Post-modern streetwear with an eye towards innovative construction.
Milan is one of those cities so closely identified with a particular thing that it’s easy to experience it almost entirely in second hand clichés and tropes. In Milan’s case, the city’s status as an international fashion capital, and home to a number of prominent luxury labels has established the longtime, pervasive caricature of Milan as the British accented “mi-læn”, where the impossibly glamorous and beautiful doyens of fashion are constantly jetting off to call each other darling and exchange greetings of kisses on both cheeks.
Of course, Milan is legitimately teeming with elegance of all kinds, but the city’s actual reputation is probably more staid than people equating fashion with over the top decadence would expect it to be. “Workaholic power lunchers” would actually be a more likely stereotype candidate than “modern day Marie Antoinette.”
In either case, Milan is presented as a bastion of old money traditionalism, one that offered a frigid reception to anyone in the creative fields who wasn’t already established. In other words, definitely not a city that would spring readily to mind as a streetwear destination.
As is the case with nearly everything in the internet age, things are changing in Milan. A slew of young, enterprising creative talent is transforming the city’s energy from the detached elegance of a silent art gallery to a vibrant cultural destination. As part of this new wave, United Standard are staking out a piece of streetwear landscape for Milan. Combining the aggressively casual, sportswear focused aesthetic of contemporary youth culture with technical functionality, and yes, some old-fashioned Milanese refinement, United Standard are subverting expectations on all sides, with pieces that seem familiar, but offer a fresh perspective.
You simply must come, darling.
