A little over a week ago, A Cut Above founder Robin De Flô, aka Flo, stopped by the KNOTORYUS offices to discuss the ACA High Summer 15 collection (which we will unveil in a couple of days, but get a preview here) and of course the 7 year anniversary celebration for which he invited Virgil Abloh and Guillaume Berg, who DJ together under the moniker PARIS, IL, to come play at Brussels' club Bloody Louis.
For this joyous occasion, A Cut Above also released a long sleeve t-shirt in collaboration with promotors #NWASAFE .
Now, let's not miss this opportunity to talk about Virgil Abloh.
(image via NYT)
If you are willing to agree that Kanye West changed the game (as you should), you can't but acknowledge that Virgil Abloh did as well.
Next to being a 2015 LVMH Prize finalist with his brand Off-White, Virgil is the Creative Director of the world's most innovative artist.
No really, sit on that for a second. Think of your most favourite brand in the whole wide world. Now, acknowledge the amount of respect you have for the women and men setting out strategies, visuals, marketing,... for that brand. That is exactly what Mr. Abloh does for every win that 'Ye has. You know here at KNOTORYUS we sit in big boardrooms all the time (and with a Forbes top 3 brand just about every other week), so it annoys me to no end that someone of Abloh's stature and with his list of accomplishments would be referred to as just a "right hand man".
With a master’s degree in architecture from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, following a curriculum set by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (what you gon' say now, huh?), he's been pushing boundaries with and for Kanye since forever.
Together they founded content and design company DONDA, responsible for the grammy nominated "Watch The Throne" artwork, the ground-breaking 7-Screen Surround Vision experience in Cannes, the Kanye West/Louis Vuitton footwear collaboration, the AIR YEEZY's, the 'Cruel Summer' shortfilm, the Yeezus tour + merchandise, the ongoing Yeezus pop-up stores, the A.P.C. capsule collections and most recently, the Kanye West "All Day" live at The Brit Awards set-up that blew everyones mind, but mostly mine.
We also need to discuss Virgil Abloh's fashion design skills soon, which I've been closely watching since the Kanye West x Louis Vuitton collaboration (I Interviewed LV's Fabrizio Viti for a national newspaper and Kanye then kindly linked KNOTORYUS on his blog (RIP kanyeuniversecity.com)). Meanwhile follow all things Off-White here and check out its latest collaboration with SSENSE including a short directed by fellow Bruxellois Pierre Debusscherehere.
(above image via Livin' Cool)
Back to the May 9, 2015 Paris IL set.
ACA founder Flo : "I met Guillaume Berg -who is Bromance Records' (the label that has been inspiring all that's exciting in music for the last couple of years, note from KNOTORYUS) Creative Director- through DJ Slow when he came to play at WECANDANCE last year. They are best friends. Slow and I are friends. Guillaume hangs and works with Virgil a lot and that's how I also got to know him. Luckily we know these guys now and they are doing us a huge favour by coming to play for us and not charging their normal fee. It's a super unique opportunity to see PARIS, IL in such an intimate setting in Brussels. It's going to be crazy and we booked a room with very limited capacity to keep it exclusive, so I strongly advise to come early."
Listen to Paris IL below and we'll see y'all at Bloody Louis.
