street wear

What’s going on at Gap?



Yeezy Gap

Kanye’s first Yeezy Gap jacket drooped last week, but is it any cop?

The single nylon puffer was the first piece from the much hyped ten-year project to appear as a pre-order on the U.S Gap website (to be shipped in the autumn). In bright blue, the voluminous $200 jacket wasn’t your average Gap fare. (Some memes compared it to a Smurf-coloured bin bag.)

Early reactions on fashion forums were mixed – 65/35 against I’d say. The 35% were quite emphatic in their enthusiasm, applauding Gap for giving so much trust and control to Team Yeezy. Gap even temporarily erased its entire Instagram feed save for one picture of the polarising item. At this stage, one could concede, what exactly does Gap have to lose? (more…)



Trend report: What to steal from Dior men fall 2020



Dior Shawn Stussy men's fall 2020 by BRETT LLOYD

“I’m a commercial artist. I think things are going so well because I’m not afraid to do things that are commercial.”  And therein lies the success of Kim Jones. His Dior men’s fall collection shown last Tuesday was highly anticipated by me and my fashion cohorts as soon as the collab with Shawn Stussy was announced. (more…)



Culture and community – how skate brands win at retail



Oktyabr multibrand skate shop in Moscow conceived by upstart brand Rassvet - Pic by Hypebeast

The skatewear industry is one of the few niches managing to circumnavigate the plummeting shifting bricks and mortar retail landscape. Last weekend I went to Soho’s Brewer Street to witness the annual pop-up tour from Basement Approved, an online streetwear community that has evolved into a 360 proposition of physical merch, parties and pop-ups. Outside the appointed retail unit, a small gathering of scruffy-beautiful skate kids milled about guzzling Red Stripe and doing whatever young people do on their phones these days. (more…)



Next-gen luxury – all change at the top



Off-White X Rimowa clear case

It will be interesting to see the evolution of legacy luxury houses as a new generation of company leaders takes over. Rimowa (now owned by LVMH) has placed 26-year-old Alexandre Arnault (son of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault) at its helm and is already attracting millennials with its recent Supreme and Off-White collabs (I quite like the Off-White see-thru case). LVMH also just installed another son, Antoine Arnault in a role managing image and communication for the conglomerate.

And news just in, Miuccia Prada’s 30-year-old racing driver son, Lorenzo Bertelli joined Prada last September as head of digital communications. (more…)