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
Under the music moniker Blood Orange, Devonté Hynes has spent the last decade softening the strident ego of mainstream pop with the wistful jazz and new wave tones, as well as musings on identity, belonging, and vulnerability, on albums such as Cupid Deluxe or Negro Swan. Singer, songwriter, producer, and director Hynes, who goes by Dev, brings his solitary sensibility to his other projects, too – whether scoring films and fashion shows, collaboration with visual artists, or, more recently, starring as the face of a capsule collaboration between adidas and OAMC, a menswear label founded by Luke Meier and Arnaud Faeh in 2013.More
“One might be forgiven for wondering whether such generational categories are anything but a pundit’s lazy approach to thinking about historical change. The imagined subject of “the generation” tends to be middle class, white, and liberal by default, while the hypothesis of generational identification serves to obscure the ways that our society is divided, especially by class and by race. In what sense is the life experience of a white Princeton graduate in 1995 comparable to that of an African-American Detroiter who attended community college and graduated in the same year?”
“A long process of erosion and attrition preceded the fall of the Wall. In my mind this is all tied up with the movement of the East-West Express, also known as the Moscow–Paris Express.”
Ten years ago, on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, historian KARL SCHLÖGEL remembered its end as a series of events, shifts, and impressions – a whimper, perhaps, more than a bang:
“In my memory, it is not the fall of the Wall on November 9 that I connect with the feeling that the old days were over in 1989 – that night, as ‘crazy’ as it was, was just the verification. It was the sanctioning of what had already been decided, beforehand and elsewhere. I connect the end of the epoch with other dates, other places, other people. They do not feature in the most recent master narratives.”
“If West once imagined himself as a religious figurehead, now, in the wake of career-threatening turbulence, he’s assumed the role of humbled disciple. At least, this is the conceit of “Jesus Is King,” West’s new album and a document of an alleged spiritual awakening. Religion has always animated West’s music, in flashes: one of his earliest hits was “Jesus Walks,” and he described his record “The Life of Pablo,” from 2016, as “a gospel album with a whole lot of cursing.” In this new era, though, Christianity is his raison d’être. Kanye the luminary has become Kanye the missionary.”
– Carrie Battan on Kanye’s move from self-deification to “maximalist, gospel-choir glory,” in THE NEW YORKER⛪⛪⛪
JUST RELEASED 🔎🔎🔎 Rihanna’s 500-page visual autobiography. Rihanna follows the artist, performer, designer, and entrepeneur from the beaches of Barbados to her worldwide tours, featuring intimate photos of her life on and off the stage. Peep our favorites above or head over to THERIHANNABOOK.COM for one of three limited edition hard copies codesigned by artist duo The Haas Brothers:
– “This Sh*t is Heavy”: includes a custom tabletop bookstand 🏋️♂️
– “Luxury Supreme Edition”: signed by RiRi + The Haas Brothers and including and a “Drippy + The Brain” gold-plated bookstand 🏆
– “Ultra Luxury Supreme Edition”: including a custom marble pedestal 🗿
TRICK…
CHILD’S PLAY: Sasha Chaika’s shoot in an analogue uncanny valley 🎎🎎🎎
or TREAT…
MONSTROUS THOUGHTS: Earlier this year we asked Eugene Thacker whether we’re in a “New Golden Age” of horror film, what philosophy and horror have in common, and for a few of his favorite recent flicks.🐙🐙🐙
“While “sustainability” is a big buzzword in the fashion industry, it has now become so ambiguous that it’s lost its original meaning. “The problem is that no one knows what a ‘good’ value chain looks like,” says Sebastian Boger, partner and managing director at BCG and co-author of the Pulse report. “In this industry, we clearly have to differentiate between ‘less bad’ and things that make the current practices better.” More from Christopher Morency’s report on streetwear’s sustainability problem in HIGHSNOBIETY 👟👟
“Whether the Ringgold-Picasso pairing inspires consternation or praise depends largely on how we conceive of the purpose of this gallery and, by extension, the Museum itself.” – Jack McGrath on the new MoMA in FRIEZE.
“We did have slavery. Why should I get angry about Picasso?” – Faith Ringgold in 032c. Read the full interview HERE.
“What does solidarity mean in Europe today? I believe that we’re facing our moment of truth, and the truth is: in Europe, we don’t always get along as well as we like to think we do. This became clear with the Brexit vote. When I discussed Brexit with a group of parliamentarians and intellectuals from Great Britain, that’s when I grasped it: I really don’t understand them. My only explanation was that they must be crazy. Yet somehow that isn’t right either. We have held Europe together for a long time around a fiction of understanding. That’s the moment of truth: we do not understand each other at all. … There is no template for solidarity called the European Union. It’s still undefined. Now we have to talk about it again with respect to reciprocity, we have to mutually look each other in the eye and say, ‘I do not understand you.’ And then, ‘How are we supposed to move forward?’ That’s a good way to get back to Europe.”
