Whether it be the product of a considered and deliberate effort, or something honed through the years by force of habit, we all labor under a system of our own creation in life. They have the power to serve us, empower us, change us and even destroy us.
In the world of high-functioning individuals, systems can be sacred. From systems rooted in ritualism to ones centered upon methodology, one thing is clear: if we find something that makes us perform at our best, we tend to try and stick to it. For creators, having their own system–and following through–often means the difference between making magic and crashing headfirst into a mental block.
The featured subjects in this issue revealed a range of systems, from specific procedures in design to methods of fostering creativity. There are also those, of course, who arrived armed simply with a way of thinking. Korean designer Jiyong Kim utilizes weather and the elements to create his one-of-one, sunbleached garments. On the other hand, Harmony Korine’s tech-design collective EDGLRD prefers a “throw shit at the wall and see what sticks” approach.
Sometimes, choosing to abide by our own ethos necessitates creating an entirely new ecosystem, separate from the others. Our cover star, the newly independent Ye has undeniably marched to the beat of his own drum (808s, if you will) for as long as we can remember; sometimes it seems, to his own detriment. In a way it feels like he’s finally free, having ended longterm partnerships and being able to operate completely on his own terms. What we can learn from Ye is that whenever we find the system no longer serves us, then it’s up to us to create one that does.
Discovering just what our own systems are is a daunting journey in and of itself. There are no rules, only consistent practice. Much like plating unreliable seeds, these systems can take years, decades even, to bear any fruit. Sometimes it takes only days, and other times there may be no fruit at all–the worst part is, we’ll never know unless we start.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Kevin E. Wong
DEPUTY EDITOR
Zach Sokol
ART DIRECTOR
Vasun Pachisia
FEATURES EDITORS
Ross Dwyer, Shawn Ghassemitari
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Franny Fuller, Phuong Le
EDITORIAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
Marc Wong
EDITORIAL COORDINATORS
Gabriella Koppelman, Samantha Su, Crystal Yu
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Yuki Abe, Elaina Bernstein, Bryan Hahn, Jhoni Jackson, Dylan Kelly, Courtney Kenefick, Joyce Li, Max Pearl, Sami Reiss, Noah Rubin, Felson Sajonas, Jonathan Smith, Felix Young
Hypebeast® is a Registered Trademark of Hypebeast Hong Kong Limited
Ch. 1 020—
Ye Ochiai Shohei
Flying Lotus
Ch. 3 128— 235
Dingyun Zhang
Sophistication
Eaux de Parfum by Dries Van Noten
Dries Van Noten’s unisex olfactory line only launched in 2022, but its aromatic Rolodex is already quite pungent. In practice, the Belgian designer enlists expert perfumers to produce singular scents under his “Eau de Parfum” umbrella. Nicolas Beaulieu’s “Voodoo Chile,” for one, nods to Jimi Hendrix’s 1968 Electric Ladyland track of the same name, blending notes of sandalwood, lentisque, and cannabis accord to evoke the timelessness of the late rock star’s guitar strums. “Fluer Du Mal,” crafted by Quentin Bisch, is simultaneously angelic and devilish, contrasting a top note of peach juice with bases of suede and amber. Marie Salamagne, meanwhile, bottles up the rich smell of silk dresses inside Dries’ Quai Malaquais boutique, merging bergamot and blackcurrant with rose, silk, and chestnut to form “Soie Malaquais.”
Polo ’79 by Piaget
Swiss luxury watchmaker Piaget is celebrating 150 years of fine craftsmanship with its latest offering, the Polo ‘79. Based on Piaget’s original Polo—a 1979 timepiece made entirely of gold that offered a more sporty, casual aesthetic than most other high-end watches—the commemorative ‘79 is contemporary in its style but classic in its inspiration.
Made with an opulent 18k yellow gold gardoon pattern that envelops the bracelet, case, and dial, the modern classic weighs 200 grams. An open 38mm case reveals the elegantly crafted caliber, which winds the timepiece automatically. Fitting for its namesake, the Piaget Polo ‘79 is set for a limited run of 79 pieces. “The Polo is a watch bracelet, but first it’s a bracelet,” fourth-generation family owner Yves Piaget famously said of the original model. That observation carries on to the ‘79 model.
Sandstorm Coat by Maison Margiela
$10,570
John Galliano’s sartorial storytelling at Maison Margiela simultaneously warms hearts, connects them, and shatters them into pieces. Much like his history-making Artisanal 2024 collection earlier this year, the designer’s 2022 “Cinema Inferno” show—a western-gothic tale that set couture-clad lovers in a mythical Arizona desert— reminded viewers that fashion can make you feel something. Galvanized by the spectacle, the brand’s Sandstorm Coat, punched with cut-out sections and a worn-out facade, is persuasive in its bracing of the fantastical destination’s arid climate. As its name suggests, the rubberized cotton silhouette employs a “sandstorming” technique, miming the effects of a real-life dust devil on fabric. Secured with a waist belt, the double-breasted ensemble is complete with Maison Margiela’s “Four Stitches” quietly sewn into its back.
The Swoosh Bag by Nike x Jacquemus
Sitting at the intersection of savoir faire and performance athletics, Jacquemus and Nike’s storied collaborations strip conventional wardrobe staples of their mundanity. With four years worth of specially-engineered designs behind them (fun fact: Simon Porte Jacquemus also starred in a Nike football campaign with French forward Kylian Mbappé in 2018), the duo’s “Le Sac Swoosh,” a leather bag shaped like the leading sportswear label’s 53-year-old motif, forms the crest of their code-fusing manifesto. Equipped with an adjustable strap, the 100% cowskin purse centers Jacquemus’ signature silver branding on the face of its emblematic construction. Available in “Ivory,” “Dark Brown,” and “Dark Pink,” the logo-manic accessory offers compact storage space, made accessible by a zipper that runs atop its curved facade.
Record Cart and Crate by USM x Symbol
Collecting records is a labor of love—storing them even more so. Thankfully, USM and Symbol have combined their technical know-how to create a capsule of record storage options that satiate the needs of audiophiles and aesthetes alike. The line’s standout pieces are the Record Cart and Record Crate, featuring USM’s signature perforated, powder-coated steel panels and chrome piping designed to Symbol’s exacting standards. Each offers a singular aesthetic and suits a different need: the Record Cart can hold up to 260 records in its four total chambers (two top-loaded and two sideloaded) and comes on a six-wheel base; the Record Crate is a single, stationary, top-loaded storage system that holds up to 75 records. Both are available in 14 colorways, meaning there’s a shade to fit all tastes, from Kind of Blue to The Black Album
GEN ESIS Chapter 1
GEN ESIS
BÁRBARA SÁNCHEZKANE
THE SHAPE SHIFTER
WORDS BY MAX PEARL
PHOTOGRAPHY BY RODRIGO ÁLVAREZ
THE MULTI-HYPHENATE BÁRBARA SÁNCHEZKANE HAS
DRAWN FROM FASHION, FINE ART, AND INDUSTRIAL DESIGN TO CREATE A BODY OF WORK THAT IS ALL AND NONE OF THE ABOVE.
Bárbara Sánchez-Kane is sitting—manspreading, actually—on a CocaCola monobloc chair she used in the audience for one of her runway shows, the red plastic one you might see stacked next to a taco stand. She’s wearing swishy pleated pants of her own design, which she refers to as her “airplane pants” because they’re comfy enough to travel in. She’s surrounded by objects, many of which were featured in her fall 2023 exhibition, New Lexicons for Embodiment, at Kurimanzutto New York, the Manhattan branch of Mexico’s bluest of blue-chip galleries.
A wearable sculpture hanging on the wall above the stairs dominates her Mexico City studio, which doubles as a showroom: the artwork is crafted out of dozens of candy-red belts with shiny buckles woven into an armature like an exotic bird at a kink party. As we walk around fingering the clothing racks, she points to a pair of kitten heels she had molded out of bronze, with Jesus Christ reclining in the soles. “Shoes that uncomfortable change the way you walk down the street. They’ll make your life slow down,” she muses, plucking a loose thread from the shoulder of my sweater, as if we’re old acquaintances.
She leads me to what looks like a stack of cinder blocks, pulling on the top to reveal a system of cantilevered storage trays, like a fishing box or a fancy makeup case. That the piece draws comparisons to such distinctly coded objects speaks to the way her absurdist humor challenges binaries of gender as much as genre and form.
“IF I’M DESIGNING A SUIT OR SOMETHING, THAT SAME SILHOUETTE CAN BE TRANSMUTED INTO A SCULPTURE.”
Since 2016, the Mexican multi-hyphenate has drawn from fashion, fine art, and industrial design to create a body of work that is all and none of the above. The clothing she designs for her label, Sánchez-Kane, is loosely menswear, though it also mocks masculinity even while channeling its most alluring traits. She’s a suit tailor first and foremost—a skill she learned while studying at the Polimoda Fashion School in Florence, Italy— balancing technical virtuosity with the whimsy of her mad genius imagination: one leather jacket has an inner lining of slap bracelets, so you can wear the bottom half straight down as flaps, kind of like a gladiator skirt, or roll them up and make it a crop top.
“For me, the sexiest thing is a two-for-one look,” she says, standing closer to me than some people might like. “I love things that turn into other things.” She has the audacious presence of someone who’s used to getting what she wants, seemingly through a combination of laser-focused vision and charm that turns on like a light.
Sánchez-Kane keeps up with the fashion industry at her own pace, releasing sporadic collections of up to 120 items and selling by appointment out of her studio, as well as through select outlets like H.Lorenzo and Dover Street Market Los Angeles. She also makes one-off garments that are ready when they’re ready, and has no interest in scaling up to meet demand. “I’m an awful salesman,” she laughs. Sometimes when a customer emerges from the dressing room and asks how they look, she’ll make a face and suggest they go home and mull it over.
When asked about the relationship between her fashion and fine art selves, she says the difference is less about the objects and more about how people choose to treat them. “With fashion you get to put it on and make it your own—even fuck with it,” she continues. “With art, we give it this sacred space of not wanting to touch the piece. I like to interact.”
Certain images, ideas, even shapes appear and reappear in Sánchez-Kane’s work, bouncing back and forth from the runway to the gallery. “If I’m designing a suit or something, that same silhouette can be transmuted into a sculpture,” she says.
For her first major gallery show, in 2021, Prêt-àPatria—a portmanteau of the French for “ready-to-wear” and the Spanish word patria, for “homeland”—she homed in on one such motif: the soldier. The exhibition, at Kurimanzutto’s Mexico City headquarters, consisted of a sculpture shown alongside a video that was originally imagined as a performance, like a conceptual runway show, but COVID had other plans.
In the video, an infantry squadron in a dusty lot performs the escolta, a ceremony of military drills that dates back to the Mexican Revolution. The soldiers, mostly older men with slight paunches, are dressed in standard green fatigues and white gloves with some Sánchez-Kane alterations.
“WITH FASHION YOU GET TO PUT IT ON AND MAKE IT YOUR OWN—EVEN FUCK WITH IT. WITH ART, WE GIVE IT THIS SACRED SPACE OF NOT WANTING TO TOUCH THE PIECE. I LIKE TO INTERACT.”
The combat boots have bulbous clown toes; their service caps are comically distended, jutting out so the visor dangles like a phallus; and the backs are cut out to reveal a full set of red lace lingerie, the thongs riding up between their tightly clenched cheeks as they goose-step in formation.
Mexicans are inundated with images of revolutionary heroism. Full of macho pageantry, these myths form a core pillar of the country’s self-image. Where other artists might hesitate to remix such sacred symbols, fearing backlash or simply falling into cliché, Sánchez-Kane is down to go there— all the way there. One of the men in the video, who she found online through a civil association that performs such ceremonies, tried to back out of the video, saying the lingerie made him feel like less of a man. “So I gave him proof that he wasn’t going to lose his masculinity, that he had nothing to worry about,” she says. What, exactly, did she tell him? “That’s kind of private.” She raises her eyebrows.
Military green made a return at her solo show in New York last year, in the form of a leather suit with an egg-carton texture that is a mind-boggling technical feat. It took her a few tries to get it right: First, she had to get the texture to hold its shape using a complex heating process. Then, after trying—and failing—to glue the pattern together, she realized it could be sewn but needed zhuzhing to fix the weird lumps. In the gallery,
the wearable sculpture was draped on a chair with the object that inspired it resting on a pant leg: an egg-shaped metal weight with a smiley face she spotted one day at the market. “Tiny objects just make me feel something, like Polly Pockets,” she says.
Mexico’s circus-like street commerce has inspired a lot of her work. The other day, she was standing on the street talking to a friend, and turned around to see an agua fresca stand, the kind with glass jugs full of horchata and other sugary drinks. There were two adjacent jugs with stirring spoons inside them spinning in sync, in the same direction, at the same speed—but the stand was abandoned. There was nobody stirring.
The vignette reminded her of “Perfect Lovers,” the iconic installation by late artist Félix GonzálezTorres, in which two adjacent clocks are set to the same time, and eventually fall out of sync over the course of an exhibition—a devastating metaphor about the death of his partner. This gesture is the basis of a current work-in-progress, and while she won’t say anything more about the object itself or where it will be shown, she was selected to debut new work at the main pavilion of this year’s Venice Biennial. Object aside, just the germ of the idea points to Sánchez-Kane’s superpower: connecting dots we couldn’t see at first, though they were there the whole time.
PRIX WORKSHOP UNDER HOOD
The brand channels Tekken, drift cars, and “those who live on the fringe” into sleek sartorial creations.
WORDS
BY
Courtney Kenefick
Esther Ng & Maming
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Esther Ng, the founder and designer of PRIX Workshop, is contemplating her next automotive investment. Already the owner of a crimson Nissan Skyline GT-R and a glossy, cherry red Mazda RX-7 that she calls Fred, she’s hoping to add a dedicated drift car to her fleet in support of her burgeoning drifting skills, which she practices under the eye of her “very, very patient friends.” The purchase is fitting for Ng, who ascended to the fashion stage by translating her love of car and gaming culture into PRIX Workshop, a fashion and lifestyle brand that adopts core aesthetics and themes from these realms in its designs, visuals, and collaborations.
Based in Hong Kong by way of Auckland, PRIX Workshop was a lifetime in the making for Ng. Throughout university, she had established an engaged following on Instagram and Twitch by posting automotive content and live streaming her favorite games, but had expected to land a job in management and IT consulting—a prospect that left her feeling lost. “The life I planned after graduating didn’t align with my core skills and passions,” she says. “It wasn’t until I took a trip to China with my dad that I decided to give design a shot. My parents were subconsciously my inspiration.” The knowledge of her father, an auto mechanic, and the skills learned from her mother, a seamstress, would blend together to lay the foundation for her career as a designer and entrepreneur.
As the label has evolved, it’s become evident that Ng’s genius lies in her ability to draw visual queues from various niches and cultural references, offering a subtle nod to those who love the same things as her without alienating those who don’t. With Ng being the ultimate test case for the label, which encompasses collections for men and women, as well as sport and knit lines, she creates garments that directly correlate with her lifestyle. Half-zip catsuits and bodysuits make sense for the race track as much as for a night out; high neck, body-hugging mini dresses are replete with sporty details like thumb holes and performance fabrics; micro bikinis are cut in high-vis tones, reflective materials, and pixelated camo prints. Menswear offerings, like moto jackets and pit crew shirts, are inspired by games like Need For Speed, Forza, and Gran Turismo, as seen in her ongoing collaborative efforts with the Atlanta-based creative collective PINKFLAMINGOUSA. “My hope is that I do a good job of leaving enough Easter eggs in our designs so people can be reminded of their childhood, too,” she says.
As for fueling her own nostalgia, perhaps there is no better project than PRIX Workshop’s recent collaboration with Tekken 3. The first drop of the collection sold out in a day, a testament to Ng staying true to the promise of her premise. And she’s not taking her foot off the gas any time soon.
PRIX WORKSHOP DRAWS MANY REFERENCES TO GAMING AND RACING. HOW AND WHEN DID YOU FIND YOUR LOVE FOR THESE HOBBIES?
My childhood. If I had to track my interests, gaming started with playing Tekken 3 and Quake II with my brother, although he kind of fell off with gaming in high school. By then, it was a little too late for me and I stayed disgustingly hooked. As a teen, I worked at my dad’s auto workshop and connected with him and his love of cars daily. A lot of my work ethic comes from this period of my life. The beautiful thing is that many of these nostalgia points hit with other people, too.
HOW DID WORKING IN YOUR DAD’S AUTO SHOP MANIFEST AS A CORE THEME IN YOUR WORK?
Whether I like it or not, cars have been a huge overarching theme in my life. I really did detest cars while I was growing up because they were synonymous with work and stress. It wasn’t until I moved away from my family that I realized cars were an avenue to remain close to them. When forums aren’t cutting it, I still ring my dad to troubleshoot issues with my RX-7 or GT-R. That’s obviously baked into the DNA of PRIX, so the whole workshop concept, campaign themes, and everything I do stems from it in a way.
YOU’VE TRANSLATED A RACING AESTHETIC INTO SOMETHING DISTINCTLY FEMININE FOR YOUR WOMEN’S DESIGNS—MINI-DRESSES, CUT-OUT KNITS, FLATTERING SPORTSWEAR. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT STRIKING THIS BALANCE BETWEEN A SPORTY AESTHETIC AND CELEBRATING FEMININITY?
It’s important that women feel properly equipped to face anything life throws at them. My main inspiration for our PRIX Sport line was women who live on the fringe of sports and more male-centric hobbies—professional female drifters, race car drivers, MMA fighters, motorcyclists, powerlifters, mechanics, pilots. I wanted them to feel seen, look amazing, and be able to still hold onto their femininity while killing it [in their respective fields].
THE BEAUTIFUL THING IS THAT MANY OF THESE NOSTALGIA POINTS HIT WITH OTHER PEOPLE, TOO.
THE MAIN INSPIRATION FOR OUR PRIX SPORT LINE WAS WOMEN WHO LIVE ON THE FRINGE OF SPORTS AND MORE MALE-CENTRIC HOBBIES.
IN MANY WAYS, IT FEELS LIKE PRIX WORKSHOP IS A RESPONSE TO MORE MALE-LED SPACES—STREETWEAR, GAMING, RACING, ETC. WHAT GAP DO YOU FEEL PRIX IS FILLING?
It’s about existing in these spaces in your own way. I think PRIX, through its releases and collaborations, has offered an avenue for many to explore streetwear, gaming, and racing on their own terms.
PRIX WORKSHOP RECENTLY COLLABORATED WITH TEKKEN 3, WHICH IS A FRANCHISE THAT ALSO GOT YOU HOOKED ON GAMING. WAS THAT A PARTNERSHIP MANY YEARS IN THE MAKING?
The Tekken character King and his athletic outfit was on my mood board well before I started PRIX. So when I had the chance to collaborate with the game, the jaguar print track pants were the first thing I knew I had to make.
PRIX WORKSHOP HAS BEEN WORN BY A SLEW OF CELEBRITIES, INCLUDING ARIANA GRANDE, KIM KARDASHIAN, SZA,
AND KYLIE JENNER. WHO HAS BEEN THE MOST SURPRISING PERSON YOU’VE SEEN WEAR THE BRAND?
I really loved seeing Momo from TWICE wearing PRIX. I have no idea how she got our stuff, but it was definitely a highlight for me. I equally love receiving photos from people who’ve spotted PRIX in the wild while they’re traveling.
SINCE SO MUCH OF YOUR LIFE INFORMS YOUR WORK, WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE NOT DESIGNING OR RUNNING OPERATIONS AT PRIX?
I’m terminally exhausted from traveling, so the greatest luxury in my life now is getting to stay at home and play games. At the moment I’m into DCS World and Apex. Other than that, I love visiting Japan when I can. I think I’ll be going more frequently this year. And I love practicing drifting with my very, very patient friends. Hopefully, I’ll be picking up a dedicated drift car soon.
GX1000 WILD MEN
WORDS BY JONATHAN SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY BY DENNIS MCGRATH
THE SAN FRANCISCO SKATE CREW HAS A SINGULAR TAKE ON DESIGNING CLOTHES AND DECKS SUITED FOR BOMBING MASSIVE HILLS.
ON WHEELS
If you were trying to explain skateboarding to aliens, showing them a GX1000 video would be a good place to start. A lot of skateboarding today is highly technical: In an average video, skaters will string two, three, sometimes four tricks together into a Voltron-esque line that is inscrutable to anyone not steeped in skateboarding knowledge. Watching a GX1000 video, on the other hand, is a visceral experience, immediately understandable by anyone who can grasp the basic concepts of momentum and risk.
Based in San Francisco, GX1000’s rotating cast of skaters bomb their city’s hills in roving packs, screaming and hooting after one of them grinds a ledge into a descent that makes your palms sweat just watching it from the couch. They are skateboarding’s id, representing every skater’s most base desire to grind stuff and haul ass. Their tricks are sometimes blunt and foundational, a 50-50 grind on a chunky ledge, or a wallie over a planter. Often, the meat of the line comes immediately after, when they ride off into the sunset down a hill so steep it looks like it could melt the urethane wheels off a skateboard.
GX1000 was informally founded around 2008, when Ryan Garshell started making videos for Slap Magazine’s website. At the time, the site’s editor wanted a regular video series with an underlying theme. Garshell was still shooting with a camera called the VX1000—a once-ubiquitous model within skating known for grainy footage often shot with a fisheye lens—while the rest of the industry was moving on to fancier HD cameras. His last name, combined with the camera he used, provided the title for the video series that would one day become a full-on skate and clothing brand with four seasonal collections per year.
But GX1000 might have stayed just a video series if it weren’t for Garshell’s longtime friend Stephen McClintock. While working at a bar in New York, McClintock reached out to Garshell and suggested he make some product to accompany the increasingly popular videos. “He was like, ‘Don’t you want to do cool stuff, go on trips with your friends, and be able to give them free gear?’” Garshell remembers. They started with simple t-shirts around 2014, eventually moving on to more ambitious products like screen-printed jackets embellished with patches, plus collaborations with artists like Dave Schubert, Michael St. John, Petra Cortright, Peter Sutherland, and others.
Today, Stephen still handles the design and production process, while Ryan oversees the skateboarding and video side of the business, but both embrace a communal approach, asking the other skaters in the crew for input on creative decisions. This strategy has led to a cohesive visual identity across their clothes, skateboards, and videos. The products they release feel distinctly a part of who they are as a group of friends. And while Stephen recently relocated to Ohio, the core crew got together in San Francisco for a photoshoot and Zoom call where they weighed in on the connection between skateboarding and fashion, the city’s tech scene, and their approach to creating videos that make viewers feel like they’re sharing a 12-pack at the session.
“IT’S JUST WHO WE ARE AND HOW WE FUNCTION, NOT EVEN AS A BRAND, BUT AS A CREW. IT’S MORE OF A FAMILY.”
STEPHEN, I KNOW YOU DO MOST OF THE CLOTHING DESIGN YOURSELF. DO YOU HAVE A BACKGROUND IN FASHION OR ARE YOU SELF-TAUGHT?
STEPHEN MCCLINTOCK: I’m pretty self-taught. When I left San Francisco and went to New York, that’s kind of where I learned graphic design and had friends who taught me. I feel like I kind of did it in a smart way, just doing tees and printables before evolving into cut-and-sew stuff. And then just learning how to communicate better and email, too. I’m not just like, “Yo, what up?” It’s a learning curve.
YOU HAD TO LEARN HOW TO BE MORE PROFESSIONAL.
SM: Yeah, I feel like I’m better at communicating and handling situations now. Just figuring out after making a graphic, like, “Oh, this should have been vectorized and screen printed, or this one should be a CMYK print, or damn, I should have made these pants a quarter-inch wider.” I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and think about fucking pocket sizes and stuff like that.
IS THERE A PARTICULAR TYPE OF GX1000 CLOTHING THAT YOU THINK YOU’VE REALLY NAILED?
SM: It comes in waves, but I would say pants. I’m always kind of tweaked on pants. The hoodies, too. I think our cut-andsew hoodies are the best fucking fitting hoodies. And the price point… we should charge a lot more money than what we sell those for.
“IT’S A SELF-CHALLENGE THING: CAN YOU OVERCOME YOUR FEAR?”
SKATEBOARDING HAS ALWAYS AFFECTED BROADER FASHION TRENDS TO A CERTAIN EXTENT, BUT IT HAS RECENTLY REACHED NEW, SOMETIMES SURREAL LEVELS WITH JW ANDERSON’S SKATEBOARD SWEATER AND CELINE MAKING THEIR OWN $1,000 SKATEBOARD. AS THE OWNERS OF A SKATE CLOTHING BRAND, DO YOU HAVE THOUGHTS ON HOW SKATING INFLUENCES FASHION?
RYAN GARSHELL: I think it’s a hybrid of multiple things. Skateboarding is such a subculture, and any subculture that’s true to its roots is hard to enter and gain acceptance to. I think a large part of fashion is about people wanting to gain acceptance from those who it’s hardest to get that from.
SM: Skating wasn’t cool when we started doing it. It was so different, just hanging out in the back of parking lots. So it’s cool to see kids now being in Louis Vuitton stuff… dude, that’s fucking sick.
RG: Now it’s cool to be the dirty dude in baggy pants, but it wasn’t when we were kids. The general populace wasn’t really hyped on you being a skateboarder. But fashion is influenced by subcultures, whether it’s graffiti or underground house music or hip-hop or whatever. I think people take references from that and bring it to the mainstream because it gives them credibility. And to be completely real, I think most people aren’t that cool. And that’s just how it is. Pop music, if you listen to it and you think about it, most of it sucks. It’s the same thing with clothes.
SM: But we’re not cool. We’re still not cool.
RG: Yeah, I’m definitely not claiming to be cool. I’m just saying that taste is subjective, and my taste doesn’t align with popular taste most of the time. And I think that’s how subcultures thrive, by not aligning with popular tastes. If you can translate that less popular taste in a way that is still visually appealing, you stand to gain something out of doing that. I think that’s how fashion is affected by skateboarding.
THE HOMIE SKATE CREW IS AN AGE-OLD TRADITION IN SKATING, BUT GX1000 SEEMS TO ROLL PARTICULARLY DEEP. I’D IMAGINE THAT’S AT LEAST PARTLY OUT OF NECESSITY BECAUSE YOU NEED A BUNCH OF PEOPLE TO BLOCK TRAFFIC GOING DOWN A HILL. WHAT’S THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF SPOTTERS YOU’VE USED?
SM: The more beers you bring, the more people just start showing up. They just multiply like gremlins.
RG: I’ve definitely used quite a lot of spotters. For the larger hills directly in the city, you need more. I don’t know the exact amount, but I would say probably 10 people. But it’s not just a necessity with the spotters, I think it’s just who we are and how we function, not even as a brand, but as a crew. It’s more of a family.
A FRIEND RECENTLY SAID THAT THE GX1000 DUDES ARE THE GNARLIEST GUYS IN SKATING, BUT IT SEEMS LIKE NO ONE KNOWS THEIR NAMES. AND WHILE THAT’S NOT ENTIRELY TRUE, I KNEW WHAT HE MEANT. A VERY RECENT THRASHER INTERVIEW STARTS WITH, “SO WE FINALLY GOT A NAME FOR THE GUY WITH THE BEARD.” IS THAT SOMETHING YOU GUYS HAVE NOTICED, TOO? WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS?
RG: [Laughs] For sure. I think that has a lot to do with my approach to showcasing the actual skateboarding. I know it can be to a fault for the actual skaters and their professional careers, which is unfortunate. I don’t think it should be that way, but I do recognize it. My goal when I’m making a video or trying to shoot a photograph or anything is to make you feel like you’re there. And so I stopped putting names in the videos maybe a decade ago. To me, that just disassociates the viewers so heavily from feeling like they’re there. But I think that also makes it a little more difficult for an average viewer who isn’t a really deep fan to know who everyone is. However, I think that’s cool because the people who do know [the skaters’ names] really care.
SM: He just doesn’t want to write the names because it’s more work. He doesn’t really know how to type or spell. It should be a C, but he’s writing a K and then he just gets all turned around.
I’M SURE THAT YOU’VE GOTTEN THIS QUESTION BEFORE, BUT HAVE YOU GUYS EVER PUT A SPEED GUN ON PEOPLE?
RG: [Laughs] There was a police radar sign in the San Francisco neighborhood Twin Peaks and me and Pablo Ramirez used to try to go as fast as we could past it. But no, I haven’t really done that. It’s not about going the fastest, that’s what people don’t understand. It’s about scaring yourself and going fast, feeling alive, having a bond with your friends, and being able to trust people to the utmost extent where you’re like, “I could die if my friend didn’t spot for me. Or if he falls right in front of me, I’m going to fall and get fucked up, too.”
IT’S LIKE A COOL TRUST FALL.
SM: Yeah, I just think it’s about more than going as fast as you can, because there are longboarders and people who skate certain setups in order to go much faster than we’ve ever gone. It’s a self-challenge thing: Can you overcome your fear? And something that always sticks out in my mind is what one of the guys, Zach Krull, once said to me: “The moment you get scared or doubt yourself, that’s when you’re going to go down.”
GX1000 FEELS LIKE THE POLAR OPPOSITE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO TECH SCENE. HAVE YOU GUYS NOTICED THE INFLUX OF TECH MONEY AFFECTING THE SKATE COMMUNITY AT ALL? HAS IT MADE CERTAIN SPOTS HARDER TO SKATE?
RG: I would say that it affects certain aspects of skating, but also it doesn’t really matter. Yeah, it’s become harder to afford to live here and be a skate rat, that’s just realistic. But man, there are new kids coming every week. And more kids are skating here than ever. I think regardless of the tech industry or any industry that could pop up, you can’t skate stop the hills. People will still come here and figure it out and try to live out their dreams anyway.
SM: It’s those cars that don’t have the drivers you got to watch out for.
RG: Yeah, that’s pretty scary. JP Escobar got hit by one in our [2022] video Right Here for Pablo. That is the first sign of the tech industry affecting the hills, I would say.
YOU GUYS HAVE DONE A LOT OF ARTIST COLLABORATIONS OVER THE YEARS. HOW DO YOU APPROACH THOSE PROJECTS AND ARE YOU PARTICULARLY EXCITED ABOUT ANY COMING UP?
SM: We’ve been working with Jonathan Yarolem, he’s been doing the board graphics lately. We still do stuff with Joe Roberts [aka LSD Worldpeace] a shit ton. He’s family at this point. But a lot of this new stuff has been in collaboration with Jonathan, and so we’re hyped on that.
RG: I love all the artists we work with, whether it’s a one-time thing or an ongoing relationship. Everybody’s been so amazing and Stephen does such a good job of translating their vision onto the boards. Honestly, it boggles me how he does it every time. You’d be surprised how hard it is to just put someone’s artwork on a board and have it actually make sense.
SM: If we work with someone, we just try to make them feel comfortable. I don’t know, we might seem intimidating or fucking crazy or something, but we’re really nice.
ITAL FOOD, IRIE VIBES
From a three-wheeled cart to one of Paris’ hottest cafes, founders Coralie Jouhier and Daqui Gomes have used food as
“Jah Jah is a canteen serving simple food, like mama’s food—dishes we have back home.”
In the Rastafari lexicon, food is seen as a way to be one with nature—and as medicine for the body. “Ital food,” derived from “vital food,” is seen as food that’s organic, clean, and pure.
Though Paris is almost five thousand miles from Jamaica, the principles of Ital food are strong at Jah Jah, an Afro-vegan cafe and creative collective in the heart of Paris’ Strasbourg-Saint-Denis neighborhood. Founders Coralie Jouhier and Daqui Gomis cook up plant-based iterations of dishes that touch every corner of the African diaspora, ranging from court-bouillon—a fish broth from the French West Indies island of Martinique that Jouhier’s mother would make—to the hardy rice, vegetable, and tomato sauce of tiep, the national dish of Senegal, which also provides a nod to Gomis’ Senegalese father. In place of the chicken, fish, or beef usually found in these recipes, Jah Jah punches up its flavor with everything from plantains to okras. “I never thought the things we ate at home could appeal to so many people,” says Jouhier.
Jouhier and Gomes’ success in the food industry wasn’t overnight. Before Jah Jah, the two ran Le Tricycle, a three-wheeled food cart from which they’d hawk vegan hot dogs, seitan-based sausages housed in crunchy baguettes and topped with guacamole, crispy fried onions, and cilantro. (They proved so popular, in fact, that they’re still on the menu at Jah Jah today.) The two founders turned their food cart into a successful cafe, then turned that cafe into a cultural nexus.
Jah Jah’s loving culinary tributes to the African diaspora and rich gift for storytelling (after all, every good recipe is a narrative, too) quickly established the outfit as an in-demand collaborative partner, both inside and outside the food sphere. Jah Jah has a sound system that’s hosted a Popcaan concert—which Gomis opened, DJing under the name Jahdaquiss—and has curated a stage at Paris’ famed “Fête de la musique” festival, complete with merchandise designed in partnership with Billionaire Boys Club.
The Jah Jah umbrella also contains Jahiking, an outfit started with the goal to reconnect people of color with nature that eventually caught the eye of Salomon, leading to two collaborations: an RX Moc 3.0 that salutes African diasporic history, and an ACS Pro Advanced that celebrates West African myths. Apart from music and hiking, they’re also a presence in the world of design with Jah Jah Studio, a communal space that sells everything from merchandise to African rugs and furniture created in collaboration with Parisian design collective Hall Haus. There, they’ve hosted pop-ups with brands like Places Plus Faces and Protect the Children, as well as organized film screenings, readings, and art exhibitions.
In short, Jah Jah is at the very center of Paris’ cultural gumbo, and they’re not gonna stop cooking any time soon. In their own words, here’s how they’re spicing things up.
TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELVES.
CORALIE JOUHIER: I’m Coralie, co-owner of Jah Jah with Daqui, and I’m a chef. I’m with Daqui in real life, too! We’ve been together for 16 years.
DAQUI GOMIS: My name is Daqui. I’m 30. No, no, I’m 34 [ laughs]. We have the restaurant, a sound system, and we’ve just opened the studio—a modular space where we host exhibitions, screen movies, book readings, and so on. We really want Jah Jah Studio to be part of the community, to help connect people.
CORALIE: We have a hiking club, too, because contact with nature is really important. The goal was to connect with our people and to connect our people with nature.
HOW AND WHY DID YOU START JAH JAH?
CORALIE: Le Tricycle got us into the culinary world, but as our ideas developed, we discovered the conviction to speak our culture through food. We make Afro-vegan food with roots in the Caribbean and Africa, but we make it consciously. I focus on the food and create our recipes, and Daqui does all the creative concepts.
WHERE DOES THE NAME COME FROM?
DAQUI: Jah is God. And we are two. When you listen to reggae music you hear “Jah Jah.” We also wanted to highlight the Ital food movement.
WHAT ROLE DOES FOOD PLAY IN YOUR LIFE?
DAQUI: Héritage
CORALIE: Yeah, it’s a heritage thing. This path we’ve taken, all the recipes, helps to keep the culture alive. We have a big Afro-Caribbean community here, but not so many restaurants that tell our story. We want to share our
culture with the people, and we want people to feel represented. That’s why we speak a lot about the Ital movement because it’s a Black vegan movement from the Caribbean.
HOW DO YOU BALANCE CULTURE AND TRADITION WITH VEGAN FOOD?
DAQUI: It’s difficult. My mum didn’t understand why I stopped eating meat. She does now, but it was very difficult at first. It’s very sad to tell your mother that you can’t eat her food anymore.
CORALIE: It’s cool being vegan in a non-vegan family because you see the barriers fall. But it’s also difficult because you’re in a world where everybody always questions everything. Everybody has an opinion. But it’s a journey.
THE FRENCH ARE VERY PROUD OF THEIR CUISINE. HOW HAS YOUR RESTAURANT BEEN RECEIVED?
DAQUI: People like it because it’s different. People want to travel with their taste buds. I think the food’s been received well… I hope!
CORALIE: I don’t know if we really thought about this when we started, but they’ve received it so well. Jah Jah is a canteen serving simple food, like mama’s food— dishes we have back home. I didn’t think the things we ate at home could appeal to so many people. It’s really different from French cuisine. But, as Daqui said, people want to travel. That’s why it speaks to people in our community and to others.
“People want to travel with their taste buds.”
HOW DO YOU SOURCE YOUR INGREDIENTS?
CORALIE: We work with one guy who supplies our organic veggies. Besides him, we work with local vendors for exotic produce.
WHAT INSPIRED THE RESTAURANT’S DESIGN?
CORALIE: Daqui designed it! He did almost everything. The inspiration comes from the kinds of canteens you’d find in the Caribbean in the 1970s, like the Formica tables. We have a big painting in the restaurant by Kione Grandison, a Jamaican artist. We were on holiday there and saw her working. We didn’t even have a restaurant yet, but said, “If one day we do, we’re going to call you.” When we got the keys to the restaurant, she came to Paris and did her thing. We gather inspiration on our travels, but also some of the small decorative things you’ll find in the restaurant.
HOW WAS WORKING WITH SALOMON?
CORALIE: It was the first big collab we did with a brand, and it was amazing because they were really open to all of our ideas. We were surprised because usually brands want more control. But they were really open-minded. They really supported us and trusted us.
YOU’VE JUST MADE SOME RUGS. WHAT INSPIRES JAH JAH MERCH?
DAQUI: Nigo! Nigo, man, he’s the guy. I’ve wanted to design things ever since I first saw pictures of Pharrell and Nigo doing cool stuff when I was young. I’d like to design a table, maybe a chair. We love design. Each thing we do should express something.
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR YOU?
DAQUI: Tokyo, Senegal, or LA.
CORALIE: A mix of everything. We’re enjoying the ride now, but we’re always thinking about doing what we do here in a different way. In a different place, maybe?
DAQUI: We have kids. I think it’s good for them to travel. To teach them about different cultures. Jah Jah is the pretext to travel.
CORALIE: When we began with Le Tricycle, the idea was to move with it, not to stay in the same city. We want to be like nomads. But, for the moment, we enjoy Paris and are grateful that we’re here.
DAQUI: We don’t want to be sédentaire
METH ODO LOGY Chapter 2
METH ODO LOGY
The Holy Trinity of Vintage Grails
WORDS BY SAMI REISS PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIAN MASTER
NEW YORK’S FANTASY EXPLOSION, LEISURE CENTRE, AND INTRAMURAL SHOP HAVE REDRAWN THE BORDERS OF SELLING VINTAGE MENSWEAR INTO SOMETHING MORE ROBUST THAN A CAVERNOUS STORE WITH A GOOD PAIR OF LEVI’S HIDDEN INSIDE.
How do you build a vintage clothing business when sourcing is no longer a secret? It’s not a question anyone selling would have asked a couple of years ago. The best—like Fantasy Explosion, Leisure Centre, and Intramural Shop, all from New York—and the rest all find ignored old clothes in the wild, present them in a different context, and filter out the chaff. But now with so much stock and with countless Instagram accounts pushing deadstock, north feels like south in the vintage menswear landscape.
When those three businesses’ founders began sourcing and building their brands a few years before the pandemic, selling men’s casual vintage— jeans, sweatshirts, tees, workwear, occasional designer items—still functioned as a distinctly secret space. Thrift spots were guarded, references were kept face down, and knowledge was shared on a need-to-know basis. But things have changed since lockdown. The so-called “Zizmorcore” aesthetic trend—hyperlocal merch that revolves around dusty New York institutions, from restaurants to municipal agencies—that Fantasy Explosion’s Kevin Fallon helped spur evolved from a sliver of vintage into its own legit racket, with a wellspring of imitators to boot.
This particular thread of vintage menswear has morphed into something more mainstream and salient, in large part due to the trio’s curation, offerings, and social media presences. Fallon, who started Fantasy Explosion around 2013, set the standard for hyperlocal curios (defunct restaurant shirts, Department of Sanitation pickup league gear, G-Unit and Elvis merch, Village Vanguard swag). He’s expanded into a Greenpoint store, selling cut-and-sew items he’s found, trinkets, and evergreen staples like camouflage, sweats, and leather. In 2021, Frank Carson opened Leisure Centre on Hester Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown after years of selling online and at flea markets. The shop has widened into something between a social hub and a clearinghouse for designer clothing and sportswear, closet sales, pop-ups, and jean-short activations. Bijan Shahvali started Intramural Shop’s brick-and-mortar presence as Carson’s Hester co-tenant, offering distilled promo swag like Whitney Museum construction helmets, crew jackets and hats from movie productions, and Doubleday Publishing tees. He’s since pivoted to selling online, doing pop-ups, and collaborating with brands like A24 and Herman Miller, for whom he functions as both an archivist and vendor. Together, the three have redrawn vintage clothing’s borders to something more robust than a cavernous store with a good pair of Levi’s hidden inside.
And while copycats, new jacks, and big brands have encroached on this particular clothing aesthetic, the three say the vintage hustle isn’t that different from when they started reselling. It’s still about finding old stock and curating it. The difference now is that it’s also about producing new clothes that play off nostalgic designs, like Leisure Centre making its own DJ Screw hats. Or Fantasy Explosion bootlegging and reprinting rarities that have long since vanished, such as an obscure Porsche Racing t-shirt. Call it vintage 2.0, where the line between previously-owned clothing and new releases that use bygone imagery and appropriated reference points have blurred. As the forerunners of this niche but increasingly popular clothing subculture, Fallon, Carson, and Shahvali hopped on a call together to discuss the restaurant industrial merch complex, Brian Procell’s influence on the vintage game, their personal grails, and how the algorithm influences their operations.
If it was up to me, I’d be on the road every day sourcing clothes.
I don’t want to do anything else. I wish I could just source and inject the pieces into the machine.
WHAT WAS THE “ZIZMORCORE” WAVE LIKE FOR YOU? HOW DID THE MEDIA SPOTLIGHT ON THAT TREND AFFECT YOUR DIGGING AND HOW YOU RUN YOUR BUSINESSES?
KEVIN FALLON I didn’t ask for that title— let’s start there. Who did that story, New York Magazine? Labeling the aesthetic was a step in the wrong direction; it devalued it and made it more mainstream. Then it got ruined. It was good for other pickers, as it gave them a sense of what could sell. But I’ve always hated that name so much.
FRANK CARSON That aesthetic was something Kevin had already identified. When the trend popped off, it was pertinent: restaurants needed merch to survive the pandemic, and Kevin was already exposing people to that local history. There’s nowhere it’s more potent than New York. We were all riding the trend in various ways. In an academic sense, it was interesting. But it’s crazy how nobody cares about it anymore.
BIJAN SHAHVALI It’s trickle-up. It’s similar to how Zara and fast fashion companies see what’s on the runway and replicate that. We deal with things that tap into cultural nostalgia; people look and take from that. We unearth a cool relic and someone with resources will cash in. I see it with bootleg t-shirt guys taking stuff I’ve had up.
You’re correct, and that’s the cycle: the next trendy thing trickles up to those up top in the fashion space.
DO YOU SEE A TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT AS WELL?
Maybe it’s not trickle-down, but you can still see “Zizmorcore” around today. Every restaurant has merch now. I was just in Paris and went to some random restaurant that had its own Fanelli’s style shirt and hat.
A lot of people are injecting themselves into this, like Ray’s Bar and S&P Lunch. Restaurant merch is a great cash grab.
It’s the saturation of vintage. There are certain sellers who perpetually look for something underexposed. New York’s institutions have resonance elsewhere, so we can be hyperlocal. It’s weird because it’s been beneficial for us: a niche or aesthetic gets traction, notoriety, and makes us money. Then it goes full circle and becomes really mainstream. So you either let it go, find another direction, or keep gassing it.
HOW ARE YOU ALL RESPONDING? GASSING OR MOVING?
I’ve tried to step away from New Yorkspecific things; I feel cornered by them. But I still gas it. I’m running a business. S&P Lunch isn’t taking the Reuben off the menu, after all. There’s market demand—people hit me up weekly for reprints of something I found or printed before. But I’ve graduated from doubling down on New York.
My motivation is finding the next thing that people haven’t seen. It’s a balance between things people expect from your brand and the
I recalibrated from a focus on objects with cultural or regional references to items with cultural references that also tap into nostalgia.
kooky shit that reminds you why you started doing this in the first place.
A brand’s an interesting thing. Either unwittingly or intentionally, you create or are assigned one. I can’t speak for you, Kevin, but it seems like you got cornered with it.
I didn’t ask for anyone to dig deep or to create this world. But they did, and they weren’t qualified enough to do so. The commentary bugs me. But I did find those “Zizmorcore” things interesting when I first picked them.
HOW DO YOU SEE EACH OTHER’S OFFERINGS NOW?
Kevin finds little nuggets and creates a very specific aesthetic. It’s not one thing… you can feel him in the designs. There is a lightness that makes it approachable. It’s to be taken seriously, though, too.
Look, we know each other very well, we know how we work. But from an outside perspective, there’s something so abundant about what Kevin does. It’s so thoughtfully and selectively put together, but also improbably plentiful. It’s confounding how you made a name, for better or worse, but keep growing and changing while retaining that recognizable point of view.
IS THAT SOMETHING YOU’RE ACTIVELY CHASING, KEVIN?
Today, I think more about who’s going to appreciate a certain reference, who’s going to come through the door of the shop. Now
it’s everybody, from the wieners to the cool kids. When I started selling, I didn’t really know what would hit. You experiment with Instagram, and crowdsource analytics. I began showing more left-field shit and got a good response. We all grew. Frank, look at what you’re offering now compared to four years ago. It’s more expansive. Leisure Centre shoots from the hip and is highly curated, but you don’t know what you’ll see when you walk in there. It feels like a community space, but it’s not so polished, or a “don’t touch anything” type of shop.
Community beyond aesthetics. Frank is always down to put people on. He gives people chances. Is that trickle-down? “You’re a smaller guy, do a pop-up so people can see what you’re doing because I like what you’re doing.” Not many can do a shop with such an approachable high-low balance.
And with Intramural Shop, there’s a very rigorous aesthetic appreciation. The references speak to design and design history. And so do the graphics on the new items.
ARE THERE FENCE POSTS FOR THESE AESTHETIC THREADS, BIJAN, OR IS IT ABOUT EXPANDING YOUR NICHE?
A year and a half ago, I recalibrated from a focus on objects with cultural or regional references to items with cultural references that also tap into nostalgia. Multi-layered things: say, a soccer shirt by a cool pop artist. And I think about you guys when I pick. Will Kevin like this? Is Frank going to go bonkers? It’s a mutual admiration society.
Or we think about [Procell founder] Brian Procell. I used to think about him quite often when I was picking.
HOW WOULD YOU GUYS DESCRIBE PROCELL’S INFLUENCE OVER HOW VINTAGE HAS SPREAD?
He’s the godfather.
He’s the God. He’s the Genesis.
Nobody can pretend Brian hasn’t influenced them or still influences them. Almost everything you could imagine, he had on his Tumblr in 2007. It’s a pioneering, encyclopedic legacy.
FRANK CARSON, LEISURE CENTRE:
Nobody can pretend Brian Procell hasn’t influenced them.
It’s a pioneering,
encyclopedic legacy.
IS ANYTHING IN YOUR SHOPS OR COLLECTIONS NOT FOR SALE? ARE THERE THINGS YOU’VE SOLD THAT YOU REGRET?
I’m good at trauma repression, so I can’t remember big hitters. When I started, I’d pick Nine Inch Nails shirts for five bucks and sell them at Artists and Fleas for $25. I thought, “Hey, I’m making five-X, I’m balling.” Then some guy bought out half my booth. I was underselling.
It was Brian.
He used to do that with my 2000s Nike tech wear and Herman Miller shit. He’d cash me out every week. I don’t regret that; you learn lessons. There was more availability and less people buying and selling then. But lately, everything I said I wouldn’t sell, I’ve sold. My archive consists of things a bit too offensive to sell. Irish Republican Army t-shirts, Hells Angels gear—things you can’t wear outside. The end goal is to put all that stuff on display in some capacity. Not at the shop, though.
I have Googoosh shirts. She’s an Iranian pop singer, the biggest in history. I won’t sell those, and anytime I see one, I buy it. But otherwise, I’ve grown to be less precious.
HOW MUCH OF YOUR TIME NOW IS SPENT STOCKING YOUR STORES? IS IT MORE PICKING, OR ONLINE DIGGING, OR PEOPLE COMING TO YOU AND SELLING STUFF?
I wish I had more time to source. Even if I didn’t have to photograph and ship items, it’s still all discarded clothing that needs to be cleaned and repaired. Now there’s so much competition with Instagram Story sales, Depop, closet sales, and people sourcing for themselves. You have to look under every single rock.
Sourcing has progressively worsened. But some things are becoming easier. With the store, people come to you and they know what to bring. If it was up to me, I’d be on the road every day, just sourcing. I don’t want to do anything else. I wish I could just source and inject the pieces into the machine.
If you boil it down, that’s all we want to do. But shop maintenance can supersede picking. It requires so much attention.
WHAT CHALLENGES CAME WITH MOVING FROM INSTAGRAM TO BRICK-AND-MORTAR OPERATIONS?
Stock is a big part. You have to merchandise, make things look good, sweep. Someone
has to be there. You expand: it’s difficult to maintain an extremely focused selection. But you also get extremely direct feedback IRL that you can respond to more easily than through Instagram. You get all these analytics from existing in a physical space.
What’s sitting at the store the longest? That’s much more valuable than an algorithm. You can’t really use Instagram’s algorithm anymore as a barometer of what will sell.
IS THERE A SIMILAR PROCESS BEHIND THE ORIGINAL, NEWLY-PRINTED ITEMS YOU RELEASE?
There’s freedom in making things when you want and putting them out against the backdrop of the vintage things.
We process thousands of graphic images from old shirts; we make whatever we want. It’s sporadic, and there’s no real structure.
The new merch is a distillation of all the things we curate and offer. It’s a challenge: How do you create something new that taps into these old things that you’re presenting?
That comes back to what we discussed at the start: Taking ownership of the inevitable dilution of what we’re putting out. So now we’re releasing, or recreating, our own versions of vintage items we’ve picked. It’s subverting itself, and functions as commentary, too.
RAUW ALEJANDRO,
THE PERREO PRINCE
JOINING REGGAETON SUPERSTAR RAUW ALEJANDRO AT HIS HOMECOMING CONCERT IN PUERTO RICO, WHERE THE MUSICIAN REFLECTS ON HIS MANY MILESTONES AND THE CREW THAT HELPED HIM REACH NEW HIGHS.
WORDS BY JHONI JACKSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY LEIA JOSPÉ
It’s mid-December in Puerto Rico, and Rauw Alejandro is backstage at the iconic Coliseo de Puerto Rico, the archipelago’s biggest indoor arena. Tonight marks the final installment of a sold-out, four-night concert series. Over the next four hours, he’ll perform more than 20 songs.
But Alejandro’s asthma is acting up. He slides into the corner of the couch opposite me so he can speak softly but still be heard. “It’s not chronic,” the musician says. “It’s just the weather sometimes. Before yesterday, my chest was really tight.”
Doctors helped. Now he’s fine, or at least claims to be. Asthma won’t stop resolute Rauw from giving his all onstage, especially in his native Puerto Rico. Tonight is for his fans, his people. It’s not the first time he’s filled this particular venue, but this go-around is extra special: It marks the end of an era.
In 2022, Alejandro built an aural and aesthetic world around Saturno, his third full-length album. While reggaeton will always be his foundation, he notes that “there’s always fusions.” One of those fusions was R&B: an inspiration that’s been crucial in distinguishing himself among his rap and trap-leaning genre counterparts. Saturno was darkly futuristic and heavy on late ‘80s synth and ‘90s drum machine beats. Visualizers featured giant-eyed, crater-headed aliens cruising outer space in blacklit vehicles. On the album cover, Alejandro—who regularly changes his look to match his current creative output—sported blue hair and mirrored glasses. Follow-up Playa Saturno extended the concept another year. Sonically, influences broadened, with an intimate, acoustic guitar opener, more R&B, a reggae cut, and heavier, perreo -style reggaeton (see “Ponte Nasty” with genre legends Jowell & Randy).
(PREVIOUS SPREAD) TOP: LOUIS VUITTON
(THIS SPREAD) TOP: OKANE, COWBOY BOOTS: STETSON, SNEAKERS: GOLDEN GOOSE
It’s been two years, though, and Alejandro says he’s now ready for a creative switch-up. So, the homecoming concerts mark a concluding chapter in his whirlwind career. To celebrate, the coliseum has been converted into a nightclub he calls Club Saturno, one with “no rules.”
The setup includes metallic, lamé-clad extraterrestrials dancing in illuminated columns along the center of the standing-room ground level, which is covered in a giant LED simulation of a dancefloor. Onstage, the nightclub vibe continues: it’s packed with dancers vibing around high-top tables. Producer Paco López later told a local news outlet that something like Club Saturno had never been done before in Puerto Rico.
“You guys are seeing a crazy Rauw onstage—in my single era,” Alejandro laughs.
During the performance, he nails a lot of complex choreography, as he typically does. However, he ups the sexuality meter with plenty of perreo (reggaeton’s hip and twerk-focused dancing), bringing fans onstage to perrear and perreando plenty himself, too. On multiple occasions throughout the show, a broadcaster encourages fans to scream if they wish to go home with Rauw. On the first night, a dildo was flung onstage.
“It’s just fun,” Alejandro says of the concert series. “I’m just doing it for the people that showed me love first, and that was my island.”
YOU GUYS ARE SEEING A CRAZY RAUW ONSTAGE—
IN MY SINGLE ERA
FUR JACKET: YOSSI
LEATHER HOOD: OKANE
SUNGLASSES: CHRISTIAN DIOR
Alejandro grew up in Carolina, near the San Juan airport. He got into making music at age 22, later than most superstars, because his passion was invested elsewhere prior. From childhood, he’d aggressively pursued professional soccer to the point of moving to Orlando, Florida in hopes of getting scouted. But an injury at 20 caused an early retirement. He’s grateful, though, that he “had the opportunity to experience normal life,” even when he was “broke as fuck.” Remembering those times, he adds, helps him appreciate more what he has today.
It’s important to note that Rauw Alejandro is the determined type, always operating with a purposeful gusto at all times. Athletics taught him discipline, and it’s served him well as a career musician. “I'm a person that when I decide to do something, I go for it,” he says. This meant committing fully to his pivot into performing, including taking classes to improve his vocals and dancing.
Ten years after posting his first demos to Soundcloud, he’s a bonafide superstar. His music hovers around the peaks of several Billboard charts, with six consecutive fulllengths—starting with his 2020 debut, Afrodisíaco—making it to the top 10 Latin Albums list. More than 42 million people worldwide listen to him monthly on Spotify, and Saturno received a Grammy nomination for Best Música Urbana Album.
The blissfully saccharine pop cut “Todo de Ti” marked his mainstream breakthrough. It’s the opener on 2021’s Vice Versa, where he explored sounds he describes as retro, happy, and romantic, with shades of Brazilian funk and house throughout. While the single grew his fame exponentially, Alejandro already had a solid following of fans drawn to his R&B-heavy style. In early interviews, he often cited Chris Brown as a major influence, not only for the artist’s sound but also his showmanship. Few artists in the Latin reggaeton and trap realm focus so intensely on dance as Alejandro does,
simultaneously singing and delivering energetic choreography. That level of performance, on display in his music videos and in concert, has made him a standout.
However, the key to breaking through was not just determination, but an acknowledgment that he couldn’t do it alone. Alejandro is a solo act, but he knew from the start that to truly succeed, he would need a rock-solid team behind him. “In this life, success—I think it’s about teamwork,” he says.
Many celebrities’ teams, especially those of musicians, are composed primarily of “day ones”—the folks who believed since the start and helped push an artist through the arduous come-up process. The makeup of Alejandro’s team is much like this. And some of his day-ones go all the way back to the 31-year-old’s teenage years.
Mr. NaisGai is one. He’s Alejandro’s mainstay producer, having worked on every fulllength release, from 2020’s Afrodisíaco to last year’s Playa Saturno. They knew each other only tangentially throughout high school, but shortly after graduating, he found out Alejandro was writing music and even beat-making on his own time. NaisGai messaged him on Facebook, the two linked up, and they’ve been practically inseparable since.
“We understood each other,” NaisGai says of the duo’s start. “I’d bring Rauw rhythms and he’d say, ‘I like this from this one, and this from another one.’ He already had in mind how the song would be. It helped a lot that Rauw thought like a producer.”
Backing Alejandro is his own personal production group, Los Sensei, Inc., which includes producers, publicists, and label management. Many of them, like NaisGai, joined Rauw’s journey early on. “Los Sensei have been with him basically forever,” NaisGai says.
(PREVIOUS SPREAD) SHIRT: ZANONE, PANTS: BOSS
SUNGLASSES: VADA, RINGS AND WATCH: RAUW’S OWN, PERSONAL BOOTS: R13
(THIS SPREAD) FULL LOOK: LOUIS VUITTON, SHOES: MAISON MARGIELA
ALL MY ALBUMS HAVE FUSION, FUSIONES, AND THEY FOCUS ON DIFFERENT
TYPES OF COLORS—
MUSICAL COLORS
FUR JACKET: YOSSI
SHIRT: OKANE
PANTS: OKANE
SUNGLASSES: CHRISTIAN DIOR
Alejandro stresses how important the crew is to the creation of the music. With eyes wide, he says, “We can be two weeks in a studio, and we create, like, seven albums.” The comment elicits a grin from NaisGai. “That’s called hyperbole,” NaisGai laughs. “But I don’t want to take away merit from that. We work much faster than the average team.”
“We already have an operating system, a chemistry,” NaisGai notes. And that symbiosis goes far beyond creating songs. These guys are more than collaborators, more than a working team. “We’re friends before anything else,” he adds. “Advice? We’re here for that. If Rauw needs opinions, moral support, or a hug—that’s what we’re here for.”
At this point, Nais Gai shows me proof of their brotherhood: a tattoo of Alejandro’s fox logo on the inside of his left wrist. “That’s the mark of the fox,” he says. “It’s the mark of the brotherhood we have. The commitment we made to Rauw.” Everyone in Los Sensei has a version of the ink, NaisGai adds.
Recently, Los Sensei gained another member: Alejandro’s mom. She’s now head of human resources. “Everyone loves her,” the artist says. “And it’s my mom. Who’s going to protect you more than your mom?”
The rest of his team, though? They’re family, too. Their history together, their collective come-up—it’s what makes the difference in Alejandro’s ability to deliver. “They're the real doctors,” he says. They know when personal problems are dragging him down, when he’s sad, mad, or even hungry.
Alejandro and I talk briefly about what’s next. “I got a lot of ideas,” he says shortly before taking the stage at Club Saturno. A few months from now, he’ll return with a brand new musical world and a new look. “All my albums have fusion, fusiones, and they focus on different types of colors—musical colors.”
But whatever happens, he assures, his team won’t change. After all, there’s no sense in fixing something that’s not broken. “This life that I have, being away from your family and your friends? It would be really, really hard,” he says. “I always say that I’m lucky to be in this life, in this career, with them.”
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF
I live day to day. I go to sleep having no clue what’s going to happen tomorrow. Days, hours, and pretty much any concept of time has disappeared. Everything feels like one long moment.
I have long-term goals, but I like to approach each day as if it’s a fresh start. There are constant projects in rotation that I work on for months straight, but I like to flow with the wind. If a new idea comes along, let’s change directions and go with it. Let’s be malleable, let’s update in real time, in real life.
Move with love, wake up with the right intentions, surround yourself with people who want the same thing—a dream big enough that there’s no clear path on how to even get there. So carve your own path, create your own reality.
Every day, we are blessed with a fresh opportunity to discover, experiment, and try different formulas for life and art. Live in the moment, let the wind take you where it goes. All of this only pans out if you actually work for it, hustle to the bone, and compete like there’s no tomorrow. It’s always crunch time.
Love your passion like it’s a life force—feed it, reassure it, sharpen it, own it. This is a small glimpse into a day in my life, a glimpse into a New York minute. This is #CLOVERMODE.
CIAN MOORE
GOOD NIGHT, GOOD MORNING
Sometimes I won’t leave the studio for days and days to make sure all the tasks at hand are executed to certified Clover standards. Night becomes morning, weekdays blend together, and time flies as we spend our lives creating.
TWO HAND ARMY
I have an inherent responsibility to get things done by any means necessary, no matter what the circumstances are—even if I have to do it all by myself. I think this comes from my Dad, who’s the exact same way. Thank you, Dad.
Go to the gym, be grateful, sharpen your tools, feel the pain!
PAIN!
MAD MAN
I am extremely passionate about reigniting the classic aura and swag of advertising. One of my goals in life is to exclusively wear suits—both on set and off.
CLOVER LABORATORIES
Kenny and I at the Clover Coffee Development Laboratories. The experiment was successful!
NEW SIGNATURE CLOVER DRINK
A typical day at the Clover cart when we release a new signature beverage. Tune in for the next drop…
IS REWRITING THE RULES OF K-POP
WORDS BY BRYAN HAHN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHANHEE HONG
THE 11-PIECE BAND IRONICALLY CALLS THEIR MUSIC “ALT K-POP.” BUT THE KOREAN COLLECTIVE’S WILD ENERGY AND PUNK APPROACH TO POP IS ANYTHING BUT A JOKE.
Cultural theorist Stuart Hall proffered the idea that to remedy a broken system, you must do it from “without.” The theory implies that since the system has an inherent flaw, it will always produce something unsatisfactory to the rebellious. The wild, 11-member Korean creative collective and band Balming Tiger couldn’t be having more fun embodying Hall’s sentiment.
SOGUMM (singer), OMEGA SAPIEN (rapper), MUDD THE STUDENT (producer/
rapper/singer), CHANHEE (photographer/ stylist/DJ), BJ WNJN (producer/singer), UNSINKABLE (DJ/producer), ABYSS (A&R/ DJ/producer), SAN YAWN (creative director), LEESUHO (producer/director), JAN QUI (director), and HENSON (A&R/video editor) have been touring, dancing, rapping, singing, and shooting enough videos together for the last five years to carve their own lane in , or the Korean Wave’s exploding music scene. While the group likes to say its self-described “alternative K-pop” project began partially as a joke, the genre within a genre has become the real deal, attracting co-signs from the country’s biggest stars and millions of listeners across the globe, despite being an independent act.
Balming Tiger stands out in the K-pop landscape both visually and sonically. Their music rapidly swerves from bombastic club rap to ‘70s-inspired surf rock to electro-tinged pop-punk, accompanied by swaggering lyrics that vacillate between English and Korean. Their music videos and press photos, all created in-house, are as essential to expressing their shitkicking attitude
as the music itself. “SEXY NUKEM,” for example, features scenes involving cypherpunk brain scanners and shots of a dozen men wearing suits and retro scuba masks as they smoke cigarettes inside an elevator. Every video, even their no-budget releases shot on iPhones, feels like joining the band on a psychedelic amusement park ride.
The collective’s merry prankster ethos is infectious and their DIY approach to music is even antithetical to the more polished personas in the K-pop landscape. Where other artists feel controlled and palatable in an effort to achieve mass appeal, Balming Tiger wants to shake the champagne and make a mess. And when others join the party, such as RM from BTS on the aforementioned “SEXY NUKEM,” they play in the 11-piece’s world and not the other way around.
Just after wrapping up a tour in support of January Never Dies, their debut full-length from late 2023, the entire group gathered to provide a rare look into the improvised routine that allows them to operate outside the status quo of both K-pop and Korean cultural norms.
“WE DO WHAT WE WANNA DO, AS CLICHÉ AS THAT SOUNDS.”
WHERE DO YOU USUALLY START WHEN YOU WANT TO CREATE SOMETHING NEW?
SOGUMM: First, all 11 of us need to meet.
OMEGA: I’m not good at planning. So we just meet up and throw stuff at the wall. Then we see what we connect with the most. That’s how we pick the direction a lot of the time, maybe all the time [laughs].
CHANHEE: Many of our ideas, like trailers, music videos, and song names, start as jokes.
OMEGA : The idea of calling our music “alt K-pop” also started as satire. “We’re not K-pop idols, but let’s make some K-pop anyway,” that idea. But as you do it more, you kinda become more aligned with it and believe in it. Even though it started as a joke, it became our reality. That’s Balming Tiger’s story: “This is funny, so let’s do it.”
WHAT’S AN EXAMPLE OF SOMETHING THAT STARTED AS A JOKE AND EVOLVED INTO A SERIOUS PROJECT?
OMEGA: “Sudden Attack.” I don’t know who came up with it, but someone was like, “Oh this song is really fast.” Even the album title January Never Dies. There’s no meaning behind it, but it has all the meaning to us. It comes from being spontaneous.
CHANHEE: Even during the last few hours leading up to the “Buriburi” video’s release, I debated if we should upload it, because we shot it on an iPhone. But then we uploaded it to YouTube, and it got a great reaction.
IS THERE A STARTING POINT THAT SPARKS YOUR GROUP CONVERSATIONS?
OMEGA: San Yawn usually brings in the big picture ideas, but we each have different sectors. At first, we were a little reluctant, but now we understand each other’s roles and boundaries more. We trust each other more now.
YOU ALL JOINED THE GROUP AT DIFFERENT TIMES. DID THAT PRESENT ANY ISSUES?
CHANHEE: Although we joined at different times, the last of us joined around the pandemic. So we spent a lot of time together and that helped. Being on tour helped, too.
OMEGA : I know I can’t do everything, and I understand that others in the group have their own strengths. So I don’t have to finish whatever we’re doing. I do the parts I want to do, leave it there, then someone I trust can continue it. Like Unsinkable can send a beat and someone will put a verse on it. When I make my solo stuff, I ask, “What should I write for my second verse?” Because writing the first verse and first hook is easy. But two minutes into a song, I’m like, “Oh shit, how do I get past this?” Then someone else will step in and continue building.
HOW WERE DECISIONS FOR CHOREOGRAPHY, OUTFITS, AND MERCH MADE FOR JANUARY NEVER DIES?
OMEGA : It’s a group thing, but it’s also a personal thing. For example, Chanhee designed the merch, but we all discussed everything together. Choreography, it’s like, “Yo, we got booked for Camp Flog Gnaw. Let’s book a dance studio and practice!”
YOU GUYS ARE VERY SELF-SUFFICIENT AND TIGHT-KNIT. DO YOU INVITE OTHERS TO WORK ON YOUR SHARED VISION?
OMEGA : One example is the engineer JNKYRD, who helps us with post-production on the music. Same with the talented director Eunhoo, who made the trailers for January Never Dies. The director Bang Jaeyeob has helped us since we started. Now he’s shooting some of
“WE TRIED TO FIT INTO THE PROGRAM AND WE COULDN’T.”
“CALLING OUR MUSIC ‘ALT K-POP’ WAS ORIGINALLY SATIRE. BUT EVEN THOUGH IT STARTED AS A JOKE, IT BECAME OUR REALITY.”
the biggest idols in Korea. For “POP THE TAG,” we didn’t have any budget. No lighting guy. Just me, San Yawn, and Bang. Often, we include friends of friends and embrace a DIY spirit.
MUDD THE STUDENT: There’s also our stylist Yeyoung Kim, who collaborates with Chanhee on our overall visual aesthetic.
WHAT SETS BALMING TIGER APART FROM OTHER GROUPS?
MUDD THE STUDENT: Our faces [laughs].
OMEGA : We do what we wanna do, as cliché as that sounds. There aren’t many groups in Korea that operate independently. Signing to a label doesn’t necessarily mean that an artist’s creativity is stripped away, but we’d rather come up with everything independently. And when it goes badly, we’ll take the L. But when it’s good, we made everything from start to finish. There’s joy in that. We felt lost a lot of the time because our path is so unconventional, so we can’t compare ourselves to other people. Mostly, we’ll do something we think is cool or fun, and we just lean into it. This is the only thing we can do. We tried to fit into the program and we couldn’t [laughs].
DO YOU SEE OTHER GROUPS LIKE BALMING TIGER POPPING UP?
OMEGA: I bet there are but, we don’t see any. The Korean music scene is so saturated and industrialized because the Korean market likes efficiency. Other people will bring in like 50 producers, and try to create a media company. And it’s only been 30, 40 years since contemporary music has been around here. The scene is very young. Since we like combining our energy, though, we joked about trying to break into the K-pop scene and then we had the idea of becoming an alternative to that. It’s not easy.
WHAT’S SOMETHING YOU HOPE TO HAVE ACCOMPLISHED WITH BALMING TIGER BY THE TIME YOU’RE READY TO MOVE ON TO THE NEXT THING?
OMEGA: When I see a young version of Omega Sapien in 2035 and this kid is like, “I saw you and it made me feel OK to be me.”
CHANHEE: Have my own house?
SOGUMM: I’ve never even thought about the end of all of this, but I’d like it if we all stayed friends.
South Korean designer harnesses the elements to create his one-ofa-kind, sun-bleached garments.
WORDS
BY JOYCE LI
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JDZ CHUNG
The first time South Korean designer Jiyong Kim encountered sun-bleaching, he was walking through Seoul’s fabric markets on a hunt for inspiration. At the time, he collected vintage denim and military pieces, but a chance encounter with a trench coat changed his life’s trajectory. The jacket had been displayed out in the sun for months and developed a faded pattern, unlike anything he had seen before. That lightbulb moment eventually led to his eponymous brand’s signature aesthetic. Where others saw defects, Kim saw the beauty of imperfection. By harnessing the power of sunlight and the elements, he realized he could use their effects—discoloration, roughened textures, one-of-a-kind patterns—to treat his clothing designs, yielding startling results.
While studying at Bunka Fashion College and Central Saint Martins, Kim worked at Lemaire, Louis Vuitton (under the late Virgil Abloh), and Maison MIHARA YASUHIRO, simultaneously honing his own design practice. He officially launched his own brand, stylized as JiyongKim, in 2021 after the Tokyo-based shop GR8 bought almost the entirety of his thesis collection. Eventually, shops like Dover Street Market, MR PORTER, and 10 Corso Como began carrying his weather-warped wares.
As Kim’s label has grown, he’s refined his experimental treatment practice, getting it “down to a science.” After extensive lab testing, he knows how certain fabrics will respond to various weather elements, and the creation process of a given collection becomes something akin to a field trip. For Kim’s latest collection, his team traveled to the countryside a few hours away from his Seoul studio to find the best natural environment for sun bleaching. The designer has also created clothing during the winter in sub-zero temperatures, as well as during the thick of summer when the fabrics get hit with scorching heat and heavy humidity. Depending on when and where the process takes place, asymmetrical markings, geometric patterns, and blended or faded colorations will form on the clothing.
Everything the JiyongKim label releases is one-of-one, and specific designs take months to be fully treated by the elements. Kim is patient with his process and is adamant about letting nature take its course. His innovative, sustainability-minded approach is as singular as the patterns on any given garment, a bespoke method that’s as organic as a ray of light.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR BRAND’S ORIGIN STORY? HOW DID YOU GET INTO FASHION?
As a young kid, I really wanted to express myself through fashion. Growing up, no one wore high-end clothes in South Korea, especially men. Fashion in South Korea 20 years ago was not like it is now. Since high school, I’ve collected vintage Levi’s, workwear, and military pieces. Some of my favorite designers graduated from Bunka Fashion College in Japan, influencing me to attend the school.
There, I learned a lot about technical skills like sewing a good quality garment, but the school lacked the creative support I wanted. So I moved to London to attend Central Saint Martins. I was not young like my classmates, so I felt the need to prove myself. But I always dreamt of being a creative director and launching my own brand, and this was the path towards achieving that goal.
HOW DID THE IDEA OF SUN-BLEACHING COME ABOUT? WHEN DID YOU KNOW THAT USING ELEMENTAL TREATMENT TECHNIQUES WOULD BE SOMETHING YOU’D MAKE A SIGNATURE PART OF YOUR PRACTICE?
My relationship with sun-bleaching came from seeing it on discarded material. I loved going to flea markets and finding vintage materials that were exposed to the sun and beautifully striped. No one else thought these pieces were beautiful, and they’d just throw them away. But I liked the imperfections and didn’t want to see them fixed.
I continued to collect vintage pieces and fabrics and began testing the sunbleaching technique during my studies at CSM. So when it was time for my final project, I was ready. I wanted to bring a new idea into the fashion industry that was very sustainable and unique. Also, I had not seen the technique used by any other brands.
HOW DO DIFFERENT CLIMATES, WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND TEMPERATURES AFFECT THE PIECES?
Everything is done by nature. Every garment is a one-off piece because the bleaching differs depending on the season and the sun’s strength. The color seen on the pieces can only be achieved by sun-bleaching and I think that’s what makes our brand interesting.
Wind gives the colors tons of layers, whereas bleaching with acid is restrictive. With sun-bleaching and putting the fabric outside, it becomes susceptible to the movement caused by wind. As the fabric keeps moving in tandem with the sun-bleaching, it creates a layered, contrasting effect. Depending on if we hang the fabric or put it on the ground, it will have a different texture, too. On the ground, sand or small particles will be blown onto the fabric, giving it a different effect, as well.
YOU’VE EXPANDED YOUR DESIGNS TO INCLUDE KNITWEAR AND DENIM. WHAT ARE THE SPECIFIC CHALLENGES YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED WORKING WITH VARIOUS FABRICS?
Since we work with retailers and stockists, we only have a certain amount of production time, so everything is down to a science. We’ve done years of testing and experimenting before the designing stage, so we already have the full factory data about which fabrics work, how they respond to the sun-bleaching process, and which we can use for each season.
But for certain pieces, like the ones made of denim, we decided to bring a new way to present the idea of sun-bleaching. On the back, there’s still the sun-bleaching effect that can be recognized as JiyongKim, but we also use a washing effect that gives off a similar impression.
ARE YOU AFRAID OF REPETITION WITH THE SUN-BLEACHING PATTERN?
It’s not something we’re worried about. I think our technique is really developed. With sun-bleaching, there’s always a new silhouette and creative pattern-making around the corner. We also hold exhibitions so that we can explain how our process works and share our experiences. It’s more enjoyable to interact with people and help them understand how we create our final products instead of just hosting a pop-up to sell clothes. By calling them “exhibitions,” we also project the idea that this is art instead of just clothing.
SUSTAINABILITY IS A SIGNIFICANT COMPONENT OF YOUR DESIGN INTENT. IN THIS DAY AND AGE WHERE “THROWAWAY CULTURE” IS SO PREVALENT, HOW DO YOU HOPE YOUR BRAND WILL CHANGE HOW PEOPLE SEE SUSTAINABLE FASHION?
I want to change the perspective of discarded material and what people deem as not having value anymore. When people buy our brand, they appreciate the time it takes for the final product to arrive. They know each piece is one-of-a-kind and cherish it for years. So, I think in that way, there’s sustainability in that mindset.
OUTSIDE YOUR BRAND, YOU’VE WORKED AT LEMAIRE, UNDER VIRGIL ABLOH AT LOUIS VUITTON, AND AT MAISON MIHARA YASUHIRO. WHAT’S BEEN THE BIGGEST TAKEAWAY YOU’VE CARRIED OVER TO YOUR OWN PRACTICE?
I experienced lots of different styles, unique tastes, and working environments. For example, at LEMAIRE, I learned so much about paying attention to the smallest details. At Louis Vuitton, it was all about craftsmanship, but on a much larger scale so it was very different. I enjoyed working at both, but it made me want to have my own brand even more. I wanted to put my own name out there.
ARE THERE ANY OTHER DESIGNERS WHO UTILIZE SUNDYING OR ELEMENTAL TREATMENT PROCESSES, OR IS JIYONGKIM IN A LANE OF ITS OWN?
I see a lot of brands use the term “sun-bleached,” but it’s not the same technique. We take it as a positive because now everyone knows sun-bleaching and it has become a new aesthetic. We aren’t afraid of the competition because no one else can do this like us. We’re doing the opposite of what the rest of the fashion industry is doing. Nowadays, you have to make everything fast and you have to find it easily. We embrace the exact opposite.
550BC, THE CRIME CHRONICLER POURIA KHOJASTEHPAY, FOUNDER OF 550BC, ON THE ORIGINS OF HIS PUBLISHING HOUSE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF SHOWING AN UNFILTERED LOOK AT THE LIFESTYLES OF GLOBAL CRIME SYNDICATES.
WORDS BY SHAWN GHASSEMITARI
IMAGES COURTESY OF 550BC AND POURIA KHOJASTEHPAY
Pouria Khojastehpay, founder of the Amsterdambased publishing house 550BC, chronicles those on the periphery: Tehran’s underground crime syndicate, favela drug lords and their proclivity for flaunting exotic animals, and the Ultras that orbit Europe’s football stadiums. His use of harrowing archival imagery is intense and unapologetic. Any of the 22 titles he’s published since 2018 may feature bricks of cocaine stacked next to gang members in balaclavas, sports fans with bloodied faces, or even teenagers wielding AK-47’s. The source material for the photo zines he curates often comes from the subjects themselves, making 550BC a raw, unvarnished visual diary of the world’s most nefarious subcultures and criminal organizations.
550BC’s small-batch zines, released via a streetwear-style “drop” model, often sell out in mere hours, becoming printed matter grails that are resold on eBay for hundreds of dollars. The platform’s Instagram page, which only showcases a snippet of the imagery included in the physical copies, has amassed a cult-like following, too, thanks to its intimate portrayal of the lifestyles that polite society frowns upon. While Khojastehpay has positioned himself as a visual artist in past interviews, he’s neither an artist in the painterly sense, nor a photographer who embeds with his sources. Instead, like an archivist, he curates documentation of these fringe communities by tracking down rare photos in the recesses of the web, as well as directly from members of each group he’s spotlighting.
“I keep it open for interpretation,” he says of his practice. “Some have called it ‘visual criminology,’ but for that, you need to work from a legal view to stop crime and offer authorities solutions.” Khojastehpay prefers describing his work
as a “visual criminal anthropology,” studying his subjects’ “characteristics, lifestyle, and how they express themselves” without bias or judgment.
In Ultra Violent (2022), 550BC’s best-selling book to date, Khojastehpay focuses on European football hooliganism and the Ultras—extreme fans whose allegiance to a given club often escalates into violence, havoc, and even the promotion of socio-political ideologies. Originally published as a zine, the 100-page second edition is chockfull of skirmishes between fans and police, funeral processions, and DIY flags bearing the militant-style emblems of each football faction. Khojastehpay sourced all the images from general news sites, hooligan blogs, social media, and various undisclosed supporters, such as from members of Stockholm’s AIK Ultras and Italy’s Hellas Verona. Like most 550BC releases, Ultra Violent contains little text and throws you straight into the action, as if you’re walking side-by-side with the subjects depicted, allowing the visuals to speak for themselves.
Another noteworthy title is Playboys (2023), which focuses on the Playboys 13 Gang of Los Angeles, one of the West Coast’s most dangerous crime syndicates. Featuring imagery shot by photographer Robert Yager in 1992, and edited by Khojastehpay, the 240-page coffee table books offers previously unseen access to one of the most violent years in LA history. There are, of course, many images of guns and police confrontations that you’d expect from a gang-related photo book. But 550BC also highlights intimate and unexpected moments depicting the human side of PBS13, such as a teenager benignly holding up a scrapbook, or a handicapped member being carried out of a lake by fellow brothers after swimming.
“SOMETIMES YOU MEET, SOMETIMES YOU DON’T, AND SOMETIMES YOU CAN’T. I CAN’T TELL YOU MUCH ABOUT THE PROCESS.”
“GROWING UP WITH A WAR VETERAN FATHER MADE ME WANT TO SHED LIGHT ON UNNOTICED HUMAN STORIES AND EXPLORE THE EMOTIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF CONFLICT.”
Along with his own titles, Khojastehpay also uses 550BC to work with a number of critically-acclaimed photographers who share his sensibility in archiving the intricacies of crime and conflict, without the sensationalism and exploitative lens often cast on these groups in the media. The photos compiled in each release are undeniably engaging and hard to find anywhere else, precisely because the authors work directly with their subjects, offering an “untouched first-person perspective,” he says.
Questioning the motives of entering and documenting such thorny subcultures is natural. To make sense of this, you need to dial the pages back. Khojastehpay was born in Shiraz, Iran, but his family had to relocate to a refugee camp in the Netherlands when he was one, due to increased socio-political tensions following the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Before moving back 11 years later, he was exposed to families fleeing the aftermaths of global conflicts like the Iran-Iraq war, as well as skirmishes within the former Yugoslavia. He notes that these early encounters, coupled with his father being a war vet, made him “want to shed light on unnoticed human stories and explore the emotional consequences of conflict.”
As Khojastehpay grew older, he became acquainted with people who joined gangs and criminal organizations, offering direct insight into their lifestyles, “moral dilemmas, and the blurred lines between right and wrong.” He notes that “this fascination drove me to delve into themes of crime, war, and characters navigating ethnically vague spaces. Combining these different influences has allowed me to create a wide range of work that explores conflict, resilience, and the interconnectedness of society.”
How Khojastehpay gets access to these hostile underworlds is one of the most enthralling and shadowy elements of his work. “Sometimes subjects approach me themselves and they already trust my
work,” he says. “For other cases, like with the Mexican cartels, you work with a ’fixer’—a middleman or facilitator who’s close to a group or individual. Sometimes you meet, sometimes you don’t, and sometimes you can’t. I can’t tell you much about the process.”
The book Khojastehpay speaks of, Sicario Warfare (2022), documents the training grounds of the Sinaloa Cartel. Made in collaboration with Venezuelan artist and researcher Eduardo Giralt Brun and rapper-composer Emmanuel Massú, the project’s images are sourced directly from one of the cartel’s commanders. Described as “the first photobook portraying members of the Sinaloa,” it offers a visual chronicle of a member’s progression through the ranks—from a hitman training in the rural jungles of Mexico, to an inside look at the cartel’s main base of operations. “The hit squad commander, our protagonist, was afraid for his life due to some changing politics within the organization. He asked a trusted fixer what he should do with the SD cards storing photos and videos he didn’t want to be forgotten,” Khojastehpay recounts. The fixer knew of 550BC and sent the files over to the Netherlands, ultimately leading to the book’s release.
Like right and wrong, truth is infinitely ambiguous. True to who? Wrong, why? 550BC’s detached explorations of morality are a core pillar of Khojastehpay’s practice. Instead of demonizing his subjects, he objectively shows the many facets of their character and lifestyles. He is not an investigative journalist, mind you, but his books carry an unbiased lens that is sorely lacking across the media landscape. While he doesn’t condone the lifestyles depicted in his releases, he does not judge them either, as many of the subjects are “groomed from a young age,” he says. “If there was another way, many would’ve chosen it.”
PRO GRAM MING Chapter 3
PRO GRAM MING
YE
WORDS BY KEVIN E. WONG
PHOTOGRAPHY BY AUS TAYLOR
Like a persistent nemesis of sorts, the life of Ye—formerly known as Kanye West —is a constant presence that has grown with us throughout the years. Whether we consciously keep up with his career or not, we’re all familiar with his many eras, where the only abiding variable seems to be how he flits from one to the other in the blink of an eye, often influencing the zeitgeist in tandem with his own evolutions.
We’ve watched his style evolve from polos, to kilts, to his post-apocalyptic era, then into oversized boots and bedazzled masks—each sartorial period ingrained in our minds alongside either the soundtrack of a Ye-specific musical period or his numerous episodes of controversy. Ye’s latest? Black and white hockey masks. Which begs the question: what will Ye’s Voorhees-esque mask and all-black look herald for the ever-watching world? Better yet, we wonder, who’s behind the mask these days?
Now in his mid-forties, Ye seems to be in yet another growth period, this time as a result of his efforts to regain ownership of his work and money— cutting major contracts with adidas and no longer signed to longtime label Def Jam—by building his own brand, releasing his album VULTURES 1 independently, and even launching his own media platform YEWS.news. He seems happy, content even, as he talks about his new wife and making music with his daughter. It’s hard to gauge whether he’s starting to mellow out with age, or still trying to defy, in his own way, the reputation that’s been attached to him in recent years.
Knowingly or otherwise, we, along with a large majority of the world, have grown up tracking his personal life changes, creative endeavors, and whirlwind(s) of public controversies. Legend has it some are still waiting for redemption: for Ye to shed his skin once more and reconcile with some of his past statements.
Regardless of whether one sides with Ye’s naysayers, supporters, or simply wants to shut him out of our social media feeds, there are two things about him that cannot be denied: his ambition, which seems to know no bounds, and his drive, which despite what the tabloids say, hasn’t failed him yet in his body of work—the latest of which entails building his own city in the Middle East.
Now, 20 years out from Ye’s first album release and coincidentally 20 years out from Hypebeast ’s own nascent beginnings, we sat down with the oft-impulsive artist to get a glimpse of just what, exactly, comprises his present, as well as what he has in store for the future. Like it or not, here Ye comes.
YOU’VE WORN MARGIELA MASKS IN THE PAST, AND RECENTLY HAVE BEEN DONNING A NEW SET OF MASKS. WHAT’S YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MASKS? WHAT DRAWS YOU TO THEM?
When I played with Star Wars action figures, or G.I. Joes, or Transformers, they were all different. I wasn’t forced to always play with the same character. When we do these performance pieces, it’s like a giant playground. That’s what masks are to me.
WHAT’S YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH TY$ LIKE? HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN SOMEONE IS THE RIGHT COLLABORATOR?
Man, me and Ty have been doing music for so long. It makes me think of 21 Savage and Drake, who are just such a great combination. What people see now, they probably didn’t realize at first. It’s like, “Oh, Ty wrote on ‘FourFiveSeconds,’ Ty wrote on ‘Only One,’ and ‘Real Friends’ and ‘Fade.’”
He wrote on records I did with Paul McCartney. And now people see these whole albums and are like, “Oh wow, they really make good music together, like the best music.”
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE WORKING WITH YOUR DAUGHTER ON MUSIC? WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU TO WORK WITH YOUR FAMILY?
I mean, she’s just an amazing artist. That’s what it is. All the music that she’s working on, she’s producing it herself. It’s just a full expression of who she is, from what she does performance-wise, to what she’s thinking of bars-wise. When my wife and North are together, I think about how they are my two favorite artists. And people haven’t even seen a small piece of the work they’re going to bring to the table. My daughter working with me as a rapper is like me cutting my teeth with The Rolling Stones and U2.
OUR ISSUE THEME IS “SYSTEMS.” WHAT IS A PERFECT SYSTEM, FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
What, like, socialism? [laughs] The closest thing to a perfect system would be the human, which still hasn’t been perfected yet because we perish. We still need to snip the umbilical cord when we’re born. So we still need a few changes.
DO YOU AGREE WITH MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS? WHAT’S YOUR GREATEST NEED?
Love.
HAVING BEEN A BILLIONAIRE, IS CULTIVATING WEALTH STILL IMPORTANT TO YOU? IS MONEY SOMETHING YOU THINK ABOUT A LOT?
As an industrialist, absolutely. I used to pride myself on never using “OPM”—which stands for “other people’s money”—until adidas canceled the deal and I really realized that that was their money. They were giving me a percentage, but I needed to create my own systems and my own connection with the audience to be in control of my own money. Money is a tool. Perhaps we barter time, but all are forms of energy and support.
YOU’RE ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU DO?
Something I got from Rick Rubin was that he said, “I’m not a producer, I’m a reducer.” The world is an engine, and people overinflate themselves inside the engine, and it makes the engine not work as well. So everybody has a position in life, but you need a leader, a founder, a conductor,
a director, a producer, a maestro, a composer, and I do all of these things. I’ve always been a leader. Since pre-school, other kids would follow me around.
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR CURRENT FASHION INSTINCTS AND CURRENT TASTE? WHAT EXCITES YOU WITHIN FASHION AND CULTURE TODAY?
What’s exciting me right now is all the Gosha YZY wear. It’s like a dream come true because I obsessed over his work when I was doing higher-cost YZY clothing. That whole year, I researched and found every Gosha piece online that I could. Then, just by chance, a friend of mine was in Russia and supposed to meet with Gosha. Gosha didn’t show up to that meeting, but we got on the phone with him, and the first thing he said was, “I miss you.” Then we talked about when he made a tattoo for Saint—that was a neck tattoo that he designed. Later, we had a meeting at Sting’s villa in Florence. The combination reminded me of when Miuccia worked with Helmut Lang and now she’s working with Raf. But I’ve heard female stylists say Miuccia doesn’t need Raf. Ultimately, there are certain personalities that work together. The combination of Miuccia and her husband was the push that made Prada great. You may need to fact-check this but I think Miuccia made a purse, and then she met her husband in court because he bootlegged the purse. They really made a great combination.
It’s raining today, so I’m thinking about how we really have to master the go-to raincoat where you just look up and everyone has that exact raincoat. I’ve been developing one that actually has a mask on it, like full torrential coverage. I want to see YZY on every block like gas stations. YZY is the supply center. I want to provide that service for the world. Walmart has its own city, and there’s a magic to what they pick, how they collaborate with creatives and designers, and how they understand their customer.
I’m going to say something right now that’s kind of crazy. Ill be looking at the fashion shows today thinking like, “Damn, couldn’t no bitch sell pussy in these clothes. No pussy is being sold in these.” Man, I’m looking at fashion shows like these clothes are the opposite of pussy. Like, no one’s getting laid in these clothes.
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE NEW YZY COLLECTION AND WHY YOU THINK IT HAS BEEN SO SUCCESSFUL?
You need someone who can organize all these things. This is art for me. Whatever I lacked in design, I made up for in delegation and execution tenfold.
Bernard Arnault is in his 70s. Elon is in his 50s. I’m in my 40s and I’m knocking on all of their doors. I appreciate the experiences I had that got me to the place where I can make really concise decisions across so many genres at the same time. This approach creates like this George Lucas-style world. Instead of it being inside the movie, it’s our movie. George Lucas was in a position to push movies so far because of the money he made off toys. Similarly, I am able to experiment based on the money I made off of Yeezys.
I had this idea of just bringing the best design to the people like it was clean water. Life is like a giant high school—you never get out of the high school mentality where people look down on someone if they don’t have good clothes. So imagine if people weren’t able to have clean water. Good clothes are like clean water because if you don’t have clean water then
EVERYBODY HAS A POSITION IN LIFE, BUT YOU NEED A LEADER, A FOUNDER, A CONDUCTOR, A DIRECTOR, A PRODUCER, A MAESTRO, A COMPOSER. I DO ALL OF THESE THINGS.
you stink. If you don’t have good clothes then your style stinks. Either way, you end up getting discriminated against for that. You need water every day, and, in our society, you also need clothing every day.
Again, think about Walmart. Walmart is far more curated than Amazon, so that means there’s an artistic perspective to the way Walmart frames its stores, which I appreciate. I did all this production for adidas, Gap, and Balenciaga. Now it’s time to do the same for YZY.
When it was time to do College Dropout, people didn’t understand a backpacker that still liked Mercedes Benz or someone that did beats for Jay-Z and also did beats for Talib Kweli. The first time I met Kweli, he was in a club. The first time I met Jay-Z, he was having an intellectual conversation in the studio. I thought it was going to be the opposite coming from Chicago. So right now, I’m mixing, you know, actually seeing how Amazon gets their products to people faster and how Walmart curates. And that’s the mix that YZY has to bring to become the McDonald’s of clothing and the Apple of clothing and the Google of clothing and the SpaceX of clothing. I want to expand to homes, to transportation, to food. From food, we’ll expand to medicine.
20 YEARS LATER, WHAT KEEPS YOU GOING?
The thing is wind can blow a house down, but a bird still needs wind to fly. So without the wind, there’s no flying. And there are times where you’re flying against the wind. There are times where you’re flying with the wind. My current single “Carnival” is the number one song in the world right now. That gives me drive.
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE FULLY INDEPENDENT? NOW WITH FOOTWEAR, CLOTHING, AND MUSIC?
Man, isn’t it insane? For an artist with a name like mine to still be independent? It’s amazing to play at this level while staying independent.
Sometimes the term GOAT means a high-level of respect. But it could also be a snub, too. It could be like, “Aw you in the crib, you ain’t in the field with us.” But now we are in the field.
With Lil Durk and Bump J, we were doing club shows in Dubai. Meek Mill was there the week before us. So then I’m doing a VULTURES listening event at the club, just popping on stage with Durk, and being able to just push things. Whether clothes or music, a bunch of people always want to give me advice about things they’ve never made themselves. So I was the only person that could figure out how to do it again—or do it like this for the first time, independently. I’m talking about being able to push the clothes in the same way I push the music.
This is the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. I’m with my wife, with Aus Taylor, my visual director at YZY, with Dov Charney. All year, I’ve been with loved ones, doing it independently ourselves. A good example is YesJulz finding the right people to get our Super Bowl commercial up. That was such a bar. She found how to put us on TV. People might not remember, but we did a hoodie commercial for Gap around “Heaven and Hell.” With that commercial, we sold $16 million worth of hoodies. So that’s what TV does. “Carnival” is the number one record in the world with no radio play. Well it’s number two right now, but I’m thought-projecting. Rounding up.
Lenny Kravitz had visions of making clothes at the same level as Hedi Slimane, but using his audience and his platform. Prince had a vision of delivering anything on his own platform, too. And now with the internet, artists can be as independent as possible.
WHAT LED TO YOU RELEASING ALL OF YOUR GOODS AT $20? DO YOU ANTICIPATE THAT THIS WILL CHANGE THE COURSE OF DEMOCRATIZATION OF LUXURY FASHION?
I’m going to wipe them out. That’s what I did. I mean, shit is mad. Everyone who waited two, three months for the YZY Pods are the people who believe they’re investing in YZY as a startup. There are people who bought six pairs of Pods to really support us. I haven’t felt such a true connection with the audience since The College Dropout. The feeling of being a real startup organization, having people believing in the vision, and saying I’m going to support what this person says he can bring to our life.
WE AT HYPEBEAST HAVE FOLLOWED ALONG CLOSELY, AND DOCUMENTED YOUR MOVES AS AN ARTIST OVER THE LAST 20 YEARS. YOU HAVE PLAYED AN INTEGRAL PART IN THE CULTURE WE’VE WORKED TO CULTIVATE. WHAT HAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HYPEBEAST BEEN OVER THE YEARS?
Lupe Fiasco put me onto Hypebeast. I mean, Hypebeast is putting me on the cover. Oh, you know what? Hypebeast can help us with YEWS. We should go into business in some capacity. Y’all should run YEWS on your homepage.
WHY DID YOU WANT TO CREATE YEWS.NEWS? WHAT DOES YEWS.NEWS INTEND TO CORRECT OR DO DIFFERENTLY?
I wanted to do it the Ye way. Like when you look at YEWS it feels more unbiased, right? Unbiased news. That’s what I wanted to do with it.
SUNDAY SERVICE IS ONE OF OUR FAVORITE PROJECTS. WHAT’S YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FAITH TODAY?
I got a simple answer for that. It’s a quote from Michael Jackson: I’m looking at the man in the mirror.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST ISSUES IN THE WORLD TODAY THAT YOU PERSONALLY FEEL THE PUBLIC NEEDS TO PAY GREATER ATTENTION TO?
The first thing that popped in my head was themselves. The public should pay greater attention to themselves. Also, the relationships that you have should be very valuable to you. Like this is where “keeping it real” goes wrong and shit. You know, stay inside of symbiotic relationships. I think that’s the easiest way to put it.
I HAVEN’T FELT SUCH A TRUE CONNECTION WITH THE AUDIENCE SINCE THE COLLEGE DROPOUT— THE FEELING OF BEING A REAL STARTUP ORGANIZATION, OF HAVING PEOPLE BELIEVING IN THE VISION.
CREATIVE DIRECTORS: YE & AUS TAYLOR, PHOTOGRAPHER: AUS TAYLOR, HAIR: AVERIEL BLAIR, ASSISTANT: AREN JOHNSON, LIGHTING: IRENE TANG & MIKAYLA MILLER, PRODUCER: RYAN HAHN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: YZY, COORDINATOR: HELIO PUBLIC RELATIONS, ADDITIONAL COORDINATION: ZACH SOKOL
L YER D BSE S ON
JAPANESE ARTIST OCHIAI SHOHEI HAS DEDICATED HIS CAREER TO ILLUSTRATING HIS FAVORITE PRODUCTS AND BRANDS IN A WARPED, WONKY STYLE THAT’S FULL OF GLEE.
(PG.147) SUNTORY -196°C STRONG ZERO DOUBLE LEMON SCULPTURE FRP
Ochiai Shohei adores consumer goods, brands, logos, stuff. His earnest appreciation of nostalgic cultural detritus—from Happy Meal toys and original PlayStation consoles, to Pokémon cards and Sapporo logos—is the backbone of the Japan-based artist’s practice. His paintings and illustrations are visual paeans to the things he grew up revering in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, though warped in a way that makes the final result more than mere idol worship.
Shohei will take a familiar item, say a Pocky box or a DeLorean, and morph the object like Magneto so it defies physics, revealing every angle or dimension at once. They’re wonky interpretations of classic imagery we all know, though injected with a personal and fantastical touch where “more perspective” is a literal quality of the artworks.
While the imagery can feel figurative or sometimes expressionist, the artist says he doesn’t subscribe to any particular painting school. Instead, he embraces an intentionally unpolished style that comes from a place of true fandom. “I like the freedom and childlike quality of drawings, so I aim to draw in a way that allows me to express myself without any restrictions,” he explains. After all, what’s a purer expression of excitement than a kid who’s so stoked about an upcoming Game Boy release that he spends all day doodling its characters in the margins of his homework?
Shohei doesn’t even consider his works as paintings in the two-dimensional sense, and is surprised when they’re perceived as such, as he draws objects “from various perspectives that I find beautiful and merge them within a single artwork.” He likens his creations closer to sculpture or collage, and favors the title visual artist over painter or illustrator.
This rings true in his “Trash Diary” series, where the artist aggregates years of wrappers, receipts, expired credit cards, discarded pens, and other ephemera into sculptural objects resembling sketchbooks. He molds the fonts, logos, brand mascots, and personal artifacts into physical diaries that serve as an emblem of the things he likes, what he consumes, what catches his eye—a totem of his waking life.
Shohei’s emphasis on objects from his childhood is a key tenet of his practice. Growing up, he coveted fast food—and the toys that often came with the meals—but his parents wouldn’t indulge his whims. He admits that “you might see that longing reflected in my drawings at times,” but is quick to add that his focus on trinkets and branding from the era he grew up has other roots, as well. It was a time when culture in Japan “was incredibly vibrant, especially the entertainment industry, which was going crazy due to a lot of money being invested.” He admired how “grand and colorful” the cultural exports became; they were instilled with a hypnotic feeling that still enlivens him today. “Being surrounded by things I love helps,” he says. “I can see my favorite objects and it boosts my motivation.”
“BEING SURR UNDED BY T INGS L VE HELPS ME. I C N SEE MY FAVORITE OBJ CTS AND IT B STS MY MOTIV TION.”
Unsurprisingly, he has a background studying product design, though he claims he was never motivated to pursue that as a career in the traditional sense. But things have come full circle, and his art practice eventually led him to collaborate on limited edition product releases, including a commission by digital auction house Joopiter to draw several of founder Pharrell Williams’ personal items, which were turned into rugs and t-shirts.
Maybe more surprising is that after Shohei graduated from college, he stopped working on product design to pursue a short-lived career in standup comedy before doubling down on studio art. But he never quite shook the open mic bug, and notes that he intends to “infuse my own artwork with a sense of humor.” Whether this means intentionally skewing a logo, or building an oversized sculpture of a Suntory Whiskey can adorned with his signature lettering, his work has a similar effect to asking a child to invent a new product or design its packaging: going overboard with imagination in a way that’s equal parts unhinged and ecstatic.
“I personally think that going to extremes is a form of ‘crazy,’ so I aim to incorporate humorous elements, such as overdoing things, meticulously detailing, and enlarging small motifs,” he says. “This fills me with a sense of admiration, delight, and exhilaration.”
“T ERE WERE MANY T YS I LOVED BUT COULDN’T G T AS A K D. SO YOU MIGHT SEE THAT LONGING R FLECTED IN MY DR WING AT TIMES.”
With a feature film and new music on the way, multi-sensory maestro Flying Lotus is blazing new trails of sound and vision.
WORDS BY NOAH RUBIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CLARE GILLEN
You’re in the audience at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017. On the screen in front of you, the bulging puffy eyes of a swollen, anthropomorphized neck boil gaze at the camera with an urgent, demented longing. The creature’s odd, circular body twitches uncomfortably as it pleads with its host and her brotherslash-lover to be included in their incestuous, post-apocalyptic sexual escapades. Relenting, the couple agree to the ménage and soon a swollen, vein-covered phallus puppet enters the scene, penetrates the boil’s oral cavity, and proceeds to engage in a session of urgent irrumatio unlike anything you’ve ever seen. At that moment, it’s up to you: leave the cinema in disgust like many of your fellow filmgoers, or celebrate the brilliance of Kuso (2017)—the directorial debut of Steve Ellison, aka Flying Lotus—as one of the greatest works of body horror in cinematic history.
Of course, Ellison’s visionary approach to film evokes other fearlessly provocative auteurs like Cronenberg, Tsukamoto, Pasolini, and even John Waters. And given the company on this list, it’s no wonder his debut was met with headlines describing audience walk-outs at its premiere
screening. But ask any of the aforementioned directors for their take on such a reception, and they would confidently tell you that this outcome has only one true and proper response: mission accomplished.
Ellison was born in Los Angeles in 1983 and he’s no stranger to pushing the boundaries of what is perceived as possible (or palatable) in art-making. He’s well into the second decade of his music career and is one of the most highly-regarded electronic producers alive today.
As Flying Lotus, he’s not only expanded the perceptions of certain music genres, blending jazz, hip-hop, and experimental influences together with a singular, inspired vision. He’s also taken a visual approach to music and a musical approach to visuals, making him a peerless creative force. It doesn’t hurt, either, that he’s the grandnephew of jazz great Alice Coltrane, has collaborated with everyone from Kendrick Lamar and Thom Yorke to Herbie Hancock, and runs a label, Brainfeeder, that has been a platform for some of the most interesting and important music of the last 15 years.
Connecting with Ellison at his home in LA, I find him sitting in his studio control room surrounded by eye-catching artwork, memorabilia, and other ephemera—a glimpse into his broad artistic lens as both a musician and filmmaker. A huge computer monitor in front of his producer desk reveals open playlists he’s been listening to for inspiration (MF DOOM is next in the queue). Perched calmly in the middle of this creative command center, the multi-hyphenate artist takes a moment to play with his dog iko before nodding in my direction, letting me know that he’s ready for our conversation to begin.
YOU’VE GOT BOTH MUSIC AND FILM PROJECTS ON THE HORIZON THAT I THINK PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE REALLY EXCITED ABOUT. CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE BEEN WORKING ON?
I’ve been working on a new album, as well as a film called Ash. The album is in a state where it’s 98% done. I just need a good solid week of really focusing on that last little bit to get it over the hill, but I’ve just been so deep in this movie thing. It takes a lot of your focus. There’s no part of the process that’s been easy, but there are rewards around every corner.
WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE REWARDS AND CHALLENGES OF THE FILMMAKING PROCESS FOR YOU?
The movie’s a sci-fi thriller horror movie. It’s very psychedelic at times. It stars Eiza Gonzalez and Aaron Paul. I didn’t really expect it to take three years of my life. When it was presented to me, it was like, “This movie is ready to go, it’s all good, we can get it going, we can get the cast,” but it took a long time to get it done. We shot it in New Zealand earlier this year. It’s been quite the undertaking.
WAS THERE ANYONE YOU COULD LOOK TO AS A MENTOR IN THE MORE CHALLENGING MOMENTS?
One person who was really unexpected was Taika Waititi. He is a friend of Beulah Koale, who’s in the film. I had had a particularly rough day of shooting and for whatever reason, Taika had time and wanted to get dinner. It was the best thing that could have happened to the production. He just sat with me and was like my therapist, like, “Yeah bro, I deal with these challenges, too.” Even though he’s shooting Star Wars, he deals with the same stuff that I deal with. It was really encouraging.
THERE’S A TIME FOR THE CHAOS AND THERE’S A TIME FOR THE CHILL.
HOW WOULD YOU CONTRAST THE EXPERIENCE OF MAKING ASH WITH MAKING YOUR PREVIOUS FILM, KUSO?
It’s completely different. With Kuso, I did so much of that at my house and a lot of it was me begging homies to do stuff, whereas Ash was a real production. Everything was really legit. Going to an office, being in meetings every day with fluorescent lights. It was great working with professionals who have crazy experience in the industry. People go to New Zealand to shoot sci-fi and fantasy movies, so I was among all these people who worked on The Lord of the Rings and other Peter Jackson and James Cameron stuff.
THERE WAS A LOT OF PRESS AROUND KUSO BEING HARD TO WATCH FOR SOME AUDIENCES. DO YOU THINK VIEWERS WILL FIND ASH SIMILARLY CHALLENGING?
I think it will be challenging for some people, but not in the same way. This is very much a straightforward narrative film. There are some crazy things in it, but I think it’s not as crazy as anything in Kuso. This one is a bit more contained.
HOW DOES YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH MAKING MUSIC BRING PERSPECTIVE TO WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU TO BE A DIRECTOR?
I’m so grateful to be able to do music. Even if I’m not working on an album, I make music for fun. I don’t need anyone’s approval. But film is such a different thing; you kind of need people around you to know for sure that you’ve explored every possibility. With music, I just tend to think that it’s more of a stream of consciousness thing. It’s the God zone… or has the potential to be.
TALKING ABOUT MUSIC VERSUS FILM, THERE’S OBVIOUSLY THE CLASSIC “PLAY THE TRACK IN THE CAR” TEST FOR MUSIC. DO YOU THINK THERE’S A FILM EQUIVALENT?
Oddly enough, I get enjoyment out of seeing things on my phone. That’s going to be most people’s first impression of it anyways, and it’s also my gauge if the color is right. If it looks good on the phone, it’s probably going to look OK for most people. It’s so strange.
WHEN YOU’RE WORKING NONSTOP ON ALL THESE THINGS, TRYING TO GET THEM ACROSS THE FINISH LINE, WHAT DOES A DAY IN THE LIFE OF STEVE LOOK LIKE? ARE YOU SUPER REGIMENTED?
I’m just sitting in this fucking chair doing whatever I can [laughs]. I don’t schedule it like that, but I am focused. I get my stuff done. When it’s your own project, it’s easy to get lost. If it was someone else’s project, I probably wouldn’t be able to go there. But yeah, I’m completely, fully committed to my stuff always. I like to wake up early and drink my coffee and go to the gym and then get to work.
BEING IN THE BUBBLE OF YOUR OWN WORK CAN BE AMAZING, BUT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT COIN, EVENTUALLY THESE THINGS GET RELEASED TO THE WORLD. AS AN ARTIST, WHAT’S YOUR PERCEPTION OF THE STATE OF MEDIA IN GENERAL RIGHT NOW?
I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. What really bothers me is how bad the internet’s gotten. Everybody’s hip to the monetization of their opinions, and everything is about engagement and clicks and likes—even if it’s contrary. You can pay someone to diss you so you can have a reason to clap back at them. There’s nothing genuine anymore. It’s silly, but I do really miss the Wild West of it.
HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT AFFECTS PEOPLE’S RELATIONSHIP TO MUSIC?
To me, there are these things that are really important to give an honest ear to. I want to be unbiased and go in and feel how I feel about it and not be taken by the echo chamber. André 3000’s New Blue Sun is an interesting one to look at. The week leading up to that album, everyone was speculating on what was going to happen. There were all these people saying, “What? Should we sample it?” And it was like, “Yo, how about just listen to it first?” Honestly, it’s gotten to the point where I only want to listen to records once there’s no one talking about them anymore.
ON PAST ALBUMS YOU’VE SAID, “THIS IS GOING TO BE A GUITAR RECORD OR A RHODES PIANO RECORD OR A YAMAHA CS-60 SYNTH RECORD.” FOR YOUR NEXT RECORD, HAVE YOU DEFINED WHAT INSTRUMENT IS GOING TO GUIDE IT SONICALLY?
Probably strings. It’s just the type of record that it is. It’s more of an ambient album. There’s only a couple beats on it. It’s meant to be thought of as something you put on to fall asleep to, to dream to, or write something to. There’s a lot more from [multi-instrumentalist] Miguel AtwoodFerguson on this one. I think he’s on every track. It’s really beautiful and he was a super big inspiration. Generally, I’m trying to do something a bit different this time.
THERE’S
NO
PART OF THE PROCESS THAT’S BEEN EASY, BUT THERE ARE REWARDS AROUND EVERY CORNER.
ARE THERE ANY OTHER COLLABORATORS? OR MOMENTS WHERE YOU THINK LISTENERS WILL BE SURPRISED?
There’s some stuff with Ryuichi Sakamoto that we recorded a long time ago and I’m super excited for that to come out. We had sampled his music for a Thundercat album and we just stayed in touch. The dude came out to LA and was here for four or five days. He would just come to the house and work all day and all night. We made a bunch of stuff and Miguel was here, too.
DID HE HAVE A SPECIFIC CREATIVE PROCESS THAT STUCK OUT TO YOU AS DIFFERENT THAN OTHER COLLABORATORS?
Yeah, he was the first collaborator who really just went around my place, picked up stuff and just hit it with a stick, and then was like, “Let’s record that.” It was really cool seeing the little things that were interesting to him. I had a ceiling fan in here with a chain on it that made this weird little tapping sound. We were recording some stuff and I was like, “Oh let me turn the fan off.” Once the tapping was gone, it just killed the vibe. We all just looked around and were like, “Oh, we better turn it back on.” We had to have that tapping in the background of what we were doing.
DID YOU EVER LOOK OVER YOUR SHOULDER AND JUST BUG OUT, LIKE, “WHOA, RYUICHI SAKAMOTO IS RIGHT HERE!”?
Me and Miguel are both huge fans. We were like, “Yo, is this really happening right now?” He just brought this very zen energy with him.
SPEAKING OF ZEN VIBES, PUTTING OUT AMBIENT ALBUMS, AND ANDRÉ 3000, WHY DO YOU THINK CHILLNESS IS SO IMPORTANT TO PROLIFERATE RIGHT NOW?
People’s tastes are so diverse now. As music fans, there’s a time and place for everything. Also, I think because of the time that we’re in, it feels like there’s more urgency to put on stuff that’s a bit more chill. Sometimes we need something that’s not all crazy. There’s a time for the chaos and there’s a time for the chill. There’s enough time for all of it and I think that’s great.
OTHERWORLDLY OUTERWEAR
DINGYUN ZHANG
INSIDE THE DESIGNER’S SHANGHAI ATELIER, WHERE HE CREATES AVANT-GARDE CLOTHES INSPIRED BY “THE FRINGES OF YOUTH CULTURE.”
WORDS BY DYLAN KELLY PHOTOGRAPHY BY WANG WEI
Dingyun Zhang’s Shanghai design studio welcomes onlookers with a brutalist granite terrace, made lush by freshly planted greenery. The studio overlooks an industrial part of town that’s offset by a canal, offering a subtle juxtaposition between the city’s manmade infrastructures and nature’s might. Inside, fashion workrooms, textile development labs, and brainstorm tanks invite eclectic creatives for collaboration, while a diverse range of music echoes through its chambers. This is where Zhang—the Mongolian-Chinese designer known for his avant-garde puffers, credited for envisioning many of YZY’s era-defining sneakers, and watched intently by industry experts forecasting him as fashion’s promising next act—gets his work done.
Zhang’s résumé is robust: he received an MA from Central Saint Martins in 2020 after presenting a powerful thesis collection composed of futuristic, supersized outerwear that was inspired by China’s harsh winter conditions and snow sports. At the tail end of last year, he dropped his first full line under his eponymous label for Fall 2023, in which he toned down his gargantuan silhouettes to meet the consumer. Zhang’s brand has amassed a loyal following, thanks to industry co-signers (Steven Smith, Jerry Lorenzo, Tremaine Emory), famous fans (Kim Kardashian, A$AP Ferg, Gigi Hadid), and several viral creations that likely appeared on your Instagram’s Explore Page (a waterproof gilet resembling a mushroom; a punctured puffer imitating a sea creature).
After stints in London and Los Angeles, Zhang moved back to Shanghai in 2021 and spent the next two and half years designing a dream studio for his namesake label. Now that he’s cut the red tape at the atelier-cum-laboratory, the hybrid working space acts like an advanced computing system that runs his creative code, which, as he describes it, involves ideation, discussion, research, experimentation, creation, and repetition—all on a multidisciplinary plane. “We’re making furniture at the same time that we’re designing our next collection,” he explains of his ambidextrous practice. “It’s a crazy moment.”
The connective tissue that binds the 28-year-old visionary’s feats is succinctly described in his Instagram bio: “childhood relics.” Born in New Mongol and raised in Beijing, Zhang grew up collecting action figures. “I wanted every pack, whether it was the latest G.I. Joe figurines or the playthings that came with McDonald’s Happy Meals,” he says. His boyish love for collectibles could be classified as the canon event that sculpted one slice of his present-day artistic identity: an architect of “wearable toys.”
Zhang’s Helmet Bag, the inaugural item from his Fall 2024 collection, references the headwear that often protected his childhood toys. The polyester accessory almost resembles a cartoon villain, thanks to its detachable velcro eye panel. But it’s also exceptionally functional, operating as both a tote bag and a backpack with snap fastenings, drawstring adjustments, zippered pockets, and incognito hardware. This is, in Zhang’s words, a “childhood artifact reinvented for an adult world.”
The designer’s Fall 2023 Marni collaboration, as well as his sculptural outerwear capsule with Moncler Genius the year prior, propelled his boyhood-led design concepts into the mainstream fashion sphere. The polka-dotted mohair jumpers found in Zhang’s Marni team-up proposed a similar “superhuman” persona to his solo work, with oversized drop-sleeves and down padding that bolstered their ultra-puffy finishes. When Justin Bieber buried himself in one of the collection’s zany red coats at the NHL All-Star Game in February, its conspicuous guise appeared sprightly animated among the other attendees sporting jerseys and hoodies. In Zhang’s fashion universe, that’s the point: “My childhood memories are embedded in my creative process, and they continue to contribute to my larger design conversation.”
Among those memories, Zhang recalls that his love of basketball was always a “very big deal.” While walking through
Beijing’s streets on the way to school, he would pass by massive campaign posters for the 2008 US Men’s Olympic Basketball team (better known as the “Redeem Team”). He developed a strong interest in shoe models like Tracy McGrady’s adidas T-Mac 5, noting that its wood paneling now reminds him of a Tesla’s interior detailing. Though he couldn’t get a pair of his own, he satisfied his curiosity by sketching personalized sports cards that spotlighted various players’ signature sneakers. “I wanted to design for this ‘sports hero’ archetype,” he says. “I started there.”
When Zhang starts something, he often takes a non-linear path to the finish line. For his Shanghai headquarters, he drew up a blueprint that included a basketball court, which required four rounds of sketches and three-dimensional renderings before Paris-based design imprint FR AR Studio could start building. “We found roughly 20 different colorways and finishes for the court’s red stones before settling on one with a more organic top touch,” Zhang explains. “Attention to detail is very important.” It’s this tender attentiveness to fulfilling childhood fantasies that perpetually defines Zhang’s creative apparatus, and it’s the reason that the community surrounding his brand’s universe continues to grow more cult-like.
His childhood obsession with basketball shoes foreshadowed Zhang’s future success as a designer, as well. In his second year at Central Saint Martins, his tutor granted him a career-shifting introduction to Ye, then known as Kanye West. Zhang flew to Calabasas in 2016 to meet with the YZY founder, who hired him that same day. While at the brand, he worked on designs like the fast-selling YZY 700 series. Later, Ye produced a custom YZY Foam RNNR for Zhang’s graduate MA collection.
“WE CREATE BETWEEN THE FRINGES OF YOUTH CULTURE. OUR AUDIENCE LIKELY FINDS SOLACE IN THE EXCITEMENT OR BEAUTY, WITHIN
THOSE MARGINS.”
“I WANTED TO DESIGN FOR THIS ‘SPORTS HERO’ ARCHETYPE.”
Zhang appreciated the diverse perspectives that moved through YZY’s doors. “Ye surrounded himself with creators from different backgrounds and disciplines, from music to architecture to fashion,” he says. He vividly remembers the brand’s brainstorming sessions: “Footwear designers, lighting designers, and stage designers would come with different mood boards simultaneously, constantly ping-ponging ideas while pursuing a common goal. You would see Steven Smith, James Turrell, or Pusha T in one corner, and a group of shoe designers in another.”
Today, in Shanghai, Zhang runs a similarly eclectic brainstorming model, with weekly meetings revolving around three pillars: discussion, mood boarding, and evaluation. “We invite architects, photographers, and people from different disciplines to join in on the discussion, so we can get an all-around perspective,” he explains. His team comprises eight members, and he maintains close relationships with his pattern makers, cutters, sourcers, and designers, each of whom plays a role in crafting every garment in the brand’s workroom under Zhang’s watchful eye. “Because I’m a small brand, I believe the details are quite important,” he reiterates.
Zhang credits his meticulousness to another schoolboy hobby: tracing Japanese animations from behind his English and math textbooks in class. He recalls approaching the task with sharp precision, which he finds himself enlisting today when specifying measurements as small as one millimeter in his design sketches. This tedious task, however, comes after what Zhang considers “the most joyful part of the design process”: collage-making. “For footwear, apparel, and accessories, I always begin with an abstract, unreal collage made from different media, either on Photoshop or by cutting mixed materials and
piecing them together,” he says. Zhang adds that artist Robert Rauschenberg’s famous collages inspired the ritual and “showed me how to express my ideas.”
This careful approach was responsible for Zhang’s entire Fall 2024 offering, which, on top of its action-figure inspirations, lends a sartorial lens to Sanxingdui, the lost Chinese civilization grouped among the greatest Bronze Age cities. “I’m really into these kinds of mysterious discoveries, whether they are of our ancestors or of aliens,” he says. For Fall 2024, the designer’s otherworldly collages became ground zero for a slew of reimagined adventure tools, like ice fishing tents, survival rubber suits, and life vests with martian-like proportions fit for a sci-fi movie’s intergalactic combatant. Here, Zhang’s output rebelled against this planet’s fashion standards to instead outfit “an ancient civilization, discontinued and mystified from antiquity” with a signature, juvenile playfulness that’s executed masterfully.
The method to Zhang’s success and mad genius artistry lies in the consistency with which he nurtures his inner child. On a fundamental level, his brand is a nuanced creative platform for the dreams and desires of his former self, a concept that, for many, feels impossible in the face of adulthood’s harsher, practical realities. “We create between the fringes of youth culture,” Zhang says. “Our audience likely finds solace in the beauty within those margins.”
Does he foresee a change in that perspective? “Eventually, but we don’t make any compromises right now.”
EDG LRD
THE TECH-ADDLED FLORIDIAN FUTURE OF SKATEBOARDING
MEET TEAM EDGLRD, THE SKATE ARM OF HARMONY KORINE’S TECH-DESIGN COLLECTIVE THAT AIMS TO SIMULTANEOUSLY REVOLUTIONIZE MOVIES, VIDEO GAMES, AND SKATEBOARDING, POTENTIALLY EVOLVING OUR ENTIRE CONCEPTION OF EACH FORMAT IN THE COMING YEARS.
WORDS BY ZACH SOKOL
PHOTOGRAPHY BY EDGLRD
“We’re like the Mr. Beast of skateboarding,” Harmony Korine says with a devilish grin. The 51-year-old artist, director, and perennial enfant terrible is sitting in a conference room surrounded by nearly 10 skaters half his age. Sean Pablo, formerly Supreme’s golden boy, joins the Zoom from California. Vincent Touzery, the street skater wunderkind who previously rode for Fucking Awesome, Nike, and 917, smokes a cigarette and sips a glass of wine in typical French fashion as he patches in from his Paris apartment.
While an office is not the natural habit for those on the call—Elijah Odom and Rezza Honarvar look bored to tears—I’m staring through the looking glass in 1080p at the future of skateboarding. This is team EDGLRD, the skate arm of Korine’s Miami-based tech-design collective that aims to simultaneously revolutionize movies, video games, and skateboarding, potentially evolving our entire conception of each format in the coming years.
Media, and how we interact with it, continues to shift as it always has. Technology yields convergence culture. Korine sees the writing on the wall and wants to create the next form of entertainment (and entertainment distribution), even if he’s several steps ahead of what the public is ready to digest. EDGLRD is the platform through which Korine and his coterie of skaters, VFX artists, AI maestros, and other tech-addled artists are conceiving that future, and they’re experimenting in real-time until it manifests—and we all inevitably catch up to their vision.
Korine has always made artwork so ahead of its time that it feels jarring upon release, only to become a cultural waypoint in retrospect. He’s consistently toyed with the expected format of whatever medium he’s working within, once saying, “I never cared about things that made sense. I always wanted to make perfect nonsense.” This was true for Spring Breakers (2012), a neon freakout crossover success that the director stated was an attempt at “making a movie like a pop song.” This is also true for AGGRODR1FT (2023), the first formal release from EDGLRD that entirely eviscerates any standards of traditional filmmaking. The same status quo busting will apply to the films, video games, and skate videos the multimedia studio produces.
The Mr. Beast reference may have been a joke, but Korine’s comparison is apt. After all, who would have guessed 15 years ago that the YouTube personality would be watched more than any TV broadcaster, or that teens would consume more content on YouTube via mobile devices than cable, streamers, Instagram, and even TikTok? Hell, who would have thought Mr. Beast would end up on the cover of TIME with the headline “The Most Watched Person in the World”?
WE’RE LIKE THE MR. BEAST OF SKATEBOARDING.
AGGRODR1FT is a feature-length film which Korine doesn’t even call a film, preferring the self-created term “blinx.” It was shot using a mixture of thermal imaging and infrared cameras, alongside post-production VFX, yielding an aesthetic closer to a video game cutscene. The plot revolves around an assassin’s dueling personal and professional life and features Travis Scott as a rival sicario, though narrative is almost an afterthought. Korine says the desired effect is more of a sensory experience, something you feel more than you intellectualize linearly. (This is on-brand for Korine, who once proposed building “Smell-O-Vision” movie theaters in conjunction with his hazy 2019 film The Beach Bum.)
After premiering AGGRODR1FT at film festivals in Venice and Toronto, EDGLRD organized screenings during Miami Art Basel, as well as at a strip club in LA. However, the technology implemented during production allows the project to be tweaked and remixed continuously, akin to updates in software or a video game. No two audiences saw the same AGGRODR1FT. “These hybrid formats might never actually be finished,” Korine says. “With EDGLRD, we’re experimenting with tech in a way where something like AGGRODR1FT maybe becomes just one long continuous film.”
only possible since we have our own platform,” instead of relying on traditional entertainment institutions and distribution models.
He would know: Rosa spent over a decade doing VFX and animation post-production on Marvel films, a genre that despite its silver screen omnipotence, is viewed as repetitive and formulaic. He started working with Korine on AGGRODR1FT before he knew it would be just one celestial body in the multimedia constellation EDGLRD is generating. “EDGLRD kind of didn’t exist as a studio yet, it was just a concept for Harmony,” he says while showing me around their office-studio-laboratory HQ over FaceTime. He stops at one point to hold up a skate deck with a 3D-printed monster face extruding from its middle.
The way Korine articulated his idea for EDGLRD felt radically different from Rosa’s past work. Korine wanted it to be a “design collective, not a movie studio,” a chance to work on the cusp of something titillating, something that might require a whole new language to describe. Rosa saw the vision and committed. He was appointed co-founder, moved to Miami where Korine is based, and charged with hiring “the best of the best” in VFX, animation, AI, and other innovative disciplines to “bring these new technologies to fashion, film, gaming, and the skate world.”
Visual effects artist and EDGLRD member João Rosa agrees and further describes their content as “dynamic and alive… which is
How else do these lofty-sounding concepts actually coalesce into cutting-edge culture? Rosa says EDGLRD is developing
THE FLORIDA MINDSET IS FLORIDA AGAINST THE WORLD.
ONCE YOU UNDERSTAND THAT, THEN YOU REALLY ARE TAPPED INTO WHAT THIS TEAM IS.
technology that allows viewers to place themselves in any piece of content, whether a film, skate video, or video game. “You can replace characters with yourself or with an avatar you design. You can even use characters or environments from other films and IPs we’ve made and interact in those worlds, as well.”
EDGLRD is world-building where each element can bleed into the next, including physical objects like skate decks and clothing, which can be scanned and transfused back into the digital realms. Rosa and Korine both refer to it as a symbiotic “ecosystem,” and explain that the multi-format, URL-to-IRL-andback approach is inherent throughout the entire EDGLRD project’s DNA. Viewers can already see gaming’s influence on AGGRODR1FT “in the dialogue, in the action, the way people move,” Rosa says. “So now finding what that means for skateboarding is a very interesting quest.”
Though EDGLRD debuted with AGGRODR1FT, Rosa says Korine likely already had “the idea percolating in his mind” that skating would be a major facet of the platform. “If you trace back, Harmony’s been around skate culture his whole life,” from the start of his film career with Kids (1995) and its cast of skate rat amateur actors, all the way to Supreme’s Spring/Summer 2022 line featuring imagery from his directorial debut Gummo (1997). The goal of innovating what a skate video or skate team could
be “must have been one of the dreams he’s always had, and EDGLRD was the place where that dream could become a reality.” Korine tapped Sean Pablo to recruit about a dozen of his favorite skaters, and now they’re tearing through the streets of Miami, equipped with GoPros and other next-gen cameras, as they strive to “capture skating in a new way that hasn’t really been done yet.”
“I grew up on skate videos and the great videos are really their own art form,” Korine says during our Zoom. He’s cited Alien Workshop’s Memory Screen (1991) as a pivotal influence on his earlier work, with its 8mm video art interludes and wonky structure radicalizing the public’s perception of the medium. Despite members of the EDGLRD team appearing in some of the most influential skate videos of the past decade, they think the genre has hit a glass ceiling and seek to reinvent the form again for their own generation.
The crew alternately describes the current state of skate content as “stale” (Vincent Touzery), “formulaic” (Sean Pablo), and having “plateaued” (Elijah Odom). “So, for us, it’s like how do we now push skating into something new, into something hyper-expressive?” asks Korine. “We want to push the aesthetics of skateboarding.” Ben Morsberger, EDGLRD’s creative brand director,
WE’RE TRYING TO DO THE OPPOSITE OF THE STATUS QUO —THE ANTI-SKATE VIDEO.
THAT’S THE GREAT THING ABOUT EDGLRD: WE CAN DO WHATEVER THE FUCK WE WANT.
explains their M.O. succinctly: “There’s such fatigue and formulas across the board, from movies to skate videos. The whole vision of the company is to break the mold.” Sean Pablo adds that EDGLRD isn’t even “trying to make ‘skate videos’ because we’re all sick of skate videos. There’s a niche that needs to be filled, and we’re basically trying to do the opposite of the status quo. We’re trying to do the anti-skate video.”
So the skate videos will sometimes look like video games. The video games will sometimes feature skateboarding. The team will livestream skate sessions so viewers can interact with the skaters remotely via EDGLRD’s impending apps and online platform. The collective is also getting ready to drop decks, clothing, and 3D-printed oddities that consumers can take photos of themselves wearing so their likeness appears in the miscellaneous media. “Even if people are confused, I think that’s OK,” Korine says. “It’s not necessarily about trying to make things understandable or digestible. It’s really about these guys
creating their own world.” Morsberger adds that EDGLRD’s skate output is “just a direct pipeline from the team,” where anything is possible due to their talent on the board and the know-how of the collective’s other mad geniuses. “Whenever they have a cool idea, we have a litany of artists ready to use their technological skills to bring it to life.”
Towards the end of our call, Korine and company flag another novel aspect about EDGLRD’s take on skating: It’s a Miamibased team, and Vice City isn’t historically a hotbed known for affecting the skate zeitgeist. “The Florida mindset is Florida against the world,” Korine says. “Once you understand that, then you really are tapped into what this team is. So then at that point, it’s like, why don’t we just exist in the clouds?”
Sean Pablo agrees and summarizes the collective’s overall ethos in one fell swoop: “That’s the great thing about EDGLRD: we can do whatever the fuck we want.”
JACKET: DOLCE&GABANNA, KNIT: THE ROW, SHIRT: DIOR (RIGHT) FULL LOOK: BOTTEGA VENETA
MAKE UP: MAHA
SELAMI, HAIR: FRANCESCA
PROLETA RE ART BESPOKE TO THE BONE
Months-long waiting lists, shot-inthe-dark DMs, celebrity co-signs. There’s an undeniable air of mystery around PROLETA RE ART’s bespoke denim garments—here’s the story behind the brand’s sashiko stitching.
Words by Felson Sajonas
Interview by Yuki Abe
Photography by Yosuke Demukai
There’s an air of mystique surrounding the Japanese label PROLETA RE ART, largely because the brand operates without a traditional storefront or website. Moreover, designer and founder Yohei Horiuchi (aka PROT) exclusively crafts custom pieces and resists the urge to scale up, instead maintaining the artisanal element central to his brand. DMing PROT on Instagram is the only way to attempt contact, with a response never guaranteed. Merely securing a consultation with him is akin to winning the lottery.
The demand for PROLETA RE ART’s denim garments will always outweigh the limited supply. Each piece is handmade, highly distressed, meticulously dyed, painstakingly stitched, diligently ripped (or visibly mended), and carefully embossed with studs or embroideries. Most of the releases are made from upcycled materials, then enhanced with traditional Japanese techniques like Boro and Sashiko stitching to depict pop culture iconography in wonky forms (Mickey Mouse, the Pink Panther, Betty Boop).
PROT’s bespoke creations can’t be mass manufactured, nor does he want to glut the market. Part of the brand’s ethos revolves around crafting durable pieces through sustainable methods, such as his use of vintage fabrics, as well as allowing consumers to send damaged pieces back for repairs or even additional designs. “We believe in creating products people love and want to use for life,” he explains. “If we encourage continuous use, we contribute to sustainability.”
And the air of scarcity isn’t forced, either: PROT has such high demand for his drops— each of which can take upwards of three months to produce—that accepting new commissions simply isn’t feasible. But with the help of his partner ERI and a burgeoning team of artisans, PROLETA RE ART is making larger and larger waves in the streetwear space. From avid fans including A$AP Rocky, Lil Baby, and 21 Savage, to official collaborations with Crocs and The Rolling Stones, PROT’s influence is growing bigger while his operation remains small.
Ultimately, PROT believes that fashion should also be personal. “I don’t just want to make and sell what I personally like; I prefer to engage with my customers and create pieces that reflect their desires as much as possible,” he says. “I aim to craft pieces they will treasure for a lifetime.”
THE MORE SOMETHING’S WORN, THE MORE ATTRACTIVE IT BECOMES.
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR DESIGN EDUCATION AND HOW YOU HONED YOUR CRAFT?
My fashion journey began with studying spatial and fashion design at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. I later joined an apparel company in Okayama where I dove deep into remakes and vintage processing. Over ten years as a chief designer, I honed a philosophy of balancing design with hands-on craftsmanship, a cornerstone for PROLETA RE ART.
WHEN DID YOU OFFICIALLY START PROLETA RE ART?
In March 2020, I started transforming old clothes into unique pieces from home and sold them via Yahoo! Auctions. I didn’t have a brand then, and only used descriptions like “Levi’s vintage BORO,” so I was surprised to see items sell for a few thousand or even several hundred thousand yen.
Then one of my BORO jackets was posted on an Instagram archive page, which brought some attention and led me to archive my work on my personal account. By March 2021, I took a step forward and named my brand “PROLETA RE ART.” I also gave my creations a distinct identity. This was my evolution from anonymous online sales to an established brand that blends traditional craftsmanship with contemporary fashion.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO CREATE A SINGLE PIECE, AND WHAT FACTORS INFLUENCE THE TIMELINE?
For individual orders, it can take up to three months. Since we often use old clothes and materials, we must repair them. If they are warped or twisted, we have to sort through
the usable and unusable parts. This is the starting point. However, if the fabric is dyed with certain chemicals, the fading process may not go well. The process sometimes weakens the fabric, so we have to take it apart and repair it again, and things don’t always go according to plan. Some customers want to wear their pieces for their birthday or an event, so we’ll have to stay up for days on end to ensure they are delivered on time.
WHAT’S THE MOST MEMORABLE CUSTOM DESIGN REQUEST YOU’VE RECEIVED?
A$AP Rocky and his team have been clients of the brand since the beginning, and I’ve provided them with many pieces. When Rocky and Rihanna had their second child, Riot Rose, they asked me to make a blanket. I have a special attachment to the blankets I made for them. I’m happy to see on Instagram that they use the blankets daily. They have become worn and look even better now.
YOUR EMBROIDERY OFTEN FEATURES CARTOON-LIKE IMAGERY. WHAT INSPIRES THIS UNIQUE STYLE, AND WHAT MESSAGE DO YOU AIM TO CONVEY?
When visiting less affluent neighborhoods, it’s common to see Mickey Mouse or Pokémon painted on signs and walls. They’re not “good” paintings in a traditional sense, and the characters’ colors look strange. However, they appeal to me because I’ve always thought garments that are distorted and aged are tasteful. As far as what I aim to convey, it’s in the brand name. “Proletariat” means “the working class” in a capitalist society and we’re creating the complete opposite of commercially-designed things, so that’s where PROLETA RE ART comes from.
DENIM IS
A COMMON MATERIAL THAT CAN BE REIMAGINED WITH PERSISTENCE, LOVE, AND GOOD TASTE.
PROLETARIAT MEANS “THE WORKING CLASS” IN A CAPITALIST SOCIETY AND WE’RE CREATING THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF COMMERCIALLYDESIGNED THINGS.
DENIM PLAYS A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN YOUR DESIGNS. WHAT DRAWS YOU TO IT?
I’ve always been attracted to things that have been used. My father had a battered leather wallet he gave me when I was young. I found it fascinating that the buttons were rusted and it had a unique texture that was blackened by hand grease. I’ve always thought worn jeans were cool in vintage fashion, just like the wallet my dad gave me. Denim is attractive because you can add character to it. It’s great for DIY customization and self-expression. The freedom it implies is also attractive and you can make it cool, however you arrange it. The more it’s worn, the more attractive it becomes. Denim is a common material that can be reimagined with persistence, love, and good taste.
YOU’VE COLLABORATED WITH YOHJI YAMAMOTO, GUCCI, LEVI’S, AND CROCS. WHAT’S IT LIKE COLLABORATING WITH OTHER BRANDS VERSUS WORKING INDEPENDENTLY?
The collaboration process is basically the same as our custom-made work. For example, I would use Yohji’s jackets and pants as a base for creating a custom piece for WILDSIDE Yohji Yamamoto. For Gucci, I would use Gucci’s brand archives as a foundation for what I was creating. I like many artists and brands, but I am just a fan, and I don’t really want to mix them with my own work. For this reason, I don’t often want to collaborate with a particular person, but if I can create a relationship with artwork, furniture, or other items, I would be willing to do so. I’m open to using techniques that I can’t do alone or that we don’t have access to.
Aminé NEW WAVE NEW BEAT
SHIRT: COMME DES GARÇONS
BEAT NEW WAVE NEW
THE MUSICIAN WEIGHS IN ON HIS UPCOMING RECORD, GROWING WISER WITH AGE, AND BRINGING STORYTELLING
BACK TO SNEAKER DESIGN.
“I wasn’t that confident growing up,” says Aminé. It’s not what you’d expect to hear from an artist known for his playful flow and easygoing charisma, one with a 3x platinum single (2016’s “Caroline”), a plethora of albums and mixtapes, and even a handful of sneaker collaborations under his belt. But the rapper, born Adam Aminé Daniel, is far from conventional. “In sports, I got cut from teams—nothing had really gone well for me, in a major way, and music was the first time I had felt, ‘OK, this is something I feel I’m good at and it’s actually making me happy.’”
Born to Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants, Aminé didn’t even rap until the end of high school when he started writing verses as a joke contest with his friends. “I found myself working really hard and asked myself, ‘Why am I so passionate about this right now? I don’t even rap,’” he recalls. “It was the first moment that I felt changed by hip-hop.”
Today, Aminé has toured the globe and collaborated with everyone from Ty Dolla $ign and Saba, to Vince Staples and KAYTRANADA. The latter producer, having discovered his work via SoundCloud back in the 2010s, was an early champion of Aminé’s ability with the pen. Roughly eight years later, the two rented a house in Malibu to collaborate on an album aptly titled KAYTRAMINÉ (2023). The duo blended KAYTRANADA’s signature synthy baselines with Aminé’s rapid-fire braggadocio, resulting in an record that, like its cover image, doesn’t take itself too seriously and transports the listener to a boozy beachside party. It became a near-instant summer smash.
But now as he prepares to turn 30, Aminé is riding a new wave. Before hip-hop, footwear was the passion he thought he’d dedicate his life to—understandably, as growing up in Portland he was much closer to Nike’s global HQ than the center of the hip-hop zeitgeist. It wasn’t until a recent partnership with New Balance, however, that Aminé revisited his earlier flame by helping revive the 610 silhouette via his “The Mooz” and “Mini Mooz” collaborations, with more releases on the horizon. Between footwear and music, Aminé is feeling more creatively fulfilled than ever, and that shy Northeast Portland kid is now an LA-based creative force—one whose mind is as open as ever.
HAT: UNBRANDED KNIT DREAD HAT
COAT: RIER
TIE: KAIDAN COLLECTIVE PANTS & BELT: OUR LEGACY SHOES: AMINÉ X NEW BALANCE
A LOT OF MY MELODIES AND IDEAS JUST COME OUT OF THE BLUE.
WHAT’S YOUR RECORDING PROCESS LIKE? ARE YOU FREESTYLING, WRITING IN THE NOTES APP, OR GOING OLD SCHOOL WITH A PEN AND PAPER?
It’s kind of sporadic. If I’m in conversation with somebody and they say something that I relate to or find interesting, I’ll jot it down in my Notes app or a journal. Whatever I have handy on me at that moment. A lot of my melodies and ideas just come out of the blue. I can’t explain the exact process, but when an idea comes you just have to record it somehow, even when you don’t have a beat. Those are the moments that I love. A lot of my lyrics have formed from inspiration that came to me in the moment.
YOUR LINK-UP WITH KAYTRANADA FOR KAYTRAMINÉ WAS A BIG MOMENT THIS PAST YEAR. WHAT WAS IT LIKE MAKING THAT COLLABORATIVE ALBUM?
The idea formed from our personal relationship. We first linked up on SoundCloud in 2014. He was one of the first producers to reach out to me. I’ve told this story before, but the idea for the project really came from us doing a session together for my [forthcoming] album. And then we’re like, “Wait, we haven’t really worked together in a while. I think it would make sense for us to do a collab album.” That idea started back in 2020, and we did a couple of sessions together during COVID. We didn’t know where it was going to go or when it was going to come out. But we knew we were excited to work on music together.
ON “K&A,” YOU RAP: “YOU GOTTA LEARN TO LET GO,” ESSENTIALLY STATING THAT YOU CAN’T BE YOURSELF WHEN SEEKING VALIDATION. LETTING GO IS EASIER SAID THAN DONE. HOW DO YOU LET GO AND WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE FOR OTHERS LOOKING TO DO THE SAME?
Honestly, it’s like you said: easier said than done. I don’t have a routine or process to shake myself out of seeking validation. I think it comes with age and time. When you’re younger, 21 or 22, and still trying to make it in whatever you’re trying to do, you just hate yourself a lot more because you’re always so focused on hitting all your goals. Once you get older, you just want time to slow down and realize that you should have enjoyed the journey. The older I got, the more I learned to let go because I wanted to preserve time, preserve these moments, preserve my sanity and my happiness. I think doing what you love is a great distraction. It helps you let go of other things. I believe that’s the answer to your question about my process. Doing what you love and being with who you love.
WHAT WAS DESIGNING YOUR FIRST SHOE WITH NEW BALANCE LIKE? YOU MENTIONED THAT THE PARTNERSHIP FULFILLED A CHILDHOOD DREAM.
I knew I wanted to work on a silhouette that I’d actually wear. When I went into the New Balance office, the team told me they thought I’d really like the 610. They were right. It was a perfect shoe to work on because it felt like Oregon. It felt like how I wanted to be represented.
COAT: RIER PANTS : OUR LEGACY SHOES: NEW BALANCE X AMINÉ
THERE ARE MANY PARALLELS BETWEEN DESIGNING A SNEAKER AND WRITING A SONG.
Me doing a basketball sneaker doesn’t really make sense. The silhouettes that I want to be picking are things that I relate to: where I’m from, my performances, what I’m trying to do in my life. So the 610 was an easy choice, and the color scheme was based on my identity—yellow’s always been my signature color. Now that the identity has been established, I’m excited to focus on stories about Oregon and growing up in Portland with my upcoming collabs.
HIP-HOP ALLOWED YOU TO HOME IN ON YOUR CREATIVITY, BUT SNEAKERS WERE ACTUALLY AN EARLIER INTEREST. DO YOU SEE PARALLELS BETWEEN THE TWO CREATIVE MEDIUMS?
There are many parallels between designing a sneaker and writing a song. You’re creating something from nothing. I also see similarities in coloring a shoe and making an album cover. Color palettes are essential to me, and should represent what a body of work contains. They’re different in a lot of ways too, though. I love making music and doing shows, but it isn’t something that I can touch with my hands. I can’t touch a song, per se, but I can grab that first sample of a sneaker and see what I like about it, actually feel it, put it on, and see how it looks with jeans. That process is so different from making music. It’s fulfilling a different side of me.
CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE SOUNDS, THE VIBES, THE CONCEPTS YOU’RE EXPLORING ON YOUR NEXT RECORD?
There’s not much I can say, because when you try to explain sounds, it’s never as good as the actual song. It also increases expectations. I can say that I’m really, really excited about it. It’s something that I’ve been working on even before KAYTRAMINÉ, over a few years at a very slow pace. I want to grow as an artist and a songwriter, and become the person I want to be over the next 10 years. That’s what I’ve been thinking about regarding this upcoming album, because it’s my third studio album. TWOPOINTFIVE (2021) and KAYTRAMINÉ (2023) were really more like mixtapes and side projects I was doing to fill time and to give people what they wanted after Limbo (2020).
WHAT’S NEXT FOR AMINÉ?
I think you can expect that many of the collaborations I do with New Balance will be heavily story-based, focusing on Portland and where I came from. I’m not really going to wake up one day and create something about how much I love sandwiches in LA. I’m trying to bring back excellent storytelling to sneakers—make them feel meaningful and represent a time in my life or someone else’s life that they can relate to. Music-wise, the next album will definitely drop sometime this year.
STYLING BY TINBETE DANIEL
EXECU TION Chapter 4
EXECU TION
D O OOO
WANTS TO PUT MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS
doooo often finds himself in sticky situations at the airport. The Tokyo-based “flesh artist”—known for his anatomy-inspired, surrealist jewelry—is not a serial overpacker, nor does he travel with oversized liquids in his carry-on. He does, however, always travel with his epidermic creations in tow, often eliciting stares and raised eyebrows from airport security. Ironically, some of his designs have eyebrows, too, and can even stare right back at perplexed onlookers.
“Every time I’m at the baggage inspection area, I’m stopped and they ask me, ‘What are these eye and mouth things?’” he says. “It’s always a bit difficult to explain.”
LITERALLY.
E Y E DISCO BALL
The multifaceted artist—whose distinctive four-o’d pen name stems from his DJ moniker, doooobeats—takes “skin in the game” to a literal level, producing eerily authentic facsimiles of human appendages before morphing them into bling. Under his brand Mother Factory, he’s made Eye Dice pendants, which look like cubes of flesh with each side sporting moles or a pupil. He’s designed numerous Mouth Coin Purses, featuring mandibles that open to reveal a full set of teeth (sometimes adorned with jewels) and can fit an actual mouthful of stuff. There’s even his USB Thumb Drive—a realistic looking thumb, cuticles and all, that’s also a fully functional data storage device. “I like making strange but interesting things,” he says matter-of-factly.
Music was doooo’s gateway into making physical art. His first piece was a Human Flesh AKAI MPC that he created in tandem with his 2017 album PANIC! As doooo sat with a myriad of ideas for the project’s visual component, he was sure of one thing: He wanted to implement his admiration for sci-fi and horror aesthetics, particularly those pioneered by mad geniuses like David Cronenberg and H.R. Giger, into his first formal artistic release.
“I wanted to create something that would convey who I am as a person,” he explains. “The MPC was the first item that taught me how to channel my passion for both art and music simultaneously.” doooo featured the faux skin-covered sampler machine on the record’s cover, as well as in music videos, an instantly viral decision that led to extensive media coverage and more attention on his practice.
“I ALWAYS THOUGHT IT WOULD BE COOL IF PCS AND CDJS GREW FINGERS.”
After the MPC, doooo sought to craft his own freaky takes on everyday personal objects, things he’d actually use on the go. “I always wanted to be carrying ‘flesh art,’” he says. Enter the USB Thumb Drive and the Mouth Coin Purse, both of which he keeps on a chain and carries around everywhere. “I use them all the time.”
Eye-centric items came later, when doooo envisioned embedding animatronic technology into his designs. The Eye Dice was born from doooo’s desire to create a piece of art “that blinked.” The Eye Disco Ball followed suit, as he imagined a next-level statement necklace that DJs could don behind the decks. Each piece is equipped with an internal “blinking machine,” which he built with a team of experts and artists including JUR and Grillz Jewelz.
While his fabrications range from limbs to ears to noses, doooo follows the same five-step process for each design. First, he comes up with a concept and immediately starts sketching, often using real-life imagery as his source material. “I try to draw everything whenever I think of it, even if I’m outside, just so I don’t forget it.” Next, he experiments with molds to achieve his desired shapes and forms. After coating the mold in silicone (step three), he begins meticulously painting and planting the mold. The fifth and final step is doooo’s favorite: “the finishing” process, where he adds extra details like artificial hair follicles or ebullient gems. Each piece can take several months to finish,
E Y E DICE
“IN JAPAN, THE NUMBERS ON THE DICE ARE COUNTED AS ‘EYE OF 1’ AND ‘EYES OF 2,’ SO I CAME UP WITH THE IDEA OF USING DICE. EYE OF 1 IS A REAL EYE AND THE OTHER NUMBERS ARE MOLES BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE TOO SCARY IF THE OTHER SIDES WERE EYES TOO.”
and his studio will fill with rows of in-progress designs that make the space feel like a jewelry atelier set in the world of Hellraiser
What might as well be the honorary sixth step of the process is possibly the most exhilarating—the public’s response. “People’s surprised reactions always make me happy,” he says of the unpredictable feedback he receives after lifting the curtain on a blinking eye chain or fleshy tape dispenser.
And though doooo initially makes every piece for himself, he regularly gets commissioned to make new versions by eager fans. “Many people want human flesh items with part of themselves represented in the designs,” he notes. “It’s crazy to see how my art can help individuals express their inner selves,” adding that he feels his jewelry pairs best with streetwear or suiting styles.
In the coming years, doooo plans to expand his artistry into a multimedia universe, including short films, audiovisual projects, and flesh art events and exhibitions. He adds that he’d also love to collaborate with rappers, artists, and athletes. But what’s the dream commission for an artist who crafts admittedly nightmarish creations? Something otherworldly, inspired by the extraterrestrial, the fantastical, instead of the human form. “It’d have to be a piece based on Alien (1979) or Gremlins (1984).”
“I ALWAYS THOUGHT A COIN PURSE RESEMBLED A MOUTH, AND THAT IT WOULD BE INTERESTING IF THE MOUTH ATE THE COINS, SO I MADE ONE.”
COIN PURSE
Arthouses Across America
BY ZACH SOKOL
The best independent cinemas keeping celluloid alive through offbeat programming, left-field events, and concession stands stocked with specialty snacks for when the popcorn just isn’t hitting.
WORDS
As last summer’s “Barbenheimer” phenomenon underscored: America’s back in movie theaters. Sure, box office grosses might never recover from pre-pandemic times. Attendance is still a fraction of what it was in 2018, the year with the most ticket sales in the history of the silver screen, and digital streaming platforms have forever altered the production and distribution of feature films. But movie theaters still have a pulse, and those drums of artificial butter popcorn flavoring aren’t expiring anytime soon.
For many viewers, theaters are the fallow ground for consuming Marvel movies and franchise flicks via a dizzying array of screen options: IMAX, RPX, ScreenX, and even 4DX—with the latter featuring immersive sensory elements like mist and scent
infusions. But for film buffs and Criterion nerds, independent theaters are and have always been a sacred space to witness Stendhal Syndrome-inducing, capital-C Cinema. After all, no one’s watching a 4K restoration of an Agnès Varda joint at a Regal outpost, though those reclining chairs certainly are nice.
Indie and arthouse theaters have always been a “third place” for culture enthusiasts to commune over cult films, fresh microbudget releases, and specially-curated screenings. Though niche from an economic standpoint, these theaters offer emerging directors and veteran auteurs a place to showcase the weird, the wild, and the overlooked gems that might just become your next favorite midnight movie.
NY
1. Roxy Cinema
New York City
An Art Deco-styled theater in the basement of the Roxy Hotel in Tribeca, the arthouse has become a local favorite due to its left-field programming and archival print screenings. Most notably, Roxy Cinema has become a bellwether for NYC’s next generation of talented directors, regularly lending the space for indie premieres.
2. Metrograph
New York City
Since its opening in 2016, the Lower East Side cinema has become a full-on institution and undeniable landmark. In addition to being the go-to spot for zeitgeist-worthy film and TV premieres, Metrograph regularly hosts celebrity-curated screenings, retrospectives of the best and brightest directors, and talks that pair cult favorites and icons. Plus, there’s a restaurant, a bookstore, an online journal, and maybe the only concession stand in New York selling both Pocky and popcorn.
3. Music Box Chicago
Built in 1929, just two months before The Great Depression, the independent “repertory cinema” has been a consistent Windy City landmark for almost a century, with its iconic neon sign drawing fans of both choice arthouse cuts and modern blockbusters alike. To quote the owners: “Although our ticket prices have changed slightly over the past 90 years, the butter on our popcorn is still real.”
4. O Cinema Miami
A nonprofit, community-based cinema that aims to provide “superior quality films that audiences will otherwise not see in South Florida.” On top of offering first-run screenings of the latest indies, the theater has both VR and AR showcases equipped with immersive 360 video.
5. Gateway Film Center Columbus
This nonprofit theater provides a mix of mainstream and independent programming, from the latest Dune installment, to 4K restorations of classics spanning the entire canon of moving images. There’s also a speakeasy bar tucked inside that has been described as both underwater-themed and steampunk-inspired.
6. Brain Dead Studios
Los Angeles
The cinema arm of the design collective is a natural complement to the brand’s thrilling “throw shit at the wall” ethos. On top of truly inventive programming (a Freddie Gibbshosted Predator screening?), the space has hosted ping-pong competitions, Magic: The Gathering tournaments, and music events—without skimping on daily showcases of cult films.
7. Now Instant Image Hall
Los Angeles
The LA-based arthouse theater is immediately recognizable for its all-green decor, but its signature programming—featuring cinema deep cuts, micro-budget films, and even video art—is just as remarkable. Plus, it has one of the most thoughtfully curated print shops to boot.
TX MA
8.
The
Kentucky Theater Lexington
A historic “movie palace” built in 1922, the Kentucky Theater was shuttered during the pandemic, only to be reopened as a nonprofit. After a hundred years, it remains an arthouse delight offering foreign films, midnight screenings of Rocky Horror, and regular sing-along performances by the Bluegrass Chapter of the American Theater Organ Society.
9. Screenland Armour Kansas City
Built in 1928, this storied cinema has undergone numerous name changes and reinventions since its start as a silent movie theater. Today, it boasts multiple 35mm projectors, a full kitchen, outdoor patios, and a ‘90s “nostalgic concept video store” called Rewind Video and Dive. Screenland is also home to Panic Fest, a renowned genre festival that draws horror auteurs from across the country.
10. AFS Cinema
Austin
Austin’s only nonprofit arthouse theater, AFS is known as a mainstay for promoting Texas filmmakers. Founded by Richard Linklater in 1985, it has a board full of Lone Star State legends like Robert Rodriguez and Mike Judge. AFS also hosts the annual Texas Film Awards, runs a grant program and annual retreat for aspiring directors, plus oversees Austin Studios—former airplane hangars converted into studio production stages.
11. Wellfleet Cinemas
Cape Cod
Nearly at the tip of Cape Cod, this historic drive-in movie theater is as Americana as it gets. On top of its throwback aesthetics (they still offer monaural speakers that attach to your car’s window), Wellfleet Cinemas has been home to both a flea market and mini-golf course for over 50 years. The complex is one of the venues for the Provincetown International Film Festival and is regularly listed on Frommer’s list of “500 Places to See Before They Disappear,” despite being a cultural destination that isn’t going away anytime soon.
GOLDWIN’S GOLD STANDARD
A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT HOW SPIBER AND GOLDWIN ARE DEVISING THE FUTURE OF HIGH-END OUTDOOR APPAREL WITH THEIR BREAKTHROUGH BREWED PROTEIN™ TECHNOLOGY.
Spider silk is one of nature’s most fascinating materials. Each strand is 1,000 times thinner than a human hair, but is built from thousands of elastic nano threads. This low-density, high-stretch construction makes spider silk extremely strong. In fact, a given weight of spider silk is five times stronger than the same amount of steel, and, of course, significantly softer.
Spider silk’s unique structure and extreme strength have informed everything from bulletproof vests and surgical sutures to the (admittedly fictional) powers of Spider-Man. And now, biomaterials company Spiber and outerwear manufacturer Goldwin see it—alongside other protein-based marvels found in nature—as inspiration for a new frontier of high-end textile applications that are both sustainable and dynamic.
To this end, Spiber has derived its own unique protein-based biomaterial, Brewed Protein™. And in concert with Goldwin, a brand known for its manufacturing expertise, Brewed Protein material has been made into high-end outerwear.
The process of developing Brewed Protein material is akin to brewing beer. It’s created by fermenting genetically engineered microbes from plant sources. The protein polymers produced during this fermentation are dried into a powder, dissolved into a liquid solution, extruded from microscopic holes in a nozzle, and solidified into finished fibers. These fibers are comparable in fineness to baby cashmere and adaptable to various haptic and
aesthetic effects, from fleece to denim. Once produced, they’re sent to Goldwin to be crafted into fully functional apparel.
Brewed Protein fiber was first made available to the public in August 2019 with the release of the Planetary Equilibrium Tee—a collaboration with The North Face Japan, one of the many brands under the greater Goldwin umbrella—followed by a custom The North Face Japan MOON PARKA that retailed for just over $1,400.
With advancements in Spiber’s production technology, Spiber and Goldwin gradually ramped up their releases, crafting an entire apparel collection—from hardy ski jackets and parkas, to soft sweaters and crisp denim—of Brewed Protein material in 2023. Think elevated Japanese gorpcore that’s so sustainable it biodegrades in either earth or water, a far cry from the petroleum-based materials used in most elevated outdoor apparel.
The process of spinning a genetically engineered microbe into a textile and then making that textile into durable, functional clothing is not, as you might guess, a simple A-to-B path. Goldwin general manager Takuya Kinami and product design and merchandising manager Yu Kuroda, plus Spiber executive vice president of sustainability Kenji Higashi broke down the process—from filament to finalized product—and discussed the future of the technology.
WORDS BY ROSS DWYER
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SPIBER AND GOLDWIN
1. FILAMENT TO FINAL PRODUCT
“Spiber’s process to develop new materials begins with studying the structures and properties of materials found in nature,” explains Higashi. “We’ve analyzed thousands of naturally occurring biomaterials to study their amino acid sequences and physical properties. We extract insight from this knowledge to draw inspiration for our original amino acid sequences.”
Once Spiber scientists have created the custom amino acid sequences that ensure the form of the textile meets the requirements of the finished product—for example, woven fabric for a jacket or knit material for a sweater—the DNA is inserted into custom-engineered microorganisms. Then, through fermentation, the microorganisms convert sugars into Brewed Protein polymers, which are processed by Spiber and sent to Goldwin for manufacturing. Higashi notes that no specialized facilities or machinery are needed to manufacture textile products made from Brewed Protein fabrics.
After Goldwin has the materials, they determine a final design. “We adjust patterns and sewing specifications to suit the properties of each material, ensuring a final product that harmonizes with the unique traits of the chosen fabrics,” says Kinami.
2. SUSTAINABILITY PLUS PERFORMANCE
Brewed Protein may be a new-age material with no textile antecedent, but that doesn’t mean Goldwin will accept anything less than the best from the raw materials that Spiber provides. “For over 60 years, Goldwin has consistently conducted safety and durability tests,” says Kuroda. “We don’t sell anything that doesn’t meet our standards.”
After the raw materials are matched with sewing and processing techniques at Goldwin’s Toyama, Japan factory, the sample garments are sent to the brand’s attached TechLab. There, they are tested in a high-tech “artificial weather room” that simulates various inclement conditions (driving winds, torrential downpours) before being sent to the nearby Tateyama mountain range for field testing.
These stringent standards are best illustrated by the MOON PARKA’s development process, which started in 2015 and wasn’t finalized for almost four years, until its release in 2019. Higashi explained that one of the earliest MOON PARKA
prototypes would shrink dramatically when exposed to water, which sent the Goldwin-Spiber team back to the drawing board at a molecular level. “We worked hand in hand with Goldwin on everything from the redesign of our protein molecules to the testing of the product’s technical performance,” says Higashi. The result was a new protein material with a different amino acid sequence engineered to have less shrinkage.
“Our development process has sped up considerably since then, but Goldwin is still involved from the earliest phases of material development,” Higashi notes. The next step in testing? Entirely phasing out the synthetic materials used in technical outerwear. Because Brewed Protein materials can currently replicate natural proteins more faithfully than some of the synthetic materials in technical outerwear, Spiber and Goldwin are working on high-elasticity hydrophobic fabrics that mimic the properties of elastane, polyurethane, polyester, and nylon.
3. THE FUTURE (OF THE FUTURE)
Is it possible to replace all materials derived from petroleum with fully recyclable ones? Goldwin and Spiber think so. And they’re striving to make their raw material cycle fully circular, meaning that their garments generate little to no waste over the course of (and even after) their life cycle.
Kinami notes the inherent push-pull between sustainability, performance, and design. “Our pieces must be ethically made, provide allure and value, and be functional based on the environment.”
Higashi speaks about bolstering Spiber’s supply chain, which relies on raw materials from crops like sugarcane and corn. “It’s important for Spiber to develop ways of using waste biomasses, both agricultural and textile, as an alternative feedstock to ensure sustainable production,” he says. To do so, Spiber and Goldwin have launched a “biosphere circulation” project to push for policies and regulations that support regenerative manufacturing and consumption.
“I believe there’s no ceiling for the potential of Brewed Protein materials,” he concludes.
After all, if a spider silk-inspired, naturally-grown synthetic material can have its DNA coded into custom-engineered microorganisms, which produce fibers that become full-on jackets, why stick with petroleum?
SETTING THE PACE
WORDS BY ROSS DWYER
FROM NYC TO TOKYO, SEOUL TO STOCKHOLM, THESE BRANDS ARE LEADING A SARTORIAL
REVOLUTION IN RUNNING GEAR.
GLOBAL GNINNUR EDIUG
“FIRST THERE CAME THE ACTION OF RUNNING, AND ACCOMPANYING IT THERE WAS THIS ENTITY KNOWN AS ME,” HARUKI MURAKAMI WROTE IN WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING, HIS SEMINAL 2007 WORK THAT’S PART MEMOIR, PART MARATHON TRAINING GUIDE, AND PART MEDITATION ON THE ACT OF RUNNING. “I RUN, THEREFORE I AM.”
THE ACTION OF RUNNING HAS EXISTED FOR NEARLY TWO MILLION YEARS, AND ITS CORE PHYSICAL TENETS HAVE REMAINED ESSENTIALLY UNCHANGED. HOWEVER, RUNNING CULTURE HAS ADVANCED LEAPS AND BOUNDS—ESPECIALLY IN THE PAST DECADE—WITH A SHIFT IN FOCUS FROM SPLIT TIMES AND DISTANCE RECORDS TO THE PURE JOY OF PARTICIPATION AND PERSONAL BESTS. RUNNING HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND WILL ALWAYS BE A SINGULAR PURSUIT AT ITS CORE, BUT TODAY IT’S MORE INCLUSIVE AND OPEN THAN EVER, THANKS TO RUN CLUBS, APPS LIKE STRAVA, AND, OF COURSE, THE PASTIME’S EVER-EVOLVING SARTORIAL CODES.
RUNNING GEAR IS NO LONGER CONSIDERED STRICTLY ATHLETIC WEAR RESERVED FOR THE TRACK, GYM, AND LITTLE ELSE. IN 2024, INDIE RUNNING BRANDS ACROSS THE GLOBE ARE TAPPING INTO THE ACTIVITY AS A RICH WELLSPRING OF CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE AND ALLOWING RUNNERS TO EXPRESS THEIR TASTES, BELIEFS, AND PREFERENCES THROUGH THEIR GARMENTS AND ACCESSORIES. THE “RUNNING REVOLUTION” HAS SPREAD AROUND THE GLOBE, INFLUENCING EVERYTHING FROM PARIS-BASED SATISFY’S “ROMANTIC PERFORMANCE WEAR,” TO NORDA OF MONTREAL’S ULTRA-PREMIUM, HARD-WEARING TRAIL RUNNING SNEAKERS. HERE ARE 14 EMERGING OUTFITS SPEARHEADING THE NEXT WAVE OF RUNNING GOODS.
MILER RUNNING
Offering functional designs that are short on flash but long on high-quality materials and thoughtful details, Miler Running’s minimalist aesthetic is backed up by its raw textiles—sourced from Japan and Italy—and domestic production, with each piece crafted in New York.
2
BANDIT RUNNING
BROOKLYN
Born from Brookly’s thriving run club community, Bandit Running prides itself on camaraderie, technical proficiency, and an inclusive ethos—enhanced by its airy, logo-adorned performance gear.
5
TRACKSMITH BOSTON
Conceptualized in Boston and steeped in New England culture, Tracksmith offers a unique aesthetic with its Ivy League athletic-inspired pieces made from high-end textiles not commonly found in running apparel—think merino wool waffle thermals and water-repellant tights.
3
HERMANOS KOUMORI MEXICO CITY
Intentionally existing in a gray area between streetwear and performance wear, Hermanos KWoumori celebrates Mexico’s spirited sprinters by creating “contemporary garments for the 24/7 runner.”
4
SOAR LONDON
Known for smart cuts and sharp color choices, this Hackney-based outfit flies at the forefront of British running culture with modernist garments designed to perform from both a style and a performance standpoint.
6
DISTRICT VISION LA
Though best known for its made-in-Japan eyewear, the NY-founded, LA-based outfit prioritizes both performance and adaptable functionality in its wide swath of apparel and accessories intended to enhance mental and physical wellness.
GRAPHIC BY FILIP PAGOWSKI
GRAPHIC BY HERMANOS KOUMORI
9
SATISFY
Founded to explore a “romantic approach” to performance wear and provide technical goods that encapsulate peace and silence in product form, Satisfy has established one of the most singular aesthetics in performance gear today thanks to its “moth-bitten” tees and highly technical hydration vests.”
8
RUNNING ORDER
Running Order prides itself on crafting “performance clubwear,” form-fitting and attention-demanding pieces that are equally appropriate for a hilly half-marathon as they are at an all-night rave.
MOUNTAIN MARTIAL ARTS
Conceptualized by an art director who fell in love with trail running and built a brand based on “the joy of living with sports,” Mountain Martial Arts aims to connect city living to mountain adventures through thoughtfully crafted apparel.
10
UNSANCTIONED RUNNIN G MELBOURNE
Based on a mantra of “If you can’t make it more sustainably, don’t make it all,” this self-professed “sustainable and ethical” brand utilizes recycled fabrics to provide performance-driven innovations and shun what it calls “guilt-washing.”
TOKYO
KUTA DISTANCE L.AB
Kuta Distance Lab’s moniker draws from a Swedish phrase that roughly translates to “come home quickly”—and its goods are crafted for the long haul: the brand sees distance running as “not the sheer stretch, but an opportunity.”
12
ARC (A RUNNING CLUB) SEOUL
A Running Club, better known as ARC, believes that “everyone has their own running club,” and produces lightweight, mostly monochromatic apparel and accessories that are inspired by “every thought that comes to mind while running.”
SAYSKY
A champion of the Copenhagen running community, this brand is known for its bright six-point star logo and bold prints. Although Saysky takes a more playful and open tack than many “serious” running brands, the performance of its garments is no laughing matter. 14
NORDA
As norda’s tagline states, the brand is “inspired by Canada’s toughest conditions,” and the Montrealbased outfit has taken the world of running footwear by storm with its unequaled products—such as shoes that use custom Dyneema fabric and Vibram foams/rubbers for maximum performance and durability with minimal environmental impact.
550BC 550bc.com
A RUNNING CLUB arunningclub.com
BANDIT RUNNING banditrunning.com
BÁRBARA SÁNCHEZ-KANE sanchez-kane.com
BOTTEGA VENETA bottegaveneta.com
CASIO casio.com
COMME DES GARÇONS comme-des-garcons.com
DINGYUN ZHANG dingyunzhang.com
DIOR dior.com
DISTRICT VISION districtvision.com
DOLCE & GABBANA dolcegabbana.com
DOOOO/MOTHER FACTORY doooobeats.stores.jp
DRIES VAN NOTEN driesvannoten.com
EDGLRD edglrd.com
FANTASY EXPLOSION fantasyexplosion.com
GLASHÜTTE glashutte-original.com
GOLDEN GOOSE goldengoose.com
GOLDWIN goldwin-global.com
GX1000 gx1000.com
HERMANOS KOUMORI hermanoskoumori.com
HERMÈS hermes.com
HUGO BOSS hugoboss.com
INTRAMURAL SHOP intramuralshop.com
JACQUEMUS jacquemus.com
JAH JAH PARIS jahjahparis.com
JIYONGKIM jiyongkim.net
JOHN LAWRENCE SULLIVAN online.john-lawrence-sullivan.com
