5 things you should know about VLONE

Now that A$AP Mob's VLONE is very famous, it's time to get to know better the hottest brand of the moment, after some pop-up stores around the world (also in Milan at Slam Jam) and a collaboration with OFF-WHITE.

After seven months since their debut collection, A$AP Bari and A$AP Rocky have made the point of the situation of their brand in an interview with Highsnobiety. The concept seems to concern Orson Welles' well-known quote “We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone”, a thought that often appears in the two rappers' words while they talk about Harlem, their career and, above all, the meaning of VLONE. 

So, here there are the 5 things you should know about the streetwear brand:

#1 You live alone, you die alone. It's Rocky who gives us a definitive meaning of the brand, refusing all kinds of stereotypes of fashion establishment and looking at it not just as a clothing line, but a real lifestyle, which can be summarised with the mantra: “Live alone, die alone”. The rapper also wants to underline that VLONE is like a collective, a team where on the top we can find A$AP Bari, A$AP Rocky and CLOT's Edison Chen, but without a rigid command structure. “We’re all a team. Nobody really has too much of an [official] position” said Rocky.

#2 Friends. Bari reveals the meaning of the T-shirts with the Friends the minus writings on them: “If you minus anything it’s “zero.” Minus life. Minus style. Minus food. Anything you put a minus to, you end up with zero. So the whole meaning behind the T-shirt is that “minus friends” means “zero friends”. So, like an obsession, the idea behind the brand “Live alone, die alone” returns again and again.

#3 Inspiration. VLONE is not a simple clothing brand, but a feeling to share, a lifestyle. For this reason, the first source of inspiration during the creative process is just the rapper's lives. “My whole clothing experience is just based on my life, you feel me? I don’t wake up and go buy the newest high fashion. I try to do things by beating around things instead of just going straight to the facts” so explains Bari.

#4 Harlem. The New York's district from which Bari and Rocky come from (just like the rest of the A$AP Mob) is always in the rappers' minds; it represents their history, their culture, from which they draw inspiration and that they want to comunicate to the world, as Bari says: “What I do is taking Harlem and bringing it elsewhere”. 

#5 Pop-up store(s). The two rappers are absolutely sure of the importance of pop-up stores, which are considered not like a fashion trend, but as a real medium to sell their clothes to a selected public they can relate to. In this regard, they don't regret their decision to avoid a pop-up store in Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, to underline they don't want to be mixed up with all the labels on the famous Californian street. “I’m not streetwear. I’m not high fashion. I’m hood fashion. I do my shit for the hood niggas” Bari ends up, confirming again that VLONE is not fashion, but it's life.