You might never have owned a pair of Buffalo London’s platform sneaker-boot hybrids. But if you picked up a music, fashion, or youth culture magazine in the 1990s you will remember the ads: monumental Buffalos front and center, black-lit club-kitted models crouched behind. The ads were channeling the scene where the boots first blew up – the rave and techno explosion in mid-1990s Frankfurt – but it was the Spice Girls that marched Buffalo’s platforms into the mainstream, towering 10cm off the ground. These were shoes that make the still-trending chunky “dad” sneakers of the last few seasons look svelte. Shitkickers as good for the club as for the Y2K apocalypse.
When Buffalo London relaunched a line of unaltered classics a couple years ago, a new generation embraced the rave-era treads. This time their popularity is about more than goths or girl bands: they represent the excitement of the underground and the creative potential of the hybrid. (One continuity: who doesn’t want to look taller?)
So how do you elevate the world’s loftiest sneaker? Buffalo London by 032c takes the material route, combining 6cm of Buffalo’s signature industrial-grade sole with luxury leather uppers that nod to the equestrian-inspired boots of Europe’s heritage brands. True to 032c Ready-to-Wear’s fusional ethos, where experimental clubwear meets high-end womenswear, Buffalo London by 032c’s Jodphurankleboots and Over The Knee thigh-highs look great at the rave – and at the end of the world – but also at the cocktail party, the conference, the studio. (You’ll certainly see them around the 032c Workshop, which combines most of the above.)
For the campaign, 032c fashion director Marc Goehring tapped our sales director Nunguja Kislaya and photographer Vitali Gelwich for a studio shoot in Berlin. The resulting visuals channel the up-close energy of the original Buffalo London print ads, and update the look with clothing from the latest 032c Ready-to-Wear collection.
Buffalo London by 032c styles were teased on the runway during the first 032c Ready-to-Wear fashion show, which took place at 180 The Strand in London in late 2018. Today, they launch globally, after an event in London last night at Brown’s East.
At their store on Alte Schönhauserstrasse in Berlin, Japanese footwear mainstays Onitsuka Tiger held a Japan-themed mini festival to herald the arrival of the OK Basketball MT and the OK Basketball Lo: two new shoes inspired by the groundbreaking design that ignited the Onitsuka Tiger brand almost 70 years ago.More
Omar Epps is a 21st century Renaissance Man. After an early life rapping as part of hip hop crew Wolfpack in Brooklyn, New York, the young Epps followed his talent into acting alongside Tupac Shakur in Harlem drama "Juice." Now a father of three who recently published his first book, "From Fatherless to Fatherhood," versatile Epps was tapped by basketball and streetwear retailer KICKZ, who have partnered with Champion for a limited capsule collection, Never Not Ballin', on the occasion of their 25th anniversary.More
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“Bruh. What the fuck? This ain’t no pool, your boy Guwop in the lagoon.”
Gucci Mane just dropped WOPTOBER II. Read our interview with Gucci + peep his shoot by Petra Collins HERE or see it in print HERE.
“Outside of pure dress-up games, very few games have explored fashion as part of gameplay. Games like Hitman 2 are a notable exception, where the clothes you choose to wear (or, uh, steal) allow you to stealthily blend in with crowds. Even when games aren’t necessarily built using fashion mechanics, places to discuss fashionable armour sets have cropped up behind them. Places like r/fashionsouls on Reddit have huge communities based on obtaining and creating the most stylish outfits for more traditionally “hardcore” games like Dark Souls. There’s even one going on for Monster Hunter.”
Victoria Tran on the growing relevance of fashion in gaming in THE GUARDIAN 🎮
032c's first women's Ready-To-Wear collection, designed by Maria Koch, has just hit stores including GR8 Tokyo, Dover Street Market, KM20 Moscow, SSENSE, Boon, Opening Ceremony, Antonioli, and Browns. For the occasion, Oyster Magazine shot model and activist Teddy Quinlivan in the collection – see the photos below.More
“Space scientists are abandoning the heavens to help you decide what to wear and watch and listen to. Whether it’s stars or Stitch Fix, it’s all about machine learning.”
Read about the style-quantifying astrophysicists of Silicon Valley in WIRED>>.
“You want rhythm? I’ll show you rhythm. I know about rhythm. I just didn’t know I was supposed to put it in everything I do.”
Born on October 8, 1930, Faith Ringgold turns 89 years old today. This summer, the artist spoke to 032c executive editor Victoria Camblin about Cubism, sexism, and the suburbs – and what inspired her to paint Die (1967), an American masterpiece depicting a violent race riot. READ THE INTERVIEW.
Image: Dilara Findikoglu Spring/Summer 2020
“Cosplay Culture & Fashion Week Share the Same Sartorial Ethos,” says HIGHSNOBIETY:
“The clothes and the costumes are just an excuse for both communities to convene. … Fashion may be a more glamorous arena, but what are its devotees if not nerds for apparel?”
“At a deep level, the language of climate denialism is tied up with a form of masculine identity predicated on modern industrial capitalism – specifically, the Promethean idea of the conquest of nature by man, in a world especially made for men. By attacking industrial capitalism, and its ethos of politics as usual, Thunberg is not only attacking the core beliefs and world view of certain sorts of men, but also their sense of masculine self-worth. Male rage is their knee-jerk response.” Read more about MISOGYNY, MALE RAGE, AND THE WORDS MEN USE TO DESCRIBE GRETA THUNBERG in The Conversation.
As you might have heard, WeWork’s business model didn’t, well, work. Here’s IAN BOGOST on WeWork’s philosophy: “Co-working fused the individualism of tech bootstrapping with the collectivism of social movements. Offices got sharded into realms as small as one desk—every founder his own sovereign, but all contributing to that great collective: entrepreneurship.” Read more in THE ATLANTIC.
Then read about WeWork founder Adam Neumann’s “tech-bro mysticism, grueling hours, and Don Julio tequila” in THE BUSINESS INSIDER, ft. quotes from WeWork’s prospectus: “the energy of we — greater than any of us but inside all of us.” 😬
