17 posts tagged "Nike"
In Case You Can’t Read Hieroglyphics, This Says “Yeezy”
Kanye West makes his runway shoes with Giuseppe Zanotti, but for sneakers, he’s a Nike man. (Well, with occasional pit stops at Vuitton.) The company announced today the official release date of its second sneaker with the rapper-turned-designer, the Air Yeezy II, which hits stores globally June 9. There are a wealth of minute details to puzzle over, from the “anaconda-texture leather” panels to the nods to ancient civilizations, like the hieroglyphics on the loop strap spelling out YZY and the falcon insignia on the tongue. (The Ancient Egyptian god Horus, god of the sky, war, and hunting, was commonly depicted with the head of a falcon.) And those looking to walk a mile in Kanye’s shoes will be particularly pleased. These boast a slimmed-down silhouette originally derived from tailoring the prototypes directly to West’s foot.
Kicks In Space
The latest of Tom Sachs’ forays into space will take him to Mars—or at least as close as you can get with the Park Avenue Armory as your launching pad. Sachs, the fashion-favorite artist/provocateur who’s made space travel a particular fascination (when he’s not erecting giant Hello Kitty idols outside Lever House), brings Space Program: Mars to the cavernous Armory for a month-long installation beginning tomorrow. For the show, he’s created all of the viscera of a beginning-and-after space mission—in the words of the official statement, “exploratory vehicles, mission control, launch platforms, suiting stations, special effects, recreational amenities, and Mars landscape”—and, to dress the part, a new capsule collection in collaboration with Nike, dubbed NIKECraft. Would-be Sachs-tronauts can suit up in a sneaker (the Mars Yard Shoe, above, $385), trench, jacket (printed with the periodic table), and tote, all of which will be available at the exhibition space’s pop-up gift shop as well as at stores like Dover Street Market, Colette, 10 Corso Como, Union in Los Angeles, and at Opening Ceremony online beginning May 18.
Space Program: Mars opens tomorrow at the Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Ave., NYC, www.armoryonpark.org.
The New Tennis Whites—White Not Included
New York is gearing up for the start of the 2011 U.S. Open, when tennis fans flock day and night to Flushing to watch the world’s best players face off for glory. The focus is, of course, on the game, but fashion has always taken an interest in the sport too—like a certain editor who’s often spotted fronting Roger Federer’s cheering section. Style and sport meet in the on-court uniforms, and while tennis whites are the classic, there may not be much white in evidence this year. Nike’s athletes, at least, will be in roaring Technicolor. The label is dressing some of the game’s best for their games—including Federer and Rafael Nadal on the men’s field, and Li Na, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, and Victoria Azarenka on the women’s—and they’ll be kitted out in brights, from deep reds and pinks for Federer, Williams, and Li to deep ocean blues for Azarenka and Nadal. (The latter—the defending Open champ—gets patterns inspired by the elements, too, with a rainy-looking geometric print.) “This season we really wanted to amplify color,” Nike Tennis’ creative director, Janice Lucena, said. And while fashion designers and athletic designers don’t always see eye to eye, in this she’s right in line with the designers, like Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta, Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga, Raf Simons at Jil Sander, and Giambattista Valli, who showed flashes of ultra-saturated shades on their Fall runways. Nike’s day outfits debut exclusively here on Style.com. Get a good look now, and focus on what’s important this game day—the game.
Top row, left to right: Day outfits for Li Na; Rafael Nadal; and Serena Williams.
Bottom row, left to right: Day outfits for Maria Sharapova; Roger Federer; and Victoria Azarenka.
Gear For Those Who Run Against The Tide
Smart, functional design has always been at the heart of Jun Takahashi’s Undercover label. He’s a guy who looks up to industrial designers as much as fashion ones—he wears a leather watch emblazoned with Dieter Rams’ mantra “Less but better,” after all—and has long experimented with technical materials and function-first dressing. (He once shot a lookbook in a subzero Japanese forest to prove that his winter outerwear would keep even the skinniest model warm—and it did.)
Takahashi’s recent interest in running was reflected in collections as far back as Spring ’10, but he’s now taking the hobby even farther, partnering with Nike to create a collection of runner’s gear. (That’s him modeling it above, with his runners’ club, Gyakusou, from the Japanese for “run the wrong way,” thanks to the preference for heading counterclockwise around the city’s parks. The club also lent the collection its name.) The collection includes light jackets, rip-stop and stretch pants, Dri-Fit shirting, and sneakers, with details like a sleeve window to check your watch and pockets designed to keep keys and coins from jingling. Those are functional improvements you’ll notice if you run, like Takahashi does, up to 13 kilometers every other day. Then there are the purely aesthetic ones, like red piping tracing the body’s artery vein—one functional accessory paying tribute to another.
Keep reading to see Jamie Morgan’s stop-motion video of Takahashi and the Gyakusou club running in Tokyo. Continue Reading “Gear For Those Who Run Against The Tide” »
Just Don’t It, Schiffer 40 Ways, And More…
The rumor mill has been churning, but it’s all for naught: Alexander Wang and Nike confirm that they are not working on a collaboration. Well…as you were, then. [WWD]
Midlife, no crisis. Germany’s Zeit magazine celebrates its 40th anniversary with 40 (yes, 40!) different covers of Deutschland’s favorite supe, Claudia Schiffer. She’s 40, too—not that you could tell from the looks of her (left). [Fashionologie]
Maison Martin Margiela’s AIDS-awareness tees are new classics, and for this year’s World AIDS Day—December 1—the house is issuing a new version, with text in Japanese. If we had any idea how to say “cool” in Japanese, we’d be saying it right now. [Hint]
And if you’ve been curious about the Karl Lagerfeld-designed private island Isla Moda in Dubai, it’s now available in rendering form. [Design Scene]