Color And Style Trends To Rock This Fall

August 31, 2020 author By Ann Loynd Burton Fashion Writer
Color And Style Trends To Rock This Fall
Color And Style Trends To Rock This Fall

Let’s be honest—2020 has been a heavy year. Thankfully, fall fashion isn’t taking itself too seriously. The latest color and material trends lighten the mood in an array of kitschy patterns, matching sets, and understated hues. Here’s how to work them into your wardrobe, stat.

All-Over Prints

Patterns are back in full force, and the latest offerings run the gamut from serious animal prints to grungy plaids and tongue-in-cheek motifs. Stock up on some of each to be ready for Zoom board meetings, socially distanced brunches, and everything in between.

Matchy, Matchy

Sweatsuits were the champ of quarantine, and they’ve inspired some more fashionable monochromatic predecessors. Think winterized fleece sets, ombré track suits, and sophisticated sweaters with complementing joggers.

Shades Of Red

Red is having a moment, but we aren’t talking your typical crimson. Instead, look for hues of burgundy, rust, and even berry-toned pinks.

Muted Tones

After the year we’ve had, it’s time to shed that tough exterior and embrace subtler themes. Streetwear is delivering with faded gray cotton staples and hoodies, tees, and pants in every shade of beige. Rock head-to-toe neutrals for a sophisticated look or pair with an aforementioned printed top to make a statement.

Shop the collection here.

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Introducing ELI REED X 'NO KIDDIN!’ X IUTER : A Capsule Blending The World of Soccer, Skateboarding, and Streetwear

Right now, there isn’t a better moment to cop an Italian soccer or football jersey. Now that Italy has the world’s attention for becoming Euro 2020 champions, the Complex SHOP unveils a special collaboration that’s rooted in soccer, Italian pride, and skateboarding. Today, we present a capsule collection by ‘No Kiddin!’ a New York City-based streetwear brand by Lorenzo Lamarucciola, the art director and brand manager of the Downtown New York Italian staple Pepe Rosso. For the capsule, the brand has collaborated with the Italian streetwear brand IUTER and pro skateboarder Eli Reed on a three-piece capsule collection that features a soccer jersey and tracksuit inspired by Italy’s finest football players. Although the worlds of soccer and skateboarding feel far apart, the collaboration between Reed and Lamarucciola naturally comes together. To kick off the capsule’s official launch on the Complex SHOP we spoke to Lamarucciola and Reed about how the collaboration came about, the origins of ‘No Kiddin!, ’their long friendship, and more.   After seeing some of ‘No Kiddin!’’s garments, I can safely assume that at least one of you was watching the Euro 2020 Finals. How did you both feel seeing Italy take home the win? Lorenzo Lamarucciola:I'm super excited but was also super confident about them winning because they had such a strong team this year. Finally, they won after so many years. I lost my voice yesterday because of it. Do you watch soccer too, Eli? Eli Reed: I used to, but I kind of fell out of it. I'm more of a fan of soccer attire. As a skater, I wish we had more companies that would make stuff like that. Why make football and soccer merch? Eli Reed: Well function and I think the number one thing is also breathability. Because you know skaters wear whatever. But the reality is that there's still a lot of athleticism happening even when you're on a skateboard. A lot of great skaters I know honestly wear soccer jerseys. You can see that if you watch a lot of skate videos. So the functionality of this stuff is why I've always been a fan and it feels nice to skate in. Lorenzo: Also the comfort of jerseys are made for sweating. So beyond soccer and skating, you can wear it while running, biking, or anything. So Lorenzo, you’ve built a reputation downtown with the Italian spot Pepe Rosso on Sullivan Street. And anyone who skateboards knows that Eli is a skater who needs no introduction. How did you two meet and how did this collaboration come about? Eli: That's the beauty of living in New York. And Pepe Rosso is just a Downtown spot for a lot of mutual friends of mine, not even skate related but guys like Supreme OGs. I think I just met Lorenzo going there like 10 years ago or more. Lorenzo: It has always been a hang out spot where everyone can grab a bite and go. Eli: I definitely met you 10 years ago from just eating there but we became closer friends within the past five years. Lorenzo was making these soccer jerseys and outfits already. I'm just a fan of soccer jerseys and attire. And I loved skating in it already. So I was always asking him for these jerseys that he made. I have skate clips on my Instagram of the original ones he made before we even did this collaboration. I just thought it was great to skate in and eventually he hit me up with the idea to do something. Lorenzo: Yeah, about three years ago I made a soccer jersey that was inspired by Italy's '94 World Cup. Because Italy didn't qualify for the World Cup in 2018. So I connected with my friend from the brand IUTER in Italy who has connections to factories over there. I told him that I wanted to do a jersey. And even though Italy didn't play the World Cup that year, the jersey was very successful. The quality was great and it received a great reaction from people. I gifted one to Eli and he loved it. After that, I made another jersey in a white colorway and then a tracksuit inspired by that '94 and ‘96 Italian National Football team. I knew Eli had his own brand and we started to talk about doing something together. It took some time because we kept tweaking and fixing details. When you're producing in Italy, you can make good quality stuff. So we didn't stop working on it until it met the quality we wanted.   Lorenzo: I noticed your brand ‘No Kiddin!’ Has been around for a while. What came first for you? The food or the fashion? Tell me how ‘No Kiddin!’ started and what message are you trying to send out with it? Lorenzo: Yeah, I really started this in 2007. But for many years the stock was always small and I only made it for friends but never tried to do any crazy amounts of production. I mean, I always worked within the music and streetwear scenes since I was 14. I used to work for a record label in Italy and made all their merch. It was called Dig It International in Milan and the focus was dance and house music. The label was a distributor and owned multiple indie labels. I did some music production for them, and produced a song called Carnival for the artist S Cabar. I used to have my own brands as well but I've always been around this. How did you come up with the name? Lorenzo: I was looking for a name and then someone said "No Kidding!" At the moment, I loved that name and I just stuck with it. From there, I started making T-shirts with iconic American pop art, like the first one I did was a play off Italian Ices from Gino's. I always loved American logos that you can find in pizzerias or whatever. That was one of my first T-shirts and I sold it at stores like Union New York. The other brand I owned prior to ‘No Kiddin!’ was called Our Thing from 2001-2006. The brand was sold at Union New York and other stores in the United States and Europe. Little by little, I started making other graphics but I always wanted to make something nice, like a soccer jersey. I see this collaboration is centered on this dope YouTube channel that Eli started last year dubbed Crash Flow. You’ve had some great guests on the ‘Each One, Teach One’ interview series such as Earsnot and Ricky Powell. Could you speak more about why you started that YouTube channel and what type of content you’re looking to bring to that? Eli: Although I've been putting out content on the YouTube channel, Crash Flow is more of my philosophy and take on skating. But I’m just using platforms like YouTube and Instagram to share that. I mean, it's kind of a way for me to give back and bring, not just my view or take on skating, but to also highlight the people around me. For example, we did one video on Pepe Rosso because it's about capturing everything that's related to this lifestyle. As far as starting it goes, the pandemic encouraged me to put more stuff out there when everything shut down. Although the channel is primarily skating based, it also shows that skating is the base of all these other lifestyles. Whether it's food, art or people it seeks to show what I think skateboarding is. I don't want to consider it to be just a YouTube channel because it's still being formed and there are other platforms and ideas I want to pursue. So that's what Crash Flow is for me. It was a project at the time and I want to keep it going. And I thought it made sense to do this collaboration because I like wearing this as skate gear. And as you probably know, skating and fashion is kind of taking its own role and making a great impact on fashion. But really, it's just my own take on why I like skating and that's partly why you see this collaboration.   I was surprised to see that No Kiddin! collaborated with the OH WOW gallery a decade ago. I feel like both of you have really seen how much NYC streetwear has grown since the 2000s. I mean who would have ever envisioned Supreme opening a store in Milan. What are your thoughts on how that scene has developed? Lorenzo: Since you mentioned the collaboration with the OH WOW Gallery, in December of 2020 I also collaborated with 4WORTHDOING on a T-shirt for ‘OUR LIVES IN T-SHIRTS’ at Miami Art Basel. Regarding Supreme, I mean it's a big brand now and Milan is a great city for them to be in. They're smart enough to open in a city like Milan because Milan has such a growing skate scene and I'm happy to see them get that. Eli:I mean it's amazing to see the growth of a culture. Supreme still has a great team and James is notorious for how he did things. And you know, guys like myself and the skaters who I grew up around were a part of the original team and wore it back then. I think it's just proof in the pudding that you can really do it and it shows how influential that era was. Kids all around the world are now dressing like the '90s skateboarders I saw when I first popped up in New York. As far as skateboarding is concerned, it just gets bigger and more mainstream, which is great. Now you're seeing it enter the Olympics and it's just gaining more growth and notoriety. And I'm happy to have a place in the culture as an older guy, especially when they're only young kids in it, especially in New York City now. It's just getting so huge, especially on the branding side with fashion and these companies having a lot more influence now. It's hard to say what's cooler or better because skateboarding has been pulled in so many different directions. And what Supreme has done is great because they've catered to skaters in every country they've opened. From the small local skaters to the OGs they invite in to work with. Whether it's for their store in Japan or hiring someone like Jeff Pang to run their store in Brooklyn. I think it's great. And Eli, as a skateboarder, you’re one of few pro skaters who have successfully pursued opportunities within the realm of fashion and streetwear. From working behind the scenes at Diamond, launching your own namesake brand, to building skate brands like Becky Factory. As someone who has their eye on style, what do you love about ‘No Kiddin!’ I mean, I think it just goes back to exactly what we said at the beginning. Lorenzo had the perfect European soccer vibe and I loved that. And that's something I love to wear everyday. Now, it's not like I'm going out to dinner in this, but it's the type of uniform I would wear during the early day, when I'm out running some errands and then going out to skate. This style that he makes is just perfect for me. It's funny because I'll honestly wear that whole suit he made too. I just look like a soccer coach even with the Crash Flow logo on it. People must think I'm training for the Olympics or something. I like a lot of different things depending on my mood. Different styles from different areas, especially from different places in the world. But this is just one outfit I love and he hit it on the nose with the functionality of these pieces. And speaking of skating, I believe the ten-year anniversary of your Thrasher cover at C-Bowl is coming next month. Eli: That was one of those days you’ll never forget in your life. I was living in New York and took a bus back down to Massachusetts. And that hurricane I did took me quite some time, a little longer than I thought. I couldn't land it right away for the longest time. We got that photo and then I laid back and did this Kickflip Front 50. That was honestly one of my best days skating ever. I actually landed a harder trick that day at that pool and it didn't even get into the magazine. It's just how it goes sometimes because what comes out is what comes out. I'll say on a side note though, and Lorenzo knows that I'm down with a couple pizza shops, but I gave Stromboli Pizza in the LES that cover and they framed it and put it on the wall in the back. There's that famous photo of the Beastie Boys in front of their spot and then my cover right under it. Boy, that's how you know you made it in New York. When they put your Thrasher cover up in your favorite pizza spot. Lastly, for Lorenzo, what’re your future plans for No Kiddin! Where do you want to take it? Lorenzo: For now, I have some ideas, but nothing for sure yet. But I do want to make stuff that isn't just soccer. Maybe with IUTER I'll make a little capsule with them again that includes some sweatpants, T-shirts and hoodies. I have a surprise release coming soon that's a collaboration between ‘No Kiddin!’, Pepe Rosso, and IUTER.   Shop the collection here.  Read more

Bloomfield.Works Celebrates the Joys of Fatherhood With Its Exclusive Drop for Complex SHOP

Becoming a parent changes you. It’s a sentiment you have surely heard someone say before. Warren Cochrane, a father of 2-year old twins, couldn’t agree more. He goes as far as to say that Bloomfield.Works, his graphics-based brand that he launched a little over a year ago, might not even exist if he wasn’t inspired by his children.  “Having two, they’re two completely different fireballs. Whether it’s me peeking over their shoulders while they are playing with their markers and crayons or just stuff that they say, or just in a general sense making the world a better place. Some of the philanthropic stuff we do with each drop, that’s for them,” says Cochrane, who’s also the Art Director at Complex. “I could very easily just release some stuff and pocket everything, and that’s fine, but at the same time I want them to see there are ways that if you have the ability to help, you should. And that’s not to say you can’t do that without having children, but things punctuate a bit more when you have the future in your house. It’s interesting.” With each capsule collection it drops, Bloomfield.Works delves deeper into aspects of Black culture. For its first-ever release in April 2020, the brand produced a “Mack Mittens” T-shirt mimicking the one worn by Beanie Sigel in 2002’s “1 for Peedi” video. Cochrane cites State Property and other 2000s hip-hop acts, like the Ruff Ryders and LOX, as major influences in his formative teenage years that continue to peek through in his work to this day. Most recently, he honed in on the many subgenres of reggae and some of its most influential figures, like Barrington Levy. The four-piece drop included grey Lovers Rock crewnecks with collegiate-style lettering and T-shirts emblazoned with some of Levy’s lyrics. He says a lot of the time a song’s lyrics can inspire the direction he wants to go in for the theme of his next capsule. But, for Cochrane, Bloomfield.Works is about more than just selling clothing. Along with most of his drops, he donates partial proceeds to a specific cause or nonprofit of his choosing. For his last reggae-inspired release, he donated part of the proceeds to St. Ann’s Primary School in St. Ann, Jamaica. This past February, he released a capsule inspired by the Black Arts Movement that aided the Black Art Futures Fund. It’s his way to give back to the pieces of the Black community he’s honoring. “It was like, what are ways I can help besides just throwing a little bit of money at something?” he says. “I have this access. I have these resources. I have some ability. Let’s turn that into something helpful for people. So that was kind of the running theme for a lot of the releases I’ve been doing. It was like, what are ways that we can make our work a bit more serving to the community?” For its latest collection, releasing exclusively on Complex SHOP on Father’s Day, Bloomfield.Works decided to focus its lens on fatherhood. More specifically, Cochrane says he wants to draw the parallel between parenting and gardening. “Sometimes the approach for one flower doesn’t work how it does for another flower, but we always have to be persistent with our kids to make sure they bloom into what they want to be,” he says. Two graphic T-shirts, one cream and one chocolate brown, are available alongside a pair of cream fleece shorts. Each features “Bloom” printed across the chest in purple with a large back print that reads, “I’ll be with you when the roses bloom.” Of course, the tees are also offered in toddler sizing so parents can match with their kids. Adults sizes run $48 for T-shirts and $55 for shorts, while toddler shirts will be $25 each. 'I’ll Be With You When the Roses Bloom’ speaks to the ever-changing nature of parenthood. Many of the things I worry about with my young children probably won’t be things that will worry me when they’re 10, 15, 21, 30 etc. But the love is ceaseless. And through the years, I’ll always be there for them. Whether they blossom at 25 or 50, if I’m breathing I’ll have their back and maybe even beyond that,” Cochrane says. “If I were to directly dedicate this capsule to someone, it would definitely be [my two kids]. Cochrane has been into fashion since he was growing up in the ‘90s rocking Grant Hill Filas and Bugle Boy. His mother, father, and older sister always made sure he was well dressed. Eventually, that led him to dabbling in Photoshop and making beats in FL Studio to flex his creative muscles. By high school, he was the “Photoshop guy” in his class and even designed the class T-shirts. He won “best dressed” rocking clothes from some of the most popular brands in New York’s streetwear scene at the time, like PegLeg and Orchard Street, when nobody else in his school was doing it. After graduating high school in Connecticut, he would move back to New Jersey and begin interning in showrooms that stocked brands of the moment, like Play Cloths and LRG, in the early 2010s. The name Bloomfield. Works is actually a nod to the two towns he grew up in, Bloomfield, New Jersey and Bloomfield, Connecticut. Cochrane continued to gain more expertise and experience in the streetwear world until eventually he decided it was time to translate his ideas and folders full of T-shirt mockups he was using to assist other designers into a brand of his own during the pandemic. “At a certain point you’re like, ‘Oh, I really should be doing this for myself.’ You go from this pay-for-hire designer to at some point realizing your sensibilities should be represented,” he says. While Bloomfield.Works is still young, Cochrane has a clear vision for the future. He eventually wants to make cut and sew pieces so he can provide a larger array of items to customers outside of T-shirts and hoodies. He also hopes to continue to honor and tell the story of legendary musicians and eventually work with some of their estates on official collaborative releases. He hints that other future capsules will nod to iconic sports moments, similar to his Black Friday 2020 drop that remembered the storied rivalry between the New York Knicks and Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in the ‘90s, and says he would love to even work with the Brooklyn Nets (his favorite team). But above all, Cochrane says he wants to just keep finding ways to honor historic Black artists. “There’s such a huge appetite for a lot of these artists now. A lot of younger creatives have this appetite for jazz and mid-century music. I would just love to be able to partner with those estates and build up that appetite for their storytelling and music through the medium of apparel,” he says. “I'm really down for anything as long as it makes sense and doesn't feel compromised.” Read more

A Detailed Look at “Objects,” SHOP’s Collection of Home Goods Available Exclusively at ComplexLand 2.0

It’s been over a year since the COVID-19 lockdown started and while many of us are ready to do literally anything that involves leaving our homes, we’ve also had plenty of time to realize just what our places were missing, and what we value as essential in our lives. For some, it’s the perfect coffee table book to flip through when their eyes can’t take another second of screen time. For others, it may be a unique side table that serves two purposes: looking good on Instagram and keeping your cold brew within arms reach. We, at Complex SHOP, were inspired by that and have teamed up with some of our favorite brands and designers for a special home goods program, “Objects,” available exclusively at ComplexLand 2.0 (June 16-18). “Objects” features the works of Aries, Camp High, The Hundreds, Total Luxury Spa, and All Gone. Each brand created special, limited edition pieces that interpret what’s essential to them as a brand and their respective designers. The collection of furnishings will make you excited to come home for the first time in a while. We caught up with the brands to talk more about the limited edition items each has contributed to the event and why it’s essential.   ALL GONE The Finest of Street Culture Book with Limited Edition Cover by Eric Yahnker - $98 Visit COMPLEXLAND 2.0. Michael Dupouy has been documenting streetwear culture and its most popular items in the form of a coffee table book, ALL GONE The Finest of Street Culture, since 2006. So even a pandemic couldn’t stop him from releasing a 2020 hardcover. "It's easy to say that today, when vaccination is progressing everywhere and the situation has improved, but no, I never considered not producing this edition,” he says. “In spite of everything that happened, our world continued to function as well as it could, and I remained convinced and confident that we would get through this together, and that as an individual, I would too, even though everything was going to be different and inevitably more complicated. I was mostly in Paris, stuck at home, when I wrote the book. It was a unique, never-before-seen time to be dealing with. It was necessary to remain resolutely optimistic, to believe in the capacity of humans to get out of all the crisis situations, in order to serenely approach the completion of this book.” While many predicted there would be fewer products and drops for people like Dupouy to cover, the opposite turned out to be true. “The paradox of 2020 was so crazy that there were more beautiful subjects to deal with in this book than ever before, even though we had just lived through the saddest and most stressful year since ALL GONE existed.” The 2020 version of the book was originally released with two cover options by Eric Yahnker, limited to 1,000 copies each. One featured LeBron James and Yoda of Star Wars, both cultural phenoms who served as welcome distractions during the pandemic, while the other featured Michael Jordan soaring above demons just as his ten-part documentary, The Last Dance, soared in the ratings last spring. While both versions have long sold out, Dupouy has created an even more limited edition exclusively for ComplexLand 2.0, limited to just 500 copies. The special edition features a cover by Yahnker of the late NBA Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant on a black cover with a single red rose superimposed over him. Despite having written 14 other ALL GONE The Finest of Street Culture books, this one holds a special place in Dupouy’s heart. “The 2020 edition is essential because this year will be remembered by humanity for eternity, and not only because of the pandemic,” he says. Pandemic or not, Dupouy considers himself lucky to have made it 15 years in the business with this project. “On a personal note, if someone had told me in 2005 when ALL GONE was first being considered that I was going to write, produce, and distribute this book and make it a successful saga for 15 years, I would have probably laughed and kindly replied that it would have been a miracle to last 5 years. That's why this edition is very important, because it has a very strong symbolic value for me, as an independent author and producer, but also and above all as a human being, who has always believed in his ability to move forward, no matter what challenges he faces.” “I consider ALL GONE as the major project of my career,” Dupouy adds. “This series of books was conceived to last and to settle in time like a true encyclopedia of which one collects the new volume every year.” Camp High Rug by Noreen Seabrook - $420 Visit COMPLEXLAND 2.0. Founded in Santa Monica, California in 2018, Camp High’s original focus was to produce locally sourced, high-quality soft clothing. “When you are comfortable, it takes out a major barrier to being happy and successful, whatever that means to you,” Greg Dacyshyn, the brand’s founder, says. For Complex SHOP’s “Objects” project, Dacyshyn and co. have taken this ideology and expanded it from clothing to homegoods with the help of Brooklyn-based rug company Noreen Seabrook, who Dacyshyn calls “the masters of these new graphic-based rugs.” Together, they’ve created a bright green/yellow rug with the phrase “Camp High Family.” “I think rugs are a key to cozy living, as they really do warm up a room and can really bring it together. Even more than furniture or art,” Dacyshyn says. True to the spirit of Camp High, the inspiration for the rug’s design comes from an old parking lot bootleg Grateful Dead T-shirt. “It was from Be Good Family, who were tour kids on the lot that did what they did to make it to the next venue. Truly living the life of ‘one show at a time,’' says Dacyshyn. The green/yellow colorway, a suggestion from Marko Nichols-Marcy of Noreen Seabrook, which was founded by his father in Red Hook, New York in 1995, is based on the ice dyes that Camp High was working on at the time. “I feel the green and yellow combo feels super happy and healthy. Just the way we want our life to be,” Dacyshyn adds. “A rug that makes you smile everytime you see it.” Like all Noreen Seabrook creations, the Camp High rug was hand-knotted in Nepal using 100 percent pure Tibetan wool. The brand only works with weavers and factories that are environmentally safe and respect workers rights and an equal amount of thought and consideration is put into the rugs themselves. The entire process of rug making, from yarn dyeing to shearing, is done with the utmost care. “I’m very much a traditionalist when it comes to technique and constructions,” says Nichols-Marcy. “I don't use shortcuts or artificial fibers, but at the same time I try to offer a fresh approach when it comes to actual design.” “They not only look incredible, but the quality is truly next level.” Dacyshyn adds. “The fact that they are completely made by hand is mind blowing. They are pieces of art meant to last many lifetimes.” The Hundreds “Adam Bomb” Modernica® Side Table - $375 Visit COMPLEXLAND 2.0. Even for those who aren’t fully initiated, certain iconography comes to mind when you think of streetwear, and The Hundreds’ Adam Bomb logo is among the most famous of all time. The Los Angeles brand has spent nearly two decades putting the Adam Bomb on every item it could and with the help of Modernica, it has made its way to a side table, which will be re-released exclusively through Complex SHOP’s “Objects” project at ComplexLand 2.0. “We wanted to show our iconic logo Adam Bomb highlighted it in a different way other than apparel,” The Hundreds special projects manager David Rivera says. “So we thought this Modernica side table would be perfect. We’ve never done wooden furniture before.” While the prospect of making a wooden table may seem daunting to most streetwear brands, the folks at The Hundreds weren’t worried. “Modernica is family. We’ve done a few chairs in the past and we wanted to do another item that we can use,” says Rivera. “They’ve been very easy to work with, showing us each step of development and the process of what it takes to design a custom side table.” Most people typically go for rectangular or oval coffee tables, which leaves room for the side table to be less traditional. The “Adam Bomb” Modernica Side Table serves as both a piece of art and, obviously, a functional table, making this a great deal for those looking to bring some streetwear history into their living rooms. Total Luxury Spa Silkscreen Poster - $50 Visit COMPLEXLAND 2.0. Total Luxury Spa is a Los Angeles based zine publisher turned streetwear brand by Daniel Desure and Hassan Rahim. While many brands publicly pontificate on ideas of community building, TLS serves its community of South Los Angeles directly, by sharing profits with the community and creating safe spaces for local youth. For “Objects,” the brand created a limited edition poster, titled “The World Within.” “It’s a standalone item that can create its own inherent context rather than rely on a larger one,” Daniel Desure says. “Its permanence serves as a mantra rather than a fleeting moment relegated to being worn, as a piece of clothing does.” The World Within poster was designed in-house at the brand’s Los Angeles HQ and features green, God-like hands around trees and spiraling white text. Whether the text translates to a mantra or a riddle is up to the beholder. “We’ve got a consistent and overarching ideology, which comments on the human condition, society at large, and suggests a means of harmonious living,” Desure says. “The poster is an output of that thinking. Any object that comes from TLS carries our message, and that message is our essential means of communicating with our family, community, and planet. Aries Coffee Mugs - $35 each Visit COMPLEXLAND 2.0. Upon first glance, it’s hard to believe these mugs came from a brand whose founders are best known for their work with streetwear brands Palace and Silas. However, that’s just the type of confusion Aries founders Sofia Prantera and Fergus Purcell want to inspire. Since 2012, Aries has blended high fashion, streetwear, and unpretentious humor to create an aesthetic that is unique to the brand. For ComplexLand 2.0, Aries has created mugs that put that humor on display. “They work in the same way a tshirt does; an easy way to communicate your taste to your guests,” Prantera says about the inspiration behind the pieces. “The mugs are covered in our original graphics, they are symbols of luxury, classicism, magic, decay. As humans we are perpetually in love with symbols; brand logos harness the same power. It's the idea of encapsulating a potentially complex thought in a very simple and direct image to convey your leanings, your beliefs, your intentions, the lines along which you conduct your business.” The mugs feature certain iconography, including McDonald’s golden “M” with the brands’ signature “No Problemo” phrase, a Nintendo Gameboy and nod to surviving Y2K, and a nipple with a capital A around it, things Aries fans have come to expect. Of course, the mugs themselves are of high quality. “Only bone china mugs, these are made by hand in the UK and they are actually quite delicate and precious, very good for drinking tea,” says Prantera.   Visit COMPLEXLAND 2.0.  Read more