New Amsterdam Surfs the City

The collection is a continuation of the New Amsterdam’s essential purpose, which is to bring surfing to the city. In Amsterdam where they grew up, surfing was not sunshine and turquoise waters, just the opposite. Industrial backdrops and harsh wind is where the New Amsterdam team is most comfortable engaging in the sport they love, and they've developed clothes which meet them at home in that environment. “That’s the dream: breaking the stereotype of the hippy surfer and showing people there are ‘city surfers’ as well”, says designer and founder Paul Zeper.

The dream shines through in ‘BLACK SATURDAY,' named after a mob scene holiday where surfers pilgrimage to the south of France, the collection combines elements of streetwear and workwear with more traditional surf staples. Work trousers, shirts and puffers in black, white and construction green fall beside summery button downs emblazoned with beach chairs. If you're surfing like the New Amsterdam team, it's best to be prepared.

'BLACK SATURDAY' is available now and check out the interview with designer Paul Zeper below.

This collection was inspired by the specific experience surfers have in Dutch surf weather and environments, what is one thing someone should know before tackling the surf out there?

Surf in The Netherlands starts with dedication. It is one thing to get a surf lesson during summertime, but to actually be doing it in winter and getting good at it, it takes a lot longer here then in other countries. When there is waves it is usually cold, often stormy and even then the waves are most of the time not even that good. We can get the occasional good surf, but nothing like they have in France or New Jersey in your case ;). Here we have the North Sea and with its average depth of 95 meters, you don’t get the real groundswell. That is also when you’re not taking a little island in front of our coast in consideration, the United Kingdom.

So besides the struggles we have when we want to surf in the Netherlands its also always the wait for the next trip to France, UK, or if funds are steady somewhere further away.

I feel like surfing is such a niche sport, probably even more in Amsterdam, what are you doing to expand its diversity?

It is! There is a certain image around the sport that has been there for quite some time. Here in The Netherlands and Amsterdam, it's pretty much the same. For us, the most important thing about the brand and the community is to get Amsterdam represented in the water. That is why quite some time ago we started setting up a surf academy. This academy will not focus on paid lessons, but we’ll work together with youth organizations that help underprivileged youth. We would like to support them by getting their first surf lesson. But also, as the brand grows, support them with the necessary means to keep surfing! Our goal is to get all the stuff for them they need to surf at our HQ/store and also a bus for transportation from Amsterdam to the beach. This may and June we have our first 2 days and we hope to be all up and running with more days after summer and expand this project from thereon.

Can you talk about what your journey was like from being interested in graphic design to making full pieces? What were the steps, and what are some hacks you would recommend to someone young trying to do the same?

For me, it was definitely a trial and error process. The love for graphics and clothing started during high school. I was still super into graffiti and for my final project, a friend and I brought that together into screen printing our own clothes. From that point, my mind was set to one day do the same and start my own brand. After high school, I was a professional windsurfer for a couple of years and at the end of that time I started my study graphic design. During my study, I started a brand called 'DEZEEP.' I checked out Alibaba, ordered some custom clothing pieces and caps and it was at this point I noticed for the first time that they use something called a spec sheet in clothing design. So none of the measurements made sense. Step by step I learned spec sheets, fabrics, mark-ups when working with stockists, the yearly seasons in selling but also the fashion weeks when you sell to buyers.
During this time, I started' New Amsterdam' as a line within 'DEZEEP' and this went way better than DEZEEP. So in 2018, I took them apart and started on setting up the New Amsterdam Surf Association.
For me, the main hack and the success of New Amsterdam Surf Association is just to be true to yourself. Making something up instead of doing something that you live is hard to keep up. My whole life I was busy finding ways to go surfing and being creative with clothes. Combining them was the hack. After that, it’s about having the right people around you, don’t be in a rush to become the next hype brand in a day. Focus on your realness and translate that truth, whatever you want to do, fashion, photography, socially.

What is your plan in consideration of social and environmental sustainability?

Socially, as mentioned before, we are really set on starting locally and working with local youth organizations. From there, as we grow this might be a project that we can extend overseas. We feel like surf can be a good school for emotional wellbeing and also for getting a better feel for nature which can result into a more sustainable mindset overall. This is how we feel social responsibility can also lead to more sustainability.
So sustainability and socially, for us comes down to responsibility. We know clothing by itself is not sustainable. We can get every certificate that says sustainable, but it just isn’t unfortunately in the end. But, we are really passionate about designing clothes and want to keep doing that so we are looking into ways to become more and more responsible. At the moment we build a panel of a group of people to help us. This plan will look at every stage from educating people, to transportation, to product, dyes, organic and recycled fabrics….etc.
At the moment we work with Fietskourier, they bring our packages by bike in the cities in The Netherlands. Besides that, the padding we use in our jackets is made of recycled water bottles. And our packaging from AW21 will be biodegradable. But again, these are the first baby steps and we are looking forward on adding more and more. We are definitely not there yet.

Do you remember the first thing you designed and what does it say about that period in your life? How have you evolved?

It was a 5-panel hat with an overall print of the canals of Amsterdam. It was the moment where I fell the hardest production-wise. I ordered 100 pieces and a hat to ship 95 back as they fell apart. In the end, it costed me more and I definitely did not make any money from them. But this cap also forced me to visit stockists and travel around to get familiar with everything. I learned a lot from this single 5-panel hat. Looking back, it was a wild, young, inexperienced me, but with a very clear goal which is still there.

I evolved steadily I guess. Step by step. Getting in touch with new factories. Being more organized and having a better yearly calendar. Designers can be pretty chaotic you know.

What was the inspiration behind this latest release? Are the colors and silhouettes symbolic of anything?

The inspiration behind the latest collection is called “Black Saturday” in Europe. This is a day in the summertime when everybody is traveling to the same holiday destinations in Europe. This particular day sees a lot of traffic jams and afterward results in overcrowded beaches and also overcrowded surf line-ups. You would say this sounds like shit and it is! But I usually find inspiration in these kinds of nostalgic but shitty things. It is something a lot of people in Europe have a certain feeling about and are familiar with. I always try to start with a theme before I make the collection and those themes are mostly topics people are familiar with like events or certain stereotypes.
The colors are based off photos made from overcrowded beaches from above. The towels, people, etc.

What do you want people to feel and know when they’re wearing this new collection?

When wearing New Amsterdam Surf Association people should get a feel of carelessness. Not in a bad way like destroying stuff or hurting others, but in a way that you only live once, why sit behind a desk for 20 hours when you can go out surfing or being creative with friends. We want to reflect that we make our own choice

Fashion

Happy 424 Day!

Simon Rasmussen — What's going on?

Guillermo Andrade — Right now we're just setting everything up.

So, what are you doing, is it a party?

Well, I kind of felt universally forced, right? Because 4/24/24, I was just like, I don’t really have a choice here. The stars also just kind of aligned, so to be honest, I got this settlement that came with a bunch of clothes so I had this idea to give back to the kids who fuck with us by allowing them to buy our shit first. Not handing stuff out for free, but to do it in a way where we could skip the middleman of the industry, so to speak, and not allow clothes to disappear into the abyss of Farfetch or whatever else. So what we’re going to do is a sort of warehouse sale, which we’ve never done before so that was really exciting for me. I didn’t want to do just another warehouse sale, so it’s like a sample sale turns rager. We teamed up with Adidas and a couple of other sponsors, then drinks, DJs, and a performance.

Sick, I love it.

Yeah. My dream sample sale. Also, it’s not just hoodies and t-shirts here in there, it’s proper collections from the past three seasons. I’m also not picking and choosing, trying to make it accessible, like this was the only way I could afford to buy shit when I was a kid, bro. Sample sales were the thing I looked forward to the most.

I feel you. In New York, there's the annual CDG sale, which is when I used to cop all my CDG.

The only time I could afford Rick. I flew to New York once for a Rick sample sale and I was like, Wow, I can't believe I got invited. And it was mental. I still have those pieces. I will never sell them. Not even because I got 'em cheap. It was also just really fun. Even on the flight to New York, I was like, I can't believe I'm going to New York for a sample sale, what a fucking loser I am. But it was like the adult version of when I was a kid and I was like, Wow, I can't believe I'm 20-something and I'm still doing the thing I was doing in high school. So I hope we can create moments like that for kids here in LA.

Yeah. I love that. It’s important to connect with them; they’re essentially creating the brand. If you don't have them, good luck.

I mean, yeah. Fuck, bro. It's cool that we've been around for this long. I mean, it got a little rocky there for a second I think, for all of us. So coming out of it, tomorrow is a celebration. And it’s like an odd day of the week. It's a Wednesday, super random. And now that we've set it up, the homies are all like, Yo, I'm coming. I'm coming. Let me jump on stage, let me do this, and that's really what it's always been about. It's not some other strategy to get likes on the internet.

That’s how the best things happen, you just couldn’t help yourself. It was intuitive.

Yeah, it all came together in a really nice way.

Would you say that’s how 424 started as well? I remember we met in like 2010 on Fairfax and I was visiting with Rasmus…

Oh bro, it’s probably the time when I started the branch… do you remember Cecilia from Black Dakini? She’s the one that introduced me to CIFF and honestly, I didn’t even care what she was doing, I was just like, I’m coming, I’ll go with you. She said she’d give me half of her booth and I said, Awesome count me in. At the time, I had just gotten my green card and I wasn't allowed to ever leave America, so Copenhagen was one of the first cities I went to when I could finally travel. I mean, you see what we did at CIFF bro? It became our fucking hub for half a decade.

That was a moment for sure.

I remember the first account I got was Antonioli, and he came super gangster, being like, You're going to sell me these clothes. And I was like, bro, I didn't come to sell clothes. I'm just kind of catching a vibe with my homie and I made these things. And he's like, No, you're going to sell it to me. And then I was like, Oh my god that’s Claudio Antonioli. So then I went home, I googled wholesale, and figured that shit out. [laughs]

[Laughs]

Like you said, I couldn't help myself, but I didn't just make t-shirts and hoodies either. I was really on my Rick wave, so I made my version of the Rick things. It was that meets like The Boondock Saints, because I'm still a little bit of a Cali bro, sort of rock kid, but not really. I like hip-hop, but I like the way the rock stars look. I like the contrast. I thought it was cool. After that, I just never stopped.

It was clear to me when I first met you that you were onto your own thing in LA. It made a lot of sense, and it was so cool. It was before 424 was its own brand; you just had the store and this really cool curation.

It was all my shit, bro. I was very, very invested in sharing all of these things that I was finding from all over the world, like Astrid Anderson. She was one of those designers at the time, so important to 424. The connection to Copenhagen specifically for me was huge. I had a big fan base there. It was incredible. And then here in LA, we were sharing the things that we were a part of and finding; it was still the early days of Fear of God, Rhude, Martine Rose. A lot of these brands, we were the first store to ever sell it — we were selling Hood By Air on the West Coast.

You had Rick as well, I remember.

Oh yeah. It took me a long time. But I got Rick, bro. By the time I had to close the store on Fairfax, I already had a Raf Simons account. I had reached my ultimate dream. It was really all the stuff I wanted to wear at the time. It was dope. The best of the best.

We had an office magazine newsstand in there as well.

Oh yeah, we did! I came to visit the one you had, and I was like, Yo, I got to bring this whole fucking thing over here. But yeah, in LA, after two days people forget you exist, but everyone’s been super supportive. We’re all 10 years older now. We've been around forever at this point.

It can be dangerous to take those breaks when you’re figuring shit out, but there’s something very genuine to this comeback you’re having.

Thank you, thank you. We’ve been in and out of those fucking showrooms in Paris for long enough. I've been in and out of these factories for the past 10 years of my life. We had to figure something out. And I think now really diving in, being in Italy full time and being there to develop these products over time, I think that the whole thing just really shows the suppliers respect you more. The people who are making your goods understand why you're making them. And I think now I finally got to the place where I'm not making Italian things, I’m making my clothes, I'm making Cali-centric shit, but with that European technicality and execution. With this Fall / Winter collection, it clicked.

So what’s the vision for the next year? What are you manifesting?

I'm just fucking relentless, bro. This is the way I want to live my life. Now that we are more aligned, more prepared, and have more experience, moving forward it is just more of becoming a fully functioning company that can provide and create opportunities for all of the people around me. We’ve been operating just on instinct for a long time.

Sustaining a business is scary, trust me I know.

Scary as fuck, dog. I just opened a store next to Bottega, bro, and it’s like what am I even doing? You have to just believe in the thing you're doing more than anybody else.

100%, and it seems like that’s what you’re doing.

And fashion’s kind of a competitive sport, as much as people don’t think it is. We can reach a certain level without losing ourselves. My biggest ambition at the moment is to create something that, when you leave one of our neighbors you come into our place you don’t feel that the level has been sacrificed at all. And it’s not easy.

Definitely. I wish I could be there tomorrow.

Thank you, bro. 10 years now. You’ve always shown me so much love. We have to do a booth or have the office part of the next 424 day. Shit let’s do a 424 day in New York.

That would be sick. Let's do it. I'm here. Let’s catch up soon.

Next season’s right around the corner so I’ll see you in Paris.

Yes, see you in Paris and Happy 424 day!

Fashion

Luis De Javier's Puta Takeover

April 25, 2024

Last night with Luis De Javier, guests were overheard confirming this generation's most vital conundrum: “If I’m cunt, I can still be pussy.” “And if you’re pussy, you can still be cunt.” This sentiment echoed throughout the night as we celebrated De Javier’s first-ever streetwear collection, "Puta". We spent seven hours at Ella Funt at a dinner turned party that only he could’ve thrown (co-hosted by emcee). It was too dark for even the most aspiring-to-look-mysterious of us to wear sunglasses inside. Under the semi-oppressive flash of party photographers, we danced as much as the space would allow, drank tequila out of teacups and kissed each other on the cheeks with a vaguely European intimacy. “I’m doing streetwear!” De Javier could be heard exclaiming — whether it be in disbelief or excitement, we couldn’t tell you.

Words and photos by Izzy Capulong

The Spanish-born London-based designer has been well-loved for his genderless tailoring, latex mastery, and overall message of empowerment. Dressing everyone from ravers to A-listers, De Javier’s latest drop pushes his design repertoire to a new level. “While designing for my celebrity clientele and showcasing my creations on the runway has always been my dream,” he notes, “It’s equally important to me that my brand resonates with a wider, more diverse audience.” While this collection’s medium has shifted from corsets to sweatshirts, the classic LDJ avant-garde sensibilities remain. Bikinis and booty shorts are shamelessly emblazoned with “PUTA,” blazers are constructed with ample shoulder padding, and I had my eye on the cheekily-named “Faguette Bag.”

The Puta collection will be available exclusively on emcee.

Fashion

Nadia Lee Cohen Celebrates Paris Texas Launch at the Chateau

To celebrate the launch, Cohen and founder and creative director of Paris Texas, Annamaria Brivio hosted an intimate dinner at the Chateau Marmont pictured below. Arman Naféei entertained guests throughout the evening with a special playlist he curated for the occasion.