Photos by Miguel Villalobos
The new collection includes eight limited edition circle bags, featuring a range of new colors and fabrics, all handmade from upcycled materials. The group, true pioneers of the sustainable fashion movement, upholds the renewable approach they first embraced in 2005.
Gil Linton of Byronesque identifies herself as “one of their disciples in the Lower East Side.” Although not part of their immediate circle at the time, she acknowledges their star power and trendsetting nature, which solidified their status as permanent fixtures in the fashion community. Longtime supporter Mickey Boardman of Paper Magazine recently echoed that sentiment, stating, “They’re still so relevant and so copied. To me, they remind me of other designers who are geniuses and do their own thing. They always had an entourage of people dressed like them.”
The early aughts’ nightlife scene played a pivotal role in the group's rise to prominence. Emerging from the collision of worlds in Manhattan clubs and late-night afters, the circle bag drew inspiration from the diverse inhabitants of New York's flourishing community. A true indexical sign of experimental designers in the early 2000s, Boardman adds, “They were ingenious then and ingenious now, and maybe they were so far ahead that now the world has caught up.” As FOUR is one of the few authentic avant-garde collectives that paved the way for disruptive New York-based brands like Luar, Vaquera, and Telfar, among others, and now the bag that started it all, is back.
Archival photos courtesy of threeASFOUR