Let’s get right to it: the new collaboration from Stüssy and Dries Van Noten looks as if it contains some of the funniest and coolest clothes I’ve seen in a long time. In a way, these two seem like odd bedfellows, a gritty skate brand born out of the crucible of Southern California and a gentle Belgian designer. But that’s what makes the partnership feel genuinely novel. I mean, how else could we have gotten something as ingenious as the collection’s defining piece: a parka jacket with a spray-painted bong repurposed into a vase for flowers on the back?
The full, taut Stüssy x Dries Van Noten collection is full of funny mash-ups like that. There are tie-dye sweatpants, sweatshirts, and T-shirts, shorts, a varsity jacket, jeans, and a smoking jacket and pants glistening with rhinestone pinstripes. Spot the ways that the stoner-y Stüssy and green-thumbed Van Noten, known for his floral prints, come together: a plump rose…set aflame; the disco-ready tailoring; a bouquet that blooms into Stüssy’s signature eight ball; and of course the aforementioned bong-cum-vase. Taken together, the whole collection reads as if the good folks at Stüssy offered Van Noten a few hits while he told them about floriculture. The collection goes on sale at Dover Street Market and Dries Van Noten shops as well as the designer and Stüssy’s website on Friday, November 18th at 10 a.m. PT in the US.
And just when you thought things couldn’t get any better: Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea stars in the campaign for the collection. You’ve got to admit that he has the right attitude for it: the smoking jacket and pants are worn with nothing but a gold chain underneath and a bass in hand. Actually, shirts are in short supply all over the campaign. Flea bounds around in just sweatpants, and crosses over the camera man with a maniacal grin and an oversized varsity jacket.