This week, Supreme officially announced the spring joint series with the Australian brand COOGI, which aroused street lovers’ nostalgia for New York culture and street spirit in the 1990s, and the grand launch on Thursday also verified the importance of this cooperation between the two parties. Although this is not the first time that COOGI has co-branded with a well-known street unit, its first cooperation with the “street king” Supreme has really made everyone wait for too long. This also makes us think, how did two brands with completely different backgrounds become a pair of “matches made in heaven”?
For New York’s cultural scene, 1994 was undoubtedly a “Golden Year” worth remembering. In April, Nas, a young MC from Queensbridge, released his debut studio album, Illmatic, which is still widely regarded as one of the best hip-hop albums of all time; Breakthrough, made it all the way to the NBA Finals, while the Rangers won the Stanley Cup, the NHL’s highest honor, for the first time in more than 50 years; in September, another legendary hip-hop artist The Notorious BIG also released his debut studio album ” Ready to Die” has become one of the masterpieces of American East Coast rap culture. At the same time, in the same month that “Illmatic” was released, a skateboard shop called Supreme ushered in the opening of its first store on Lafayette Street in SoHo, New York.
While Supreme may have existed in a different world than Nas and BIG back then, things have changed now: In 2011 Supreme released a collaboration line featuring the cover of Biggie’s Ready to Die album; in 2017 Nas appeared on On the brand’s classic Photo Tee. A synergy has been brewing between the rapper’s fashion flair and Supreme founder James Jebbia’s vision: For them, the Big Apple’s unrivaled streets and landscape serve as a source of inspiration for their fashion attitudes.
Nas is the quintessential New York “tough guy” image (at least when it comes to dressing), with a penchant for Timberland boots, Polo Sport knits and sneakers. Biggie also favors workwear with a tough temperament. In the song “Juicy”, he once sang: “the red and black lumberjack [flannel] with the hat to match”, but in fact his look usually fits the Hollywood description of “drug lord”: silk Versace shirts, impeccably tailored gangster suits, bombastic gold accessories, and a piece from Brightly patterned knit sweater from Australian knitwear brand COOGI.
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Founded in 1969, COOGI’s only connection to the pop culture scene was Bill Cosby, who would often wear the brand’s sweaters and cardigans on The Cosby Show before landing on the mogul’s favour. Hip-hop stylist Groovey Lew once joked, “If you weren’t Bill Cosby or a rich golfer from Australia, you wouldn’t know COOGI.” But when Biggie sang on “Big Poppa”: “However, livin’ better now, COOGI sweater now”, COOGI immediately became the ideal brand for a whole new group of people and redefined the boundaries of who can wear it.
Interestingly, it is rumored that Bigge first knew about the brand through his neighbor Walt G in Clinton Hill. Just as Lo-Lifes took Polo Ralph Lauren out of the country club, Bigge single-handedly made COOGI a street status symbol, giving it new respect.
When Biggie introduced COOGI to young people in New York, Supreme was also growing at a rocket-like speed. Before most clothing companies start building their histories, they take material from pre-existing art, music or culture. But what makes Supreme stand out is that even at its inception, the brand was committed to writing its own history, rather than breaking away from established fashion frameworks for the sake of familiarity with consumers. It is this independent spirit that ensures that the brand is in reference or There is always a sense of authenticity when collaborating. “A lot of people don’t understand that Supreme is a tiny group of people working on their original idea: Supreme is a skate shop,” artist Lucien Smith told Vogue in 2017.
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Of course, this maverick attitude turned the label into a superstar, because there’s nothing fashionistas crave more than something they can’t have (or don’t understand). In March 1995, less than a year after Supreme opened its doors, years before streetwear achieved mainstream status, Vogue compared Supreme’s store culture to that of CHANEL’s flagship store at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, article The conclusion is that Supreme’s followers are as enthusiastic as CHANEL, although Supreme has not yet developed the scale and potential of today’s business.
COOGI is defining ’90s hip-hop style, and Supreme is already reimagining the future of skatewear and streetwear. They may be very different brands, with very different markets, but they have one thing in common: redefining mid-90s New York cultural vibes, both through product and brand ethos.
While COOGI outfits rappers and Jebbia continues to build Supreme’s empire, current Supreme creative director and Denim Tears founder Tremaine Emory grew up in Jamaica and Queens, New York, with a solid dose of hip-hop and street culture. Although Emory didn’t wear Supreme much as a teenager (on the grounds that he didn’t skate), his main connection to the brand was buying for his brother who skates, but growing up he felt COOGI’s influence on New York street style clearly . In a post earlier this week, Emory called the collaboration “a love letter to the block.”
Emory has said that he is on a “Hero’s Journey”, seeking knowledge and bringing it back to his homeland. This thirst for knowledge and wisdom has guided him throughout his life, from venturing into the Lower East Side as a teenager while working at Kate Spade, to founding his own label, Denim Tears, to becoming Supreme’s creative director. Now, this “hero’s journey” has prompted Emory to bring COOGI and Supreme together, a collaboration so natural, it’s frankly shocking that it didn’t happen earlier.
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From lighting up the New York skyline on early Patagonia collaborations, to pieces inspired by the Polo Ralph Lauren Stadium collection, to an ad on the cover of the New York Post…New York culture has long been a Supreme design ethos Core. Similarly, the cooperation series between Supreme and COOGI is also the simultaneous blooming of these cultural roots, combining Supreme’s iconic items with specially customized COOGI fabrics, thus paying tribute to the golden age of New York.
2023 is certainly not 1994, but after nearly 30 years after each brand rocked the city in its own way, Supreme and COOGI’s collaboration shows that true cultural fascination will always stand the test of time, no matter how the surrounding variables change .
