Mother Denim’s Snack, UPS Backs Talent, Versace Taps Sprouse
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SNACK ATTACK: Mother, the Los Angeles-based denim brand, is launching a collection of 100 percent rigid cotton denim in classic washes with the focus on the silhouette called Snacks.
With exaggerated proportions, such as slouchy, oversize jeans; super high rises; deep pleats; drop crotches, and inseams that puddle at the helm, Snacks will be out Tuesday.
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The nine-piece collection comes in light, medium and dark washes and includes fit names like the Fun Dip Puddle, Yummy Puddle and Twizzy Skimp. Each pair of jeans highlights pretzel-detailed buttons, candy-coated rivets and black patches made from pineapple leaves. The collection is manufactured in L.A.
Snacks will be an ongoing collection, and new fits and washes will be introduced each season.
courtesy shot.
“Being a brand rooted in nostalgia, this collection reimagines the fits of the ’80s and ’90s for a new generation,” said Tim Kaeding, creative director and cofounder of Mother Denim. “For Snacks, we were playing with proportions and bigger jeans in general. It is more objective and about how you want to wear it.” Mother Denim was founded in 2010 and runs the gamut from denim and dresses to jumpsuits, shirts, skirts, shorts, sweaters, sweatshirts and T-shirts.
Snacks retail prices range from $198 to $228. It will be sold in stores globally such as Fwrd by Elyse Walker, Shopbop, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, LuisaViaRoma and Selfridges, as well as Motherdenim.com. — LISA LOCKWOOD
UPS BACKS EMERGING TALENT: UPS is heading to New York Fashion Week.
The shipping and logistics company is making its debut in fashion this week as the official logistics partner of NYFW: The Shows, and is launching its first apparel and merchandise collection to commemorate the milestone, partnering with nonprofit In the Blk to present three emerging Black designers on Feb. 13.
The 14-piece collection drew inspiration from small- and medium-size businesses, which are the main focus for UPS’s Be Unstoppable initiative, a program designed to help business owners of smaller firms compete more effectively against larger companies. Pieces include apparel, backpacks and wireless speakers all ranging in price from $28 to $98.
Christian Cody
UPS tapped photographer Christian Cody to shoot the collection and stylist Ugo Mozie to create the looks. The proceeds of this collection will go to In the Blk, a non-profit dedicated to uplifting emerging Black fashion brands. UPS will also donate $50,000 to support Black entrepreneurs.
“NYFW is another example of how we can come together and show up in a different way with how customers perceive us,” said Kevin Warren, chief marketing officer of UPS. “It’s not about just writing a check. This is something we’re going to lean on.”
Warren said small- and medium-size businesses, shortened to SMBs, represent the most profitable customer segment for UPS and the company’s strong performance in 2021 was driven by these smaller companies. But this segment was also most impacted by the pandemic, especially Black-owned businesses, which inspired UPS to launch an extension of Be Unstoppable called Proudly Unstoppable, an initiative supporting minority-owned businesses during the pandemic. The company raised $580,000 in grants to Black and diverse-owned businesses.
This collection furthers that cause. “I think that there is synergy to being good and moving goods,” said Warren. “We needed to update the middle model. This is a company that is very diverse.”
Prior to this partnership with NYFW: The Shows, UPS promoted the Be Unstoppable initiative with tennis star and entrepreneur Serena Williams and reggaeton artist J Balvin, who took to TikTok to elevate Latin-owned SMBs. The company also touched down at ComplexCon as the official shipping partner, handling shipping for attendees and complimentary ground shipping for VIP ticket holders.
“We found that to really change the brand relevance of UPS is to meet consumers culturally where they are,” Warren said. — OBI ANYANWU
SPROUSE’S NEW GIG: Versace has named Cole Sprouse the face for its latest eyewear campaign.
Sprouse, who plays “Jughead” on the super popular teen soup “Riverdale” on The CW Network, was shot by Steven Klein and styled by Allega Versace, daughter of Donatella. Klein used a handheld camera meant to capture the actor and model’s dynamic movements throughout the shoot.
The capsule collection of eyewear has two sunglass styles — a metal navigator with adjustable nose pads and a wraparound metal mask frame, and one round optical frame, all in a variety of colorways. All styles use a mix of the Italian house’s iconography, such as embossed Medusa details and engraved brand logos.
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Sprouse shot to fame as a child actor — with his twin brother Dylan — for his role as Cody Martin on the Disney Channel series “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” and its spin-off series “The Suite Life on Deck.” He’s earned three Teen Choice awards for his role on “Riverdale” and in 2019 starred in the hit teen drama film “Five Feet Apart.'”According to his IMDb page, the actor and model is in post production for two films slated for 2022: “Moonshot” and “Undercover.”
The collection goes on sale Tuesday and the campaign rolls out on Versace social channels. — THOMAS WALLER
META ESTATE: Philipp Plein made his move in the metaverse.
The Plein Group has purchased a plot of land in the Decentraland metaverse, a 3D virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain.
The Switzerland-based fashion company bought the estate for a price of 510,000 Manas — Decentraland’s own cryptocurrency — corresponding to approximately $1.4 million, as per the transaction date’s exchange.
Dubbed Plein Plaza, the estate is claimed to be situated in a prime location directly overlooking one of the Genesis Plazas, framed and accessible from two roads, and covers 65 Decentraland parcels, the equivalent of approximately 176,528 square feet in the real world.
Steven Klein/Courtesy of Philipp Plein
The transaction was operated by the fashion group under the alias Bug$ Bunny with the assistance of Jason Rosenstein, founder and chief executive officer of the NFT auction house and marketplace Portion, which will be also involved in the development of the estate.
Digital visual artist Antoni Tudisco will additionally play a role in the creation of the Plein Plaza project, which will include stores, entertainment, an art museum, a hotel and luxury residences.
Plein said he was proud “to have seized this opportunity to own a portion of the Metaverse so early on in the development and establishment of this new universe.”
“We are there to stay and to develop and share the creativity of all our brands — Philipp Plein, Plein Sport and Billionaire — also in this new dimension of human interaction in which I personally believe a lot,” he added.
The German designer was among the firsts to fully embrace the potential of the digital world and its tools. Last year, the company opened up to cryptocurrencies, accepting more than 20 different types as means of payment both in its brick-and-mortar stores and on its e-commerce.
Last month, the Philipp Plein men’s fall 2022 presentation hosted at the group’s new Milanese headquarters also featured sculptures of monsters first intended as NFT-only art and then turned into physical objects, which the designer aims to exhibit next December at Art Basel Miami. — SANDRA SALIBIAN
HEAD GAMES: If you had to sum up your life with three items, what would they be?
Visitors to the 3537 cultural center in Paris will have the opportunity to jot those down in the guest book after taking in “Past Bones Present Flesh Future Omen,” an exhibition of works by artist-designers Flávio Juán Núñez and Laurent Tijou that runs until Feb. 13.
Lucien Heritier
Spread over the top floor and lower level of 3537, the exhibition is the culmination of an artistic dialogue that began five years ago when Tijou, then head of jewelry design at Jean Paul Gaultier, called upon furrier and leather specialist Núñez for pieces for haute couture. The two men connected over a shared love of craftsmanship.
Welcoming guests on the first floor amidst strobe lights and strains of techno is the leather and crystal “Death of Disco,” the first of many Death Mask sculptures in the show. Facing off with a photograph of one of Núñez and Tijou’s early collaborations, it kicks off a dialogue between past and present.
“[These photographs] started as pieces that were part of Jean Paul [Gaultier’s] collection, so they had to undo them. We then wanted to transcribe them differently with the same techniques,” Tijou said.
Other Death Mask sculptures tap into Núñez’s familial roots and the crafts he has learned. “My grandmother used to make effigies of family members and conserving [their] jewelry, so that’s how the conversation started with Laurent,” he said.
“The Death Masks started from embalming rituals from different eras, connected to craftsmanship,” he added, pointing out the complex wrappings of Egyptian mummies or how defeated Mayans were stripped of their adornments.
Woven into the production of Núñez and Tijou is commentary about materialism; trauma and healing; LGBTQ advocacy, plus a healthy dose of their “twisted sense of humor,” as the duo put it.
On the walls are photographs from the “Disrespectful Idols,” “Golem” and “Om” series. The latter was shot in Malta and explores feminine archetypes from antiquity to the Renaissance. In the lower level, the Gisants installation — crates with pictures and the discombobulating sound of crackling fire — cohabit with more death masks and small coffins.
A coffin in the courtyard serves as a memorial to members of the LGBTQ community who “inverted…transitioned…rebelled…deceased,” stated the artists in a poem inscribed on it.
They will be further remembered on Feb. 12 and 13 as Núñez enacts the story of a transformation, rebirth and transcendence in “Passing,” a performance he has cowritten with dancer Corey Scott-Gilbert.
A book, retracing the path from older works from Núñez’s artistic research to the exhibition, is on sale in the Bookshop 1909 for 49 euros. It is the first publication edited by 3537. — LILY TEMPLETON
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