Octopus VNGRD book launch in New York
Reportage by Lele Saveri
Octopus is invited by Rizzoli New York to the VNGRD book launch, which traces the genesis of the Milanese research brand behind the first iconic Octopus hoodie back in 2005.
Along with VNGRD founder, Giorgio Di Salvo, we decided to get the godfather of streetwear onboard too. Erik Brunetti is founder of one of the first American brands from the early ‘90s: Fuct. Over the years, Erik and Giorgio have worked on various VNGRD and Fuct crossover projects, including the Sangue Italiano t-shirt. The two of them gave a talk at the historic Rizzoli bookstore on Broadway to mark the occasion.
Fuct adv, 1993.
“When I was doing Fuct – it was 1994, 1995 – I could see that the landscape was changing... You couldn't really say it was streetwear, because streetwear did not exist yet. But I knew something was happening.”
– Erik Brunetti
Giorgio signing some books.
“VNGRD always worked at a loss. Even when the garments did well commercially, for example with the Octopus hoodie, we never really covered all our expenses. [...] At that point it was clear to us that research brands exist not for the purpose of selling clothing itself.”
– Giorgio Di Salvo
“When I strated Fuct, there was no Photoshop. Everything was drawn by hand. […] And that's the thing I liked about collaborating with VNGRD. Giorgio was sending me his drawings, not a Photoshopped image. I'm a fan of people who can draw.”
– Erik Brunetti
Erik has a different point of view to those who got into the scene in recent years. We're used to hearing brands labeled as “streetwear” even if they mainly make printed hoodies and T-shirts. His idea of “streetwear” is much purer and more profound: it's streetwear if it's made by someone who really lives the streets, whether that's a pusher, a writer, a skater or whoever.
“The smaller brands are more into what's goin' on in the streets. […] There's this big facade that collaborating with a big brand will elevate your brand somehow. But it's not. It's only helping the big brand. So when I see a brand collaborating with a beer company, or the NFL... well it's like a death rattle to me.”
– Erik Brunetti
To mark the New York launch of the VNGRD book, we collaborated once again on a small capsule of OG Octopus T-shirts in colorways that date back to 2005/06. The garments are labeled VNGRD and all details are faithful to the originals.
Until now only available from Classic in Paris and #Antithesis in NY, the two books with alternative covers are now also available online.
