Steve Aoki & BUILD Series DIM MAK Collection S/S18 'PARADISE FOUND'

by NICK REMSEN – “It’s been a busy day, man . . . one of those days,” said Steve Aoki—DJ, producer, designer—on the corner of East 4th and Broadway in New York last night. “But it’s been awesome. Finding music, fashion, and New York City all together—I love being able to do that.”

Aoki was in town for a block party, of sorts. He shut down East 4th (from Broadway to Lafayette Streets) with the help of Build Series to both present his Spring 2018 Dim Mak collection and drop his latest album, Kolony, with an hour and a half long set.

To get things going, a marching band hyped the crowd—as the line disbanded, Aoki hit the turntables and the first model exited. “This season started off with the idea of the world we’re living in right now. It’s chaotic, there’s mayhem. The collection is about trying to find hope inside it—paradise found, living in this dichotomous reality,” said the designer. Flak jackets, hoodies, and t-shirts—with cyborg palm trees, featuring standard fronds but with barbed-wire trunks—captured that intent. Some pieces had the phrase, “Land of the free, home of the brave,” patch-worked across the back. “That idea is missing now in the U.S.,” said Aoki. (Worth noting: He has brought his production and design studio over to the States—Las Vegas, in particular, where he lives—from Japan.)

Once the fashion show portion wrapped—during which Aoki performed a new song from Kolony featuring Migos and Lil’ Yachty—he kept the evening rolling, performing the length of the album. “Kolony is a complete shifting of gears for my whole process,” he said. “It’s its own project—the songs all kind of fit together. It was originally an EP, but it emerged as an album.” Its name has echoes of what Aoki was conveying with his clothes; banding together and forming something unified in the face of the unexpected.

Photo: Courtesy of Dim Mak

BUILD Series And Steve Aoki Present A Special Live Event Celebrating The Spring/Summer 2018 Dim Mak Collection And Release Of KOLONY. Check some pictures.