Tag: street fashion

  • “We’re just a platform for kids in the hood”: Others Concept Space

    They occupy the same streets and have been immersed in the same culture so the delivery of Kagiso Mohlala, Mbuso ‘Moose’ Zulu and Siyanda Zakwe’s creative baby was strategic; they needed their concept to be different yet familiar.

    “We are street culture so this is just another way of expressing, and living. It was not a hard decision.”

    Their idea was first imagined as a creative lifestyle brand and in finding a base to “grow and nurture their young pretty baby”, built multipurpose home that cultivates creative pursuits is called Others Concept Space.

    Across from Dube station in Soweto, on 254 Mncube Drive, is a public phone container that has been transformed into a store, gallery and work area. Alongside the Others streetwear apparel for sale, there are pieces of furniture designed and made by the trio that decorate the store that is constructed from recyclable materials.

    The concept space opened in the 30th of April 2017 and so far they have hosted a couple of events, like an anti-drug campaign with international German live street artist, Fufu Punani and their June 16 “Revolution of the Culture”, which featured a sneaker exhibition amongst other creative entertainment.

    The trio plan on establishing their sneaker clinic, which will involve sneaker exchanges and cleaning. They also plan on providing creative business solutions as Others Media and Communications. Lastly,  they will grow their interior and fashion design.

    Essentially, Others is interested in providing a platform for all the kids in their community who have never had the opportunity to creatively exhale.

    For more of their creative instalments follow Others Concept Space on Instagram.

  • Not Seen Store – where functionality and style meet

    Luke Maritz is the creator of Not Seen Store, the Cape Town based brand, locally hand crafted and inspired by counter culture, youth culture, streetwear and graffiti. On edge and not on hype.

    Not Seen has recently launched its online store that is designed exceedingly well. Navigation is easy, the typography selected for the overall feel is wonderful and so is the logo design. Of course what mostly drew my attention was the actual design of the products and their superb lookbooks.

    In conversation I had with the creator and owner of the brand he mentioned that his branding concept was created initially as an idea to provide an online platform to buy and resell products like analogue cameras. Maritz continues by saying that due to continuous positive reaction his brand quickly developed into what it is today.

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    What I find so undeniably intriguing about Not Seen is the fact that Maritz not only designs the products which consists of roadmap bags, fanny packs and rain ponchos, he also does all the styling and photography of the lookbooks himself. His label is a personally directed branding concept. Maritz is an incredibly talented individual with not only the gift of a photographer’s eye but a key sense of design and color combinations. He is bringing out an extremely vivid edginess in his brand that has become his signature. Maritz is not just an entrepreneur. He is an artist.

    Not Seen focuses predominantly on the roadmap bag and fanny pack, which has been making its way back onto the streets and the runways of the fashion world since 2015 as a unique way of carrying essentials.

    What all Not Seen’s products have in common is their minimalist design using primary colors and black. The products are durable and well constructed. These designs can be used to customize quite a number of different ensembles as can be seen when looking at how Maritz styles his lookbooks. What is striking about this branding concept is how Maritz keeps it proudly South African by using Cape Town’s natural environments as well as cityscape as the backdrop for his lookbooks.

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    His choice of models subtly reminds me of the type of models American Apparel often steered towards; they fit the “street brand” image incredibly well and have an edgy, rebel teen look to them that is setting the tone for this off beat brand.

    The most important thing to recognize about Maritz’ brainchild is that it is intended to add value to the consumers daily experience. In Luke’s own words, his brand is not hype and is here to stay. Not Seen Store is already making waves and I look forward to seeing the vision grow.

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