Elisa Lee’s body positive illustrations and great artistic talents are a very interesting take on fashion and the depiction of beauty. She is a Korean born illustrator and an Otis College of Art and Design graduate, located in Los Angeles, California.
Lee is someone who sees the diversity in fashion as her muse. Growing up in Korea, Elisa has only recently been introduced to the American fashion market and feels that fashion is drawing up great avenues of expression for all to benefit.
Triptych: Jillian Mercado
Notably, Elisa’s time in Korea, transitioning to the states, has made her see the contrast of her upbringing. Priming her worldview of fashion and how diverse it can be.
This is what has influenced her to create an illustrative art series called “Body Positivity” which represents the different types of women who crave fashion regularly.
Korean trends follow a certain template, not just of the demographic but even the size of the women.
“As a Korean, I think it is great to see the United State’s fashion industry because Korea’s fashion industry still lacks inclusivity. Considering the fact that most of the customers are not size 0 or 2, I believe it is great to see more [diversity],”
Triptych: Mama Cāx
She acknowledges the influential factor in fashion and considers it as most inspiring. The views Elisa shares of fashion is one that embraces individuality and offers “a way to express yourself and make yourself look beautiful regardless of your flaws.”
Body Positivity is a series of illustrations that display the beauty shared throughout human beings and fashion. Depictions of actual people who range in physical beauty from size to physical disabilities like skin disorders and genetic disorders.
Triptych: Stacy Paris
Elisa, being minimal in her fashion style, reaches for lots of colors when creating her art.
She has a canny ability to represent the different varieties of women with a vibrance that makes them pop from the page as stylish, recessing the physical ailments and disabilities of the subjects.
For years food and fashion have had somewhat of the same connection as music and style. We can remember how Ronald McDonald dressed in the yellow and red outfit, as well as what jacket the Gordon Fisherman had on.
Let’s not forget to get Chef Boyardee’s chef hat. All the fashion statements that signal food in the brain. What has evolved since these icons came on the scene is how designers have interpreted food for the masses through fashion.
That Tasty Streetwear
Collaboration between some iconic commercial food and beverage brands with some familiar designers and artists have been more relevant due to their bold take on implementing the comfort foods that Americans and those around the world love.
Papa John Aims and Misses with Vetements
Even from across the pond, Papa John’s saw an opportunity to apply some drip to its resume, boldly asking Vetements, the Georgian streetwear line founded by avant-garde designer Demna Gvasalia, to collaborate on a collection.
We have yet to hear from Vetements.
The next #Vetements collab should be with Papa John's.
Now there are more elaborate collaborations between some of the fast-food giants in existence and from recent years. From streetwear brands to high-fashion labels, there has been enough to go around.
And even taking from the idea of food and community, some brands have included cuisine as apart of there fashion presentation.
Anti Social Social Club x Panda Express
anti-social-social-panda-express-01
Anti Social Social Club is the most recent culprit in staining their designs with some food we can all relate too. The Social Club’s collaboration involved the Asian comfort fast-food Panda Express, highlighting their famous orange chicken on printed designs on the back of the hoodies and t-shirts.
They have also included Panda Express hats that employees could probably get away with wearing at work, as long as the manager doesn’t see the Anti-Social Social Club logo placed on the side of the adjustable dad hat.
The Anti Social Social Club x Panda Express collab goes live this weekend.
Anti Social Social Club has also collaborated with different brands in the past including the Los Angeles’ Boys and Girls Club, United States Postal Service, Hot Wheels, and Ed Hardy.
MLMA x Crocs x Kentucky Fried Chicken
MLMA x KFC x Crocs: Paper Magazine
Earlier this year, the Instagram sensation with over 1 million followers, fashion designer at apparel brand Skoot, makeup artist, special effects artist, model and rapper, MLMA took a bucket of KFC and turned it into eyebrow shifting headlines.
Identifying herself in person as M; her name meaning Me Love Me a Lot was ecstatic with the idea of creating – something with Kentucky Fried Chicken.
“When I heard about the opportunity, I thought my manager was joking” she recalls to Paper magazine. “That’s what I love about it.”
MLMA x KFC x Crocs: Paper Magazine
The Seoul-born Korean artist took the comfy shoes known as Crocs and added some KFC flare.
The shoe itself acted more as the bucket, with red and white familiar stripes of the KFC buckets. The top part of the shoes was designed to look like the classic fried chicken peeking out from the bucket.
Additionally, there are life-size fried chicken pieces as removable Jibbitz that are synonymous with the Crocs community as these pieces used to customize and personalize each pair at the toe of the shoes.
Jacquemus x French Cuisine
jacquemus-mens-fall-2019-presentation__Models at the Jacquemus Fall 2019 men’s presentation during Paris Fashion Week Men’s_Photo-Pascal Le Segretain_Getty Images
Jacquemus designer, Simon Porte, infused cuisine into his presentation for his Fall 2019 menswear debut giving us intimate engagement over fleeting clothes down a runway.
A bread loaf branded with the Jacquemus logo was sent out as an invitation. The set for this presentation was created by Alix Lacloche, a Paris-based chef, who put together a classic French breakfast spread.
The collection was inspired by the workwear of the bakers and farmers of the Montpellier area where rural life is prominent still.
A Bathing Ape x Coco-Cola
Coca-Cola x Bape hoodie
Some more notable food and fashion collaborations have been the 2014 A Bathing Ape x Coca-Cola collab. This collab coming after the Bape x Pepsi collab years before which involved camo printing bottles and cans.
A Bathing Ape took the iconic Coca-Cola brand and turned it Bape camo. Including this print on their famous full-zip hoodies, as well as G-Shock watches, hats, and glasses.
All the product was subtly branded with Coca-Cola’s logo and Bape’s ape head logo. This was when Bape would partner with the most unassuming of brands but elevating those brands to hypebeast desirability.
Moschino x McDonald’s
Moschino – Associate Press: Business Insider
And how could we forget the gaudy effect Jeremy Scott had on the unofficial Moschino x McDonald’s collaboration also in 2014.
Taking the Mickey D’s logo and tinkering it to fit the Italian luxury streetwear aesthetic Moschino boasts. The fusion was more fashionable than it was of a hungry hypebeast kid’s dream.
From red happy-meal box purses with yellow and red chains to french fries on the back of phone cases, the collection was the ketchup and mustard of the high-end fashion industry which usually eats steaks.
The Moschino logo branded in McDonalds fashion under the skewed M logo on cashmere sweaters and red and yellow coats other accessories to match.
“Moschino: Over 12 Million Served” replaced the McDonalds slogan feature on the items.
Moschino.com
The red and yellow colors of the collection were triggering enough that the items sold out on Moschino’s website, not surprisingly as everyone can attest to loving McDonald’s at one point in their lives.
Reminiscent of Carrie Bradshaw, the Sex And The City protagonist who had an affinitive affair with McDonald’s and their food throughout the series on HBO.
Sex And The City Mcdonalds GIF
Like Carrie, we all can see ourselves at fast-food restaurants now and again. As she brought her then-boyfriend McDonald’s just before leaving he left for Paris, we may only think of these foods in a clutch.
Whether at three in the afternoon or three in the morning, getting our fix for the foods that remind us of humbler times.
Maria Grazia Chiuri, the womenswear designer for Dior, has had time to play dress-up with her dolls when she was younger.
She presented her Autumn/Winter 2020-2021 Haute Couture collection as miniature gowns fit for any Barbie, or G.I. Joe figurine you may have stashed away in your box of nostalgia.
Maria Grazia Chiuri. Dior.com
In a film titled “Le Mythe Dior” which was directed by Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, a favorite of Grazia Chiuri, fantasy and inanimate dresses are brought to life.
The Dior Haute Couture
In the fashion of “Theatre De la Mode,” when artists and fashion designers collaborated during World War II in France, Dior has brought back to life the surreal worlds that were created by designers and couturiers.
The display of dolls in the fashion of the time was a world away from the one lived in. During the 1940s “Theatre De La Mode” was an escape of the turmoil that Europe was suffering from.
Director, Matteo Garron with miniature Dior dresses on set. Dior.com
Creating these 37 couture dresses took just as much painstaking work as any couture dress would take, as can be seen in videos on Dior’s website.
And each dress carries and luster that is of fantasy and unbelievable scale to reality. The dresses uphold the mastery that is couture, fluid, and feminine, braided accents, velvet materials, popping color, hand-pleated with classic drapery.
Image of the “Theatre De La Mode.” Dior.com
“Surrealist images manage to make visible what is in itself invisible. I’m interested in mystery and magic, which are also a way of exorcising uncertainty about the future,” said Maria Grazia Chiuri of her haute couture collections on the Dior site.
The trunk which can house up to 10 gowns [visibly] is a replica of the 30 Avenue Montaigne where the house of Dior is located in the city of Paris.
And in the film “Le Mythe Dior,” you can see this trunk being carried throughout the whimsical forest by two bell boys.
They approach each scene with caution, unveiling the contents of the trunk, Dior autumn/winter 2020-2021 haute couture dresses, which the women make romanticized selections over.
First “Experimenting” with Reebok back in 2018, Pyer Moss launched a triple black and triple white DMX Fusion that cost $180 and sold out too quickly for those sleeping on the collaboration.
Since then, Reebok and Pyer Moss have repeated their sneaker project for the fourth time and evolved it into apparel and accessories.
Back in October, Kerby Jean-Raymond revealed “Experiment 4” sneaker and his third apparel collection with Reebok at his most anticipated runway show thus far at the Kings Theater in Brooklyn, New York.
About a stone’s throw away from where the Haitian-American fashion designer grew up. A homecoming it was, Jean-Raymond, his team, and the models sported the Reebok by Pyer Moss collaboration gear.
Reebok by Pyer Moss
The show was dedicated to Sister Rosetta Tharpe who is known as the Godmother of Rock and Roll music.
The design of the Reebok by Pyer Moss Collection 3 was inspired by the Twi word “Sankofa” from the Akan tribe in Ghana which means “Go back and get it” displayed by the swan-like creature envisioned on the tracksuits and by Jean-Raymonds return to his home neighborhood to put on a show.
This is a part of his ongoing series, “American, Also” where the human condition is explored and highlighted.
Reebok by Pyer Moss
This Friday, July 3, the “Experiment 4” will be dropping a special pair of the Fury Trail sneaker title the “Innocence Project.” Created to benefit the partnered non-profit focused on aiding in the exoneration of those who have been wrongfully convicted, a portion of the proceeds will go to the organization. You can donate here.
With a racer-like colorway, these pairs will donate a portion of proceeds to the Innocence Project. The Innocent Project is an organization that works to exonerate convicted individuals who have been wrongly imprisoned with the help of DNA testing and criminal justice reform.
The shoe will cost $280 retail.
Reebok by Pyer Moss
Reebok by Pyer Moss “Experiment 4” Fury Trail has a rubberized leather mudguard and a knit upper with luxury hand-feel. The double-layer tongue and insta-pump Fury split tooling are great features but what’s most intriguing is the velour lining on the inside.
Reebok by Pyer Moss
These Reebok x Pyer Moss Fury Trail pairs will surely be all the rave for sneakerheads over the Holiday weekend. So if your thumbs are quick enough, they could be a great addition to your collection and sneaker wall.
Friday, June 26, Kanye West announced his collaborative partnership with Gap Inc. — Yeezy Gap.
A tweet followed the announcement with some vaguely curious imagery of what seems to be a sample of what’s to come from their partnership.
West has also hired British-Nigerian fashion designer Mowalola Ogunlesi to channel his Ye’ energy as design director for the 10-year deal penned as Yeezy Gap.
Ironically, earlier this year before Yeezy Gap, Gap was intending to collaborate with New York City’s budding fashion star, Telfar Clemens on Telfar x Gap moving into the new year. Clemens spent time talking about the collaboration with many media outlets interested in detailing the story. Gap even threw a party for Clemens during Paris Fashion Week in January in celebration of the Telfar x Gap collaboration. But when the COVID pandemic hit, it seems that the conversation had quieted.
Telfar Clemens at the Gap collaboration in January | Source: Julien M. Hekimian/Getty Images for GAP
Without hearing much from Gap, it was reported they had canned the collaboration between Telfar, and because of COVID, they had to close some 3,000 stores and suffered some cash flow issues in the same breath.
The Business of Fashion reports the ax, saying they postponed the Telfar x Gap collab indefinitely.
Kanye West: Charlamagne Tha God Video Interview
Now when Kanye West made his announcement, stock for the Gap rose some 30 to 40 percent and the internet had witnessed the #WestDayEver a hashtag Kanye West initiated via Twitter.
This is to say Gap has been having financial problems over the years so adding Yeezy to their roster doesn’t hurt. But what hurts is the fact that they had to cut ties with a younger Telfar to make room for Yeezy Gap.
A source says Telfar and his team have not been paid for creating samples for the line, which Gap still has possession of. And the two did not sign any contracts before the press run or work toward the collaboration in any capacity, even before the pandemic.
Gucci, the Italian fashion and leather goods house, is forever a high-end luxury brand. But, with the recent collaboration with Esports gamer group Fnatic, they are interested in getting some of your cash in exchange for you to look good on your twitch accounts.
On June 23 the Fnatic twitter account published a nine-second video of what is to come between them and Gucci for the gamer community. All this while becoming eco-conscious and focusing on circular fashion.
Fnatic X Gucci collaboration, Fnatic.com
Meet the Gamers
Fnatic is a London based global e-sport entertainment brand and since 2004 has conquered the gaming community. With over 200 championships in 30 different games, they are the most successful in their arena.
Fnatic is also collaborating with Champion on apparel for the online store, as well as an announcement this August that has yet to be revealed.
https://youtu.be/VVe52qHeOpk
Back in February of 2020, Gucci invited members of the Fnatic esports team to Milan Fashion Week and dripped them out in full Gucci looks. Not to mention they all were seated front row, a coveted responsibility, and privilege to be had before the COVID pandemic hit the fashion industry.
Gucci Youth
Gucci Ghost, Numero.com
As we have seen over the years, Gucci has made successful collaborative efforts to connect with youth through marketing strategies and collaborations that included graffiti artist like Gucci Ghost a.k.a. Trevor “Trouble” Andrew and rapper Gucci Mane [ironically] to capitalize on the streetwear side of fashion.
Even using the legendary director of the coming-of-age film of the early ’90s, Kids, Harmony Korine to document its latest campaigns.
Gucci Mane in Gucci ad campaign, photographed by Harmony Korine.
Gucci even has a genderless, eco-conscious fashion collection dropping called Off The Grid, focusing on circularity, using bio-based and sustainably sourced materials, like Econyl, regenerated nylon from upcycled material, to mention.
“Designed for those mindful of their environmental impact,” Gucci indicates about the eco-conscious collection…
Lil Was X in Off The Grid Gucci ad campaign, photographed by Harmony Korine.
Steve Aoki and Alberto Candiani have been friends for 10 years through Aoki’s late manager, Michael Theanne. It only took them 8 of those to find the time to collaborate on a project.
Though the idea was new to Aoki, sustainable fashion was still a relatively new concept to most. And in 2012 after a tour of the Candiani denim factory, the Grammy-nominated DJ was hooked to the idea of sustainable denim.
Still, they are conscious of how they finish the denim. This includes a laser print finish for the artwork submitted by Aoki’s Dim Mak EC-01 team, and wash.
The two recently went off during a video of a Worldwide Talk, where the two friends, and moderator Sarah Kent, spoke about the collab on the Fashinnovation platform online.
Via @steveaoki
The Fashinnovation platform is where Aoki and Alberto expressed in full scale their collaborative effort and the organic process behind their friendship and the denim they have created. Candiani has been making denim even before it was a thing some 82 years ago.
The company started with Alberto’s Great Grandfather in 1932, where they manufactured workwear at the time. It was his Grandfather though, who discovered denim and the focus on denim grew.
Now, the focus is more on how to lower the footprint by neutralizing the process of making denim, and in-turn finding regenerative solutions and recycling processes. Launching DIm Mak x Candiani EC-01 is the brainchild birthed from their vision.
Via @alberto_cadiani
Alberto gripes at the slow pace of the industry to take on sustainability, as the claims for no demand where stern. A frustration that warranted him to create and offer the consumer an alternative to the current supply. This is where Aoki and his music talents come in…
To celebrate the Juneteenth holiday we are showcasing the high and low moments of Black fashion and style and all the creativity in between. With having good taste and accepting flaws, it’s a landmark year for being black. These fashion moments may have some taken aback but the others are surely uplifting and inspirational.
Some were canceled and others are celebrated to even higher ranks. The point is, Black people have been doing great things and achieving even greater milestones in their lives and for the culture.
Kerby Jean-Raymond, founder and designer of culturally appropriate luxury streetwear brand Pyer Moss, named after his mother, found time to talk with Highsnobiety about a topic he is well informed on.
He goes deeper into his politically charged feelings about how he feels about police brutality and defunding the police. He famously put on a fashion show in 2016 that highlighted police fatalities around the US with a documentary and t-shirts that represented mutual stands of the Black community.
A $50 sum was matched in a donation made by Abloh to (F)empower bail fund for Miami’s arrested protesters of the George Floyd murder. He was criticized harshly by celebs and non-celebs alike.
He later apologized for making the donation seem as if he wanted kudos.
“There are too many clothes on this Earth. If I am going to take the responsibility of making clothing, I need to make something that deserves to exist.”
The founder and head creative behind 1017 Alyx 9SM, Matthew M. Williams said this to GQ magazine at one point. And in an announcement on June 15th of his newly appointed position as Creative Director of French fashion house Givenchy, who is under the LVMH umbrella, he can follow through with that.
Matthew M. Williams, Givenchy.com
The position was previously held by Clare Waight Keller for over 2 years who recently stepped down succeeding the famed Riccardo Tisci.
Bold words for a designer entering high-fashion imagination from streetwear reverie. Usually, a bigger company expects a bigger production than the average streetwear or underground brand. But this is a vision we can be most proud of with a sustainably focused outlook for the fashion industry. Williams will be taking on men’s and women’s ready to wear.
Matthew M. Williams, Givenchy.com
Matthew M. Williams started Alyx studio in 2015 with womenswear at the forefront of his design. Born in Chicago, living in Los Angeles, creating in New York, dating Lady Gaga, working on Been Trill with Virgil Abloh and Heron Preston, and first tasting the limelight as a designer creating a suit jacket for Kanye West in 2008 to wear to the Grammy’s, it may seem that Williams life has been in a whirlwind.
But now that he has been hired by the legendary Givenchy label, the tornado of creative living has found Williams in the eye storm.
Matthew M. Williams with Playboi Carti, via Instagram
The Alyx studio brand has been built on high-quality material and craftsmanship rarely seen in streetwear and we can assume he will be maintaining this aesthetic with the Givenchy brand in clever ways. He is known for his seatbelt fastening ceinture and collaborating with brands like Nike, and Vibram on futuristically tailored and dexterous designs…
Over time we have seen fashion designer and style maven Jerry Lorenzo dawn outfits that transcend streetwear and encroach on the now ever-evolving high fashion luxury market.
Noticeably, we have avoided the simple eyewear he has bestowed, that he sported in-home and on the streets from time, to point out his Fear Of God threads to his signature Nike footwear.
While creating his lane in fashion, giving the baggy aesthetic a refined and appreciated overhaul, and even contrasting that with slimmer more Slimane-like silhouettes, he found a pair of frames that respectively compliment his swagger, almost a decade ago.
bartonperreira.com
On Lorenzo’s face, pairs of Barton Perreira eyeglasses have been the – lowkey – minimal style accessory of choice to his sartorial endeavors. Giving him the sophisticated look that every genius seems to be attracted to.
Attracted to these frames as he was, as Lorenzo couldn’t help noticing them at an eyewear store in L.A where he ultimately found the “solution [he] needed,” having to wear glasses, as most of us can relate to.
“I found my first pair at Dan Duestch’s optical boutique here Los Angeles,”
Lorenzo told Robb Report. He claims to have fallen
“in love with the frames without having any [prior] knowledge of the – brand.”
Lorenzo likens it to “digging at a vintage flea market.”
bartonperreira.com
Since discovering them, he has worn them in and out of the frame of the public for us to even notice. But the co-founders of the Japanese-made Barton Perreira, Patty Perreira, and Bill Barton saw all they needed with clear confidence.
Confidence was enough to reach out to an unassuming Jerry Lorenzo for a collaboration that had more meaning than just spicing up the eyewear market for either brand…
