LE BAIN: As a street level football club, what’s your outlook on style and fashion?
FC NOWHERE: We have more of an outlook on style than fashion itself. We take most of our inspiration from old Chinese men walking by Football Cafe in the morning. Our runway is the Lions Gate Field where we acknowledge midweek teams steez, especially the Forest Crew Team. We're like the United Nations of style: part Italiano, part British dressers and casual, part la Banlieue of Paris, part Brooklyn Lo-Life, part East L.A. cholo. Our fashion comes from the inner city dweller rather than fashion magazines!
So many. NY is all about the layering of cultures, and so many identities emerge and compete here. One has to stand out somehow and be original in the hive, so DIY is basic and necessary. Which is why people from all walks of life dress so well here, not just those schooled in fashion, or people who shop a lot. As far as the concierge, we took a lot of inspiration from old Canal street; custom airbrush or iron-on letters; Dapper Dan or 'upgraded' flashy-guy wear, but done in the language of traditional football shirts, numbers, and badges. We like stories, like the story of Karl Lagerfeld who came to Canal Street to copy fake Chanel and make real Chanel. That sounds like New York. A New York story is a world story usually, or even becomes a myth. They're probably all lies - who knows?
D.I.Y. is a very New York skill.
You've used the term ‘Future Casual’ to describe the style of Nowhere... What does that mean?
There's probably no real way to classify things like this, but there is tradition of working-class kids wanting to get the fly gear, by any means necessary. That's ambition really. They called themselves 'Casuals' in England back in the day, and had organized into traveling war companies, going to places like Italy to follow their Club and stealing goods to bring home. The violence of it is not really our turn-on or anything, but there is a whole set of tactics to just how you put yourself together, your identity. Football supporters were the ones with sharpened fashion skills, for function. Survival is immediate and not really store-bought. Nowadays the threads of that DNA has gone in many directions. This is the outsider-American branch, but Nowhere FC also happen to be the World's Firm so we're now recruiting (DM the @CoachSez).
What will you not miss during this NYFW, except the Saturday party?
Bankers, oligarchs, sheikhs, shell companies, FIFA officials (unless they're looking to invest in Nowhere Football Club). Simonez can get oligarchs into the Alex Wang party, which is probably where they would want to go while in America, so we're thinking maybe we'll t take some billionaires.
Wannabe Yohji cropped karate pants. The Yohji Orphanage for style-bastards has been competing with the likes of Parsons and Central St. Martins recently, flooding the market with talented grads.
Saturday, February 13th, Le Bain presents 'World Cup Of Love' by Nowhere FC featuring Supreme La Rock & Jerome Chrome. Doors 10pm. The Standard, High Line.
