The new Levi’s collection explores America’s past with race and injustice. Image supplied.
Around the world, global brands are teaming up in all manner of interesting partnerships and collaborations – sometimes for the celeb factor, sometimes to bring two fashion houses together, and sometimes to combine meaningful storytelling with fashion.
Levi’s new Denim Tears collection is the latter and marks a two-year partnership with America’s Tremaine Emory – a true multi-hyphenate artist whose creativity spans across music, art, fashion, and more.
Having famously started his career working for Marc Jacobs, Tremaine has also worked alongside fashion giants such as Stussy, and more recently Supreme, as well as with names like Kanye West before launching his own Denim Tears collection.
His denim collaboration with Levi’s explores America’s past with race and injustice, through an artistic framework Tremaine calls “conceptual conceptualism.”
Featuring 100% cotton in shades of indigo and graphic patterns, the collection explores the story of the Gullah Geechee people – descendants of Africans who were enslaved on the indigo plantations of the lower American Atlantic coast.
Known for its production of indigo, that region had a large slave population during the 18th century, mainly due to the British demand for indigo-dyed workwear. At the time, the UK was the largest importer of indigo-dyed fabric.
Featuring an all-over print of indigo hands-on white denim, each piece is meant to symbolise the way a slave’s hands would turn blue while working with the indigo dye.
Tremaine has created a three-piece capsule collection that focuses on embracing the culture, history, and experiences of the Gullah Geechee: a Denim Tears Plantation Hat, a Levi’s Type II Trucker, and a Levi’s 501 jeans.
Levi’s x Denim Tears is available to purchase online now at Levis.co.nz.
Images supplied.