countryside is the striking Moroccan city of Chefchaouen, the “Blue Pearl of Morocco,” perhaps the most beautiful and evocative in the entire African country. Located at the foot of the Rif Mountains, its defining feature is the wonderful cascade of blue houses perfectly set within a fabulous natural landscape.
The models seem to almost blend with the almost surreal context of the city, in a story made of contrasts and taking inspiration from the various souls that make up Virgil Abloh’s idea and soul.
“Virgil revolutionised streetwear and luxury that crosses generations and decades. He showed the world that the underrepresented, the underdogs and Black people, in particular, have brilliant minds and can push and compete equally in the establishment. He inspired hope and brought about change. Virgil Abloh was one of the freest-thinking black men of our time”, Kamara stated.
Off-White’s FW22 collection is available online and in the brand’s boutiques around the world.
Virgil Abloh has been a decisive figure for the entire fashion world and the creative world in general, a true game-changer. His insights, references, creations and philosophy continue crucially to influence our contemporary times. One of Abloh’s collaborations that more than any other has changed the perception of creativity and forever the fashion world is surely that with Louis Vuitton. Virgil was artistic director of the French fashion house’s men’s line from 2018 until his untimely death from a rare form of cancer on November 28, 2021.
Louis Vuitton and the publishing house Assouline have joined forces and collaborated to write and publish a limited-edition hardcover book celebrating the memory of the late American designer and his successful collaboration with the LVMH Group fashion house.
Un post condiviso da ASSOULINE (@assouline)
“Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh”, this is the title of the 359-page coffee book with more than 320 images, is an important and meaty testimony to Virgil’s relevance to Louis Vuitton and the fashion world as a whole.
Written by Anders Christian Madsen, a fashion critic and editor at British Vogue who has stood beside Abloh on past projects such as his Manifesto, this is the first-ever book published on the Rockford, Illinois, native designer since his passing.
The book is divided into eight chapters, one for each collection Virgil created as artistic director of Vuitton’s men’s line, and within it are also some reflections from those who lived and worked alongside the designer such as Nigo, Kendall Jenner, Kid Cudi and Luka Sabbat.
Two different covers were created for “Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh”: the first features characters from The adventures of Zoooom with Friends, straight from Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection; while the second depicts the iconic red balloon that flew over the runway during the Spring/Summer 2022 show in Miami.
Both of these two editions will be priced at $120, but there is also another one called the “Ultimate Collection” sold inside a special box priced at $1,200.
“Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh” edited by Assouline will be available, in the three versions mentioned above, starting Sept. 15 on the French publisher’s webstore.
In July we celebrated 33 years of one of the most impactful and successful American sitcoms ever broadcast, the “show about nothing”, Seinfeld. Yesterday Kith unveiled its latest Fall 2022 collection and related campaign, starring Jerry Seinfeld and shot by the great American photographer and portrait artist Mark Seliger.
Un post condiviso da Kith (@kith)
Kith, as well as Aimé Leon Dore, strongly identifies with the city where the brand was born, we are talking about New York City, choosing as testimonials for its campaigns prominent personalities-but also ordinary people-who were born or grew up there in the Big Apple, just like Jerry Seinfeld, who was born in Brooklyn and is a Queens College alumnus (the latter is the protagonist of a capsule of Kith’s Fall 2022).
These are the words of Ronnie Fieg, founder of Kith, about Jerry Seinfeld and the campaign: “There are a handful of people that I’ve dreamed of working with from a young age. On the very top of that list was Jerry. There are very few individuals that have had the kind of impact Jerry had on me. Having candid conversations on set with one of my heroes made me realize how incredible work can be when you infuse your biggest inspirations in what you do. While taking this photo, he tells Mark to hold a sec, he leans in and says: <<Ronnie, when two well known people take a photograph, you could tell which one is less known by how big their smile is>>. My ribs hurt. Thank you Jerry. For being Jerry. Fall 2022 is a movie”.
Kith’s Fall 2022 will be available online and in the brand’s stores starting Friday the 9th.
Coinciding with the week 2 drop of the Fall 2022 collection, Supreme presents its collaboration with U.S. artist William Pope.L. Born in 1955 in Newark, he is currently a professor in the visual arts department at the University of Chicago, the city where he precisely works and lives.
Un post condiviso da Supreme (@supremenewyork)
Pope.L owes his notoriety primarily to his performances that began to interest him, as well as experimental theater, while attending Rutgers University. However, he is not limited exclusively to performance-art but works indiscriminately with photography, video, sculpture and writing. His works are described as provocative, absurd, and disruptive, showing a particular interest in the role of objects in contemporary society and in our daily lives, unearthing their symbolic power.
Alongside this research, the artist combines reflections on racial issues, examining the ideas of blackness and whiteness and showing the prejudices and violence that arise from a culture of racism. Pope.L’s most famous and well-known works refer to his crawls. A series of street performances made over 40 years, beginning along 42nd Street in 1978. Inspiration came from the steady growth in the number of homeless people sleeping along the streets of the Big Apple, focusing on what is the horizontal movement of bodies and his body.
“All those folks, who seemed inert and unwilling to lift themselves up by their bootstraps, starting to move as one”, Pope.L. stated.
Between 2001 and 2009 he crawled a full 22 miles down Broadway, starting at the tip of Manhattan and arriving in the South Bronx wearing a Superman suit and a skateboard strapped to his back.
“As soon as you go outside, there’s this issue of where you are in space, and who owns that space…So I realized that I was setting up a tension when I crawled about being in space and how you’re located in that space – how you’re supposed to behave in that space, and who can own that space, and how you can own it”.
Supreme has created a special collaboration with the artist that consists of a T-shirt and two decks, featuring some of the striking images from Pope.L.’s performances and works.
The William Pope.L x Supreme Fall 2022 collaboration will be released on September 8 and will be available online and at Supreme stores.
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