OUR CULTURE

May 19, 2013

SOUTHERN CRAFTSMANSHIP FOR NORTHERN CONDITIONS

”It might look like a “simple” jacket but there is a lot of work in it”

The Nemen X Our Culture collaboration became everything we could have wanted and for those of you that don’t know, we just released a very limited jacket with Nemen (now sold out and sent out to different parts of the world).

Not only would we like to say hi and thanks to Fabio and our friends that purchased it – but we would also like to take the opportunity to bragg a little bit.

The fabric is an ITS Artea collaboration with Nemen and processed at Tintoria Emiliana where Fabio went for a double dyeing process and a anti-drop treatment to make the jacket waterproof.

What makes it extra special for us northerners is the fact that it is 100% made in Italy. Growing up and looking through grandpas or your fathers closet, anything that was made in Italy or the UK, always meant ”keep away because this one is special”. Well this Nemen X Our Culture jacket is exactly THAT special to us, and we hope that each and everyone of you that were able to get your hands on it will feel the same.

• Double garment dyed in collaboration with Tintoria Emiliana then treated with an anti-drop process to make the garment water resistant.

• The jackets is made using a special nylon fibre developed together with ITS Artea (outer) and cotton twill (inner).

• It features 4 roomy outer pockets closed via Cobra stud buttons and one inner pocket.

• Drawstrings at waist and on the wire hood to make sizing adjustable.

• Cuffs are also adjustable via Cobra press studs.

• Closed via Cobra press studs and Lampo zip.

• 100% Made in Italy – every bit of the jacket, including accessories like zip, buttons, labels, swing tags etc.

May 12, 2013

RETURN TO THE LAND OF THE LOMBARDS

SPRING/SUMMER PT. II

Once upon a time, The Svears crossed the Russian plain, continued south on Russian rivers to the Black Sea and then on to Constantinople (todays Istanbul).

The norsemen traded and colonised around the Baltic, then sailed up Russia’s rivers and became the first rulers of the Kievan Russian state. They made their way to Constantinople and the Orient where some of them served as the bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors.
In west, laid the Land of the Lombards, to where these bearded gnomes continued on their journey for gold and glory.

Today, there are three or four italian rune stones, Varangian rune stones from 11th-century Sweden that talk of warriors who died in Langbarðaland (Land of the Lombards) – the Old Norse name for Italy. On these rune stones it is southern Italy that is referred to as Langobardia – Land of the Lombards.

Fast forward a couple of hundred years and these Lombards have become great friends of ours. As you might understand, there are limits to how much we can connect our designs to history or events. But, this design named ”Berg & Hav”, is inspired by vikings of the Iron age sailing down to Constantinople and the Mediterranean Sea .

So maybe it should be named ”(From) Mountain to Sea”.

We just spent a couple of days in Genoa with friends from the UK and Italy… but that has actually nothing to do with this t-shirt. Or maybe it has, because there is a Mediterranean restaurant in Genoa named Le Rune that we of course forgot about during our weekend in Lombardia.

Old Norse transcription:
Guðlaug let ræisa stæina at Holma, sun sinn. Hann do a Langbarðalandi.

English translation:
“Guðlaug had the stones raised in memory of Holmi, her son. He died in Lombardy.

Our Culture translation:
”Purchase the Berg&Hav t-shirt and wear it this summer on your own escapades.”

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The Berg & Hav Tee

Comes in three colours, black with white print, grey melange with black print and white with camo print.

Size M/L/XL/XXL.

Limited numbers.

Thursday 16th May 10.00 Swedish time.

store.thisisourculture.com

April 20, 2013

FIRST RELEASE THIS MONDAY

This monday, the 22th, we’re releasing the first tee in a series of three new designs for spring 2013.

All information and more pictures will be posted on store.thisisourculture.com this weekend and the tees will be available to buy at 10.00 Swedish time.

These tees are really limited as always and we do not do reprints of our designs so this is, as everything we do, a one off piece. Buy this time or never.

Thanks for reading this and hope to hear from you and to see your pics in emails and on the social forums.

/Our Culture

April 20, 2013

OUR CULTURE - NEW DESIGNS

Old news: Five new planets discovered

New news: Three new designs from Our Culture

Using an intragalactic speed gun, a team of scientists has detected what could be five new planets, relatively close to Earth. In fact, if you could travel at the speed of light, it would only take you 12 years to reach them. After analysing about 6000 measurements of the star Tau Ceti’s velocity, scientists believe slight inconsistencies in its speed and direction are being caused by the gravitational pull of other celestial bodies.

“We believe the star is going very slightly backwards and forwards and shows the evidence for doing that at five different periods,” Professor Chris Tinney of the University of NSW’s astronomy team said.

“We think five different planets are going around that star tugging on it making it move backwards and forwards.”

An international team of researchers from Australia, Chile, the United Kingdom and the United States believe one of the five planets orbiting Tau Ceti is within the star’s habitable zone, where conditions are suitable for life. The planet in the habitable zone has a mass about five times that of Earth, making it the smallest known planet orbiting in the “Goldilocks” zone - where conditions are just right - of any Sun-like star. Tinney said scientists believe smaller, rocky planets have the best chance of hosting life. The finding comes after 14 years of research and analysis, and it might take that long again before scientists are certain of what lurks in Tau Ceti’s neighbourhood.

“But if somebody else could prove that we’re wrong, I’d be more than happy with that,” Tinney said.

“That’s the way science works.”

The planets, of which the smallest is at least twice the size of Earth, are too far away to send probes to explore. “Even if we could send something at the speed of light, it would take 12 years to get there and 12 years to send a signal back,” Tinney said. “At the moment we have no way of even getting close to a 10th of the speed of light.”

Source (AAP)

And the new news, the first fresh release out of three new ones for the spring/summer of 2013. A bit late? Yes, but that has also been the case with this spring and any signs of warmth here, up in the north. It is still raining here as we type this down.

Source (Our Culture)

First of this springs three new designs will be posted on here this evening and released this following monday at 10.00 at store.thisisourculture.com

Keep coming back for more info this weekend.

January 9, 2013

IDEAS FROM LORENZO OSTI

“I feel closest to the raw materials and the fibers. With the garments in my collections, I feel closest to outerwear because that category best expresses the technical research we, at the CP Co., do. The technical research is most important to me. The esthetics of fashion and technology of fabrics can be mixed together to give a new image to the apparel.”

- Massimo Osti

Massimo Osti was born in Bologna where he worked and created just as yourself. Have you stayed there ever since young age?

Yes. I love Bologna: not too big, not too small, I think it’s the perfect place to come back to if you have the chance to travel.

 What were your interests as a child and how was growing up in Italy in the 70’s/80’s?

Sounds weird, but I always had been fascinated by advertising, since I was a kid. Growing up here has been fantastic sincerely. In that period I was too young to be influenced by cultural context (I’m from 1974), but I could feel the mood: our house was really a meeting point, always full of friends coming and going.

When were you introduced to the work your father did?

I can say never. My father always did his best to keep us away of his job. He always discouraged us, I don’t know exactly why….my sister once asked him to do a free internship in his studio and he said no!

He started to involve me when he got ill.

Did you understand the whole of his creations at first? Creating garments and new techniques and whole concepts?

No not particularly, I was just a child and not particularly involved but I do remember the fun he would have with new technologies such as the Ice and Reflective jackets, as a child I thought they were completely fantastic and magical and I remember that he seemed to be just as excited as me.

Did your family take any part of the production at all while you were growing up or was your fathers work completely separated from family life? 

My mother Daniela, who also wrote and edited the book on Massimo, worked with my father, shooting the photographs for certain campaigns such as those of Boneville and C.P. Company Magazine as well as doing copywriting for the brands and travelling around the world shopping for vintage and military clothing for Massimo’s archive.

The experimental soul of your fathers creations is in mine and many others opinion the main thing about his clothing that made them stand the tests of time and continue to fascinate generations. Did his lust for new and groundbreaking ideas show itself in other, more personal areas, than clothing? 

I think more than anything else this spirit can be seen in all the projects which he initiated and participated in parallel to his fashion work (he would always tell people that he was a communicator, not a fashion designer), such as his work for Vespa, or his involvement in politics, or in Orfeo, Bologna’s first free television.

Lots of inspirations are shown taken from vintage workwear, military garments and his eyes at the sea. On the other hand he always created clothing aiming for the future. What was his idea of combining these two into one and what was his real vision by heart? 

I think Massimo always wanted to create a more functional wardrobe for men and women and this explains the obsession with workwear and military uniforms, but he also never scorned colour and special effects: he wanted to give people a kind of clothing that reflected on and engaged with what was happening in the world, things like the ecological movements, cyber punk, the changing way of moving through the city etc.

As said above, Massimo seemed to have big love for the sea and the cultural aspects of sailors and fishermen. Did you spend a lot of time on the water with your family or did that come from more of a graphic outlook? 

Well unfortunately Massimo worked extremely hard and didn’t have that much free time for sailing but 100% of his holidays were spent on a boat and he would take one whole month off in the summer of each year to sail with friends and family. He definitely loved the sea and it inspired a lot of his graphic designs but also the functionality of designs such as Stone Island Marina sweaters with nylon or even the Reflective jacket which was at first thought of as a safety tool for making sure sailors would be extremely visible even underneath the water if they fell overboard.

Do you sail?

Yes, very often, I am lucky enough to still own Guapa, my father’s first yacht and the one whose wind rose actually inspired the Stone Island logo!

When did you first realize your fathers worldwide status as one of the world’s most influential designers?

It was definitely when I read the article in Arena Homme + in 1999, when he was voted the most influential man in menswear of the 90’s.

When did your own interest start to show in taking part of this process?

I’ve never wanted to continue with the Massimo Osti name personally, I am not a designer, my interest has been in keeping the legacy of my father’s work alive and spreading awareness of his influence.

Massimo Osti Studio continued after my father’s passing by beginning with more institutional activities, things such as lectures and exhibitions, but we also wanted to keep the Massimo Osti Studio name on the market by working with members of Massimo’s original studio and doing projects for other Italian brands. Today we “sponsor” Donrad Duncan’s MAstrum project and keep the archive open to former collaborators of Massimo and designers who admired him. The next step is to create a Massimo Osti Foundation.

In the early 2000’s my father decided to sell his famous 25 000 garment archive. Today the archive is made up of 6 000 piece personal selection of garments. Massimo’s fabric archive was never sold and is still held in its entirety here in the Studio, as well as all his papers which include thousands of sketches, photocopies, source materials and so on.

The book “Ideas from Massimo Osti” was released earlier this fall and you and your family were all involved creating this enormous piece of history for almost four years. The book is truly a masterpiece, filled with clothing and branding beauty. As you are working with graphic design, are you looking into your archives for graphic inspiration more than just the clothes?  

Of course we (and here I must mention Sandro Stefanelli, the graphic designer responsible for the amazing style of the book) wanted to use as much original graphic material as possible – my father was a trained graphic designer and always personally developed the visual identities of all his brands – but at the same time we wanted to render Massimo’s style contemporary and not just make a period piece book.

 How do you think this idea of branding have played a part building his legend?

My father’s style of communication was quite unique at the time because of it’s simplicity and emphasis on the clothes themselves rather than models or lifestyles or atmosphere, he really wanted to show the consumer what he considered important, that is the research, the fabric, the functionality, and so on.

C.P. Company and Stone Island nowadays have their own lives. What is your opinion of how they evolved since they left Massimo’s hands?

Personally I very much liked Stone Island designed by Paul Harvey while I think C.P. Company has suffered a bit of an identity crisis over the years but now it has new owners and we have to give them time to see what they do.

Do you think he would have wanted them to go elsewhere?

My father was always looking forward and I think his decision to sell the brands and at a certain point stop designing them reflects this. Certainly he would have been happy that, in almost all instances, many of the original manufacturing methods have been respected and remain almost unchanged from when he was there, I’m thinking in particular of garment dyeing technique which still gives C.P. and Stone Island’s clothes so much of their identity.

 Did he search for inspiration in other cultures and how did that express itself in the production?

Well, in addition to the Far East Project, as an example, I could add that Massimo had a team of people who would travel around the world buying vintage clothing for his archive. His curiousity did not know any boundaries and this is also true for cultures.

 Doing a bit of research for this interview and searching for information in the past I’ve never really stumbled upon that much filmed material of your father or from the studio. Is there any out there or with you and could the next step of document Massimo’s legacy be a documentary or are there other plans?

We still have a few quite interesting videos of Massimo at work in the studio, we plan to digitalise them and share them all online with fans in the near future.

“The idea was to follow the evolution of my work”

- Massimo Osti

Thank you once more Lorenzo for letting us ask you these questions and for keeping the memory of your father close for everyone who, just like us, never will forget the legacy of Massimo Osti as a person and the most influencial and talented creator of our time.

Photography courtesy of Ego and Studio Osti.

December 24, 2012

December 21, 2012

THIS WAS 2012

We are still moved about the response ”Contre le football moderne” received. That feeling of ”we’re in this together” is not exactly something that you feel everyday, but the response and the acknowledgement we got from all over Europe, from old and new friends definitely made us feel that. STAND Mag came to life in 2012, great people and a fantastic effort to take on a dragon that is hard to beat – to say the least. A huge thanks to our dear friend Seb, not only for fighting the good fight… but also for giving Råsunda space and respect in the first two issues. STAND or AMF should be free from rivalry simply because it’s counterproductive – like two ethnic groups fighting on the floor of a factory because those in charge have decided that moving the factory to an Asian country will be better for business. The catch here is that in order to have rivalry we will all have to leave out the rivalry for a couple of minutes. And that’s that. Issue number 3 of STAND is on the way as this little thing is getting typed – get it and get inspired.

In early july we did the Our Culture/Connoisseur meet in Manchester (the northern town that has a special place in our soonly non-functioning hearts) during the Roses weekend. Three fanastic days and nights out. Great people and great friends from all over. Sending a special hello to our friends here – Lord Warlord and Reidar Wang, Poxy, Simon, Domenic (Genoa), Brody, Preston, Birmingham Burberry socks, Southampton, Lincoln, Grim from Wigan and of course the Stockport psychos. It was a time we’ll remember. Thanks to Phil Thornton and Ste Connor for showing up and letting us know what’s up. No thanks for imitating my broken english during drunkedness you evil scousers mohahahaha. Watch out for the new version of Casuals in 2013 boys and gals – Our Culture is in it.

By the middle of july we all fucked off and did what real Scandianvians do during the summer… nothing. It took us at least one week to recover from the Manchester trip so maybe the lack of activity was a good thing. It’s pretty blurry here, few of us went to the west coast, ate shrimps and argued with fishermen at the Koster sea. There was the archipelago of Stockholm, road trips, rain, too much beer, food and unfortunately not much footy because of Euro 2012. This is where all the cool concerts and bands should or could come in… but who really gives a fuck about that at this point. The summer came and the summer went.

Late august, we travelled down to Vargön to set a campfire at Halleberg and to mark the end of summer. Did an ancient norse ritual that can’t be mentioned, drank whiskey and swimmed in a forest lake. One of those lakes that makes you weary oand constantly makes you look over your shoulder. For swedes and scandianvians, we would really recommend a hiking trip (or a whiskey fest) to the mountain of Halleberg. It’s just one of those places that has been forgotten – so much history, ancient energy and Norse pride surrounding that whole area. It is worth the drive.

With the fall came the end of an era for some of us. We said a million times that Our Culture isn’t about a certain club or town in Scandinavia. It’s all of us together – likeminded lads from different walks of life sharing stories, the love for style and a beer or two. But respect should be given where respect is due. A few of us lost our second home in the fall, early winter of 2012… so these last couple of months has been a bit of a rollercoaster – laughter and tears combined. Our friends from Stockport and Southampton came over just as a few of us were heading home after a trip to Holland.

We did the crawl thing that ended up being our best one to date. But instead of guiding our thirsty friends to posh bars packed with titties or pretentious waterholes for sheep we chose old classic bars like Tennstopet (Stockholms best bar hands down). The hours drifted away, one bar became two or three and so on. At midnight all hope was lost and then suddenly found again somwhere near Odenplan. Chas from CC stood up, raised his glass and held a speach that still echoes in the arctic nordic night… even the barstaff cried and random drunks that heard his words by accident clenched their fists in both anger, wonder and admiration.

Chippe (Our brother) The DIF bros, BokBajen, Petter, Porco R, McDonnell D and our brother Paulie from Finland and the UK posse – see you all soon friends.

We are now a couple of days away from Christmas & New Year’s Eve. What’s supposed to be a pressure drop and quality time is strangled by stress and a thousand things needed to be done. Just want to take the time now to send a warm hello to all our friends around the world: Russia, Italy, Germany, Greece, USA, Australia, UK and Scandinavia. Thank you for your support, thank you for keeping ”the thing” alive and for being you.

Will not end this about the designs of 2013, new products, collaborations or interesting stories that we will dig into, you are all too good for that. We just want to take the opportunity to wish you all a great christmas (or vinterblot) and happy new year.

2013 WILL BE ANTI-BUSINESS AS USUAL

/Our Culture

December 18, 2012

PROTECTORS OF THE NORTH

Teaming up once again with our English brethren at Connoisseur to release this Limited Edition 2 piece pinset. Featuring the classic Norrœnir from the Protectors of the North tee and the OC/CC hybrid logo.

Only 150 sets produced and we’ve split them 50-50. We’re selling 75 sets on here and Connoisseur is selling the other through their site.

Official release today at 20.00 Swedish time. Get ready.

store.thisisourculture.com

/Our Culture

December 1, 2012

SOLD OUT

The Northern Bound sweatshirt is now gone. Big thanks to all of you that made yesterday a bit crazy – all went in about ten minutes.

Now we will spend the weekend making packages. There is more in the pipeline so stay tuned. Next up is the collab pinset with The Connoisseurs.

Keep the faith and keep warm.

/Our Culture

November 27, 2012

NORTHERN BOUND

The season of King Bore is upon us and here is your chance to give him a good fight. At this point, some of you might be tired of our nonstop babbling about the cold, winter, Scandinavian darkness and melancholy. But we are what we are. And ironically, the idea behind the Northern Bound design actually came in the middle of the summer when we were on an airplane back from England.

Northern Bound represents that feeling of coming home – wherever that may be, in our case, the North. Soon as we reached Swedish airspace and looked down from 10.000 or so meters, it struck us how it must have felt when people returned home in the old days – men of the sea, soldiers and seekers of luck that came home empty handed. Can’t help but to think about the Swedish authour and poet, Dan Andersson. Coming from the poor ”Finn forests” of Dalarna, his family, like so many others considered trying to find a better life in America, and Dan was sent there as a 14-year old in 1902 in order to see if it would be possible for the family to join him. The teenage boy took the boat from Gothenburg to Liverpool and then across the Atlantic. But months later, in a letter home, Dan wrote that there were no better opportunities for the family there than in Sweden, upon which his father asked Andersson to return to Sweden. Which he did. What went through his mind when he saw the shores of Scandinavia in the horizon. Heaven or hell – either way he was northern bound.

They say home is where the heart is. For better or for worse that will always mean Scandinavia for us.

Where are you bound to?
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The Northern Bound sweatshirt by Our Culture

This is an organic raglan sweatshirt and Climate Neutral ®. Its made from 100% certified organic cotton in accordance with the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and certified by the Control Union and Soil Association Certifications as well as audited by the Fair Wear Foundation for ethical trade and justice for workers.

Comes in size S/M/L/XL/XXL.

Limited numbers.

Friday 30th November 10.00 Swedish time.

store.thisisourculture.com