CONTACT     VISIT     ARCHIVE     SUBSCRIBE     SHOP
CONTACT       JOIN THE MAILING LIST       SHOP
0
0

Umbro

THE FUN IS IN THE
UNFINDABLE. ALASDAIR MCLELLAN'S 2005 BOOK FOR UMBRO BY KIM JONES HAS BEEN THAT WAY FOR THE
BEST PART OF A DECADE.
NOW WE HAVE ONE, WHICH
HAS BY NO MEANS SPOILT
THE FUN. JUST MADE IT
REAL. REAL FUN. WHEN YOU JUST HAVE ONE.


Sideways look. The cover is landscape and without title or text. The kind of cover that works for a book that is not for sale. And this book wasn't. It was the lookbook for Kim Jones' 2005 collection for Umbro. Shot in Brazil, it falls in a tradition of lookbooks that double as amazing photobooks; Nan Goldin's Naked New York, David Sims's Isolated Heroes, Ryan McGinley's  menswear book for Balenciaga...
 

The shoot was cast with young Brazilian footballers. Schoolboy signees to Corinthians and other clubs in Sao Paulo. These two poses above perfectly capture the mood of the book. The ennui of youth. All the more accentuated in the most explosive and athletic. The potential energy. 
 

And of course there are the clothes. And the styling. And the looking like stills from a film. Kids like Kids
 

The book is made by the documentary and landscape double pages. This bedroom wall pin board collage. The record shop interior below. 
 

Punk rock is universal. As is football. And youth. These boys are Brazilian but they could be American, British, Russian...
 

See more of the book on this link. At 100 plus pages it is not ordinary lookbook. It is the new standard. It is a superlookphotobook!
 

IN 2010 KIM JONES DID IT AGAIN. THIS PIETER HUGO BOOK FOR LOUIS VUITTON TAKES SOUTH AFRICA NOT JUST AS ITS SETTING BUT AS ITS SUBJECT. CAST FROM THE STREET. REAL PEOPLE. REAL PLACES. 


Pieter Hugo Johannesburg. Louis Vuitton Paris. Kim Jones London. Success is so simple.  Teams work. 
 

So many reasons why. Here is a short list. The blanket, the 'short suit' and scarf; the extraordinary picture on the wall with a gorilla reaching out of a toilet to remove that woman's top; the truly super woofer stereo behind the plant. Quite like the lamp too! Good grief it is good. 
 

At its most modern. For a lookbook it is looking at everything. The clothes add a little more colour to an already saturated set of photographs. 
 

Got it all going on. See more of this book on this excellent link. Try to buy on the button below. It is so gettable!
 
Share by: