We’ve officially made it to the Thursday of the year, the-almost-christmas-but-not-quite festive period that is November. And despite the normal lull that comes after Halloween, this first week has been a big one. From Rihanna doing everything apart from releasing R9, to Mark Zuckerberg laying out plans for the Metaverse, there’s been a lot going on.

For CULTED, this week was an opportunity to dive into conversations – featuring an array of designers, multidisciplinary artists and personalities.

Amongst all of this, we are still in the middle of COP 26: the annual summit of world leaders meeting to coordinate global efforts to halt climate change, all happening in Glasgow. In light of this, fashion brands have been stepping up and highlighting their commitments to sustainability – a topic covered not only in the news, but also our designer features this week. So, here’s a rundown of everything you may have missed in the first week of November on CULTED, and how to read the full features.

SHAQ SPOKE ON NAVIGATING BETWEEN FASHION AND ART

Early on in the week, we caught up with Shaq – the London creative who’s ever-evolving career is nothing short of impressive. The South-London born, multi-disciplinary creative has navigated between fashion and art throughout his career, exploring the intersection of the two subcultures and ultimately finding them to be interlinked. Speaking on this, Shaq attributed his fascination with fashion to an early experience:

“Fashion is something that I’ve loved since birth. There’s 3 main things I love: fashion, music and art – I know it sounds so generic but I genuinely, deeply, care about those things. The first person who introduced me to fashion was my mum, she always used to go to charity shops and she’d bring back pieces for me from the brands that I was seeing my favourite artists wear in music videos. I remember one day she came back from the British Heart Foundation with, a YSL shirt and a Gucci bucket hat, all authentic, and I couldn’t believe it. It was really her who brought me to realise that fashion was what I was into in the first place.” 

Read more about the designer-stroke-artist here.

We’ll be scouring the charity shops this weekend, wbu?

GUCCI GAVE HOLLYWOOD GLAMOUR

A long way from the charity shop gems of London, Gucci put on a show to end all shows on the walk of fame, Hollywood Boulevard. The show had a distinct air of ‘celebrity’: from the star-studded audience to Jared Leto and Macaulay Culkin walking as models. Here though, the theme ran deeper than the glitzy outfits; with each look being given a different character on the runway. 

The show opened with early looks consisting of baby pink satin suits, paired with a glitzy tiara and hot pink gloves, oversized sunglasses and an immaculately tailored gingham suit. It gave prom king and queen wrapped into one look, almost destined to be snapped up by Harry Styles in the very near future. Alessandro gave beautiful chaos, even including a range of sex toy inspired jewellery. Butt plug necklace, anyone? 

In taking over the Boulevard, Gucci donated over $1 million to homeless charities in LA, including house ambassador Miley’s charity ‘the Happy Hippie’, although online commenters fear this isn’t going far enough. 

Read into the show and explore the collection here.

WE SAT DOWN WITH DAVID FISCHER TO TALK ALL THINGS MONCLER

Midweek, our editor Chris sat down with Highsnobiety founder David Fischer to discuss the Fischer-curated new capsule project, celebrating the very best of contemporary craftsmanship and the iconic nature of Moncler’s back catalogue. This very special edition of House of Genius stepped out from the screen and into the streets of London, finding a home within the corner shop of Selfridges on Oxford Street. 

Speaking on the collab, Fischer expressed that “it always felt quite natural…Moncler has done such a fantastic job opening this outdoor-inspired luxury world through this project. Particularly allowing different creatives and different brands to come in and craft their own interpretations of the iconic Moncler puffer jackets for this next generation luxury consumer. 

On the one hand I got to design the House of Genius capsule collection, gadgets, and accessories that come with it but thankfully Moncler also allowed me to curate a range of smaller collaborative items into the project. The goal for me in many ways was to explore ideas outside of the traditional big designer collaborations, which are still obviously beautiful and impressive, and instead, create something that doesn’t really compete with that but rather gives a different type of access to the House of Genius collection”. 

Read our conversation here.

JAWARA ALLEYNE TALKED US THROUGH HIS INSPIRATION AND IDENTITY

In another conversation this week, we caught up with a designer of the moment Jawara Alleyne. Coming off the back of a wildly successful couple of months, showing his SS22 collection under Fashion East and designing a look worn by Rihanna herself, Alleyne remains humble and focussed on his own vision. “While the platform is great, and I’m so grateful to be presenting under Fashion East, what I’ve gained most from Lulu and Raph is the reminder that as a designer and person really you have to trust your instinct because this is what makes a designer great. To be confident in my point of view and to not shy away from telling my story”. 

To have such a command of personal and brand identity only a year after graduating a masters is impressive, and Jawara was clear in situating these as distinct identities, separating his work from himself. “I describe myself as a designer and artist, as my work often sits between these two worlds. The work itself on the other hand is a bit more complex, as my research is quite expansive. I’ve been designing since I was a teen, having done my first show at 16 in the Cayman Islands and since then each collection and project served as the manifestation of constantly progressing thoughts on fashion, clothing and identity”. 

Read more of our conversation with Jawara here.

JEVON BREAKS DOWN HIS NEW ALBUM & THE BEAUTY OF NON-CONFORMISM

What unites ‘Frontline’ by Pa Salieu, ‘Provisional License’ by M1illionz and ‘Street Side Effects’ by K-Trap? Besides the fact they are three of the most impactful tracks released in the last year, they are all produced by the boy born and raised on Mozart Street and baptised in Coventry…Jevon. However, beyond the countless cold collaborations, Jevon has carved out his own place in the scene as a honey-toned vocalist and straight fire breathing MC. 

Rounding off the week on CULTED, we caught up with Jevon: your favourite producer’s favourite producer, a family man, a true hood poet and the mastermind behind a new wave of Samba inspired UK hip-hop. The term ‘triple threat’ has become somewhat of an empty platitude over the years as, much like the term ‘legend’, it had been tossed around with such frivolity that it has become rather meaningless. However, the case for Jevon as the UK’s most complete triple threat is becoming more bulletproof with every passing release. 

Check out his full feature here.

As ever, each week brings fresh news, features and conversations. See you on the other side!

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