Blending Berlin's Art Scene With Seoul's Youth Culture In One Collaboration
Launched on May 1st, the series celebrates Berlin’s vibrant street art and graffiti scene, as well as Seoul’s irreverent youth culture.
If you appreciate collections where art and fashion collide, you’ll love MCM’s latest collaboration with Seoul-based artist Sam Kim (or SAMBYPEN). This collection is part of MCM’s ongoing initiative, Global Creative Platform, and this season it celebrates Berlin’s vibrant street art and graffiti scene, as well as Seoul’s irreverent youth culture.
The SAMBYPEN collaboration is part of MCM’s ongoing initiative, Global Creative Platform.
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Kim also created three animal characters to symbolise the brand’s journey from Berlin to South Korea – Henry the Timid Lion (inspired by the Munich Lion); Kaiser the Blunt Puppy (inspired by Wilhelm II and the symbol of Germany); and Haru the Wicked (inspired by the MCM Rabbit and German Easter Hare).
The exuberance and youthfulness SAMBYPEN'S work is evident in this MCM x SAMBYPEN collab.
“The theme of ‘MCM x SAMBYPEN’ is ‘Media Creates Madness’, addressing the contemporary society in which we live. We, who grew up in the ‘Analogue Age’ now live in a ‘Digital Age’, and have become a generation of chaos and adaptation," says Kim in a press statement.
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"The media has an unavoidable role in modern society, where massive amounts of information flow through us via the internet and videos. My focus has always been to observe yet subvert this dynamic by employing unabashed and sarcastic designs against traditional iconography.”
MCM’s Visetos monogram appears throughout the collection.
The same street-inspired luxury treatment was also given to the rest of the collection comprising T-shirt, shirts, outerwear, cushions, slippers, carpets, polo shirts, cargo pants, shorts and jewellery for both men and women. The collection icons are juxtaposed against MCM’s Visetos, representing a journey from past to future.
“From 1976 to now, MCM draws on a journey which began in Munich and continues from Berlin to Seoul. From art and music to technology and travel, MCM has been at the centre of the Zeitgeist, embodying the freedom to be bold, irreverent and aspirational," comments Dirk Schonberger, Global Creative Officer of MCM.
Youthquake at MCM.
"With an eye for reinvention, this unique philosophy has inspired a design approach where function and culture follow creativity. The shared ethos between MCM and SambyPen resulted in a collaborative project where art, fashion and entertainment blend and the underground converges with luxury."
Click through the gallery below for a preview of the collection.
A version of this article first appeared in Harper's Bazaar Singapore