Tinie Tempah, Lil Yachty, John Malkovich Move into Design
Tinie Tempah, Lil Yachty, John Malkovich Move into Design
The idea of celebrity collaborations with fashion designers and houses is no longer news as a concept – each revealed collaboration only cements this new reality further. Yet several artists are now moving on from what may have begun as collaborations into designing lines of their own. Among the newest to be revealed this year have been Tinie Tempah, Lil Yachty, and John Malkovich.
Singer, rapper and songwriter Tinie Tempah has been attending London Fashion week for several years now, debuting his own line on January 7 in a culmination of what he has been observing in previous years. Tempah’s label, called What We Wear, features uncomplicated pieces with a distinctly sporty theme. Boxy lines on an open-front shirt recall a baseball uniform, while thick, black and white stripes later on evoke the image of a referee. Drawstrings appear on pants and sweatshirts, and shiny, see-through outerwear appears on a number of models near the end of the show. A scrawling WWW logo is seen on clothing and on the wall behind the musicians who performed during the fashion show. “When you go to the fashion shows, a lot of the models walking down the catwalk are wearing these extravagant pieces,” Tinie told GQ. “But I’ll see the model in Shoreditch two weeks later and they’ll be wearing something more like this. So I decided, ‘Why don’t we -actually make something we would actually wear?”
Image courtesy of GQ
Georgian born rapper Lil Yachty has been made a creative designer at Nautica for the coming year. The brand made the announcement January 6 via Instagram, stating, “We would like to proudly introduce the newest member to the Nautica family! Say hello to @lilyachty – a Nautica Creative Designer for 2017. Welcome to the boat”. In this position the 19-year-old will design capsule collections and model for the brand’s ad campaigns. The rapper’s personal style, a flamboyant combination of hip-hop swagger and prepster themes, garnered him attention from the fashion community.
Image courtesy of Nautica
Actor John Malkovich, known early on for his personal style, released the John Malkovich line via his eponymous website January 3. Prior to the release, Malkovich was seen in advertisements for Squarespace, the website building company he used to generate his own. The line is refined with a European influence (Italian, to be precise), simplistic designs met by playful patterns or detailing. Interestingly enough, the cost of each item of clothing came up in an interview. “I was doing an interview a few years ago with a young Belgian journalist,” Malkovich told Vogue, “and he said, ‘Why is it so expensive?’ I didn’t think it was that expensive, but I said, ‘It’s made in Italy, and in Italy, weirdly enough, people want an apartment or a house and car, and they have children and they have to eat and the kids have to go to school. And that’s why it’s expensive.’”
Image courtesy of johnmalkovich.com
Tinie Tempah, Lil Yachty, John Malkovich Move into Design
