Bally x Shok-1

MUSIC PRODUCER AND ART COLLECTOR SWIZZ BEATZ BRINGS TOGETHER SWISS LUXURY SPORTSWEAR AND BRITISH STREET ART FOR AN EXCLUSIVE CAPSULE COLLECTION

Unless you’re a fan of the golden age of hip hop, you may not know that Bally — like Adidas, Timberland and Clarks — was one of the footwear brands made popular by the likes of Slick Rick, Rakim and Run DMC. But British artist Shok-1 certainly does, and can even recite from memory the Biz Markie lyrics calling out his “fly Bally boots”. So when music producer Swizz Beatz approached the artist, best known for his unique X-ray style, for a collaboration with the Swiss luxury brand, it didn’t take Shok-1 long to decide. “I had known about Bally since I was a kid because it was a brand that very much related to those subcultures that I was influenced by back in the ’80s,” he says during a visit to Hong Kong to celebrate the launch of the capsule collection. “I knew even in the first phone call that there were a lot of shared values. It was like, ‘Let’s do this.’” The resulting wearable-art collection — including accessories, ready-to-wear and footwear — incorporates three works from Shok1’s back catalogue, carefully chosen to create a narrative around his early relationship with the brand as well as the influential subcultures that came out of New York in the mid-‘80s. “If you don’t understand the long history that Bally has in interacting with these subcultures, then you might think it was contrived or strange, but in fact it’s incredibly natural,” Shok-1 says, underscoring his excitement for when youth cultures and subcultures co-opt brands that aren’t meant for them. “I just think there’s something really beautiful there,” he says. “Putting it in a contemporary context, I think we’re in an era where there’s a danger of the world becoming quite fragmented — we have these long-standing points of stability, like the EU, that are under threat, and there’s all this nationalism and distrust. Anything that brings people together or increases harmony should be cherished and held up. And I think, for me, the collection tries to do that. I spent all year building in all these ideas, but somebody may well go, ‘Cool, I’ll wear that,’ and that’s fine too.”