G-Star RAW Night events are renowned for being a platform for local artists and presenting the G-Star RAW brand in a way that appeals to the consumers in each country. We chatted to Global Brand Director of G-Star RAW, Shubhankar Ray, to find out more.
How did you choose which local artist to work with at the Johannesburg RAW event?
At G-Star RAW nights we usually work with local talent who inspire the curation of the event. We choose Okmalumkoolkat because he represents a mix of raw talent, is from the streets of Joburg and for South African RAW nights we wanted to connect with and give a platform to music. He is unfiltered, unprocessed, uncut and also matches G-Star’s DNA of raw street chic. Okmalumkoolkat continues a long list of unexpected collaborators from actor/director Dennis Hopper in LA & NYC to industrial designer Marc Newson in Tokyo to photographer Anton Corbijn & musicians The XX in London and recently Nakhane Toure in Cape Town.
You’re known for fusing art, street culture and social media into your marketing and branding – why did you choose this particular approach for G-Star RAW?
G-Star is a modernistic denim brand and modern branding can have a cultural value by the way we use & appropriate cultural content and context. Mining culture from music to art to film to design and moving through modern media channels like social and online can create high relevancy for a brand if it’s in tune with authentic brand DNA and also the desires and influences of our audience. For G-Star this type of approach is relevant because denim has always been an iconic product of street culture so has a cultural value & heritage as well as being worn by outlaws, rebels, musicians, actors and artists.
Having worked on other well-established brands, what do you think allows a brand to become a household name?
Brands becoming household names is down to a combination of factors from product innovation to high relevancy campaigns to communication that is dialogue for the audience, not monologue to high visibility within culture from the street to media. The most critical element is that brands stay true to their values and are able to offer great product which can be energised and gain momentum around the world.
How do you think clothing labels can reinvent their approach to marketing and be innovative and interesting enough for the 21st century consumer?
In the 21st century branding is the sensual presentation of ideas for presidents to countries to rock stars to sneakers to jeans to everybody’s blog. However, in our over-managed and over-marketed society the impact of creativity, technology and media redefines brand scale and success. The fusion of technology and content has changed how brands exist in our world, especially clothing labels, so I would say all clothing labels become content generators as well as producers and some are even able to change context and, as a result, transform their meaning and extend their lifecycle. We are living in an attention economy so we must be surprising to get noticed in an age where everybody is cool and all fashion is fast!
What are some trends in denim we should be looking for and trying this coming season?
A direction for next season is a movement away from skinny jeans to a more modern nonchalant silhouette. This can be seen in the rise of the boyfriend fit for women. For G-Star this is embodied in Type C which is a 3D denim design with loose top block, lowered crotch but tapered from the knee downwards to create a look inspired from 1940s service men’s clothing. There is also a lot of fabric innovation in denim, with more luxury denim like herringbone denim for textural interest or double dipped yarn dyed denim to create a deeper darker blue.
Want even more denim inspiration? See celebrity denim DOs and DON’Ts, or find out how to style boyfriend jeans.
