WORDS Maggie Scaife
IMAGE Mowalola via Instagram
Yeezy Announce Collaboration With GAP & MOWALOLA
Kayne West has announced that Nigerian-British designer Mowalola has been appointed as his Design Director of the latest Yeezy partnership with long-standing high street retailer GAP. Yeezy Gap is set to be a 10-year partnership, as a former employee of the company the now billionaire musician stroke designer broke the news via Twitter coining the #WESTDAYEVER in a series of other announcements alongside one teaser image. Fans will have to wait until 2021 for the launch of their ”modern, elevated basics for men, women and kids at accessible price points”. Diet Prada suggested that on the surface this news should be celebrated, pointing out however that the retailer’s upcoming collaboration with designer Telfar Clemens of the brand Telfar was abandoned due to coronavirus complications questioning their recent intentions when they are supposedly facing severe losses in revenue, not to mention refusing to pay their factory workers as we mentioned last week. But in a New York Times interview, Clemens insisted he is not a victim while expressing his distaste for playing “fame and skin colour against each other”.
Creatives4SystemicChange Raffle For the Black Trans Community
A global collective of fine artists, freelancers, writers, photographers, stylists, students, recent graduates, dancers and designers have come together online uniting with the same goal; to sell their work in a raffle that will donate the funds to “organisations that amplify and empower the Black trans community”. At $10 per entry or $5 per mystery entry the Creatives 4 Systemic Change raffle will remain open until July the 4th at midnight PST with an unlimited amount of entries per person. Organisations that will benefit from these ticket sales are; The Okra Project who “seeks to address the global crisis of violence by providing resources and meals to Black Trans people worldwide”, The Marsha P. Johnson Institute who “protect the human rights of Black transgender people” and For The Gworls who “assist w/ Black trans folks’ rent/ affirmative surgery.” Bag yourself a Chopova Lowena skirt, a pair of Paula Canovas Diablo flats, a Sophie Hird custom cowboy football shirt, or even a natural dyeing workshop with Susannah Mitchell all for a good cause.
Hermès Fakes Tried in Court
Seven Ex-Employees of the French designer brand appeared in a courtroom for producing dozens of forged handbags in a secret atelier and sold for price tags between €23,000 and €32,000 making them a healthy profit of approximately €2 million. Most respected for their collectable premium leather goods, the ‘Birkin’ bag has become a piece of wealthy iconography sported by countless celebrity elites including Linsey Lohan, J-Lo and Victoria Beckham. But it was a bugged covert operation which exposed this select group of traitors who are being accused of forgery and abuse of confidence. They supposedly sourced some crocodile skins from Italy to replicate copies and skilled workers produced the bags identically to the real deal.
Tyler Mitchell Celebrates Release of His First Monograph
Brooklyn-based fashion photographer Tyler Mitchell, whose work has graced the covers of GQ, Vogue, Office Magazine and more has publicly broadcasted his latest addition to his impressive body of work: “As a photographer, your first published monograph is a moment you dream of. So happy with how it came out.” 206 pages of handbound full-bleed photography depict Black life in its many forms. The pages inside ‘I Can Make You Feel Good’ are in tandem with meticulously-written essays by Swiss art curator and critic Hans Ulrich Obrist, contemporary artist Deborah Willis, Isolde Brielmaier the International Centre of Photography’s Curator-at-Large and Mirjam Kooiman the Curator of FOAM, the international photography organisation from Amsterdam.
H&M Launch Second-Hand Store Initiative
The Swedish fashion conglomerate, who also own high street favourites such as Monki, COS and Arket have bought a 70% stake of an environmentally-ethical start-up who go by the name ‘Sellpy’. Consistently criticised for their Greenwashed ‘Conscious Collection’, which is far from transparent about dyes used and frequently portrays cotton as a sustainable material despite needing 2,700 litres of water is to make a t-shirt. Their new initiative is currently only available in Sweden, however, H&M have confirmed they are to take the second-hand clothing website to Germany, a country notorious for their recycling efficiency.
Royal Academy Antwerp Host Digital Fashion Showcase
This week, Masters students from the Royal Academy Antwerp debuted WWWSHOWWW, a digital fashion experience in lieu of in-person fashion events that have been cancelled around the world due to the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. “The starting point of WWWSHOWWW was to give current students the same opportunities and visibility as their predecessors,” explains the school’s head of fashion Walter van Beirendonck to 1 Granary magazine. The Belgian fashion school challenged the creative studio The Random Studio “to provide a virtual contemporary environment for the physical creations brought to life by our students” and showcased the graduate collections of 122 Bachelors and nine Masters students on their new digital platform. The result is a show liberated by the pressure of replicating the physical experience, making us excited for the possibilities that exist outside of the catwalk.
Advertising Boycott Against Mark Zuckerberg
It has been estimated that over 500 brands this week have united in solidarity to remove their sponsored or promoted advertisements from Facebook until further notice in an effort to force the billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg to change his policies and attitude towards hate speech. The likes of Adidas, Puma, North Face, Levi’s, Vans, Patagonia and more have rallied together for the Facebook boycott to support an anti-far-right agenda. It is set to last around a month and The Guardian reports that almost a third of the site’s regular advertisers are involved. However, Zuckerburg believes it will “end soon enough” insisting there won’t be any changes made and that the company “don’t benefit from this kind of content” anyway.
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