I have to admit I am a huge fan of Miami based art crew Metro Zu and their whole scene, and have been for a while now. You’ve got Mr. B the Poshtranaut, FREEBASE, Ruben Slikk, and Lofty305 that make up the Zu and they go all the way in with their art, always creating. They make beats, rap, sing, paint, draw, make videos, travel, and make clothes, and they are very inspiring to me. Truly living the DIY lifestyle.
On the music side of things these guys have an extensive, yet mysterious discography. It’s all over the internet but now is mainly based on their bandcamps, which does make it a little easier to keep up with. That is part of the fun though, collect them all like Pokemons or Basedgod tapes and just enjoying the gems you find.
Below are some of my selected favorites, but there’s more further down the rabbit hole on their collective Bandcamp.
In the immediate aftermath of Jeremy Scott’s fall/winter presentation at New York Fashion Week, youngins from the twitterverse were all up in arms, asking the Lamour Supremes and Buff Monsters how they felt about being ripped off. The real storm hadn’t hit yet, as it took a few more days before Jim Phillips saw these images, and had a little shock of his own (as illustrated above).
Of course, it’s no news that Jeremy Scott is much more of a pop-art designer than a real creative mind (especially for us at Mishka), but there is a certain laziness about this collection that beats anything he’s ever done to the punch. Jim Phillips isn’t just a board designer, he is arguably THE guy who has designed pretty much every recognizable skate and surf design, from the screaming hand to his slasher; and if there is such a thing as skateboard-inspired fashion (not to mention streetwear), it’s at least in because of him – he was the art director for Santa Cruz Skateboards and opened up the way for VCJ and some funny guy named Pushead to start a friendly war of who can rock the raddest designs and plaster them on as much gear as humanly possible.
Taking his art wholesale and sticking it on skate and surf-inspired clothes is a pretty good slap in the face of not only an artist who is still alive and kicking, but also an entire generation of people who grew up with this culture and already look down on young skaters as pencil-necked trendies. On consolation at the end of the day though: who wears Jeremy Scott? I mean, who pays to wear his shit, besides uninspired k-pop and j-pop marketing firms? Half of his clothes never even make it to production, and the commercial loss for Phillips will be pretty minimal. Plus Scott was already a novelty designer so his notoriety won’t take a big hit (and I’m sure he’s still going to defend his collection somehow), if you didn’t care about history before, you probably won’t start today. That is the divide we live in. Maybe the CFDA should man up for once and ban him from showing for a couple of years, so he can take an inspirational retreat. Actually, maybe they could enforce a mandatory retreat for all designers, every 3 or 5 years. We would all win.
Go ahead and style on ‘em. Show up and show out. Walk into the event, the function, the soiree; in slow fucking motion. Reservoir Dogs, Puffy, homegirl with the booty in Kanye’s “Flashing Lights” video. Do it for them, do it like them. Come in from the cold and open up that coat. Let all the sartorial heat expertly draped upon your person, feed the thirsty fucks you socialize with on a regular basis. A photosynthesis of freshness. Let those reflected light beams, bring joy and warmth to their cold hearts. “Look at the fit..”, “What’s that pattern about?”, “Are those fucking aliens?” All murmured in hushed tones… Enter the event looking like the gotdamn sun on the first day of Spring.
We teased it earlier with a lil video, but now we have the full Lookbook for our Spring 13 collection. Switching up the style from previous Lookbooks, Spring ’13 shoot (which is by the incredible Jason Shaltz) features one model, Shaun Ross, guiding you through our latest gear for the return of sun and warm temperatures. We really couldn’t put any other models next to Shaun and not have them be outdone, so we let him do it on the dolo. These pieces will have you standing out in the crowd. Cuts, patterns, and designs that scream out for attention on frequencies only the right eyes are attuned to. Camouflage from those not initiated.
Spring ’13 is the perfect adornment in the season where everyone starts to crawl out of their cocoons. The time where we all move into the light looking for warmth, mates, and inspiration. Get your fit right, style your gear, and become the light bearer. Drape yourself in a million electrons that each say, “damn son, where’d you find that!?!”
“Bounce that ass, shake that ass like the Twerk Team”
I am trying SO hard to shake my ass like the Twerk Team, Flocka. The constant and inevitable humiliation I undergo in front of my bedroom mirror alone every night is starting to have an effect on my self esteem. I pose this question: Are some of us just born twerkers and others just left to fall by the wayside?
In this ever changing sea of subcultures within subcultures, of cool, and what I’m embarrassed to admit I still like, how can ANYONE (mostly me) keep up? Luckily, we live in a world where media, is literally at the tip of our fingers. Cool is democratized and available to everyone now. There certainly wasn’t a huge influx of hunky black nerds when I was a young punk tryna get mine in high school. I see you in your skinny jeans trying to skateboard…but I digress.
Fashion and music are colliding with time and genres in an awesome, yet Bermuda Triangle-esque way. Who can afford to be this current though? Givenchy to my left and Rick Owens to my right I’m spinning in circles and I thought I paid too much for my 3′s. You best save up that lunch money kiddies, I don’t see hip hop high fashion backing down anytime soon. But before you go maxing out all your credit cards, try DIY. After all, fashion is what YOU like. Remember, confidence over consumerism. Nothing looks better than a bad bitch that can actually walk in her shoes.
Looking “anime” is not exactly a fashion compliment. Immediately, you think of obnoxious colors and power-dressing, probably in part thanks to the popularization of street style and people taking pictures of kogyarus like they’re the norm; try starting a non-ironic fashion blog by taking pictures of girls coming out of Hot Topic, see how that sticks. Obbviously, just as anime is not all lolis, fashion is not all Jeremy Scotts. And in the past few years the relation between the two have accelerated, especially because kids these days are increasingly interested in the two. There was this German graphic designer covering classic manga characters in high fashion logos and the guys at Human Aliens outfitting characters from Naruto and Dragon Ball in your favorite streetwear brands.
Anyway there’s another collaboration that’s ongoing, and it’s much weirder in many respects – certainly creatively. A few years back, manga artist Hirohiko Araki – a shōnen artist who has been drawing one of the longest-running manga (yet poorly exported) series, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. He loves to include western references in his writing, including a character named Gucci, which raised some flags at the Italian house. But creative director Frida Giannini took the thing in stride and invited Araki to display his works in the Tokyo’s flagship store for the brand’s anniversary. Araki also drew up an editorial for Spur Magazine showcasing Gucci’s entire collection as worn by his characters in JoJo. And this year, Araki and Gucci are taking the collection a step further, dressing up Gucci stores worldwide with designs by Araki of the Cruise 2013 collection. The image above is one you will be able to see over there, you can see another pic at The Telegraph together with the piece that inspired it. It’s a pretty ballsy move, and I salute it.
Tis the season for holiday specials, and Mordechai Rubinstein aka Mister Mort has just what you need: a good reason to turn to Judaism and another opportunity turn self-hate into a fashion statement (for the goyim, that is). He teamed up with marketplace upstarts The Cools to release some custom-made traditional yet unorthodox head-coverings that will make the most atheist dandy reconsider at least his accessorizing this Hannukah season.
If not his whole faith. Did you know? “Kippah” means “dome” in Hebrew. So wearing this snazzy round piece of wool you are literally guaranteed to get dome. Even better! If you’re a gay goy you can openly observe your partner’s cute kippah WHILE he gives you dome. And when he’s done, yank his yarmukle and get to business. Now, does it qualify as a kosher gift for Hannukah? They’ll set you back $120; some might argue it’s a lot of Gelt but there’s no time to quarrel, you will need to have these babies rushed to your house if you want to have one in time for Zos Hannukkah. They’ll be the Mazel of your week.
So you might remember a few years back we introduced a vibrant, albeit short lived, Мишка women’s line. Since then, many ladies have voiced their sorrows over the loss and continued lack of a ladies line, and while we cannot yet satiate their femme street wear sartorial cravings, we can attempt to tastefully demonstrate how to effectively work what we’ve already got.
Allow me first to briefly introduce myself: my name is Tara and I am the in-house photographer here at Мишка and I am making my blog debut on behalf of all the eyeball loving ladies out there. Now, taking or giving style advice is a precarious task. The taking part depends entirely upon you, the advice taker, and your ability to believe that I, the advice giver, have any stylistic credibility. That, of course, remains to be seen, suffice it to say that 1) I am a woman and 2) I work for Мишка, two truths that add up to one inevitable result—I have an invested interest in continually finding new ways to tailor my Мишка wears according to my taste. That should be enough credibility to at least get you to the end of this post and then hopefully check out the images that I will now introduce.
For your viewing pleasure, we have started adding images of select Summer 12 items worn by a lady to our online store. I realize these images hardly denote style, except maybe the City of God shirt, in which I’ve adorably tied the end of the shirt up to create a sort of Christina Ricci in Now and Then meets goth trailer park biker look. I also realize this isn’t as good as a full women’s line, but it’s obviously better than nothing, so Ladies, take it and run… and if you feel compelled, post images of your own Мишка self-stylings on Tumblr (tag them with “Mishka,” we’ll find ‘em) so we can reblog you and make you an instant style icon.
So girls keep an eye on the online store, if you see something you like check the images and you may just find our suggestion on how to make it your own. And we’ll of course be posting more about it here on the Bloglin as we make more looks.
Cease your lamentations and begin the celebration, because the Spring 2012 Lookbook is finally here and it’s bringing a bunch of new clothes with it. I know we’ve been building the anticipation pretty hard, what with the individual previews, the tantalizing tweets, the Lookbook video: but the day is finally here! See your favorite rappers wearing a veritable motherlode of great clothes, and rest easy knowing that you can purchase these threads right now in stores and online!
As you saw some weeks ago, we recruited quite the team of (mostly) New York rappers and producers to show off our Spring 2012 collection, and we couldn’t be happier with the way the Lookbook turned out. Just look at Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire and the rest of the Peel Off Crew (Goldie Glo, Dallas Tha Kid, Heron, & DJ SicksentZ) up there and try not to smile – not to mention be jealous of their outifts. Or look at Dapwell of Das Racist looking dapper in the Lamour MA-1 Jacket, a great spring layer complete with a bunch of snazzy detailing, and Children Of The Night with the Lamour Bomber.
Children of the Night
Party Supplies
Das Racist & Lakutis
Danny Brown is showing off another of our favorite numbers, the Ferris Cardigan, which sports a colored leopard print we featured a whole bunch this season. Speaking of patterns, you can see Party Supplies with our world travellin’ Postal Poplin, and Greedhead’sLakutis with the totally prehistoric Jurassic Twill. Ghe20 G0th1k headmistress Venus X is showing off one of my personal favorites, the D.E.A.T.H.® Hoodie, a design which you can also cop on a shirt AND a snapback.
Inside the Lookbook you’ll also see artists like Gita, the rappin’ chef Action Bronson, world renowned DJ Shiftee, the rising Left Leberra and the rest of the AREB Crew, and young firebrand Perrion, all shot wonderfully by our in house photographer Tara Chacón. There’s so many more clothes in there, from new tee graphics to old favorites, snapbacks and fitteds, button ups like the bleached out Love Buzz Poplin, Spring jackets like the two-tone Hog’s Breath Denim or the sleek Class Cutter Canvas, plus jeans, pants, sweaters, accessories and more. All of the first Spring delivery is ready for you now, and the whole collection will be available in mid-March. Have fun, and stay fresh!
Punxsutawney Phil must’ve lost that precognitive magic, because despite what he says the Мишка spring is boutta get sprung. Like the buds of so many deciduous flora, our garments are sensing the impending equinox and are blooming in full effect. Whereas pollen clings to the legs of bees, the natural habitat of our products is, where else, on rappers! As always, to get everyone extra excited for the Lookbook and the collection, we’ve prepared a teaser video to give you a look behind the scenes.
Enlisting the help of a bevy of up-and-coming or on top of their game New York rappers, we travelled all over this dirty pretty city with clothes over our arms, 808s in our ears, and freshness in our hearts, making sure all you fans out there could see the new stuff we’ve worked so hard on in the best settings possible. We’ve enjoyed shooting these videos around the country and even the world, but for Spring 2012, nothing felt better than getting back to NYC.
Children of the Night
Heems of Das Racist
Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire
You’ll see the fun-loving Queens rap trio Children of The Night traipsing through the borough’s most iconic monument. There’s Ghe20 Goth1k mastermind Venus X, swagging out in the L’amour MA-1, followed by Left Leberra and the AREB Crew (not to mention the second appearance of the much loved Keep Watch Leggings). Next up to the plate is the Greedhead posse, featuring recent Мишка mixtaperLakutis as well as the one, the only, Das Racist, all showing off some ill new patterns, snapbacks, and denim jackets.
Young firestarter Perrion hung out in the middle of the street in his 420th Squadron Crewneck to let everyone know exactly what he’s about, and Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire brought the whole Peel Off Crew – Goldie Glo, Dallas Tha Kid, and Heron – to help him show off painter’s caps, button ups, and some crazy new t-shirt designs. Out on loan from Detroit, the expertly coiffed Danny Brown sported the new Ferris Poplin shirt and Class Cutter Jacket, while Bay Area transplant Gita threw some punches in the L’amour Bomber. DJ Shiftee felt pretty old school in his snapback, and MPC remix machine Party Supplies was real patriotic. Finally Action Bronson himself stopped by our office to play with official Мишка pooch and look dope doing it.
Danny Brown
Party Supplies
So get ready, because this thing is dropping soon. Like, real soon, both online and in all our stores.* Nothing better than Springtime.
*Actually some of Spring-1 is available now online and in-store. All of it real, real soon though.
The video was captured, directed and edited by Matthew Caron and produced by our own Michael Cohn. The Lookbook — which will be out in a couple of weeks — was shot by our own in house photog Tara Chacón.
Have you listened to Ten$ion? Better yet, have you hopped on the T by Alexander Wang bandwagon? In a weird collusion of cultural mishmash, Ninja and Yo-Landi have been quietly introduced as the faces of T‘s S/S line. Which is funny because I am willing to bet that Die Antwoord‘s audience is composed half of people that wear the brand, and half of people who would wear the brand if they knew about it/could afford it.
Double down on zefness too – I doubt Alexander Wang would consider his line of fashion anything near “zef”, yet that is exactly what it is: trashy not cool made cool by cultural conventions. Which makes the mismatch fornicate itself in heaven: in your face self-referencing meets in your face self-referencing for a transcendental showdown of made-up authenticity that makes me a little bit queasy inside. On the upside though, because I do like a fine package (nh): it makes the band even less South African, and even more 2.0. A glorification of short memory and the suspension of disbelief: who cares if we won’t remember DA or wear T by AW in 3 years: right now it’s all that matters.
