Cassette Playa: Acid Prints, 90s and Pop Culture
IN THE WEEKLY RUBRIC "NEW MARK" Wonderzine presents young designers and tells where and how you can buy their things. Our heroine this week is English artist and designer Curry Manden, who makes Cassette Playa.
Mark founded the girl in London in 2006. As early as 16 years old, Curry was inspired by the culture of London raves and translated into their own clothes, which are produced under the brand name Cassette Playa. After Jeremy Scott, the girl’s collections appear second, where modern pop culture is so clearly used. So, Curry Manden turns to computer games, Internet space and 1990. In the collections of girls are bodysuits, T-shirts, dresses, leggings, sweaters, skirts of acid colors or acid prints, which are a key detail of the designer. Curry produces both men's and women's clothing.
During her studies at the University of Westminster in London on the design course, Curry worked on styling for SuperSuper Magazine, i-D and Dazed & Confused magazines. Curry is a close friend of M.I.A. about the friendship with which Curry says that they were always the most strangely dressed in West London. Therefore, it is not surprising that the first ambassadors of Cassette Playa were her friends The Klaxons and M.I.A., whom she helped from the beginning of their career. In the last year of study at the University, Curry is preparing the men's collection of the brand Cassette Playa Autumn-Winter - 2006/07, and her close friend exposes her brand, Gareth Pugh, the year before. After her showing, Nicola Formichetti buys her entire collection for her new store in Tokyo's Side by Side. Success was achieved in the Japanese market, and the brand begins to appear on the shelves of world retailers.
In 2007, Curry Manden was nominated as "Best Menswear Designer" at the British Fashion Awards, along with Burberry creative director Christopher Beiliya Alexander McQueen (the winner was Bailey). 2008 is becoming the most significant for the brand: Rolling Stone declares Curry the best designer of the year, and also her first collaboration with Nike is released, the cooperation with the brand will continue for 5 more years. The brand also made collaborations with the Swatch company - it was a watch that glowed in the dark. In 2010, Carrie Manden collaborated with the iconic American street brand Stussy and the British, who work in similar aesthetics, - KTZ.
Visual presentation and cooperation with musicians, artists, directors is an important component of the brand. Video Cassette Playa Spring-Summer - 2013 "Blood Rites" was created in collaboration with musician Maxime Büchi (Sang Bleu), who, by the way, performs at the David Lynch Silencio club in Paris and plays on April 26 in Moscow. Video for the fall-winter 2013 collection was filmed by one of the participants of the SHOWstudio video project by photographer Nick Knight, directed by Grace Ladoya, who has been working with the brand for several years, and also shoots clips for Zebra Katz hip-hopper and rising star, the British singer FKA twigs . Anna Trevelyan, one of the main young stylists, answered for the blown-up style in the video.
Clothing brands can be seen in the clips Danny Brown, Mykki Blanco, 2NE1. Now, Vogue Hommes Japan and VICE are writing about Cassette Playa, and all the main hip-hop girls wear her dresses: Iggy Azalia, Mademoiselle Julia, Niki Minaj, Rita Ora.
I believe in the potential of the Internet as a way for a new generation of artists. From the very beginning, I was inspired by Japanese computer games, the era of MySpace. I use pixels in prints, I try to translate sounds, music into clothes. Look at the works of Oliver Laric, Rafaël Rosendaale, Jon Rafman, Katja Novitskova. These are the greatest artists of the last and future 10 years - hackers and coders. I also deliberately turn to digital technology. I like the idea of the value of virtual objects and experiences. And the most important: the things that I do for those guys with whom I would like to have sex. These are dirty sci-fi guys.
Where to buy Cassette Playa items
It is unclear what is happening with the brand now. The latest collection at the moment, released by Cassette Playa, is "Blood Rites", which does not even have a lookbook, although the brand's website has not been updated for more than a year, posts appear on Facebook. Nevertheless, psychedelic things Cassette Playa buy many retailers. For example, they are sold at Dover Street Market and Kokon To Zai in London, at Colette Paris, Walter Store in Antwerp, Black Market in Stockholm, and the brand is widely represented in Asia: Tokyo Side by Side, Ambush in Singapore, Daily Projects in Seoul Shine in Hong Kong.