Tag: local design

Anees Petersen // For those who don’t conform to the norm

“TO THE HOMIES WHO’VE HATED

DOUBTED AND LAUGHED, WHO COME

TO US NOW FOR AFFILIATION,

VALIDATION AND ANY FORM OF COME

UP, THIS GARMENT IS NOT FOR YOU…

SPINELESS MOTHERFUCKERS.

YÔNGN LAYZEE”,

reads the first card in a stack held together by a rubber band and placed diagonally next to a pair of black sunglasses, which effortlessly makes up a frame on Anees Petersen’s evocative Instagram page.

The bravado of this statement fits something an underdog would say after they have won. Almost seven years ago, Anees started his streetwear brand, Young and Lazy, in Cape Town, South Africa and even though it looks like he is winning, it does not feel like he has won yet.

Anees’ ascent has grown him immensely as a designer. After being pushed in the right direction by his design teacher in high school, Anees studied fashion at Cape Town College of Fashion Design. He then opened a store with two other local brands and got his first job at Woolworths as a kids wear design assistant. Anees then got involved with “designer wear” at House of Monatic in the marketing department. He soon moved on to work closely for his South African design idol, David West, who unfortunately closed down causing Anees to work tirelessly at Unknown Union, where he got to show a collection abroad with trade shows in America and some pieces being sold in Japan and the UAE.

In 2012, Anees reverted his attention to Young and Lazy, now with a wealth of experiences in the design world and fashion industry. Anees had also been emulating other brands while he was still trying to find his identity and be secure within it. A solid source of inspiration has been his personal story and being the person he is, “where I’ve come from and who I am as a person, being a Cape Malay from Cape Town, you know, being born in the time I was born and to see the things that I’ve seen on a daily basis growing up in Woodstock when Woodstock obviously was not gentrified and I think for me that’s a story that is important to be told.”

Anees is also designing for his sixteen year old self. “I think for a lot of young Muslim kids from Cape Town…my hope is for them to be like, ‘fuck, you know, it’s actually cool to be Muslim. It’s okay to be into streetwear and all this stuff’…It’s okay to be proud of where you come from, embrace it, own it and use it basically as a thing to stand out.”

Young and Lazy is personal. It is not just a cool factory. It is a production that is built on Anees’ back. There is no process Anees is not involved in. It is all him. This DIY model ensures that Anees is felt throughout his brand. A couple of years ago, Anees even decided to pick a camera and shoot his lookbooks in order to capture details that hold the essence of Young and Lazy. His firm grip on his label has allowed him to learn intricacies of the production process and provide a South African brand that is sure of itself.

“I think Young and Lazy stands for those who do not conform to the norm. It’s about embracing yourself and being okay with yourself when you might not be the best. Like no one is ever going to be perfect and I think Young and Lazy just represents imperfection at its best,” said Anees. The people that fill up the frames of Anees’ Instagram page look like they have exhaled into themselves. It’s that work, the work that it takes to be yourself that gives Young and Lazy it’s inviting ease.

The authenticity of this brand attributes to Anees’ noteworthy achievements throughout the years. However, success means more to Anees. Success means being internationally recognised for design. Success means being the cornerstone of streetwear in South Africa. Success means being incomparable. Success means being celebrated for being yourself.

As Anees and I fantasise over being someone else, someone everybody surely wants to be, we ponder on how a life like Virgil Abloh’s is acquired. Anees attributed it to hard work and I can’t help but make links between him and Virgil. Earlier this year, Anees started DJing because “clothing is not enough”. There is no doubt of Anees’ genius as he expresses himself creatively through various mediums. Although subtle, Anees knows the value of everything he has to offer. Although slow, his steady pursuit to leave a legacy is likely.

6 December 2017
Good Good Good ‘Broken Hearts Club’ T-shirt capsule collection by Jana Hamman

I spoke to Daniel Sher about Good Good Good’s latest capsule collection, Broken Hearts Club.

Tell our readers a little bit about Good Good Good.

Good Good Good is a functional basics menswear brand for men of all sizes, manufactured in our family factory in Cape Town. While quality menswear basics is at the core of our brand philosophy, we have recently started to venture into designing and manufacturing more classic and technical menswear items with the aid of some very experimental fabrics.

The minimal aesthetic of our core basics range also serves as an excellent platform for us to collaborate on more artistic and contemporary menswear capsules, such as this ‘Broken Hearts Club’ T-Shirt capsule with Jana Hamman or our soon to be released capsule with South African artist David Brits, which were both showcased as part of our runway collection at SA Menswear Week.

Tell our readers about the thinking behind the name for the collection, ‘Broken Hearts Club’.

We feel that the capsule name has a bitter-sweet and very human feel to it. Almost everybody has had their heart broken at some point in their life, whether that heartbreak came via a romantic relationship or from another life situation. The humor in wearing a T-Shirt series of that name/with that phrase splashed across the front chest is something that many people can identify with and hopefully laugh at. It also hints at the small personal victory associated with rising above the emotional lows brought about by a broken heart.

What was the inspiration for or thinking behind the collection?

We wanted to release a capsule of love inspired T-Shirts for Valentine’s Day. Since our SA Menswear Week show fell on the 3^rd of February, it seemed a perfect idea to use the runway as the platform in which to reveal a teaser of the capsule.

Tell our readers about collaborating with Jana Hamman for this collection.

Jana is always fantastic to work with. We’ve been very close friends for a few years now, and since I was familiar with her artistic style and inspiration, I felt that she was the perfect person to work with in order to realize the vision that I had for this capsule.

It was also very last minute, and I know she conceptualized and painted for hours the Sunday before our menswear week show. I think it’s fair to say that she killed it!

Once the illustrations were down, it was a quick and seamless collaborative process whereby we worked together to decide how and where to place them onto the T-Shirts.

Any other info you would like us to mention about the label or the collection?

We are busy working on the production of our SA Menswear Week collection, which consists of 2 parts; a standalone Good GoodGood collection and our collaborative capsule with South African artist David Brits. Later this year we also have a few exciting collaborations lined up with a few local artists as well as with some South African institutions which we tend to frequent.

The collection is exclusively available for purchase from their online shop.

Credits:

Photographer: Carl David Jones – the entire look book was shot on 35mm film.

Art Direction: Jana Hamman & Daniel Sher

Models: Kimberley Davidson and Inge Somdyala

Hair and Makeup: Wanida Keeping

15 March 2017
Tackling the Tracksuit: Youth95’s New Capsule Collection

In the context of local streetwear, Youth95 is somewhat of an anomaly. With the rise of the local fashion celeb, having ‘brand owner’, ‘designer’ or ‘creative director’ in one’s insta bio became all the more popular. If used correctly, this became a viable way of gaining attention or recognition from peers, as well as a younger gen of would-be clothes kops looking for something close to home; a tangible entry point into a magical world.

No disrespect to those who have managed to create something special through an identity they initially projected through social media. Definitely not. It’s just to say that very many of those who make the initial step do very little to build on it. This prediction without actualization is 100% not the case with Reagan Paulsen and Seraaj Semaar, both 21, whose Insta bios read ‘Co-owner of Youth95.21.Student’ and ‘Co-owner of Youth95’ respectively. Having started Youth95 in 2014 on the tail end of the initial boom that came with the resurgence of streetwear on an international level, the pair have done what many of their contemporaries have failed to do. That is working hard enough at a high enough standard to exist for long enough for their story to unfold, for their idea to form into a body of work; the only thing that truly qualifies one’s claim to own a ‘brand’.

Having previously released small, well received t-shirt capsules since their inception, including collaborations with local entities such as Basic, the boys have jumped into technical wear. Having produced a collection that included various incarnations of the classic cuffed sweat pant in early 2016, Youth95’s latest offering sees their first two piece tracksuit hit the market. The pair were inspired by the ideas they encountered that surrounded tracksuits as they grew up. Although worn as something of a uniform, the tracksuit was never considered something you would wear when trying to look your best. Inspired by the subversion of the common tracksuit currently happening through grime and the rise of the road man, the two set out to add their voice to the story. They have created a non-seasonal uniform constructed out of lightweight waterproof material and fitted with breathable mesh lining to keep you cool in the warmer days and cozy during colder months. The centre piece of their collection is their luxury tracksuit, a nod to brands like Juicy and Sean John who ensured the ‘tacky’ garment was raised to near couture levels, their answer to the luxury sweat suit is constructed out of towling.

The new collection, set to drop at the end of January, is presented in an amazing lookbook shot by photographer Luke Maritz, who has himself staked a claim for a portion of the local streetwear pie through his utility brand NOT SEEN. The lookbook was also styled by Reagan and Seraaj. The images contrast the sleek simplicity of the Youth95 Track Suits with the industrial feel of one of Cape Town’s many fringe areas. The contrast tells a story of evolution in that both the tracksuit and the raw urban texture would once have been labelled ugly, but by contemporary standards have come to represent a raw beauty that is dominating current streetwear culture, both locally and internationally. Couple that with Nikey bubbles and the car motif and we see a snapshot that represents the various visual influences that would have sprinkled themselves throughout the designers’ consciousness, growing up in Cape Town. That moment, much like the moment Cape Town Streetwear is currently experiencing, will live long in many of our memories, so long as passionate young people continue the push to document our story so as to crystallise our moment.

17 January 2017