The new line of swimwear is made from Econyl, an Italian-source premium nylon fibre regenerated from ocean and landfill waste and feature pastel colors that suggest a vintage feeling. The collection features swim shorts, swim trunks, deck shorts, and swim briefs.
Watch the campaign video, ENDLESS SUMMER, filmed by artistic director Christian Larson in Cape Town, featuring a dreamy combination of spliced vintage and original footage, below.
Influenced by skate culture and the vibrant captivation of anime, Fani creates a world of his own when designing, one where sustainability, family, and culture rule all. An embrace of logo-mania with a focus on inclusion, OriginalFani®design has succeeded in creating an identity that’s for everyone. As of late, Fani has re-imagined Levi denim, imprinting his logo throughout a pair of jeans and a jacket to match, launching May 13. With his hands in international markets, including Japan and China, where he draws inspiration, the talented designer is set on making a lasting impression.
In an exclusive interview with office, Fani details his design journey, the community he serves, and the importance of sustainability.
I want to take it back to the beginning, the origins of OriginalFani®design What was the process of creating this brand?
OriginalFani started as a blog, (OriginalFani.com), which was inspired by Illroots. The name "OriginalFani" comes from the Brand "OriginalFake," which no longer makes clothing, which was a collaboration between Medicom Japan (toy company) + KAWS (pop artist). I started making t-shirts with the "OriginalFani/OriginalFake logo flip as something to give my friends and family so they could represent the brand, whether it was the blog or the fact that I might've created some graphics for them.
At this time in my career, I was doing freelance graphic design, including flyers, cover art, t-shirt design, logos +, etc., for local artists and businesses to make a living.
How has the Atlanta community influenced your come-up and where you are now?
Atlanta has played a huge part in my come-up. I'm originally from Chicago; my mother moved us here when she started working at Spelman. I would say it's a small town with a big city mentality. Most of the relationships I made here have helped me maintain the brand. The most important was the rap collective Two-9, where I was doing creative direction and graphic design for.
Your designs have been seen on every major artist, from Young Thug to SZA, to name a few. Why do you think OriginalFani®design resonates with so many people?
I think the fact that we have a focus on accessories makes it easy to mix and match our items with pretty much anything. I also look at the brand as unisex our graphics and color choices are typically very simple. Another goal of mine was to make the brand almost synonymous with a place or location. Atlanta has played such a huge part in pop culture over the last decade, and I would say our brand has found quite the niche in that space. Another focus is to establish a love and respect for fashion in a place that isn't always represented in that conversation. I would say it's a lack of press and infrastructure which creates this void, but it's not an actuality.
What inspirations do you pull from when you start designing?
Initially, my designs are purely based on my love for Japanese streetwear. The simplicity, use of minimal colors or repetitive branding, and also selective use of our monogram I take from a long list of Japanese brands. I also feel like these brands were the 1st to show me the importance of collaboration and sharing an audience while using them to make releases feel like they are a collectible. Other than that, I would say my use of color and repetition also comes from the likes of American streetwear brands like Stussy. I would also say I love how Supreme has a focus on telling a New York story; this too has inspired me to use and collaborate with brands that can establish the same feeling here in Atlanta.
How did this denim design come to be, and do you see there being a whole denim collection in the future?
Our main focus is accessories, being that I feel that anytime we step out of our box, it's special. The pattern used on the denim is from our beginnings. I felt Levis would be the perfect brand to use to step into the realm of denim, seeing how they have such a long history. Ideally, the collaboration we do is to feel classic and not overthought. I love denim, so this was just what I felt was the best introduction we could have. We have also done denim accessories in the past. I definitely plan to continue to work with denim and continue to slowly add to the array of garments the brand releases.
You also run a physical space, Closette, where people can show up and buy your pieces and explore other streetwear brands. Can you speak to the process of creating Closette and how important it is to have your pieces seen in person?
Closette has been quite a blessing. The name was inspired by the discontinued Paris boutique Colette which I had the opportunity to visit once before they closed. Closette has played an important role in the brand as it allows me to test products and have a relationship with both consumers and creatives in the city of Atlanta. Another thing I feel is the most important is community; the store space works as a hub for that as we often bring in brands locally and globally. Having the ability to interact with either customers or peers helps to establish a personal feeling, something that has also been attached to my brand as its name contains my actual name. People like to know or feel like they know the designer. I think names like Anwar Carrots and Joe Fresh Goods are the perfect example of this phenomenon.
I want to talk about your relationship with Hip Hop. How has music been a pillar since exploring visual art and fashion design?
I've had the opportunity to work on countless projects with different artists because Atlanta is such a pillar in the Hip Hop culture. I would say I got my 10k hours of experience in multiple disciplines, including graphic design, styling, and creative direction, due to this. A lot of relationships I made because of this we really easy to transcend when I started taking the idea of actually running a brand/business seriously.
OriginalFani®design continues to grow and make an impression. Where do you see your brand in the future?
My main goal with OriginalFani®design is sustainability. Because my actual name is attached to it, everything done is calculated and also a true representation of my taste level, serving as artistic expression. We don't make clothing or accessories based on trends or temporary financial gain. Being this, I think the future holds a steady rise, but enhancement of our infrastructure plays a large role in the future of not only Atlanta culture but also what it means to have longevity as an African American designer.
This capsule pays homage to the DSNY aesthetically, as it includes riffs on the department’s own uniforms and identifiable logo, but it also honors the dedication of these workers to keeping the city clean and safe by donating 20% of sales proceeds to the Sanitation Foundation and toward the city of New York.
Read on for office’s full interview with Michael and Chris of Tombolo, where we get the inside scoop on the collab and the sustainable efforts involved.
Your clothing is made to transport wearers to a destination. What is the intended destination for this collection?
We’re always designing our clothing to take the wearer to a different time, place, or state of mind. For this collection, the place is very much our native New York City, and it was actually more about reassigning the aesthetic hallmarks and logos of the DSNY from their typical context and meshing them with Tombolo’s cheerful escapism. For example, the DSNY caduceus logo is really beautiful and once it’s recontextualized from its usual home on a wastebasket or sanitation vehicle, it takes on a new feel. Same goes for the slogan ‘Keep New York City Clean!’ which we loved incorporating into our clothing. We certainly went through a bit of a time machine as we pored through the DSNY’s archives for inspiration, using various iterations of the caduceus logo that hail from the past few decades, their flag, and other sources. Aside from the usage of the iconic DSNY forest green, we introduced one style in white as an homage to the “White Wings” of the 1880s — the predecessors of the modern sanitation workers who wore all white to symbolize their role in safeguarding the health of New York City.
Creatively and conceptually, how did you settle upon the best way to effectively mesh your own branding with the values and ethos of the DSNY?
We were pleased to have a portion of sales support the Sanitation Foundation as well as the broader City of New York (10% of proceeds each). We also knew we’d want to incorporate eco-friendly materials wherever possible and produce garments in limited quantities in keeping with the DSNY’s initiatives around reducing waste and promoting composting and recycling. Creatively, we were hoping to evoke a New York nostalgia, which we tried to capture not only through the clothing itself but in our photo shoot out at the DSNY’s training facility, Floyd Bennett Field, where the shoot included props such as portable boomboxes and jump rope that harkened back to our formative decade in New York — the 1990s.
We also have always drawn on the aesthetic of uniforms in our own shirts, finding charm in the clever and practical hallmarks that develop over time in uniform workwear. This was the perfect opportunity to lean into these signatures, like lower patch pockets, combo color camp collars, and tucked, back side pleats for ease of movement.
Finally, we felt that our two logos provide a poignant contrast that sums up the work of the DSNY — the caduceus is serious, medical, and historical. Tombolo’s palm tree logo is more organic and free-flowing. Both of these features are at play for the DSNY, a storied organization with a rich 100+ year history that is very much ensconced in all things organic and environmental here in New York.
Can you tell me a little bit more about the Sanitation Foundation and what the proceeds from these sales will be going toward?
The Sanitation Foundation plays a vital role as the non-profit partner for the Department of Sanitation of New York, helping pursue a vision of a healthier, cleaner, and more sustainable NYC. They do this in two main ways. First, they celebrate and support the essential Sanitation Workforce, a group of over 10,000 people. A great example is their work to provide COVID-19 support for Sanitation Workers, both in terms of raising money for supplies to equip them to navigate COVID-19 and memorializing those who lost their lives due to COVID-19. Second, they advance the Department’s ambitious zero-waste agenda to help minimize the impact of the 3.5 million tons of annual waste that this city’s 8.5 million residents produce; they do so through public engagement, education, and capacity building to galvanize the resources needed to move towards this lofty goal.
They’ve been exceptional to work with and we applaud their approach of pursuing public and private partnerships between DSNY, community organization, and businesses like Tombolo in pursuit of their valuable mission.
As a New York-conceived brand, why is it important to you guys to honor the work of the essential employees who keep this massive place up and running?
It’s incredibly important to us. DSNY is really the backbone of New York — the logistics network that is primed to ensure day-to-day basic functions as well as ramping up to respond to crises. Everything from getting the city back to normal after a typical snowstorm all the way to removing debris from 9/11 or delivering daily meals to over one million New Yorkers in need during the height of COVID. The honor is all ours to be associated with DSNY.
Can you delve a bit into the sourcing process for the eco-friendly materials employed in this collection?
We made a priority of using organic cotton wherever possible — in this case, in the terrycloth on the cabana shirt and shorts as well as the canvas on the souvenir cap. For this capsule, with the environmentally-focused DSNY, it was imperative to select organic cotton because it requires significantly less water to grow than conventional cotton and ensures no herbicides or pesticides harm the environment and workers.
We also made one shirt out of Tencel, one of our favorite environmentally friendly fabrics. It is a really lovely marriage of form and function — we love the drapey, silky feel of Tencel, yet ease of care as it’s totally machine-washable. It also boasts quite a strong eco-profile, as it’s completely derived from natural materials — wood pulp — through a closed-loop production process that turns that wood pulp into cellulosic fibers with high resource efficiency and low environmental impact. This process recycles processed water and the solvents they use at a recovery rate above 99%.
The last piece of this process is a bit more ambitious — we have been working with a company called OurCarbon which produces a carbon-negative base material that is made by diverting waste from landfills. They have an experimental dye that we’ve used for Tombolo’s first-ever T-Shirt. It is a soon-to-be-released second installment of our DSNY x Tombolo collection. Stay tuned for that!
This spotlight you are placing on a somewhat overlooked sector is so imperative. Do you have any future plans to collaborate with other local departments or organizations?
None at the moment, but we are always looking! And we’re very comfortable thinking outside the box. We are always open to suggestions!
This collaboration shows that uniforms like the DSNY’s have potential to actually be quite fashionable. How soon before we see all of the city workers of New York dripped out in Tombolo?
Maybe we’ll have to bid on an NYC uniform contract in the not-so-distant future!
