88rising Unveils First Fashion Collection With Sorayama
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This weekend was a big one for media company 88rising, not only for its Head in the Clouds music festival held at the Los Angeles State Historic Park on Saturday but also the debut of its new collection with Japanese artist Sorayama, its first stand-alone fashion collection.
88rising pulled artwork from Sorayama’s archive and commissioned the Japanese artist to create pieces for the apparel collection. The first T-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies from the 88rising x Sorayama collection debuted at the festival on Aug. 17, retailing between $24 to $100, and will launch later this month on 88NightMarket, the company’s e-commerce platform for artist merchandise, 88 logo apparel and collaboration products.
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“Sorayama’s inspiring and groundbreaking superrealism aesthetic invites you into an entire world that he’s created piece by piece. In many ways, entering the world of 88rising is the same experience,” said cofounder Sean Miyashiro. “This collaboration is the perfect opportunity to combine creative worlds and educate more people on Sorayama as we pay homage to the artist himself.”
The Japanese illustrator has many fashion collaborations under his belt, including Dior in 2018 and 2019, and Huf, and his artwork has been used by Nike and Juun.J. He also partnered with 88rising on album artwork and creative visuals for “Head in the Clouds 2,” the company’s collaboration album featuring its music artists.
Kenneth Ning, 88rising head fashion designer, said about the project, “We revisited Sorayama’s archive and picked the pieces that most inspired us. With his blessing, we reworked some of his artwork with an innovative angle on manufacturing techniques. The first capsule is an exclusive entry pass to what’s to come.”
Founded by Miyashiro in 2015, 88rising is a New York City-based record label and video production and marketing company. The company represents primarily Asian artists such as Rich Brian, Niki, Keith Ape and Joji. This collaboration with 88rising may be the media company’s first fashion collection, but it has also produced collaborations with Places+Faces and more recently Guess for the Head in the Clouds festival.
“88rising has strong momentum in apparel, largely through partnerships and our strong presence in music,” Miyashiro said. “As a leading creative cultural force in the East and West across so many outlets, we always aim to push the envelope and innovate. Moving more strongly into apparel is an obvious extension to expand the creative energy that is the foundation of 88rising at its core.”
88rising will launch more products from the collection this fall at specialty retailers. The fall collection, which will retail between $90 and $600, will feature an interactive component with Snapchat and Instagram where people can shine one of the app’s many filters over each piece’s graphics to make Sorayama’s characters come to life.
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