Watch where the world of clothing focuses and you won’t find yourself surrounded with brands appreciating the very beauty that sits in the marriage of paradoxes—creativity and function, artists and brand owners, ideas and profit. Ice-cold truth is, people involved in clothing collaborations often operate in isolation, even if it means dropping artists’ original concepts to focus on what’s saleable.
This is what Don’t Blame The Kids (DBTK) wishes to debunk in their newest collaboration. The idea to bring together minds to put out equally-agreed-upon design should not be controlled by target sales, pricing, and brands alone. Collaborations, after all, are products of collective (not competing) ideas. As such, for this collab, DBTK sat down with artist Lynyrd Paras as early as March for the brand’s newest project—the Apoy Collection.
“We’re a firm believer of the power of consolidating ideas and the undeniable wonders of teaming up. When Lynyrd sent us the initial draft design, that’s when we added our own tweaks and twists, then we came to an agreement.”, shares the DBTK team. “The plea to create and innovate is embodied and brought out in this collaboration, and this is the result of the efforts coming from a lot of brilliant individuals.”, they added.
To practice more of what they preach, they made sure not to fall short in allowing Lynryd to freely craft, through this collection, design pieces closest to home.
“Back when I was starting with my art, I already like [the] image; the fire element is significant to me and that is why I chose to present it here.”, says Lynryd.
A rundown of the lookbook would expose you to the heart of the project—there’s a fire in us all. But we differ in the ways we keep it burning. From conceptualization, to revisions, to chosen palette, to the shoot, they vehemently strived to present the outcome of their joint notions in order to translate this message into clothing. And as if this wasn’t exciting enough, precision and attention to detail were extended to apparel development to give justice to Lynryd’s works. As the team put it, nothing was made randomly, it was all made exactly how it was designed and intended.
“We have successfully fused and solidified all our plans. This is the best one we’ve made yet and we’re really excited to show everyone this collection.”, says the team.
Perhaps this collection serves as a call to other brands to rethink what, to them, the term “collaboration” encapsulates. If anything, these kids aren’t to blame for setting the bar back to its pedestal; it’s the collective effort to keep the fire burning.
You can check out the Apoy collection on DBTK’s official site and on Instagram. You may also follow Lynyrd Paras on Instagram to see more of his works.
