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Dan Flavin: Untitled (Monument for V. Tatlin), 1964 Š Stephen Flavin / ARS Calvin Klein: Classic Cotton Briefs (Calvin Klein Underwear Est. 1981) Photographed at Rubell Family Collection, Miami
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PLL_CRK_US HYPEBEAST GBL 3-1 DPS S17_FNL GMG GRACOL PDFX-1A PREP BY MT
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Caravaggio Saint Matthew and the Angel
LOST MASTERPIECES. RE-CREATED WITH ADOBE STOCK. Š 2017 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe and the Adobe logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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Jean-Charles Debroize Re-created with Adobe Stock
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Paul and Jonas pPhaoutloagnr ad pJhoenda sb y p rhaoitgo g pe ha en d by C MrcaD Cw r aw. i gsM w a ccaDi .ejapn w w w. s a c a i . j p
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A$AP Rocky
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See the ямБlm DIOR.COM/Portraits
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EDITOR IN CHIEF Kevin Ma SENIOR EDITOR Kevin Wong EDITOR Gavin Yeung DESIGN Hybrid Design hybrid-design.com COORDINATOR Vanessa Lee CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Arthur Bray Eddie Eng Petar Kujundzic Elaine Lee Hasse Lemola Arby Li Saori Ohara Ben Roazen COPY EDITOR Peter Suh GUEST EDITORS Calum Gordon ADVERTISING Victoria Burke Crystal Choi Anthony Esponda Paul Le Fevre Charles Gorra Gems Ip Huan Nguyen Josh Parker Paul Pirotta Liana Rosenberg Jacqueline Ruggiero Tiffany Shum Blane Snyder SPECIAL THANKS Zigor Cavero Koon Chi Chung Simky Cheung Church Brigade Małgosia Dąbek
ISSUE 17
Nick Dierl Elite Model Management Joe Encarnacion Paul Heavener Kazuya Hisanaga Akiharu Ichikawa Samson Lam Vivian Lee Annabel Leung Belinda Lin Alex Lopez Nevs Models Dary Ng PRM Model Management Andrew Pulig Okuda San Miguel Shoji Shumpei Diego Vega Zack Vincler Wilhelmina Models Geordie Wood Junichi Yamaguchi CONTACT magazine@hypebeast.com 12th Floor 10-16 Kwai Ting 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 101 Media Lab Limited 2017 March © 2017 Hypebeast
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TOM SACHS
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SAMUEL ROSS
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THE LIGHTEST SILHOUETTE
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PAUL POGBA
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KOHH
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FAMILY NEW YORK
098
GOOD ART HLYWD
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SHADES OF COMPETITION
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
KAYTRANADA
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99% IS-
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RANDY CANO
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SOME WARE
164
ORDER OF THE NIGHT
172
NAOKI EI
186
GEO
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GUIDE
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CONNECTION
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GOOD ART HLYWD MODEL 10B BRACELET & MODEL 28 RING
Staying true to its name, GOOD ART HLWYD makes some of the highest quality fine jewelry and accessories from Los Angeles. Handmade in its own fully functioning foundry, the brand produces all of its pieces from start to finish. Over the past 27 years, GOOD ART has continually perfected its products to consider every last detail of its pieces from the functionality of the clasp and levers, to the intricacy of its motifs. The Model 10B Bracelet pictured here perfectly exemplifies GOOD ART's products, deriving its beauty from quality and simplicity. The pure sterling silver bracelet is 8.5 inches long and comes together with a clasp that is finished with their signature rosette button. Accompanying the bracelet is the Model 28 ring also made of 925 Sterling silver, with GOOD ART HLWYD inner branding within. The Model 10B Bracelet and Model 28 ring cost $1,755 USD and $615 USD respectively.
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BAPE X NEIGHBORHOOD X ADIDAS ORIGINALS SUPERSTAR BOOST
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Streetwear giants BAPE and NEIGHBORHOOD have come together with adidas to create an updated rendition of its classic Superstar silhouette, fitted with Boost and Primeknit technology. A base of dark grey Primeknit sees the addition of dove grey suede paneling, with embossed BAPE and NEIGHBORHOOD branding complementing the Three Stripes rendered in serrated leather. A white shell toe finishes off the Superstar’s classic aesthetic.
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CAS16-4757 GS GA700 PRODUCT AD HYPEBEAST - Q4 2016 ISSUE FINAL.pdf
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LOEWE LANTERN BAG
Spanish luxury label Loewe introduces the Lantern Bag, one of its signature pieces for the Spring 2017 season where creative director Jonathan Anderson took inspiration from the idea of a treasure hunt on a desert island. Making a statement is inevitable with this design, which features polished natural calf leather construction dipped in brilliant gold paint to resemble a glowing bucket heaving with riches. Available from midFebruary onwards at Loewe locations for $5,790 USD.
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WINTER REDEFINED Boots Danner Light Khaki
Featuring Mark Bollman Founder of Ball and Buck
Details 100% waterproof, Made in USA
Location Brooklyn, New York
Explore Danner Portland Select at danner.com
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VISVIM CUP & DRIPPER SET
Underlining founder Hiroki Nakamura’s second passion in life, visvim has released a cup and saucer, as well as a coffee dripper set for use at its in-house cafe, Little Cloud Coffee. True to the label’s ethos, the porcelain wares conform to the highest artisanal standards. Custom-made by experienced craftsmen at a 150-year-old Japanese pottery atelier in the kutani-yaki tradition, the pieces are individually shaped on a potter’s wheel before being molded by hand. The dripper’s intricate inner grooves also require a special tool to shape, and are designed for smooth water permeation to result in a balanced coffee extract. Available exclusively at the visvim Tokyo flagship store.
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If only I could play music in every room.
Listen Better at sonos.com
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VETEMENTS X SCHOTT LEATHER JACKET
As one of the 18 collaborations featured in its audacious Spring/Summer 2017 collection, Vetements partnered with heritage American label Schott NYC to rework their classic Perfecto motorcycle jacket. Sporting a long and storied history, the Perfecto has been worn by the likes of Marlon Brando in 1953 film The Wild One, as well as The Ramones and The Sex Pistols, having been a fixture of the underground punk rock scene in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Vetements’ interpretation imbues the Perfecto with founder Demna Gvasalia’s anti-aesthetic ethos by removing the jacket’s metal accents and distorting its proportions to create one of the ungainliest statement pieces this season. The jacket costs $3,720 USD.
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I wish I could set up speakers in five minutes.
Listen Better at sonos.com
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NEW BALANCE 247 CLASSIC
New Balance brings performance wear together with its classic silhouette with the 247 Classic. Breathable mesh and a neoprene sock construction give the 247 Classic performance-inspired details while the woven tongue label and ubiquitous N logo retain the Boston-based company’s timeless aesthetic. New Balance utilizes its long history of indisputable craftsmanship to create performance-driven footwear while staying true to its roots—resulting in the effortless combination of technology and the staying power of a classic shape. Available March 1st at retailers worldwide.
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Listen Better at sonos.com
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MASTERMIND JAPAN PRE-20TH SHIRTS
Masaaki Homma of mastermind JAPAN has kept his signature graphics unwaveringly constant for the past twenty years since the label’s founding in 1997. The skull-and-crossbones motif feature prominently in the designer’s 20th anniversary collection for global line mastermind WORLD, almost as much as his pre-fall collection for mastermind JAPAN. The two lines, though both motif-heavy, will be tailored for their respective markets— channeling his recognizable aesthetic for a new generation of streetwear fans.
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FEATURE
In Conversation with
WORDS
PHOTOGRAPHY
BEN ROAZEN
E LV I S D I N H KEITH ESTILER KENNETT MOHRMAN
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There’s a gated door on New York City’s Centre Street that hides a whole world behind it. It’s a rainy afternoon when I am welcomed into a spotless office emblazoned with NASA livery: the red, white, and blue meatball logo is placed front and center in the makeshift foyer and staff members scurry about in white tees emblazoned with the same iconic red ‘worm’ logo. But this isn’t some space-age satellite office—it’s the downtown studio of Tom Sachs, master bricoleur and one of contemporary art’s most polarizing figures. Sachs’ SoHo studio is a veritable Santa’s workshop: the makeshift office space has, at various intervals, been converted into “Bodega,” Sachs’s full-scale installation that imitates a New York corner-store, selling candy, soda, and loose cigarettes in addition
to artsier fare like custom-made Swiss passports and Japanese tea ceremonies. Everything is labeled: a paper towel holder is marked “TOWER RECORDS,” a food processor is dubbed “DISMEMBER,” a crockpot is named “DEBASER.” All of them are labeled with the same bold, blocky letters. Beyond the office space lies an extensive and expansive material library—a meticulously-organized inventory of anything one may need to make capital-A art. The collection ranges from pipe cleaners to PVC and paints, and includes all the tequilas, vodkas and whiskey needed for a fully-functioning wet bar. One of Sachs’s assistants, Erum, refers to the library as an “OCD zen garden,” and it’s true: everything is organized and labeled accordingly.
"I ALWAYS TRY TO MAKE SURE THAT BEHIND SOMETHING AS AUDACIOUS AS THE SPACE PROGRAM, THAT THERE’S AS MUCH REAL SCIENCE AND DEPTH TO IT. SO IT’S NOT JUST MADE-UP BULLSHIT. IT’S AS REAL AS I CAN MAKE IT."
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Everything imaginable is in its right place. Downstairs is the workshop, where half a dozen of Sachs’s employees are hard at work. One studio hand is busy building and meticulously burning a scale model of a hulking, sluggish Missile Crawler Transporter Facility out of plywood (another NASA reference); another is busy building one of Sachs’s ‘dueling cabinets’—this one is filled with all of the ingredients necessary to build a flamethrower; Erum points out a nearby bucket filled to the brim with nuts and bolts left over from myriad construction and sculpture projects. This, she says, is the logjam. It is usually the intern’s duty to sort and organize
the various nuts and bolts in the logjam, but Sachs has recently branched out by opening the Logjam Café, a shop that serves coffee alongside cups of, you guessed it, nuts and bolts for the customer to sort. Erum cites the meditative escape that sorting and organizing can provide. This concept is crucial to Sachs’s oeuvre and aesthetic. His mantra in work and in life is that assistants should “always be knolling.” Knolling refers to the perpendicular organization of like elements in a clean grid and is a central theme in Sachs’ studio tutorial film, Ten Bullets, which outlines the basic rules and regulations for studio assistants. The film
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has been passed around corporate headquarters at Apple and Nike, while being simultaneously criticized for its cultish overtones. “Creativity is the enemy,” Sachs intones stoically along with another Sachsian aphorism, “The reward for good work is more work.” When he appears suddenly in the workshop, Sachs is wearing a threadbare white tee, military surplus cargos, and a pair of his own NIKECraft Mars Yard Shoes, beaten within an inch of its life. He is ever so slightly stoned. He escorts me into his personal studio, where we sit at a table, Sachs scratching paint and gunk from its surface with the edge of his iPhone. His hands hardly stay still. I off-handedly mention that the iPhone is perhaps the least Sachs-ian object ever, and he’s to the races. “To me, the iPhone is the best made thing, ever, yet it has no evidence of being built by a human being. Meanwhile, my sculptures are all about the individual. My ceramic tea bowls.” At this, Tom scurries off, pulling a kiln-cooked chawan out of a nearby cupboard housing hundreds more. “These all have my fingerprints on them. So when all of the pieces of the iPhone eventually return to their original form—glass is inert—my fingerprints will still be there. The artist’s fingerprints are the only thing that make an artist unique. It’s an advantage that the artist has over industry: the flaws.” Sachs is an example of an artist who both acknowledges and exalts his flaws beyond his fingerprints. Take “SONY Outsider” for example: this 1998 project consists of a pod-sized hotel room inside of a sterile, hospital-white replica of the atomic bomb, complete with Sony branding. It bears none of Sachs’ sculptural signatures—no plywood, no visible nails, no glue-marks— and the artist openly admits it was a dismal misfire, even writing a whole zine about it called The Failure of SONY Outsider. “I tried to make it [“Outsider”] perfect, but no matter how hard I tried, there were always hairs and bubbles and imperfections. And it was a mistake. It was as if any artist had made that. 040
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It was a mistake and I learned from it. The more I worked on it, the less it became an expression of me. But it opened up a whole door for me, because the guts—the plumbing, the wiring—that’s where the mess was, that’s where you could tell someone built it. It was one of my most successful failures.”
he looks up to Musk—the two have spent time in this very studio, as it happens, and Sachs has a Tesla on layaway. He jokes that he has no need for it in downtown New York and daydreams of moving to West Virginia throughout our conversations.
This attitude toward learning from failure is one that Sachs shares with one of his heroes: Elon Musk. Like Musk, Sachs has his own space program, albeit Sachs opts to build to-scale replicas of missions from plywood and foamcore. When we meet, Sachs was fresh off a mission to Europa, where he and his crew of astronauts found and later ate a living creature. Previous missions include journeys to the Moon and Mars. With such an outlandish premise, it’d be easy for the space program to fall into the realm of parody, but Sachs refutes these claims outright: “My space program is not stagecraft,” he states bluntly. “I always try to make sure that behind something as audacious as the space program, that there’s as much real science and depth to it. So it’s not just made-up bullshit. It’s as real as I can make it.” Sachs says that
Sachs defers to The Other NASA’s mission to Europa as evidence of his own space program’s legitimacy, before stating his ambitions plainly: “I wanna be the one to put the last nail in God’s coffin and say ‘Yeah, there’s life outside of life on Earth.’” It should come as no surprise at this point that Sachs is not a fan of vacations. He maintains a strict daily creative regimen: “Every morning before I look at my email or The New York Times, I make sure to write in my journal, document my dreams; make some output of some sort. Before the input, before the world storms in. I think that colors the day.” He claims that if he doesn’t create, he becomes “like a vampire.” He tells a story of how he spent some time in the South of France for a fancy wedding and “there were so many people and it was so opulent
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and I was really afraid because it was four whole days off.” Feeling sapped and drained of energy he found a ceramics studio that used to belong to Pablo Picasso where he was able to make ceramics during the daytime. “That way, I could hang out at night. I could be a human after spending four hours straight making stuff.” At this, Sachs adjourns himself for dinner plans and a scheduled conjugal visit with his wife. When I return for our second conversation on the weekend, he is alone in the studio. A full-size artillery shell sits on a worktable—it is unclear whether it is an original or a Sachsian replica. I don’t ask. Sachs sits down, pulling his hair back with both hands. When I bring up his “creativity is the enemy” maxim, Sachs explains: “When I say creativity is the enemy, I mean that creativity is like a chili pepper: you only need a little bit; if you use too much, you ruin the sauce.” At this, he raises a finger in warning. “But if you don’t use any, things can get pretty bland.” The answer is to find the sweet spot: “It’s all about moderation, really.” Sachs cites one of his favorite brands to make an example: “I have a great relationship with Nike and it’s one of the most innovative companies but innovation can sometimes be an addiction. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. It’s important to innovate incrementally—not just to beat the market.” Sachs has a long, storied and creative relationship with Nike’s Mark Parker. When he interviewed Parker for Interview Magazine, their conversation naturally turned to issues of industry, ethics and environmental sustainability. “At a point, Parker turned to me and said, ‘You think you can do a better job? You try!’” The conversation yielded the NIKECraft collaboration, which taught Sachs the hard way how difficult it is to produce an heirloom product in an age of mass production. Parker also called Sachs a sneakerhead. 048
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"WHEN I SAY CREATIVIT Y IS THE ENEMY, I MEAN THAT CREATIVIT Y IS LIKE CHILI PEPPER: YOU ONLY NEED A LITTLE BIT, IF YOU USE TOO MUCH, YOU RUIN THE SAUCE. BUT IF YOU DON’T USE ANY, THINGS CAN GET PRETT Y BL AND."
Ocean’s Endless project; his NASA chairs have been repurposed for Virgil Abloh’s OFF-WHITE retail space at Selfridges; his boomboxes at the Brooklyn Museum were used for PARTYNEXTDOOR’s album listening party. “Those guys are just my friends,” Sachs says. He seems as surprised as anyone to have found himself in the popular canon: “Those guys came to me, but I’m a big fan of what they do.” He refers to Ocean as ‘the Morrissey of hip-hop.’ “When he was having some trouble with the zine, I kinda gave my opinion on how it should look and made a spread for it,” he recounts. Smart people ask the people around them that they respect for their opinions, and then they make the decision for themselves.”
When he protests the label, I point toward his collection of shoes, dangling like stalactites from the ceiling of the materials library. Tom claims these are for him to study. “It’s crucial for anyone reading this,” he says, speaking directly into the recorder placed between us “to understand that I am a critic of Nike and Apple, but I am also a participant.” He picks up his iPhone and holds it up for proof. “You have to be both. You can’t be a blind hater—unless it’s like, the Nazis. But even then: in order to truly defeat them, you have to understand them.” Since we’re talking about famous friends, I figure it’s time to ask the obvious question: how does Sachs feel about his sudden resurgence in pop culture? I run down the checklist in my notes: his sculpture Toyan’s was featured in the background of Frank
After an hour and a half of conversation, Sachs looks drained—like a vampire starving for blood. He lays his hands on the table, still for once, and asks very politely if I would mind leaving him to do some sculpture. “So I can be a human again,” he says, smiling wanly. I rise and shake his hand before he makes his way to the craft table, planting his hands on either side of the artillery shell, laying his iPhone— that most perfect, sterile and impersonal of personal devices—next to the hulking piece of metal. I turn as Sachs places a hand on the munition, leaving him to knoll and work in peace.
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WORDS
G AV I N Y E U N G
SAMUEL ROSS Class Act
PHOTOGRAPHY
JORDAN GREEN
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INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
ARBY LI
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INTERVIEW
If there’s one material which has defined A-COLDWALL* founder Samuel Ross’s life above all others, it is the exposed aggregate concrete that was poured and shaped in the inner cities and outer boroughs of Britain on a scale the world had never before seen, as part of an ambitious post-war project to house the burgeoning middle class. Embodying the naive utopianism of mid-century European modernism, these council estates would—only one generation later—have morphed into dens of crime, prostitution and poverty, towering eyesores that were a constant reminder of the spectacular failure of these experiments in social engineering. The very same concrete walls
Harper; and later on, his career-launching stints at OFF-WHITE, Hood By Air and DONDA. When Ross’s anomalous upward trajectory eventually culminated in the founding of A-COLD-WALL* in 2015, he would name his self-funded label as an homage to, and a reminder of the walls that he had long ago left far behind. As much as Ross tackled issues of class divisions in his designs, A-COLD-WALL* transcended those barriers within the fashion establishment by presenting a wholly novel aesthetic that incorporated industrial materials such as PVC, tech nylon and
"HIS GENRE-BENDING DESIGNS PL AY AN INVALUABLE ROLE IN RAZING TRADITIONAL BARRIERS OF RACE, RELIGION AND CULTURE."
that their architects had envisioned as bastions of a new society had instead become barriers to progress, hemming its inhabitants into a downward spiral of addiction and powerlessness.
deconstructed canvas within designs that faintly echoed of a hyper-Thatcherite dystopia. In creating a new discourse apart from the well-trodden Northern route of Three Striped tracksuits and Fred Perry polos, Ross brought a new post-industrial sensibility to menswear that resonated all the louder in the current age of austerity.
Hailing from a working-class family, the young Ross was all too familiar with the inner workings of these council estates. Their concrete walls bore witness to his induction as a young teen into the estate’s gangs; his first forays into fashion at age 15, selling fake Nike and adidas clothing to friends; the founding of his first label, 2wnt4, with longtime collaborator Ace
Thus, his creative vision was catapulted in a mere two years into the likes of Barneys New York, and to London Fashion Week Men’s for his inaugural fashion show for the 2017 fall/winter season.
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"A LOT OF THE CYNICISM AND DOWN-TRODDEN WAR WORDS OF A-COLD-WALL* IS BASED OFF GROWING UP IN BREXIT AREAS, PRE-BREXIT."
But these latest milestones come at a particularly poignant period against the backdrop of Brexit and the rise of Trump, whose groundswell of nativist sentiment bubbled up from within the very same concrete walls that birthed Ross’s transcendent aesthetic. To that end, his genre-bending designs play an invaluable role in razing traditional barriers in a world that finds itself increasingly vulnerable to the dangers of the categorizations of race, religion and culture. In anticipation of the repercussions of these unprecedented political shifts, we reconnected with the 25-year-old designer following his fashion show on the newfound significance of education in combating ignorance, the resurgence of the design polymath, and why the term “streetwear” is obsolete.
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Q&A You've been traveling around quite a bit, right? This year's just been manic. The window at Barneys was crazy but it kind of went over everyone's head because my stuff from A-COLD-WALL* is moving away from the initial kids, who don’t really know the reverence of Barneys, but they know it's cool. It's a weird time where I’m really in between both worlds. What I'm trying to do with A-COLD-WALL* is to slow time down a bit, so I’m posting way less, giving people more time, or forcing people to absorb one image for longer. We're at an intersection where music, sports and streetwear are blending with high fashion, and it seems like A-COLD-WALL* is at the center of it all. How have you brought together different cultures and translated your experiences into design? It has a lot to do with education. It’s almost like a displacement of how black people are perceived and how classes and intellect are deemed to be quite separate as well. My dad studied at Central Saint Martins and got first-class honors. This was in the '80s, when a black guy doing that in the middle of nowhere itself is a rarity. He left with me an appreciation of art and education. My mum ended up being a sociology and psychology tutor and lecturer, but at the same time I grew up working class with no money. Because I didn't grow up learning about fashion in school, the only thing I knew was about art and education and the value of it. And those two things came into play ultimately to allow me to move across different fields. Education is usually accessible and handed to the middle and upper classes who tend to lead the creative industries. So that's also the reason why [my] viewpoint hasn't been explained before, whereas it's been told from a white working class background in the case of Alexander McQueen. Right now, it’s like a zeitgeist moment where grime is coming to the forefront. Visually, there's a physical phase of black Britain which allows me to explore the rise of grime globally, because without those grime artists and
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what they're doing, it would just be a random black kid in England with no community or an association of black people or any real representation. Music has a big part, as a parallel, even if i'm not a musician myself all round. Everything in our culture is fusing together, but then at the same time we have Brexit and the rise of Trump which seems like two polar opposites. What are your thoughts on that? Unfortunately Brexit was always a reality because I grew up outside of London in the same working class areas as the majority of Brexit voters. A great example is Wellingborough where I went to school, which had the second highest Brexit vote for a town in the United Kingdom. So these are realities that were already there that I was aware of.
It’s just a shame to know that it wasn’t a cynicism that, in my own mind, that led to the ultimate decision in terms of it becoming a reality. Once again it comes down to the lack of education and lack of resources. For example, there wasn't a decent college in my town—there was a college that taught basic craftsmanship, but there wasn't a college you could go to to learn about psychology, sociology, performing arts. Through lack of education and a lack of reasons to be interested in that, ignorance just continues to circulate. It's just like strange times we're living in. It is, but you have to look at where these votes come from... There are all these melting pots that are hotbeds for new ideas and collaboration and cultures correlating,
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the good sides of one another. But if you leave any major city, there is no reason for there to be serious investment to educate or push people forward. The people who voted for Trump are middle America, who live in the middle of nowhere. That's the same as the people who voted for Brexit. These towns are all across the country and they're invisible because there's no investment being thrown at them, or industries have been stripped back.
work because you really only have what’s in front of you or you risk being absorbed. So you never expected to come to this point? I remember being 20 and thinking, there's no great black artists or designers from England that I can name that have influenced me. None have risen to such a level that they can be quoted on the same level as McQueen or Massimo Vignelli or Wolff Olins. So in noticing that void, I decided that I'm going to hit that level myself. When I was working heavily for other brands and building great relationships, there maybe wasn’t a place for me in that structure to reach the highest level. But, internally I knew that I was going to get to this point. It’s like being on the bottom floor of a high rise building and you can’t get to the penthouse, so instead you just take a ladder and put it on the side of the building rather than go through every single floor. The ladder can get kicked down, but you have to take the risk.
Has any of that influenced you or your work in any way? A lot of the cynicism and down-trodden war words of A-COLD-WALL* is based off these experiences of growing up in Brexit areas, pre-Brexit. I can think back to being 15 years old and getting my head getting kicked about by skinheads who were grown adults. Moments like that don't just go away—they leave a mark on what is to come in terms of my output. There’s almost a sense of short-sightedness in my
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The fundamentals can translate into different mediums as well. And that's how all of us quote Massimo Vignelli and say that designers won, because he was one of the first to ever do this when he moved to New York in the ‘50s and designed the entire New York subway key. He also did a lot of work on kitchenware and clothing as well as ad campaigns. We're just seeing this multidisciplinary phenomenon come back again. Some of us are coming through streetwear right now.
You take the risk, otherwise you'd never find out. There's no investment in this, I literally flipped it on my own. All of this started from a one month T-shirt sale 19 months ago. A lot of people don’t understand that it takes a lot of work to get to this point. I guess A-COLD-WALL* fits so perfectly with that story because it is an anomaly itself, in the way it’s presented, the fabrics used, the installations, and my own story as well. It fits so well into what’s happening right now. It's the working class voice, it’s just not the voice of Trump or Brexit. A-COLD-WALL* is birthed in the same physical locations as well.
Where do you want to steer A-COLD-WALL* in the future? As much as I’m steering A-COLD-WALL*, it’s steering my career as well. The label is one thing that I do, and it’s incredibly important, but there's also a lot of other things I've been testing through A-COLD-WALL*, such as art installations and furniture design. I'm going to spend more time learning how to make furniture – finding what materials are best to build objects from outside of the context of fashion. These are things that are going to come alongside with the growth of A-COLD-WALL*.
How would you define streetwear? What the fuck is streetwear anyway now, man? The British Fashion Awards called it "urban luxury." I prefer urban luxury to streetwear. It's impossible when you have Juicy Couture doing collabs with like Vetements. You can’t put that in the same room as a XLARGE T-shirt with the ape on the front. It just doesn’t make any sense. Streetwear is like, a weird term. Why are fashion designers called fashion designers and why are others called streetwear designers? A lot of it comes down to where you studied too—Virgil, GEO and I studied, but none of us studied at a fashion school, we studied at a design school. Unless you have that fashion degree, it's gonna take a little longer for you to get set as a fashion designer, and that's just the system that's been around for a long time. So I'm not like angry at that.
Tell us about your new project, POLYTHENE*. A-COLD-WALL* was born as an expressive project, and I formed it into a company. With POLYTHENE*, it’s a brand, so I'm not trying to build that on my own. It's still very important to me, but it's not as heartfelt in a sense. POLYTHENE* is going to fill a void that the kids are missing out on, because A-COLD-WALL* takes a lot of time to make, and it's quite expensive as I funded it all by myself too. With POLYTHENE* I want to be able to offer that to a wider market at a lower price point, and it's not going to be avant-garde or as obscure as A-COLDWALL*. I'm not rushing, so that's why I haven't shown too much about it. I'm just waiting for the right time. I just want people to know that it exists.
I do feel like there are fundamental laws of design that are like so interwoven into every aspect of design— almost like an interchangeable language—so if you can understand how to build x and y, you can understand how to build a and b. To a certain extent, they're almost one and the same—how to build beautiful objects or objects of interest. Objects of interests are not exclusive to a fashion degree. They’re part of the design language and canon, and that can be picked in like a typographic degree or by a filmmaker.
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A FA S H I O N S E T B Y Y I N G
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SHIRT: MARTINE ROSE TROUSERS: GUCCI SHOES: RICK OWENS X ADIDAS
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SUIT AND HOODIE: A-COLD-WALL* SHOES: CONVERSE
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SHIRT: CRAIG GREEN
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BLAZER: JUNYA WATANABE PONCHO: GUCCI BOTTOMS: A-COLD-WALL*
SHOES: NIKE
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TOP: CRAIG GREEN BOTTOM: XANDER ZHOU
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OUTFIT: CRAIG GREEN
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JACKET: WALES BONNER BOTTOMS: GUCCI SHOES: CONVERSE
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SWEATER: GUCCI X DOVER STREET MARKET TROUSERS: GUCCI SHOES: RICK OWENS X ADIDAS
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DENIM JACKET: GUCCI X DOVER STREET MARKET BOTTOMS: MARTINE ROSE
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LOOKS
Yi Ng ART DIRECTION & ST YLING
Alex de Mora PHOTOGRAPHY
NEJILKA ARIAS J O R D I VA N S PA N J E EASTWOOD DANSO KARIM BEKAI
MODEL
B L U E L AY B O U R N E
PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT
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PAUL 078
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The Ultimate Creator
POGBA POG WORDS
CALUM GORDON
PHOTOGRAPHY
L U K A S KO R S C H A N SIMKY CHEUNG 079
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As Paul Pogba boarded a plane this past summer, just weeks after reaching the final of the European Championship with the French team, he allowed his mind to drift. He was ostensibly on holiday—a cross-America tour that included stops in New York, Miami, Orlando and LA. ‘Thinking of football’ was the caption he posted to his Instagram as he waited for takeoff, but it was not a return to Turin, where he had just achieved an unprecedented back-toback double with Juventus, that filled his thoughts. Instead they wandered, back to the damp familiarity of Carrington, a secluded swathe of training pitches just outside Manchester. It was there that he had some of his happiest and most-cherished footballing memories, but also where he experienced the frustration of losing out on opportunities he craved. It was where, four years earlier, he had said his goodbyes to his teammates. “Destiny” was the word Pogba used to describe his return to Manchester United some weeks after that evening. However, “unfinished business” might have been an equally fitting term. In 2011, due to a perceived lack of first-team chances, Pogba left the club that had brought him from France as a 16-year-old for Italian giants Juventus. And it was there, in Turin, Italy, that Paul Pogba became what he is today: the perfect blend of power and élan—the type which you could conceivably build an entire
team around. Which is exactly what Juventus did, making the prodigious talent the heartbeat of a side that won four Scudetto Championships and reached the final of the Champions League in the process. Meanwhile in Manchester, a year on from Pogba’s departure from United, Sir Alex Ferguson also decided to depart, calling time on an imperious 27-year reign that saw the club become one of the world’s most successful, both on and off the pitch. Two managers would follow, each faltering in their own way, as they struggled to fill the power vacuum Ferguson left behind. It was a period that delivered relatively little silverware or joy for the club’s supporters, with each loss to a Stoke or a Norwich temporarily dulling the magic of Manchester United, both as a once-indomitable side and as a global brand. Subsequently it was decided in the corridors of power at Old Trafford that Pogba, the prodigal son, would be the answer to the club’s woes—playing a key role in reinvigorating a team that was desperately trying to return to its former glories. Paul Labile Pogba grew up in Lagny-sur-Marne, a town in the eastern suburbs of Paris, where he enjoyed a carefree childhood in relatively middle-class surroundings. It was also here, in the shadow of the housing estate tower blocks of Residence la Renardiere, that a young Pogba took his first tentative taps of
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POGBA IS A NEW BREED—A MILLENNIAL FOOTBALLER BUILT FOR A MILLENNIAL GENERATION, AND ONE THAT FEELS MORE COMFORTABLE IN THE COMPANY OF ATL ANTA RAPPERS THAN THE SPICE GIRLS.
a football. From a young age, his older brothers, Mathias and Florentin—twins, who have both gone on to carve out professional soccer careers—would encourage him to join their games. “They always told me, ‘Play with us, don’t play with the younger ones.’ They made me improve. I think they helped me to be who and where I am,” he says in a twang he quite accurately describes as Franco-Mancunian. They would also lend him their old soccer boots as they gradually grew out of them, but it was a pair of adidas Predators that Pogba remembers as his first real pair. “They were the first really technical boots I ever had and it felt so good at the time,” he smiles. Some may draw a lineage from David Beckham, the man who popularized the Predator, and Pogba—after all, both have transcended their sport—are signed to adidas and have pulled on the red of Manchester United. And like Beckham, Pogba is also an uncompromising athlete, but the 23-yearold somehow feels worlds apart from his predecessor. Pogba is a new breed—a millennial footballer built for a millennial generation, and one that feels more comfortable in the company of Atlanta rappers than The Spice Girls. When HYPEBEAST Magazine met Pogba on an archetypal grey Manchester day, he looks every bit the imposing superstar you would expect, resplendent in pristine sportswear, with one of his trademark avantgarde haircuts, which he seems to switch up each week. But his demeanor is welcoming, his charisma and exuberance noticeable, if only to mask a honed guardedness that would make any PR handler beam with joy. He quickly launches into a conversation
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about his favorite music artists, rhyming off names like Travis Scott, Future, Gucci Mane and Drake (who he met on a recent visit to the U.S.), before asking if we’ve heard “of MHD, a young French artist from Guinean ancestry?” We haven’t. “He does a kind of music which is called afro-trap, which is great to dance on. I asked him to do an original song for the video of my capsule collection and it’s so sick, you should check it out,” he tells us excitedly. It is through this genuine engagement with pop culture that the nuanced charm of Pogba lies. In the past, stars like Messi or Ronaldo derived their fervent followers almost entirely from their on-field exploits—and while Pogba also delivers on this front, he celebrates goals by dabbing, has emojis shaved into
the side of his head, and has a wardrobe that consists of A Bathing Ape and Yeezys. When his return to United was announced in early August, it too came in an unconventional form, with a collaborative video made with London-based grime artist and fellow adidas star, Stormzy. And in this sense, he is unlike any of his soccer superstar peers—Paul Pogba is both intriguing and brimming with viral potential at every turn. To the youth, he embodies their interests and relates on a level that few others could without it coming off as awkward. Today, he is here to discuss another of his extracurricular exploits—his forthcoming collaboration with adidas. Rather than simply releasing a new soccer boot with a colorway exclusive to him, the German sportswear
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IN THE PAST, STARS LIKE MESSI OR RONALDO DERIVED THEIR FERVENT FOLLOWERS ALMOST ENTIRELY FROM THEIR ON-FIELD EXPLOITS—AND WHILE POGBA ALSO DELIVERS ON THIS FRONT, HE CELEBRATES GOALS BY DABBING AND HAS EMOJIS SHAVED INTO THE SIDE OF HIS HEAD.
giant has put faith in his star potential, creating a capsule collection that includes T-shirts, sneakers and bomber jackets. There’s also a pair of soccer boots that he has been wearing while playing for Manchester United. “Aren’t black and gold the coolest colors ever?” he chirps—the collection comprises almost exclusively of the two colors.
collection that could appeal to all kinds of people. If you take the bomber jacket for example, I think it would look as cool on an American rapper as on a cool London girl.” For any other soccer player, this all might seem a little bit contrived, but not Pogba, who is as comfortable staring down Juergen Teller as he is any Premier League goalkeeper.
“I think we were designing the boots like already one week after I had signed with adidas,” he said. “Then we started working on more basic pieces like the T-shirts and went to more complex ones like the bomber jacket. It has been an amazing process, I have so many ideas in my mind and I was driving everybody crazy with a thousand suggestions at every single meeting. I learned to channel my thoughts to be efficient but sometimes at night I would look to the ceiling and think, ‘Hey, what if the logo was like that...’ and text people with my ideas. Actually, I might have woke some people up a fair amount of time now that I think of it,” he laughs.
Flashes of promise have punctuated a start to the season best described as a “transitional period” under new manager Jose Mourinho It was Pogba that provided one such moment only a couple of weeks earlier, away to Swansea, as he unleashed an unearthly volley that gracefully nestled in the top corner. With December came more signs of promise and the sense that Manchester United had turned the corner, stringing together a number of impressive wins, each with Pogba at the heart of the midfield.
And who does he see wearing the finished product? “Everybody,” naturally. “We really tried to create a
Which really only leaves one burning question to end our interview on. The source of much speculation, debate and Twitter-frenzy: How does he decide on his next haircut? He laughs, “Ah, that’s the Pogba secret.”
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Come As You Are WORDS
INTERVIEW
PHOTOGRAPHY
VA N E S S A L E E
SAORI OHARA
KENTO MORI
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He answered the door in a white T-shirt and black track pants, with the dragging gait and heavylidded look of someone who had just woken. The interior of his house is more sparse than one would imagine, seeing as its owner is famous for wearing the voracious strains of ink and clothing on his body with diabolical impunity. White, plain-Jane walls, two desks (for work, he offers), and a TV, in front of which was slouched a lone figure on a red leather sofa, watching cartoons. The only sign of vice: an ashtray resting on a spotless black stovetop. Anybody could have lived in this cozy two-storey, but you would expect it least of all to be KOHH, the rapper-meets-artist-meets-model with a reputation as an aggressive lyricist reaching far beyond his home country of Japan. Even his neighborhood of choice is surprising—Oji, an area just outside Tokyo’s city center, whose suburban streets are somewhat at odds with the only sight which comes close to befitting such repute: a brand new white Mustang parked at a curious angle, somehow managing to look both scrupulous and insolent at the same time. Quiet and reserved, with his hair cropped short and significantly less blue than I anticipated, KOHH
FOR KOHH, THE LINES BETWEEN ART AND MUSIC DON’T EXIST, AND HE’S EQUALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT BOTH.
seemed almost demure in the flesh, compared to the swaggering, larger-than-life personality I’d gleaned from countless music videos and had consequently expected. True to his roots, his manners are impeccable. He introduces the couch-surfer right away: his name is Yano, a rapper KOHH met on a recent trip to LA. He’s been recruited into a verse on KOHH’s upcoming album, and has been living with him for the past few months. KOHH chats easily about random things during the photoshoot: a pair of Evisu jeans he liked in passing, a specialty shop where he plans to wrap his girlfriend’s Christmas present later that day. He takes his art collection out of storage and splays them haphazardly on the couch: works from artists all over the world, photographs and his own paintings. This is the most animated he’s been so far—for KOHH, the lines between art and music don’t exist, and he’s equally passionate about both. This explains why he’s so hesitant to label himself as a rapper: he just likes to make things. After the shoot, KOHH saunters over to his kitchen. “You can start anytime,” he says, lighting his cigarette with a noncommittal flick of his wrist. “I’m going to eat.” His foray into fashion began with FACETASM at Paris Fashion Week, where he was originally interested in attending the show, but ended up on the runway instead. “It came on really randomly,” he says, face furled in smoke. “A week before the show, [founder] Hiromichi Ochiai hit me up asking if I wanted to walk in it. I didn’t know him at first. It just happened on a whim.” He doesn’t think much of it: “I’m just a rapper who likes fashion; I’m not trying to do anything special.” He does, however, have a penchant for sleepwear, and has plans to collaborate with stylist Lambda Takahashi on a 100% silk, one-size-only pair of pajamas. Yano the couch-surfer puts his cartoons on mute for his friend’s interview, but he may as well have left
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KOHH SEEMED ALMOST DEMURE IN THE FLESH, COMPARED TO THE SWAGGERING, L ARGER-THAN-LIFE PERSONALIT Y I'D GLEANED FROM COUNTLESS MUSIC VIDEOS.
them on—KOHH was a man of few words when it came to reflecting on his own work. Most people are comfortable talking about themselves—KOHH is the complete opposite, less from actual discomfort and more from the simple fact that he hasn’t given the past much reflection, and can’t be bothered to pretend otherwise. He doesn’t have much to say about his novel position as an exclusively Japanese rapper impacting rap culture as much as he has, even going so far as to avoid the umbrella term of hip-hop entirely. An intriguing claim for an artist undergoing exponential growth on an international scale, contributing to works such as “Nikes” on Frank Ocean’s latest album, Blonde, or Keith Ape track “It G Ma,” which stormed the internet in 2015. Even in light of his burgeoning global presence, he shrugs it off. “I just make what I want to make,” he says point blank, in between bites of boiled eggs. 094
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Obviously preferring to let his work speak for itself, he avoids being pigeonholed with almost as much fervor as he places into making the music itself. His latest album, Dirt 2, has a grungy edge from listening to Nirvana during production—other than that, he says “I never really listened to rock before. It was mostly hip-hop until now.” As for his recent stints in LA, London and Paris? Though the French capital served as the namesake of one of his tracks, he doesn’t draw any influences from the places he’s visited either: “People play stuff for me from different countries when I’m there, but usually I just listen to what I like. I don’t really go out and look for new stuff.” Steering clear and wide of any style affiliations, his inspiration comes on the fly: “It’s really just how I feel at the moment. When I’m with friends, we’re quite spontaneous. We just do what we like.” Not to say KOHH is a man of few words and even fewer musical influences, but his modus operandi seems to
be driven by spontaneity—he doesn’t spew artistic rhetoric for the sake of rhetoric. Stuff, according to KOHH, just happens. Maybe this is precisely why his work resonates with so many people – he is unpretentious to a fault. It makes his work authentic, communicating to his audience in ways I suspect countless interviews would fail to ever achieve. Shoji, KOHH’s acting manager from Columbia Records, describes the rapper as a very private, straightforward person. He chalks up the silence to candor, culminating from KOHH’s inability (or refusal) to play the role of an entertainer. “He still has a lot to learn and develop [with his public persona],” Shoji says. Perhaps it’s true that KOHH doesn’t really care about the pull of celebrity nor the wider scope of his contributions to his genre of music, but for all his indifference, KOHH is ultimately a man of conviction. “Money is the death of art; I’m just making art,”
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he intones on “Business and Art,” a track from his latest album, Dirt 2. He has a refreshing insight when it comes to his reputation: “To be honest, I don’t really know how people see me as an artist. Everyone has a different opinion. I don’t have any particular way I want to be remembered, either.” Maybe he’s not interested in being famous at all. His triumph lies in his indifference: sometimes the biggest impacts are made by people who aren’t trying. KOHH breaks cultural borders simply because he doesn’t acknowledge them. “If you’re cool, you’re cool. If you’re not, then you’re not. Where you’re from? It doesn’t matter.” His music videos perfectly address
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the issue of culture, in that it isn’t addressed at all: liquor, grills, shades, tattoos—it’s universal. KOHH’s music is about his history, not his heritage. Does he think Japanese rappers add anything unique to the global landscape of hip-hop? “They speak Japanese,” he answers dryly. As the hours go by, one discovers that KOHH’s deceivingly bare abode reflects his character rather than his image: saying little on the outside but brimming with hidden ideas and words. Maybe this is what makes him so appealing: he has nothing to prove. KOHH is Newton’s Third Law personified
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in an aurally loud and rhetorically silent package: every characteristic has its equal and opposite. His frame, almost too light for his tattoos; his demeanor, almost too serious for his looks; his IDGAF attitude, perhaps too irreverent for fame. Despite the seeming contradictions, there’s one simple truth: KOHH is a viciously talented artist with a brusque integrity that few have the privilege of witnessing in person. His mystery and manner come together without panic or bravado, radiating the deep self-assuredness of someone who has nothing to hide but more still, to show. He is who he is; for whoever’s watching, it’s probably more than enough.
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The Architecture of Hype
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O L I M C AV O Y
PHOTOGRAPHY
G AV I N Y E U N G
WORDS
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N E W YO R K
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The rock slab, seemingly shorn from the earth under immense tectonic forces, began to arc upwards as a solitary figure, his face shrouded by an onyxencrusted mask, strode into an ethereal column of light that illuminated the slab at its apex. Against the backdrop of a lone mountain, fractured perfectly down the middle, and framed by a flattened orb of light from above, the figure spoke in booming tones to a roiling human mass 30,000 strong. But far from being a biblical scene from the 5th century B.C., the year was 2013; the figure was clad not in ceremonial robes but in custom Margiela; and the verses resonating through the air were not of holy provenance but came from the platinum-certified studio album Yeezus. Similarly, the geologic formations that Kanye West stood on were not extricated over millions of years from within the planet’s bowels, but created in the course of several months by a small but close-knit architectural firm called Family New York. 100
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That this five-person outfit and its innocuoussounding name would be responsible for the set design of one of the most acclaimed concerts of the decade seems both improbable and entirely natural. The firm first garnered acclaim in 2010 for +POOL, an ambitious project which proposed floating a cross-shaped pool in New York City’s East River that would act “like a giant strainer,” cleaning the river water while providing a public leisure space for the city. It was four years prior, however, where the story of Family began with partners Dong-Ping Wong and Oana Stanescu, who met while working at New York architecture studio REX. “Unbeknownst to us, we moved around from project to project as a pair and we clicked right away,” recounts Wong, a 36-year-old San Diego native who has worked at the Office of Metropolitan Architecture, EHDD and Snøhetta, and founded Family in 2009 at the height of the recession. Meanwhile, the 34-year-old Stanescu—a transplant from Romania’s Polytechnic
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"IT’S AN EXTREMELY INTIMATE PROCESS—WHEN YOU SIT AT THE TABLE, YOU NEED TO BE IN AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE YOU CAN BE STUPID, WHERE YOU CAN SAY THINGS THAT SOUND ABSURD."
O A N A S TA N E S C U FAMILY NEW YORK'S DESIGNER
University of Timisoara—used architecture “as an excuse to live and work around the world” after her internship at REX, first heading to SANAA in Tokyo, then Architecture for Humanity in South Africa and Herzog & de Meuron in Switzerland. All the while the pair kept in touch, Stanescu occasionally working remotely for Wong’s budding firm before she returned to New York in 2013 to properly join Family’s office in the West Village. Stanescu brought with her a valuable connection to Kanye West, whom she met at OMA while working as the project architect on his seven-screen “surround vision” cinematic experience at Cannes Film Festival for 2012’s Cruel Summer album. West approached Stanescu after she returned to Family, roping in the fledgling firm to design the striking 50-foot-high miniature mountain that would accompany West on his 38-city tour. The creative process proved to be fluid, honest and more importantly, a great leveler 101
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between client and architect. “It’s an extremely intimate process—when you sit at the table, you need to be in an environment where you can be stupid, where you can say things that sound absurd,” says Stanescu. “Any bigger implications as to who that person is or what they do need to be left outside the door.” And far from his brazen, at times obnoxious public image, Kanye in private proved to be a fluent and adept communicator of ideas. “It’s undeserving to call him just another creative person in the room because he’s actually very, very good, but it’s not in his nature to exert his fame on the process,” adds Wong. “The conversation is much more natural than you would imagine.” The final result was a perfect reflection of the interplay between creative minds, with Kanye’s electrifying on-stage presence amplified all the more by the
+POOL NEW YORK, NY PROGRAM: SWIMMING POOL SIZE: 14,000 FT2 STATUS: IN PROGRESS YEAR: 2010
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set design. “That was one of the most fascinating things to me, seeing how Kanye completely owned it and how people reacted to everything he did, how he took that as a tool and brought it to life,” Stanescu recalls. The fantastical escapism and solemn monumentalism imbued by the Yeezus Tour stage is indicative of Family’s continued fascination with nature, hinting at a deeper awareness of the environment surrounding their projects. It is, as Wong explains, the result of many childhood summers spent straddling a surfboard in the serenity of the Pacific, staring out at the impossible flatness of the ocean’s horizon. “There’s something about its sublimeness that we’re always trying to capture in one way or another.” It’s a refreshing take on architecture, which often comes across as an impenetrable and esoteric craft to those outside of the industry—a strange state of affairs, given the ubiquity of buildings and the outsized effect they have on the lives of city
dwellers. To that end, Family tries to evoke the simplest emotions through their designs, akin to the thrill of catching the crest of a wave. And for all their skill in drumming up emotions, the work of Family has been welcomed at large by pop culture, which depends largely on these same off-the-cuff sentiments. “[Design] can be performative but ultimately, you have to react on a visceral level,” says Stanescu. “Just that millisecond of awareness for a user is something that’s super important and exciting to me.” That all-important millisecond comes into play on the other side of the Pacific Ocean in Hong Kong, where, nestled in an overwhelmingly artificial environment between the glitzy window displays of Alexander McQueen and Tsumori Chisato, a burst of lush, green foliage erupts from an otherwise austere, whitewashed storefront in the Causeway Bay shopping district. So goes an initial glimpse of the first brick-and-mortar store for streetwear label du jour,
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FAMILY TRIES TO EVOKE THE SIMPLEST OF EMOTIONS THROUGH THEIR DESIGNS, AKIN TO THE THRILL OF CATCHING THE CREST OF A WAVE.
OFF-WHITE. This quietly rebellious design, with its tongue-in-cheek transplant of a real jungle into the midst of Hong Kong’s concrete equivalent, bears all the hallmarks of Family’s ethos with its focus on a purely sensory experience. Shoppers who cross the store’s threshold find themselves immersed in a dense rainforest that extends for over one-third of the narrow floor space, replete with mist sprays and a soundtrack of wild fauna to engage the other senses. Past a sliding glass door, the actual interior of the store is a spartan, geometric abstraction of a cave, with distinct visual ties to Mount Yeezus. For this maverick design, Family found a morethan-willing patron in close Kanye associate and OFF-WHITE founder, Virgil Abloh, whom the duo had met while working on the Yeezus Tour. His background in architecture (he has a Masters in Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology) and conceptual art as the creative director for Kanye’s DONDA creative agency made Abloh naturally 104
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YEEZUS STAGE USA PROGRAM: STAGE CLIENT: KANYE WEST SIZE: 5,000 M2 YEAR: 2013
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OFF-WHITE HONG KONG PROGRAM: RETAIL CLIENT: OFF WHITE C/O VIRGIL ABLOH SIZE: 90 M2 YEAR: 2014
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THIS QUIETLY REBELLIOUS DESIGN, WITH ITS TONGUE-IN-CHEEK TRANSPL ANT OF A REAL JUNGLE INTO THE MIDST OF HONG KONG’S CONCRETE EQUIVALENT, BEARS ALL THE HALLMARKS OF FAMILY’S ETHOS WITH ITS FOCUS ON A PURELY SENSORY EXPERIENCE.
receptive to Family’s proposal to sacrifice a notinsignificant portion of the already cramped lot to a permanent installation of horticulture. “We didn’t want to compete with another shop window in that area, nor can you as a brand when you’re not that established,” says Stanescu. “So we said, fuck it, might as well do our own thing.” In working with Abloh, she continues, they were uniquely placed to “dedicate a third of the floor space to the bigger picture, something that makes a stronger statement than a traditional shop window.” Underpinning the project was a desire for the store to give back to the city and its inhabitants. “It’s obviously essential that the store can sell clothes, but if it just did that, it wouldn’t
have the kind of impact on its surroundings that a store like this has to have,” Wong adds. “It’s serving a purpose beyond simply selling clothes that’s as, if not more, important.” Since the opening of OFF-WHITE’s Hong Kong flagship in 2014, Family has designed two more stores for OFF-WHITE in Singapore and Tokyo, both of which are intended as reactions to their immediate context. OFF-WHITE Singapore is a monasterial chamber with a bamboo grove—a reprieve from the cosmetic glamor surrounding it on the high-end shopping street of Orchard Road. Conversely, the Tokyo branch, otherwise known as “SOMETHING & ASSOCIATES,” is a hypernormal depiction of a corporate Wall Street environment,
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"BUILDINGS OFTEN TIMES DON’T NEED TO FUNCTION LIKE THEY DID BEFORE, BUT THEY NEED TO FULFILL ALL THESE OTHER NEEDS THAT ARE CROPPING UP THAT YOU CAN’T GET ONLINE."
O A N A S TA N E S C U FAMILY NEW YORK'S DESIGNER
inspired simply by the business-like character of the building it is housed in. While seemingly disparate in their designs, the three stores fall into a logical framework when considered as part of Virgil’s personality cult—after all, Stanescu observes “the people that go to OFF-WHITE in the first place, their constant element is Virgil, his Instagram or the recent campaigns that he’s putting out there. What they don’t require is a vanilla formula that’s been replicated endlessly all throughout the stores.” The stores thus transcend their original purpose as distribution points for product, and instead become the means through which the brand interprets each city; or funhouse mirrors where devotees can see the identities of their hometowns reflected back at them in a new light. The conversation naturally settles on the role of architecture in a post-Instagram, post-Amazon Prime world. In an era where you can meet all of 108
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your basic needs without leaving your couch, Wong says, “Buildings oftentimes don’t need to function like they did before, but they need to fulfill all these other needs that are cropping up that you can’t get online. Things as simple as a shop suddenly have to do a lot more, or a different set of things than simply sell your clothes.” True to the visceral ethos of Family, Stanescu believes that “the underlying goal of architecture is to make people feel or understand design, not on a rational, cerebral level, but just to feel it.” Buildings, she says, become more like a portal to other places, moments, feelings. And whether architectural design transports you to the foot of a holy mountain, or places you on a surfboard gazing at the ocean’s horizon, it must do so without pomp nor circumstance. “At some point, the design has to feel right,” says Wong. “It has to be beyond any kind of explanation and just be an awesome place to be.”
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GOOD ART HLYWD
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KEVIN WONG
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E VA N T E T R E A U LT
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HONEST
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GOODNESS
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A big hug and a huge smile: that’s how Josh greets everyone. You wouldn’t expect it, what with his wild scraggly beard and burly stature. This time, upon our chance encounter at a bar 42 floors above the bustling Tokyo streets, he was no different. After a bit of enthusiastic catch up, Josh was eager to divulge his purpose for his visit to Asia. The conversation ground to a halt when he pulled out a small box from inside his worn-in denim jacket. The box lay safeguard to a stout gold chain that gleamed relentlessly despite the dim ambiance of the bar.
that houses dozens of machines from turn of the century, almost Industrial Era mechanics, to the most modern and technologically advanced pieces of equipment capable of producing the full range of masterfully crafted GOOD ART pieces. Josh and his crew of about 20 work almost exclusively with high-karat gold and sterling silver—not including their leather works and the occasional brass bits— crafting each and every piece by hand. Starting from the making of their own alloys and casting grains, to casting and cutting every single component for every piece, each finished work is engraved with the GOOD ART HLYWD logo as a metaphoric stamp of approval.
The chain was solid 22K gold. I know this now because that night Josh gave me a thorough explanation about gold, emphatically enlightening me about its technical properties and practical tendencies: “When you buy something that’s 14K gold—which has been the standard in the U.S. since the ‘70s – you’re really only buying something that’s barely half gold and half something not gold.” He went on to explain that when he works with gold, it’s always either 18K or 22K. As he puts it, “That is as pure as you can get while still having it fucking strong. It won’t crack, it doesn’t split easily; it’s not brittle. 22K is beautiful and it’s 92% gold.”
Over 27 years, GOOD ART HLYWD has lived up to its name, attracting a long list of celebrities. The likes of Jon Bon Jovi, LeBron James, and John Galliano have taken to bold “statement” pieces like the patented Model 10 Sterling Silver bracelets and the Club and Model 18 rings, with seamlessly integrated skulls and intricate Rosette emblems, which have become the brand’s staple motifs. Fast forward another two months, and Josh is once again educating me on the truth behind gold and silver, this time over Skype as he gives me a virtual tour of his expansive new 10,000-sq-ft foundry in Downtown Los Angeles. Over the course of an hour, Josh took me through everything that is, was and will be for the company. I was always a fan of his work, having seen and felt GOOD ART HLYWD pieces before, but after my extended conversation with the man behind the “Art,” my appreciation grew for the brand; not only that, I gained some real insight on the value of “Good” quality. Our conversation went a bit like this:
Josh revealed that this specific 22K gold chain was for a client out of the GOOD ART HLYWD store in Shanghai who flew over for the Tokyo show. He was in the midst of hosting a few shows in Tokyo where he displayed only his most extravagant pieces. Having come a long way from his humble beginnings making and selling jewelry on the Boardwalk of Venice Beach, Josh has recently expanded GOOD ART to Japan and China while continuing to stock in Self Edge and Barneys in the States. He owns his own personal foundry
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Q&A So why did you want to get into making jewelry? What is it about necklaces, bracelets and keychains that drew you? That’s easy. I’m a product of the era and place I grew up. My dad, Buddy, is the best man I know, he’s really clever and he’s always been a hardworking man. When I was young he’d work 50 or 60 hours a week as an accountant. I think that instilled in me the ethic of “an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work.” My dad had a few things he really loved and he made sure they were up on the same level of importance as the work he had to get done. My dad loved bicycles so cycling was a big part of his life when I was growing up. He was passionate about his antiques too, mostly the mechanical things, the slots and vending machines, Races Paces, KO Boxers, really cool old machines. He and his best friend Burton Burton (who later started Casablanca Fan Company) would go to the Rose Bowl Swamp Meet every month for as long as I could remember. I started going to Rose Bowl when I was only 6 months old riding on my dad’s shoulders—I’ve been to hundreds of them. We’d walk for hours and they’d find these beat up antique machines to bring home and put back together into good working order. More than 40 years later I still have many of them in my house and shop. I grew to love the honesty of how these machines worked. With nothing to plug in and no computer chips, just clever mechanisms, levers, gears and springs it’s easy for me to think of those old games as high art. Since I was a kid I’ve had a respect and affinity for all things cleverly designed. I have a 70-year-old motorcycle that starts up and runs all day like new; not many things made these days will last like that, with that level of function and beauty.
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That’s also why I like keychains, pure utility raised up to a level of also being beautiful. There is a purity there greater than the sum of its parts, it comes from the thing being mechanically sound and also aesthetically pleasing.
sale to a store, I quit making sandwiches and never looked back. How would you explain GOOD ART’s style and aesthetic? I can say that my sense of aesthetic is closely tied to my love of old stuff. I love anything well-made and clever, but especially the old stuff. Old motorcycles, cars, games, leather jackets. I totally buy into the adage “they don’t make ‘em like they used to.” So when I started making things that others were spending their hard-earned money on, it had to be good.
How did GOOD ART HLWYD begin as a company? I started making things I wanted for myself, a pair of earrings were first. But GOOD ART became a company when enough people reached for and bought those same things. I was doing something I loved but still had a day job I hated. I had a drive to make things but that was tempered by needing to pay rent.
So there’s a bit of function over form in how I approach design, that’s easy to see in the clasps and mechanical bits. We make lots of clips that hold things, and some are designed decades apart, but fit together and function as a set. I like that sort of continuity. I like the idea that someone collects a few different pieces and then discovers a clip to put them all together. Some of my favorite things to make are the in-between pieces like a functional clasp that can hold a bunch of pendants or keys or extends a wallet chain, or connect to your belt loop.
I made my first jewelry while I was still making sandwiches on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica for minimum wage, 27 years ago. I lived in little studio apartment in Venice Beach and I’d make jewelry at night after work. I would take a card table to the Boardwalk on the weekends and make a little extra cash. I remember being stoked about people giving me money for stuff I had fun making. After a $550
"I CAN SAY THAT MY SENSE OF AESTHETIC IS CLOSELY TIED TO MY LOVE OF OLD STUFF. I LOVE ANY THING WELL-MADE AND CLEVER, BUT ESPECIALLY THE OLD STUFF."
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"IT'S ONLY A POINT OF INTEGRIT Y THAT ANYONE BE HONEST WHEN NO ONE IS LOOKING." Why do you feel the need to produce only the best? Why not just do what you need to sell products if people don’t really know what’s real gold and what’s not? It’s only a point of integrity that anyone be honest when no one is looking. I like the good stuff, so when I make something, I try to create from a viewpoint that it should be good enough for me first. If it is, then I’m down to share it with someone else. I’m dogmatic in my viewpoints, which probably make me a bit of an asshole, but it’s worlds better than not having a voice. It’s pretty difficult to argue with me about the stuff I think is important. I won’t let my integrity be sullied by half-measures. So if I’m going to make a chain, I want it to be the best. That starts with a decision or a viewpoint about why and how you do things. For the longest time I didn’t make a cross because Chrome Hearts makes a mean cross. Unless I can make something better I don’t see much point just making another. Luckily for me there’s plenty of room in the marketplace for both Rolls-Royce and Bentleys—there’s always going to be room for more good shit! Was there a time when you were discouraged or questioned when people would appreciate what you were doing? When you put yourself out there and say “this is my work, it’s fucking perfect and it’s to my standard,” I’m sure there will always be those who want to shoot it down, I can’t even hear that white noise above my drive to make good shit. I do my best to keep that stuff out of my head. It would be like a race
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car driver who’s thinking about the distance to the nearest hospital during a race. There have been lean times where we weren’t selling as much as we wanted, but it was never only about making money, it was about creating effects and putting aesthetics into everyday life. And for that to work you can’t really design by committee or worry about what others think, you have to draw on what you know. The paradox to that is if others don’t agree that your shit is good, they’re not buying it. No sales, no money to make more. So yes, I like when others appreciate what I’m doing, of course it’s the greatest validation! But that has little influence on the direction I take and why I make what I make.
making jewelry, I was making sandwiches to pay my rent. One of my regulars was a graphic designer who knew I painted and made stuff. She loved my cooking (I think) and wanted to make me business cards as a gift. When she asked me what I wanted on them I told her to put my name and the words “GOOD ART” in the center. The first time I was asked for a business card was after my first sale to a store called Nana on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. When I was presented with a check for the sale, it was made out to THE GOOD ART COMPANY. In order to cash the check I had to start a company with that name. It stuck. That was in 1990. I soon came to love the name as an idea that what I was making was perhaps art, just not the kind you put on your walls; this is stuff you wear and use daily, till it turns to dust.
And why the name GOOD ART HLYWD? The name was really an accident. At the time I started
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SHADES OF COMPETITION
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BRACELET: MARTINE ALI SHOES: Y-3
HAT, TOP: '47 VEST: ENHARMONIC TAVERN SHOES: RICK OWENS
PANTS: ENHARMONIC TAVERN
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HAT, LONG SLEEVE TOP: '47 SUNGLASSES: MYKITA X BERNHARD WILLHELM
VEST, SHORT SLEEVE TOP, PANTS, SHOES: Y-3 BRACELET: MARTINE ALI
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LOOKS
Von Ford ST YLING
Oli McAvoy PHOTOGRAPHY
MIGUEL SOUTHEE
MODEL
EVER-EVOLVING, TECHNICAL SPORTSWEAR REPRESENTS THE CUTTING-EDGE OF FUNCTIONAL FASHION. ANGULAR AND SCULPTURAL PIECES ARE CAST FROM NEWLY DEVELOPED MATERIALS—ATTRIBUTING A LOOK THAT ECHOES THE RESEARCH BEHIND THEM. MONOCHROMATIC TONES GRANT THE FORMS, TEXTURES AND DETAILS OF EACH GARMENT PERMISSION TO SPEAK WITHOUT VISUAL DISTRACTION. BRANDS LIKE '47, WITH A HERITAGE IN COMPETING ON THE FIELD, HAVE FOUND NEW PURPOSE IN FORGING A PATH THROUGH A WORLD OF CONCRETE AND STEEL.
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LIAM MACRAE
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KEVIN WONG
Rhythm of Change
K AY T R A N A D A
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The recurrent adage “I feel it in my bones” suggests a strong sense of certainty towards something, despite the inability to explain why. This feeling is either instinctive or intuitive, which is to say, it is not accompanied by reason. Feeling something in your bones means feeling something visceral and beyond logical explanation. This phrase describes precisely how I feel when listening to the music of Haitian-born producer, Kaytranada. First stumbling upon the artist on SoundCloud— what I call the digital database for undiscovered talent—my first audible encounter was one where I unknowingly found myself head-bobbing and singing along to a song I hadn’t recalled ever hearing. A song which, I later realized, remixed Janet Jackson’s 1993 hit “If.” What struck me most wasn’t my seemingly prophetic recital of the song’s lyrics, but the track’s uncanny ability to make me want to get up and move. My first audible encounter quickly turned into an all-out excavation. Over the next few days I scoured the web in search of more funky tunes from the equally funky moniker. As I unearthed gem after gem, I found to my surprise that each of the tracks were quite different—it pulled from hip-hop and pop from the ‘90s and 2000s, sampling Missy Elliott, The Fugees and Justin Timberlake, but each track had a unique connection to an entirely disparate genre of sound. The one thing all the songs shared was their dance-centric sonance. As I’ve continued to follow Kaytra over the past four years, I am equally intrigued as I am perplexed at how and from where this eclecticism in his music derives.
To understand the music, one must understand the man. Born Kevin Celestian, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Kaytranada relocated to Montreal when he was just 3 months old. You couldn’t tell this from his thick Haitian accent—a strong indication of a deep connection to his cultural roots. A household constantly filled with melodies, he credits his older sisters for his affinity towards late ‘80s, early-to-mid ‘90s hip-hop and R&B—what he considers the “Golden Era of Hip-Hop.” The hit tracks from this era lay the foundation for much of his early remixes and were hugely responsible for escorting him into the limelight. However, when asked about his influences, the first thing Kay will surely mention is the music his father would play throughout his youth.
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"IT OPENED MY MIND TO HOW I SHOULD SAMPLE STUFF DIFFERENTLY, RATHER THAN TRADITIONALLY HOW HIP-HOP HEADS USED TO DO. MAKE IT LIKE MORE 120 BPM DANCEFLOOR SONG. NOBODY EVER DID THAT, SO I THOUGHT YOU KNOW WHAT, I’LL BE THE FIRST ONE TO DO IT."
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samples a song from Brazilian singer Gal Costas. What’s interesting about the sample is that he first heard it in a mix made by hip-hop producer and renowned beatmaker Madlib. In a very direct way, his attachment to both hip-hop and the unique cultural melodies, come together in each and every one of his tracks. This combination or fusion, he believes, is what sets him apart and allows him to navigate unchartered territories in music. “It opened my mind to how I should sample stuff differently, rather than traditionally how hip-hop heads used to do. Make it like more 120 bpm dancefloor song. Nobody ever did that, so I thought you know what, I’ll be the first one to do it.”
He lists pop music from the U.S., Latin music, disco and of course, Haitian music amongst the swath of genres played around the house. Now 24 years later, Kaytra has not only adopted all of his father’s, sister’s and his heritage’s musical inclinations, but has gone and multiplied it tenfold. He explains his penchant towards digging for new music from around the world, oftentimes following musical trails that lead him to genres he has never heard before. “When I started making music, I sampled a lot, I naturally looked up samples from all around the world from psychedelic rock from Japan, R&B from Brazil, funk from Haiti.” One of his standout songs from debut album 99.9% 138
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Kaytranada, like many of the other talented young artists with channels on SoundCloud and YouTube, does not pigeonhole himself to a specific sound or a single genre, but instead continues to try new things with his music. Being an artist of the digital age, you are afforded this much. Kaytra embraces the nature of music in this post-analog age, and utilizes the speed and interconnectivity of new technology and platforms to progress his sound, instantly. Kay says of the Internet, “It is straightforward, with people commenting and stuff. If the comments are positive, it pretty much speaks for itself.” In reference to the music in his 2016 debut album, he shares, “The songs were all pretty much done by 2014 and I was playing them live; people were ripping songs off my Boiler Room set, and releasing it on the web as ‘Unreleased Kaytranada.’ I was pretty much testing what people would think. What people in the internet think, check really if it’s gonna work, if those songs will be successful.” This digitizing and sharing of music also opens the door to boundless possibilities. The majority of Kaytra’s collaborations—he has 11 features on his album—are created without ever sharing the same room with the other artist. “Most of my album was done just by sending files back and forth with people who I wanted to work,” he confesses. Undoubtedly there will always be traditionalists who would argue taking things of the studio and eliminating genuine artists’ interactions may take
"IT’S CRAZY PEOPLE ARE FILLING UP MY SHOWS JUST TO BE THERE AND LISTEN TO THE SOUNDS, IT’S JUST A CRAZY EVOLUTION RIGHT NOW."
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away from the magic of music-making. But how else could there be Craig David, Vic Mensa and Little Dragon all within the same album?
people watching him "just on stage mixing."
Be that as it may, technology alone does not make music. Music requires rhythm, it requires soul, and as a DJ and a producer, it requires you to perform for your audience and your fans. But it wasn’t until the late 2000s, that producers came into the line of sight with artists like Timbaland and The Neptunes releasing purely producer albums. Before then, producing was very much a behind-the-scenes role and only the DJs who scratched had any glimpse of the limelight. While Kay believes it’s deserving of producers to finally get their time to shine, he still can’t fully grasp the concept of producers performing on stage, saying, “It’s crazy people are filling up my shows just to be there and listen to the sounds, it’s just a crazy evolution right now that we all don’t quite understand.” He admits that he still feels “a bit awkward” that his sell-out shows are filled with 140
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Kaytranada has embraced this “evolution,” change itself is a big part of his music. Over the years, he’s transitioned from heavy electronic dance influences to a more hip-hop and trap-inspired sound. Producers in this day and age are subject to morphing sounds, ever-changing and developing alongside the advancements of music-making technology— software or hardware—not only affect but dictate the direction of their music output. This constant state of change is something Kay has been exposed to whether he realizes or not. Compas, or Kompa, the contemporary Haitian music genre boasts an ever-changing sound that merges African and Cuban rhythms with European ballroom music. Like the popular Haitian music genre, Kaytra’s aim for his music is to constantly transform and adapt in order to create music that is fresh. Made evident in his track “Together,” he masterfully marries a disco band from the ‘70s to an English electronic music
FEATURE
duo and a rapper from Virginia. Kay shares with us he puts a heavy emphasis on producing music that has not been done. One of his intrinsic goals is to shed light on different genres and sounds: “I still always think about like ‘nobody ever did that before, nobody put that music up front; maybe they’re gonna discover that.” All the while looking to present these sounds in unique new ways.
what brings people memories,” Kay admits. “My whole album, it’s all about that feeling.” Kay starts a lot of his responses to a lot of music questions with, “I don’t know.” It isn’t simply an oral tick or filler words, he genuinely cannot fully explain what goes on behind his music. And his music doesn’t require explanation: “At the end of the day, music is just music. You feel it no matter what, if it touches you, it does.” His music is very much about the core of where all sounds derive from—the beat and the rhythm.
Now, having listened to Kaytranada for several years later, it’s still quite difficult to fully decipher his music, especially when half of his songs are in foreign languages, but the mystery and imminent discovery is all part of the allure. The focus of his music is not on the context or meaning, there’s no profound meaning to read into it. To Kay, it’s about the feeling—visceral reaction you have when the beat hits your eardrums. “It communicates with the body, sonically. Even when songs have lyrics, they could mean nothing. Sometimes it’s just about listening to the instrumentals and that could be
As Kaytranada continues to explore different genres and develop his own sound, we really don’t know where his music will end up. There’s a 99.9% chance that his music now will not sound like the music he’s making years, or even months from now. There is one certainty however, that both he and his evergrowing fanbase knows to be true: “It won’t be the same, but it’ll give you the same feeling.” 141
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The One Percent Majority Bajowoo is a chameleon. In a literal sense, his hair color changes so often as to convey a new self in every second Instagram selfie. Figuratively, he takes on a different disposition depending on where he is. Raucous and boisterous when beating the city streets with best friend G-Dragon, he couldn’t be more calm and collected when discussing his brand, 99%IS-. The Tokyo-based, Seoul-born designer may not strike an immediate chord to most, but those in the know will recognize him for his eyeliner-heavy countenance and unapologetically punk spirit. Counting the likes of Rei Kawakubo and Christian Dada among his fans, his imprint is credited as Korea’s very first punk brand, a surprising but no less momentous feat. With his 99%IS- collection going onto its 11th season, Bajowoo is now aiming to not only establish his title as the original Korean punk designer, but also to spread his love of the subculture to the world. Regardless of the reckless and rebellious associations of punk in both fashion and music, to Bajowoo, punk is much more of a friends-and-family love affair. WORDS
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E L A I N E YJ L E E
AYA KO K I C H I K AWA
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Q&A How did you decide on your designer name, Bajowoo? My real name is Park Jongwoo. When you get rid of the end sounds, it becomes Bajowoo. I made it up when I was a kid because a lot of my foreign friends couldn’t pronounce my real name. Did you feel Japan was more fit to study fashion than Korea? After I graduated high school, I attended ESMOD in Seoul. I quit as a sophomore because I fought so much with my professors, and tried my hand at assisting a stylist or working at a leather factory. I was young. I didn’t understand why my professors scolded me for painting my nails. At the time, I also thought if you punched a hole in a piece of paper and put your arms through
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it, it could be clothing, and my professors scolded me for that too. Now I sort of understand why, but at the time I thought I should just go abroad. Originally I planned on England, but I felt Japan was more realistic for me. I’ve lived in Japan for about eight years now. When I was a kid I used to buy Japanese books and albums in market back alleyways because Japanese culture was illegal in Korea. [Editor’s note: The South Korean government’s censorship of Japanese media was mostly lifted in 2000 but certain bans still remain.] How long have you worked as a designer? Five years, since I’ve done 10 collections. At first I did another punk brand, not 99%IS-, and got in so much debt which I had to repay for two years.
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"AT THE TIME, I ALSO THOUGHT IF YOU PUNCHED A HOLE ON A PIECE OF
You first started attending underground clubs in the sixth grade. How did you begin so early? When I was in elementary school, there were boy bands that only sang about love on TV. I was a sixth grader and had never had a girlfriend, so lyrics like “You are the only one for me, I love you,” just did not relate. Then I saw a rock band called Crying Nut on TV, and I thought their name was so weird. I wanted to find out more about them but the Internet was not prevalent at the time, so I went looking for clubs. Then I changed a lot.
PAPER AND PUT YOUR
It doesn’t seem easy or common for a young kid to do that. Were you more precocious than the rest of your age group? Or did you grow up in a free-spirited household? I was not mature at all. I’m not even mature now. My household was open-minded but very strict at the same time. I just had to go because no one took me.
ARMS THROUGH IT, IT COULD BE CLOTHING, AND MY PROFESSORS SCOLDED ME FOR
What do your parents do? My father sells drugs. Because he’s a pharmacist. I wanted to follow in his footsteps but I couldn’t because I didn’t get good grades. My mother is a florist.
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Asian punk kids. We all like the same things, so there is a common ground, but we also look and dress differently so it’s interesting.
How is your father’s sense of fashion? My father is a weirdo. He’s left-handed, so he always took apart his shirt chest pockets and replaced them on the right side so it would be easier for him to reach his pens when he worked at the pharmacy. And he always wore his T-shirts inside-out because he didn’t want the seams to touch his neck or shoulders. When I was young I didn’t realize how weird that was and just accepted it. You’ve experienced a lot of underground scenes in England, Japan, Korea… How did that influence you as a designer? It made me create the 99%IS- brand. The meaning of “99%IS-” is that “the 1% minority is 99% to me,” and that 1% exists wherever you go. You meet Thai punk kids in Thailand, and the same goes for Paris and New York. I met foreign punk kids in Seoul and would travel later to meet them. I think it’s because they probably don’t get many chances to run into
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What is your relationship to punk music? I don’t participate in the music itself, but I gather friends and open shows. When I shoot a film or lookbook, my punk friends come and play together. We just get together to support each other. I’ve been making band T-shirts and album covers since middle school. I can’t sing but I like punk so that was my beginning. My punk friends are the ones that suggested I go to school for fashion. Do you have any work experience before designing? In middle school, I wanted a CD player so I delivered morning newspapers for a month. I’ve worked at a sushi restaurant in Japan just for the fun of it. I got scolded a lot there, too.
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"THE MEANING OF '99%IS-' IS THAT 'THE 1% MINORIT Y IS 99% TO ME,' AND THAT 1% EXISTS WHEREVER YOU GO. YOU MEET THAI PUNK KIDS IN THAIL AND, AND THE SAME GOES FOR PARIS AND NEW YORK."
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What does the word “rebel” mean to you? What are other forms of rebellion the youth can perform other than drinking and smoking? I think rebelling is a way of life. Not saying that rebelling is my way of life, but a lot of times the system may not work for everyone on an individual level. If you know yourself and your position you can listen to what the system says but still go your own way. But the system can call that rebellion. I don’t think drinking or smoking is rebelling unless you’re doing it at a young age. During your 2017 spring/summer collection show, your models strut through the runway while drinking and smoking. What was your message behind that? I just wanted to show daily life. I wanted to give the feeling of youth culture but felt a plain runway was too dry and weird. I want to try other show formats, and use motorcycles, bicycles or runners, but that’s not easy to execute. My goal was not to show how cool my clothes were but to just have fun. I had friends come from Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand and other countries, and models who aren’t models. I seated my friends on the front row. Kids with mohawks, kids with spikes, kids in hip-hop. After the show I got a lot of complaints from fashion people about it. But I wanted it to be about my friends because my friends can do concerts but a runway is my only way of sharing an experience. I just wanted to have a laugh and a good time. Which hip-hop artists do you like? I won’t say that I know hip-hop, but I know that hiphop is cool. I am playing with the genre now and can’t name [a specific artist]. Even if you asked me which punk band I like, I couldn’t answer because A needs to exist before B, so even if I like C you still need A and B. I think too much on trivial matters. How did 99%IS- first get on the spotlight? When I first started the brand I had a little more than $2,500. I made studs, zippers, and buttons from scratch and spent all my money there, so I wasn’t making any money. Then I caught the attention of some local fashion stylists. They recognized that my clothes were made by someone who really liked and understood punk. Around the same time, Lady Gaga came to perform in Japan. That’s when she wore my
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piece that I made with a friend. A lot of people found out about the brand through that.
my brand isn’t even there yet so we are taking things step-by-step. I’m thinking about this a lot nowadays. I have no time but I am [designing] all day to the point of becoming physically unhealthy.
How did that make you feel? It was funny. You produce a lot of one-of-a-kind handmade pieces for 99%IS- but it’s clearly different from the traditional couture-like concept of “handmade.” Is your design process just as free-handed as your clothes seem? The way I decide on a collection concept is pretty impromptu. For example, I read Sherlock Holmes and went to England and visited all the places Holmes had went in the novel, then made a collection based on what I saw and felt. When I decide to go for something, I just do. How will you apply your one-of-a-kind designs as your brand grows? That’s always a subject of contemplation. There are times I cannot move forward because of custom pieces. I have no intention to make my clothes only available to a select few, but I also don’t want to make meaningless commercial things. I don’t think commercial is bad but
Who has inspired or stimulated you most during your career? My mother and father. I don’t particularly have a favorite designer or brand. Thinking back now, I think my parents influenced my life habits and thought processes the most. For example, when I bugged my dad to buy me Nike as a kid, he asked me, “Why do you want to wear Nike? Is it just because your friends want to?” And I couldn’t answer him. He asked, “Does this boomerang-looking thing look cool to you? Do you know why this logo is a boomerang?” And he knew why. My father rode a motorcycle at the time and would give me an oil company T-shirt and say, “Hey, this is what’s really cool.”
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Lastly, as Bajowoo or Park Jongwoo, do you have a message for the world? Who am I do deliver any message? I just think you have to have fun.
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WORDS
VA N E S S A L E E
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RANDY CANO
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RA N DY
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(PREVIOUS SPREAD) MTV ARTIST IDENTIT Y (RIGHT HAND SIDE) ANXIOUS BURGER
Fuzzy emojis, carpet astronauts, anxious burgers, Jello Rihanna—they don’t make sense as phrases and are even more baffling as visuals, but they exist. Welcome to the melting, oozing world of Randy Cano, a 3D artist whose hyperrealistic renditions of absurdly unrealistic subjects have around a quarter-million people tripping balls on a regular basis. In the age of Internet culture, where all sorts of weird things exist to those who seek them (or otherwise), the fact that an artist can still shock our jaded sensibilities on such a visceral level is quite an achievement. His 3D animations evoke a very odd mixture of disgust and discomfort which soon congeals into fascination. Stranger still, is the thought that his work is relatable for so many people, and develop a notorious online presence along the way. Randy’s animations had become Internet famous for the better half of last year. Despite the fickle nature of social media, his work has only increased in notoriety—he's made the jump to major design web sites, MTV and Beck's “Wow” music video. These figments of his imaginations have a certain quality in the way that textures and forms combine to result in images that can’t be unseen, albeit in a manner that’s equal parts confusing and satisfying. Randy takes distortion to disturbing heights— where busts splinter into gleaming metal skulls; glistening bodies bounce off the palm of a hand like stunned, plump tadpoles; heads half-melt, halfcollapse like chocolate balloons. In a digital space 154
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where picturesque travelogs and models who enjoy exclusive representation by Instagram reign supreme, it’s refreshing to find these characters flopping and wobbling amongst their pseudo-candid, filtered peers. Inspired by his childhood, Randy Cano is an individual who managed to siphon his experiences into art that’s as anti-establishment as the childhood that influenced it. “I was stuck between this world of being a disciplined straight-A student and this other world of being in the street hanging with skateboarders, punkers, graffiti writers, dealers, druggies… I was never the type to get into trouble, but I always hung out with the kids that did. One of my best friends in high school got his face fully tatted like El Mago from [the film] Sin Nombre.” Imagine that. Now imagine a 9-year-old boy listening to the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Pink Floyd and Method Man. “I still remember watching their music videos as a child and they would scare me, but I was so fascinated at the same time.” Randy has managed to capture the narrow valley between fear and fascination he’d walked as a child, for people to experience today. Randy’s past may be why he describes his work as “anti-design, anti-art, anti-establishment.” Today, his work stands out in an industry where livelihoods depend on replicating reality as strictly as possible. His surrealistic creations are a reaction to norms of beauty as well as his response to people who take design too seriously. “Right now, I don’t see anybody trying to push the boundaries. That’s something I hope more people would do—step out of their comfort zones instead of doing the same thing, year after year.” Perceptions within the 3D industry commonly limit creativity, focused on replication instead of creation: Randy’s work stands in stark contrast to these established norms. “It doesn’t have to please anybody, as long as I’m doing something that makes me happy. I just look at it like I’m doing it for myself, right? But when I’m 157
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getting paid, then I have to make sure the client is happy and it becomes something else.” Currently, the demand for his hobby-work is so high that perhaps now he can safely blur the lines between work and play, like the time when MTV gave him free rein on a project last year, which resulted in candy-colored, bouncing satellites and astronauts in typical Randy fashion. “[Working] doesn’t get any better than that,” he says. His involvement in Beck’s “Wow” music video stands testament to his one-of-a-kind appeal: “The director was this super cool, super humble guy. He had a huge list of animators and artists they were gonna use, but they [ended up choosing to use] a handful of my stuff. I was crazy honored.” 3D design seems to be a double-edged sword— creativity is easily bogged down by the industry’s laser-sharp focus on technical detail, but also equally hindered by a lack thereof. Most of Randy’s work is a result of experimentation, and he’s not afraid to call them as such, dubbing them “experiments” in lieu
(PREVIOUS SPREAD) NIGHT SWIM
(TOP) MELTING HEADS (BOTTOM LEFT) MTV ARTIST IDENTIT Y
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of the rather monumental label of Full-Blown Art. It’s hard to stop watching his experiments, but even the artist concedes that “sometimes they’re just eye candy.” His work doesn’t aim to be philosophical, but instead serves the humble (yet no less noble) duty of illustrating his learning process. The world of 3D design revolves around technology that’s constantly improving, which means designers are always racing to catch up. “I’ve had many moments where I felt like my imagination is limited by my software knowledge, that I would only be able to think in terms of what I knew would be possible to create.” For 3D designers, the rapid evolution of technology is something they can’t afford to ignore. Artists working in less tech-centric mediums have the dubious luxury of more romantic inspiration – moments of all-consuming torment, excruciating and exquisite—Randy has his software.
art is incorporated into the everyday fabric of its consumers. “It’s fun reading the comments people leave… because so many people from all over the world have connected to them in so many different ways,” Randy said. “I particularly love creating work that can make people happy, sad, confused, frustrated, think, laugh… I want to have a body of work that anybody can experience, and be as inclusive as possible.” Not only is his work part of a communal commentary, but as social media posts, they are also a way to express things that everyone recognizes on an immediate level. Randy explains, “People usually use them to express a certain feeling, thought or emotion, such as what it feels like going into work on Mondays or what it feels like to be on LSD.” Being able to use Randy’s work for expressions such as “when you remember doing something awkward four years ago; when you wake up the morning after,” to migraines and ex-girlfriends (certainly mutually-exclusive topics) can be as entertaining as the animations themselves. For an
Each one taking weeks to render, Randy’s eerie pieces don’t take themselves half as seriously as the hard work that went into making them. These two-second animations occupy that rare space where 161
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artist, directly witnessing audience reactions in a traditional gallery context is a rare occurrence—on social media, reactions are instantly measurable and most importantly, shareable. The comments on Randy’s Instagram posts transform 3D design from a relatively humorless pursuit to having the ability to gather an audience that gleefully memes its way through his every design. We’re witnessing a fusion of institutionalized art and the unregimented wilderness of the Internet, giving birth to a new wave of art consumers who use their esteemed objects of scrutiny as metaphors for hangovers. Die-hard art connoisseurs may find this development terrifying, yet other progressive souls may think it’s terrific— either way, Randy’s giving both sides something to think about, two seconds at a time.
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BRENDAN FOWLER + CALI THORNHILL DE WIT T Moving in Circles WORDS
A R T H U R B R AY
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BRENDAN FOWLER CALI THORNHILL DEWITT
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American author and peace activist Linus Carl Pauling once said, “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.” While the deceased Nobel Prize winner’s portfolio in medical research is very different from those of frequent Kanye West collaborator Cali Thornhill Dewitt and multidisciplinary artist Brendan Fowler, the trio share similar outlooks in regards to the creation of endless possibilities. With Los Angeles as the backdrop, both Cali and Brendan have each cut distinctive lanes through culture over the last 15 years, building a large and enigmatic body of work that’s hard to summarize. Both have championed the niche and cross-pollinating circles of art, music and publishing, often drawing on emerging DIY movements that live in LA’s backyard punk scene, Echo Park galleries and zine fairs.
occasional rock star under BARR and co-editor of art magazine ANP Quarterly with Ed Templeton. Cali's own portfolio stretches from appearing in drag on Nirvana’s In Utero, working A&R at Geffen Records, to countless short-lived zines, exhibitions, and blogs that have either transformed into T-shirt releases or been archived in dead URL links. In recent times, both have interfaced the world of streetwear using fashion as a dialog to communicate ideas via collaborations with DRx Romanelli, A.Four, Society and Maison Kitsuné. Brendan's Election Reform! is a politically-indulged T-shirt label which points out flaws in the American electoral system. Cali's myriad of T-shirt projects for now-defunct labels such as Teenage Teardrop along with designs for Yeezy’s The Life of Pablo merch—which borrowed its aesthetic from memorial tees seen in Chicano gang culture—pull from punk and hardcore practices of heat-printing over thrift store finds.
Brendan’s resume is littered with notable exhibitions in the art world, together with additional roles as
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The changing landscape of streetwear has seen early brands rooted in subculture replaced by pristine, runway-friendly designs, swapping the once-subversive odes for exorbitant tailoring. In the flux, idiosyncratic labels that celebrate underground culture have found a wider appeal, quenching the thirst of those yearning for substance over product. Enter Some Ware, a joint collaboration as innovative (and bewildering) as the duo’s past works. The project, which Cali describes as the output of “having more ideas than time,” is simply a compilation of events, records and T-shirts; cataloged periodically, but released sporadically.
While each medium is intended to complement the other, the duo have found the process of releasing T-shirts to be way quicker than records, and hence Some Ware has inadvertently made an impact in fashion with the likes of Virgil Abloh and cultural publications like 032c supporting its wares. With so many mediums at play, pinpointing Some Ware is no easy feat. We caught up with the two artists at Brendan's studio to learn more about the brand and why the duo will always be inspired by 13-year-olds.
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Q&A I don't mean to speak for Brendan but I'm sure he has also made a mistake in his life—here's the thing: if what you don't want to do is more clear to you, then it's easier to do what you want to do.
How did you guys start the Some Ware collaboration? C: It started with our friendship. We met at an allages venue, and then we made a sticker together in 2014. So this is almost a continuation of a sticker.
B: Real talk.
B: Some Ware ostensibly is three things: the record label, the clothes, and the parties. With the parties, you know, LA is this huge city that’s so diffused and big, so we wanted to make more of these occasions for people to come together. And we also have all these friends from other cities, too. So it's nice to invite them to come in as well.
C: I think we're both on very similar pages in the book of our lives. And we’ve already read all the pages that say what we don't want to do. So this just flows easier. So it goes without saying that music is the key driving force behind Some Ware? C: What a lot of our friends have in common is that music is ground zero. That's where we all met when we were 13. Not that we met when we were 13, but you know what I mean? Like the whole extended family was from a love of underground music.
C: Brendan and I have friends in different social circles who don't normally interact, so I do think it's a chance for different types of people to integrate. And that's powerful and fun because people usually only exist in one area, naturally.
So the true underground is found amongst 13-year-olds? If so, high-five to all the 13-yearolds out there making moves. B: Big time. Big shout out. A lot of the time, your friends who you enter those things with when you're 13 become uninterested because they want to get into the real world, but that's when you started getting into really rad stuff.
The T-shirts have really taken off though. Did you envisage that? B: The T-shirts were a natural progression because we’re both visual artists and we’ve both done different shirts and designed things over the years. So it was a natural thing to do. But then it’s funny because with T-shirts, just because it’s so fast to produce compared to records—since we’re doing vinyl and pressing is so backed up right now—we wound up doing all these parties and shirts before the records came out. So it’s kind of ironic as the records take so long.
C: And for me and Brendan, before there was the Internet, there were magazines and if you saw somebody wearing a T-shirt or a patch or something that you understood, then you had common ground and you would most likely have a conversation with that person.
For the onlooker, it could be hard to pinpoint how Some Ware differentiates your past projects, as T-shirts, record labels and parties have always been mediums you toy with. C: For me it’s different because I learned from things I did in the past and what I shouldn't do. Because if you're doing a lot, you get to make mistakes. Mistakes are chill and they're fine. So, I mean, this is a more streamlined journey to me because—and
B: I had a sweet moment the other day. Next door to my studio is this art gallery/awesome community space called 356 South Mission Road that these friends of ours run. They have a lot of interns and there was this boy there named Daniel wearing a Know Wave shirt. One of my oldest friends, Aaron [Bondaroff],
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"FOR ME AND BRENDAN, BEFORE THERE WAS THE INTERNET, THERE WERE MAGAZINES AND IF YOU SAW SOMEBODY WEARING A T-SHIRT OR A PATCH OR SOMETHING THAT YOU UNDERSTOOD, THEN YOU HAD COMMON GROUND AND YOU WOULD MOST LIKELY HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH THAT PERSON." is behind Know Wave; so I said to Daniel, "Oh that Know Wave shirt is so cool. And it was really cute because we totally started talking and it felt kind of old school. I guess this is just to say that the power of it really is still there.
In a short period of time, Some Ware has collaborated with A$AP Bari's VLONE, No Vacancy Inn and Rokit on apparel releases. How did these collaborations come about? C: For No Vacancy, VLONE and Rokit, the unifying factor is they're all people who we're friends with. And so again, it happens organically. And then as you're already hanging out, you just kind of hash it out and figure it out. It's about community and communication.
Would you ever want to combine all your personal projects under one umbrella? B: No, I mean we both have our own separate studio art practices where we make art shows. Cali is involved in all of his independent work and the stuff he's done with Kanye and Darren Romanelli and James Rockin. And then I have my studio practice and I do Election Reform! But I think the underlying thing of Some Ware is a creation based on what we've experienced and don't want to do. Some Ware just flows. It's not easy but all of the stuff kind of goes together. It's sort of just developing its own organic rhythm.
B: The VLONE and the No Vacancy both were also related to events. Both of them, Bari with VLONE and Tremaine and Acyde with No Vacancy, are similar in that they have parties, events, DJing, music, collaborating with music artists. That's part of their practices also. With Rokit, it was really neat. They had a really cool skateboard/basketball ramp at ComplexCon next to our showcase which was created by Cali's master carpenter brother.
With that in mind, is there a certain nostalgia that you hold with each art project? Or are you OK to just create another sticker-turned-record label next week? C: I like change. I actually think we're enjoying Some Ware and it will continue, but the face of it can change. One of the things I like about the confusion and change—and I've really thought about this a lot lately—I really don't like nostalgia.
Does creating something out of passion ever burden you guys financially? C: It's super nice that people want what we create. I think that you can look at certain things and figure out how to make a hit shirt pretty easily, and I don't think that's what we're doing, we're not "hit hunters." There are enough people trying to crank out hits. B: Hit Hunter would be the best name for a cynical T-shirt brand. Perhaps that'll be our next project.
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LOOKS
Jake Hunte
ST YLING
Theo Cottle
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K AT H I N K A G E R N A N T
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MAL ACHI DIXON MIGUEL HARICHI
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SAORI OHARA
INTERVIEW
G AV I N Y E U N G
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NAOKI EI
The Unquiet Spirit
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Streetwear is not a place for the introspective. In a bombastic climate that has produced previously inconceivable unions such as the watershed Supreme x Louis Vuitton collaboration, the emphasis has flipped entirely from the underground cachet and community-focused character of streetwear’s early days, to a bloated global movement fixated on celebrity and the endless pursuit of vapid, fleeting status.
that I would help with making shoes, so I hopped on for the time being because I’d grown bored of my advertising job.” Upon first glance, he hardly looks the part of a fashion designer. Growing up next to an American military base in the city of Yamato less than an hour’s train ride from Tokyo, the unathletic Ei, who was neither skilled at sports nor studying, naturally fell into the same skateboarding circle as his older brother in high school, where he appreciated its lack of adult supervision and self-driven environment. He immersed himself in skate culture by way of American skate magazines and videos, heading to the local department store frequently to cobble no-name garments together in an effort to emulate the outfits worn by Mark Gonzales.
If streetwear had mutated into an ungainly creature unrecognizable to its originators, then half a world away from the sordid queues outside Supreme’s New York flagship, in the quaint Japanese seaside town of Fujisawa, resides a remnant of that pioneer’s spirit in Naoki Ei, founder of fledgling label CITERA. Bespectacled, with his hair swept into a no-nonsense ponytail, Ei’s unassuming presence belies his role in building from the ground up another label that arguably spawned the modern Japanese Americana movement—visvim. Yet despite the ardor that the brand garners among menswear enthusiasts, Ei maintains his serendipitous, almost accidental entry into visvim, and by extension, Japanese streetwear history at large. “I didn’t understand what visvim was,” Ei recalls with a chuckle. “All I knew was
Although Ei eventually stopped skateboarding when he turned 20, the counterculture and its ethos stuck with him. After a brief stint living in London, he was introduced to Hiroshi Fujiwara through a friend shortly after returning to Tokyo, who in turn connected Ei to Hiroki Nakamura—a veteran designer at Burton Snowboards who by then was gearing up to create an Americana-inspired,
TRUE TO THE WINK-AND-NOD MENTALIT Y OF SKATEBOARDING’S EARLY DAYS AND INFLUENCED BY VISVIM’S OWN L ACK OF OVERT BRANDING, CITERA FOCUSES INSTEAD ON THE QUALIT Y OF ITS MATERIALS AND UNRELENTING FUNCTIONALIT Y.
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modernized moccasin. Nakamura found a partner for his budding brand in Ei, and when visvim exploded onto the Ura-Harajuku scene in 2000 with the FBT silhouette, he handled everything outside of fashion and footwear design—this included everything from designing graphics and packaging to public relations and promotional materials. Despite visvim’s rapidly rising star, Ei felt a certain unease as he reached his 30th birthday, quitting four years after the launch of the brand to follow his life’s passion for music – this culminated in his founding production label AUDIO ARTS RECORDINGS in 2008 with music producer K.U.D.O. However, a phone call from Kaguya Nagao, a longtime friend and marketing director at fashion conglomerate Yamato International, set Ei on the road back into streetwear when Nagao proposed that he helm a new online-only brand that would put outdoors tailoring in the heart of the city. Ei took on the design-heavy role with trepidation—after all, he
has worn the same combination of T-shirts and Levi’s jeans since high school—but Nagao was set on his pick, going so far as to give Ei unrestrained creative freedom. To aid him, Yoshikage Kajiwara, ex-BEAMS creative director and head of design consultancy LOWERCASE, would provide Ei with creative guidance in areas such as merchandising and PR materials. True to the wink-and-nod mentality of skateboarding’s early days and influenced by visvim’s own lack of overt branding, CITERA focuses instead on the quality of its materials and unrelenting functionality. The brand’s philosophy is “Active Transfer Wear” —which sees clothing as a facilitator of the flow of an individual through an urban environment. To this end, Ei takes ample inspiration from the construction of outdoor garments, but repurposes them for the concrete jungle—a point where he draws a clear distinction between CITERA and traditional outdoor brands. “CITERA is not 191
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AS AN INHERITANCE OF VISVIM’S VALUES, CITERA EXHIBITS AN OUTSIZED EMPHASIS ON THE DETAILS. ONLY UPON CLOSE INSPECTION DOES IT YIELD A WEALTH OF TECHNICAL SUBTLETIES THAT WOULD MAKE EVEN THE MOST ARDENT VISVIM DEVOTEE BLUSH.
making clothes for mountains or other extreme natural environments. It doesn’t come from that. What we are making is comfortable and functional wear for people living in a civilized environment.” As a result, CITERA’s branding, though minimal, is a deliberate and effective abbreviation of this philosophy. The miniscule tag affixed to the exterior of its products—often the only indication of their provenance—sports five colors that represent air, water, concrete, flowers and foliage; its name, a portmanteau of “city” and “terra.” Ei’s designs are simultaneously unintrusive and quietly brilliant, ensconcing the wearer in a melange of abrasion-resistant Cordura nylon, waterproof POLARTEC® NeoShell, Thermotron down and three-layered jersey. As an inheritance of visvim’s values, CITERA pieces exhibit an outsized emphasis on the details. Only upon close inspection do they yield a wealth of technical subtleties that would make even the most ardent visvim devotee blush— variously sized pockets abound in its shell jackets and architectural bag designs for all manner of gadgets, alongside braided tricolor nylon loops, glass bead accents, custom branded rivets and detachable racoon fur hood trims.
“Ei-kun is an otaku (nerd) through and through,” says Satoshi Suzuki, founder of Tokyo-based label Loopwheeler. “He’s capable of fixating on one thing that he’ll examine and dig into. When he starts creating, he becomes addicted.” True to its thoroughly modern aesthetic, CITERA eschews traditional distribution methods of wholesale or brick-and-mortar representation, instead opting for an online-only, direct-to-consumer model. “This was decided from the very beginning,” Ei explains. “Because we use the internet and instant messaging every day, the world is gradually becoming flatter. I don’t want [CITERA] to become a global brand,
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but I do want to flatten our method of selling.” It’s all a big experiment, he adds, and the brand website reflects this approach with its non-linear layout, detailed description of the intricacies of each item, and the juxtaposition of the final designs with Ei’s initial rough sketches from his iPad. In short, CITERA doesn’t just want you to wear its clothes, but to inspire a level of otaku-ness in the wearer, much like how visvim successfully cultivated a significant fanbase that lovingly dissects the construction and philosophy behind each new release. Today, Ei lives in a small, semi-detached house in Fujisawa, which he fills with Persian rugs and Sori Yanagi furniture. He prefers working here instead
of at the studio of CITERA’s parent company, “because I don’t have to see the same view, literally and figuratively, as other people who work in the industry.” This approach, to be standard yet different, has informed Ei’s attitude far beyond CITERA— indeed, he attributes it to the skateboarding days of his youth and the forever defiant spirit of the lifestyle. But how does he reconcile the rough-and-tumble aesthetic of skate culture with his own cerebral, minimalist designs? That’s irrelevant, according to Ei. “Above all, design has to be beautifully simple. I always have an urge to use up my creativity—it gets a little stressful sometimes,” he adds with a self-aware chuckle.
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WORDS
PHOTOGRAPHY
HASSE LEMOLA
R I O -R O M A I N E
GE Brave New World
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"I'VE ALWAYS BEEN DOING WORK FOR OTHER PEOPLE. IT WAS TIME TO DO MY OWN THING, AND NOT BE ON ANYONE ELSE'S AGENDA."
The notion of defining something by a certain genre is becoming more and more irrelevant in an age where labels are being thrown out the window. It’s hard to find a more fitting precedent of this than in fashion, which was once very much characterized by rigid categories that were hesitantly challenged. In recent years the industry has, to a certain extent, been turned upside down. Even a decade ago the thought of a streetwear designer taking over the reins at a storied fashion house would’ve been unfathomable, but today, it’s something that draws far more praise than criticism. A quick glance at the biggest Fashion Weeks across the globe indicates that high fashion and streetwear are entering a new paradigm as well, intertwined like never before. London, Milan, Paris 196
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the Internet and social media, young hopefuls have an unprecedented platform for expression that their predecessors could only have dreamed of. But make no mistake, this development has ironically made it much more difficult to stand out. Those that manage to bring their vision to life and capture the attention of the industry are truly doing something remarkable.
and New York have all welcomed in progressive creatives with open arms, eagerly attempting to bring back some much-needed flair onto their runways. Though the mingling between the Fifth Avenues and Lafayettes of the world may not always sit well with purists, it’s hard to deny that the overlapping of the two worlds is pushing the industry to new heights, and in effect, showing streetwear in a much more refined state, far-removed from its rugged and raw origins.
GEO is part of this new wave. A native of London, the young designer is one of the brightest names in what we have come to call contemporary streetwear. Having honed his craft under the tutelage of Kanye West, Virgil Abloh and Jerry Lorenzo, GEO’s background in graphic design is the backbone of
This astounding progression of our culture from its humble skate and surf roots has given birth to a thriving generation of designers who aren’t afraid to challenge norms. Thanks to something called 197
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A. ADIDAS GAZELLE INSTALL ATION B. WARHEAD C. FLORAL ORBIT D. NIKKO KNIGHT: CARPE DIEM EP PACKAGING E. T YGA: FWTTB MIXTAPE PACKAGING F. BIG KRIT: CADILL ACTICA ALBUM PACKAGING
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his eponymous label and design company—two intriguing narratives that work hand-in-hand to bring an immersive experience that spans clothing, installations and soundscapes. His inaugural range “Collection One” did just that. After its initial unveiling in June of last year, retailers jumped at the chance to host his installations to showcase the cohesive range in a more immersive setting using space-driven props (there was even a giant rock resembling an asteroid at the Hong Kong popup). The core of the collection was based around graphic-driven basics, which proved to be a hit in their own right, but the designer’s valiant attempt to jump right into the intimidating world of cutand-sew was something that made an even bigger splash in the pond. GEO’s experimental use of rain ponchos, denim and industrial accessories, coupled 198
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with the aforementioned selection of elevated basics, bore some resemblance to Virgil Abloh’s first foray into fashion, Pyrex Vision. His intriguing color palette, derived from his home city’s subway system, helped convey his unique vision even more and amass a following that is guaranteed to blossom in the coming years. With all that being said, much of GEO’s vision still remains a mystery. Only time will tell what the fledgling designer has in store for the world but he has already revealed that “2017 is about to be a movie!” We caught up with GEO at the turn of the New Year to discuss his initial entry into the world of graphic design, ensuing transition into fashion and where he derives his inspiration from.
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Q&A into something more than just a merchandise project. I’m excited to see where I can take it.
Could you briefly introduce yourself? I go by the name of GEO. I have a design company that deals with all the installations, artwork and visual side of graphics. Then I have GEO which is the actual clothing label that I launched in July of this year.
You boast an impressive resume having worked with the likes of DONDA, YEEZY and Fear of God. How did you get involved with such influential figures in our industry? It was a gradual process, but it was more of just through friends. I had the right people around me and it was more word-of-mouth than trying to be put on. It kind of worked out naturally. Just guys like Virgil and Samuel Ross. These are all people who I’ve worked with from the beginning, and seeing the growth of their brands in such a short period of time propelled me to want do more.
Images of Earth and space figure prominently in your collections and installations. Is that where the name GEO comes from? What kind of message are you trying to convey? My name actually stems from my youth when I was into graffiti. The letters GEO were nice to write and dub. The name then transferred into the international design house and clothing; GEO short for geography. Also, I’m obsessed with space. I draw a lot of inspiration from the visual language of NASA. GEO will mature
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GEO COLLECTION ONE
the whole reason, just like my opinion on clothing and see how people reacted to it.
England is experiencing somewhat of a fashion renaissance in streetwear. What do you think spurned this sudden emergence of new brands? I feel like people were just bored with the same old sub-standard average. Everyone is looking the same and no one has their own opinion anymore and just want to be unified. London has been a center point of culture and inspiration for the culture for years, so just now are people understanding and looking at us and taking inspiration from it. There’s so much talent in the UK as well but it just gets overshadowed by America and all of these other places. Now people are starting to understand that the trends originate from London or the UK.
Despite being such a young brand you jumped into the world of cut-and-sew quite quickly. What were some of the most difficult pieces to construct? Some of my best pieces never made it to “Collection One.” I didn’t have the infrastructure to take it to retail. For the next two collections I’ll focus heavily on cut & sew. Also, the denim is always a challenge. London is a melting pot of various cultures. How are the city’s diverse attributes reflected in your own brand? London has this natural feeling, it feels different. It’s like a mix of Paris and New York for me, so it’s a perfect balance. London has been a melting pot of culture for a while now. It’s the culture that creates the vibe. Going back to it being a perfect balance, we have people that excel in so many creative areas, it’s hard
When did you know it was the right time to take the leap and launch your own brand GEO? I just had instincts. Just because I’ve always been doing work for other people it was time to do my own thing, and not be on anyone else’s agenda and have budget constraints. Just do what I wanna do. That’s
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"LONDON HAS BEEN A CENTER POINT OF CULTURE AND INSPIRATION FOR THE CULTURE FOR YEARS, SO JUST NOW ARE PEOPLE UNDERSTANDING AND LOOKING AT US AND TAKING INSPIRATION FROM IT."
to miss and not feel inspired at some point. I like to go for a drive around the city with friends, play back some beats we made and scribble down ideas, and sometimes just work from the laptop in the car.
Was the transition from being a graphic designer to helming your own brand more challenging than you initially thought? Any unexpected hurdles? I suppose it started off from being merchandise and it evolved into doing denim and doing full pieces, and hand-dyeing the socks myself. I still have a lot to learn. I’m just trying to get started so it was more of a chuck yourself in the deep end and trying to figure it out. So yeah there was lots of hurdles. There’s people that don’t wanna blog your shit, people that just generally talk shit, so yeah just everyday problems to be honest.
The color palettes from “Collection One” were similar to the ones used on the train lines on the underground map. I take inspiration from all cities you know, but obviously in London since you have so many different cultures you can pick and choose different areas to get a different feeling. I’ve lived here my whole life, they are all primary colors. The color palette was more of a subconscious decision. You can go to Brixton and feel like you’re in Jamaica, or you can go down to like East London and you can feel like you’re in India. It’s crazy. You can go and people watch and pick up a lot of inspiration through that. My next collection will be more color expressive.
Now that you have been able to travel around the world and set up installations, how has it been to showcase your work to a broader audience in person, rather than just digitally? I always value when it’s in person. Face-to-face has so much more value than when it’s just an email ‘cause that’s what we’re used to nowadays. It’s good to see how people wear the clothing and what their reactions to it are. Just to interact with different people and get their feedback which is important. Sometimes it’s a little nervous, like the first time I was doing the launch with GR8 Tokyo. It’s cool now, just expanding out. Installations evoke emotion. They create a world for the clothing to live in and for people to step into my world and understand my vision on a physical level; anyone can shop online.
What sparked your initial interest in graphic design? Just coming off the back of doing other people’s merchandise for tours and stuff like that. That process opened up my eyes to the possibilities with clothing and taking it just beyond a T-shirt because, you know, everyone has a clothing line. I thought why stop at a T-shirt? It’s just fun doing graphic design if you have a strong mindset, and you can apply it across the board to pretty much anything.
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% ARABICA AUTOR ROOMS BIBO HERMAN MILLER KAOS TEMPLE WORLD OF NICHE
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The value of connection in this day and age cannot be understated, nor can it be ignored. The melding of cultures and ideas on a daily basis has precipitated the flourishing of hybrids that exemplify the best of two or more worlds. True to the theme of this issue, we sought out six exemplars of this ethos across the world that masterfully combine unlikely inspirations to create environments that both delight and innovate in their ingenuity. 204
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% Arabica
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Located in Kyoto, Japan’s cradle of traditional culture, and just a short hop from the famed matchaproducing town of Uji, a new institution is defining the conversation around the island nation’s fascination with third-wave specialty coffee. % Arabica Kyoto Arashiyama is the second permanent cafe under the % Arabica brand—the first being situated in the Higashiyama district on the opposite side of the city. Shaded by a maple grove and overlooking the meandering Katsura River and the historic Togetsukyo Bridge, the cafe’s single-storey design evokes a traditional Japanese viewing pavilion in a nod to the area’s history. Its glass facade gives
the illusion of levity while intimately connecting the building’s occupants to the breathtaking vistas brought by the shifting seasons. The hinoki-paneled interior and white Corian marble countertops provide a tasteful canvas for what really matters—the coffee. The only adornment is a Goode homolosine world map projection rendered in burnished bronze, hung above a Tornado King high-tech roasting machine, and flanked on either side by humidity-controlled cellars showcasing specialty bean sacks sourced from % Arabica’s own farm in Hawaii, among other global suppliers.
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Framed against the natural scenery is the coffee bar, which elevates the barista’s craft into a public performance that revolves around % Arabica’s pride and joy—a customized Slayer espresso machine that takes the beans that have been roasted to order, and creates some of the best coffee drinks in the Kansai region. The entire process takes no more than five minutes, ensuring the optimum freshness of the beans. In a final flourish, latte drinks are topped off with impossibly intricate designs at the hand of world latte art champion and head barista, Junichi Yamaguchi. The cafe receives a constant flow of international visitors daily, to whom the baristas introduce a different brand of the long Japanese tradition of hospitality, or omotenashi. As a testament to the power of great coffee, % Arabica Kyoto Arashiyama has become a tourist attraction in its own right, luring caffeine and design lovers with the promise of a perfectly brewed espresso macchiato set against the backdrop of Kyoto’s dazzling autumn colors. 207
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66 B L E E C K E R S T. N E W Y O R K , N Y, USA
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Founded as a reaction against the digitalization of commerce and the proliferation of influencer marketing, the World of Niche is an experimental storefront with quite the ideology behind its interior. In order to get a glimpse of the store’s wares, shoppers must first make an appointment online. The appointment allots half-hour slots, six days a week and shoppers must be prompt—their window of opportunity closes after five minutes’ tardiness.
Upon their arrival, curious and punctual patrons are rewarded by a frosty window and a door emblazoned with the brand’s livery. A young sales associate named Bennett greets arrivals, politely requesting them to take their shoes off before asking for shoe sizes and cell phones—the former is for a pair of the store’s fine leather slide sandals; the latter is confiscated and placed on a wooden tray. Sharing photos of the store’s interior and product is strictly prohibited.
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World of Niche’s unorthodox approach to retail reverse-engineers the hype cycle: there are no promo photos to drum up anticipation, no shots of celebrities wearing the shoes on the streets or the red carpet, and no glossy lookbook images. Conversely, the owner is proud of the fact that product shots are only released after the shoes themselves have sold out in-store, retroactively creating demand for a product that can no longer be bought. The Bleecker boutique is the only place in the world that stocks and sells the brand, so customers must make their own way to New York City for half an hour of Bennett’s time. The store’s interior is made up of just three materials: birch wood, marble and rose gold. Mirrors give the illusion of an expansive space, but in actuality it is humble, compact, minimal. A rose-gold sphere, dubbed The Globe, dominates the middle of the room and houses the footwear. Bennett offers customers a bottle of sparkling water before pulling the Globe apart to reveal twin hemispheres, each housing three
different silhouettes in three different colorways for both sexes. A quilt of the raw materials used in each shoe is draped between the two halves, an equator of sorts. After spending half an hour with Bennett and the nine shoes, the customer is allowed to select one pair of shoes to take home. Customers often return to buy other pairs and colorways, or to peruse new collections. As far as availability goes, the owner doesn’t like describing the experience as exclusive—anyone can make a reservation online, after all—and prefers to think of it as extremely limited. Each silhouette is created in a limited run of 50 and every pair sold comes with a certificate of authenticity, a membership card of sorts. When Bennett hands over your cell phone and de-mists the window with the touch of a remote, you exit with the immediate temptation to tell all about your experience. It goes without saying, but the power of world of mouth is alive and well in the World of Niche.
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A collective known as the Church Brigade is responsible for the sweeping ramps of La Inglesia Skate. The vibrant paint adorning its walls is a mural dubbed Kaos Temple by artist Okuda San Miguel, whose paintings represent the love, freedom, and peace that comes with uniting people of all races and religions under one roof. A temple, painted inside a church holding a skatepark—it all seems a bit random until they bring people together, unified by the love of skating under its white arches.
The ramps are nestled within a kaleidoscopic whirl of angles and surreal figures, sharply domed by architecture over a hundred years old—yet nothing feels displaced. Visitors are greeted with an ocular circus: faceted human and animal faces peer down from the ceiling, punctuated by prisms and geometric shapes. Originally intended as a multidisciplinary space for business, the crumbling church was converted into a skatepark when friends of church-owner Ernesto Fernández installed a miniramp in 2012. Over the 212
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years, the Church Brigade added more ramps and wallrides to turn the Church of Santa Barbara into La Inglesia Skate. Llanera’s response to the repurposed space was overwhelmingly positive—for a region that rains 200 days of the year, indoor facilities were always welcome—even former altar boys from the church’s heyday returned as distinguished gentlemen to openly give their support for the new interiors.
with media and press upon Kaos Temple’s completion— Okuda’s mural, coupled with the Church Brigade’s work, marks this small church in Llanera as one of the most unique places to skate in the world. Sadly, owner Ernesto Fernández passed away last June, immortalized through building something there’s never enough of: a place Okuda describes as “no limits, no religions, no racism, no gods, no money—[a place] for everyone,” where the only divides are when wood vanishes to meet color and chaos.
In December of 2015, La Inglesia Skate was bombarded 213
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It’s possible to walk by the nondescript door once, twice, maybe even three times. Press a button, the brass door glides open and you’re greeted by an impeccably dressed gentleman who guides you with dignified courtesy down a set of intricately painted white and hunter-green steps, of which construe the first taste of the visual feast waiting below. Bibo is bursting with pieces from contemporary artists all over the world. Exiting the dim staircase, one enters a warmly-lit room filled with framed art, murals and paint, dripped, splattered and sprayed. It’s an undoubtedly classy, yet cozy joint, where patrons are seated in the thick of priceless art by the likes of Banksy, KAWS, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Vhils
and Blek Le Rat. There are no velvet ropes, no glass display cases, no security personnel—one could reach up to the wooden KAWS statue, hunched massively on one side of the dining room, and stroke its Pinocchio nose without reproach. From the lounge area positively vibrating with fizzy pop art to the slightly more austere dining room outfitted in green and gold furniture, there’s an unshakeable feeling of intimacy, like you’re walking around somebody’s (extremely) decked-out apartment. This is what its anonymous owner had intended—to bring street art into an upscale environment, but one where closeup examinations are casually welcome. All of the pieces are part of the owner’s private art collection, and there are new pieces in rotation every few months. Judging
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notoriously competitive restaurant industry for the past three years. The bar at Bibo is no less impressive—it’s voted one of the best in the world by the likes of Business Insider and Tatler.
from their variety and extent, one can immediately tell Bibo is, first and foremost, this benefactor’s passion project. All of the doors here are paneled with brass—the one with a thorny rose and chalk-green brass knuckles opens to a kitchen which earned Bibo a place in the Michelin Guide. Executive Chef Mutaro Balde is the mastermind behind Bibo’s menu, his creations possessing the rare quality that only great food has, which is to be devoured in tireless quantities without reserve or respite (wallet permitting). Mutaro spares no effort in sourcing only the best ingredients, no matter how obscure, in order to create the dishes which have placed Bibo at the top of Hong Kong’s
Bibo is a place where superlatives meet in order to bring some of life’s best pleasures into tantalizing proximity. There’s no denying that the artfully plated food or the masterfully crafted cocktails simply taste better in the glow of the surrounding artwork—this effect extends as much to the bathrooms, where you can answer the call of nature while gazing upon the (literal) fruits of Nobuyoshi Araki’s labor.
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Despite their convenience, hotels are oftentimes impersonal and isolating affairs, with their endless corridors and lack of historical context. On the other end of the spectrum, Airbnb has engendered a revolution in the travel industry with its premise of allowing travelers to live like a local, but this movement has not been without adverse effects on local property prices as well as the gentrification of traditional communities around the world. However, one boutique hotel in Warsaw, Poland is beating a middle path that seamlessly combines
the creature comforts of hotels with the intimate atmosphere and local flavor of a homestay. Founded by local creative agency Mamastudio, Autor Rooms was borne out of a need to provide a place to stay for the visiting friends of the designers, while also championing the burgeoning wealth of contemporary Polish craft and design. “We decided to furnish Autor Rooms only with Polish products,” says co-owner and designer Magdalena Ponagajbo. “We wanted to promote them and the city through exposing their talents. Many of them have since become our friends.” Housed in a perfectly preserved pre-war example of Berlin Modernism in the fashionable downtown district of Sródmiescie, Autor Rooms is comprised of just four rooms of varying sizes, all adjoined to a
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common area and kitchen that has been furnished with a curated book and vinyl collection. Independent Polish architect Mateusz Baumiller oversaw the design of the hotel, giving each room a distinct character while showcasing the best of domestic art and design—cue collaborations with the likes of Starter Gallery for Polish artwork, Porcelana Kristoff for bone china dishware, and custom-made furniture by Segiet Oniszh, among others. Should guests take a fancy to anything they find in their room, the hotel will help facilitate a purchase directly with the makers. And what’s a hotel without the city that surrounds it? To this end, Autor Rooms is a proud proponent of the charms of the Polish capital. “Our capital is a beautiful place with a great spirit—but weak promotion,” says Ponagajbo. “We love our city and know its secret treasures. We think that with what we do and the attention that it grabs, we can change Warsaw's image abroad and inspire more people to come.” True to their word, the hotel offers a suggested itinerary, alongside guides created by the designers along the lines of art, fashion, and nightlife. The hope is that Autor Rooms’ tastefully curated experience will help elevate Warsaw to becoming one of Europe’s most sought-after destinations, and with its four impeccably outfitted suites, it’s sure to do that slowly, but ever so surely.
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251 PA R K AV E N U E S O U T H , NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Herman Miller
CONNECTION
It’s strange to think a globally-recognized company such as Herman Miller—purveyor of midcentury office design, father of the ubiquitous Eames chair —has sold its designs by proxy with 660 dealers in 109 countries without any standalone shop of its own, but all of that has changed. Shifting its focus to include design-savvy consumers along with its original industry-insider demographic, Herman Miller’s new
flagship store in New York’s Flatiron District is a brick-and-mortar symbol of the company’s lifestyle brand identity. All the products we’ve come to see as design classics from the furntiure company are now united under one roof, arranged and curated as one cohesive experience that now add the comparatively flexible term of living spaces to its previously singular repertoire of dream office spaces. 218
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Built in 1909, the Renaissance-revival building on 251 Park Avenue South has a history that’s almost inextricable from the company itself. It was home to George Nelson’s design firm the years following his time as design director at Herman Miller. Maharam, the company responsible for Herman Miller’s textile design, has called 251 S Park Ave home since 1992. All of this intertwined history culminates into a space that demonstrates its uniqueness in more than one way. The first floor is a showroom for living spaces and retail spot; the second to fourth floors are Herman Miller’s Living Office concepts—serving as a fully operational office housing Herman Miller’s regional sales, marketing, brand design, and media and communications departments while doubling as a showroom. Executive line Geiger is located on the fifth floor, also as a fully-functional office and showroom.
Open and airy, the roomy post-war architecture is magnified by casement windows that open up to let in fresh air. The white walls and pale-gray carpet flooring draws the eye away from the architecture and to the displays—notably more colorful than the surrounding backdrop. But perhaps the most notable of all is how the space is geared towards flexibility—a previously stalwart office furniture design staple, presented now in full effect for not only work, but also play, and anything that crops up in between.
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ISSUE 17
Directory A-COLD-WALL A-COLD-WALL.COM
JOHN LAWRENCE SULLIVAN JOHN-LAWRENCE-SULLIVAN.COM
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JUNYA WATANABE JUNWATANABE.JP
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