Sketch The Sweats
Aitor Throup has more than one brand in the pipeline.
The Argentinian-British designer is to unveil a genderneutral label under the The DSA moniker during the upcoming men’s fashion week in Paris,
WWD has learned.
Earlier this year, Throup revealed exclusively to WWD that he was working on a new men’s wear brand that will officially be unveiled later next year. While prepping the highly conceptualized fashion project, the designer is stretching his muscles with a more approachable line.
The DSA will focus on accessible sportswear pieces, including white T-shirts and sweatpants, each emblazoned with an original sketch drawn by Throup. For the past eight years, the designer has been building The Daily Sketchbook Archives Instagram account uploading illustrations of fantastical characters and symbols, each captioned with a progressive serial number.
The account counts more than 3,000 followers at press time and 2,772 sketches have been uploaded so far.
Challenging the norms and conventions of branding practices, each item will be splashed with the drawings’ serial numbers instead of employing the brand’s logo.
Developed by the designer’s A.T. Studio located in a repurposed cotton mill in Burnley, England, the first The DSA collection comprising 10 pieces will bow for spring 2020 and will be available through select retailers, including Dover Street Market.
Throup, who served as G-Star’s executive creative director overseeing the men’s and women’s mainline ranges and the Raw Research men’s line from 2016, last year parted ways amicably with the Amsterdam-based label which is co-owned by Pharrell Williams.
Prior to his appointment at G-Star, Throup had launched his conceptual men’s label
New Object Research, which debuted on the London Fashion Week: Men’s calendar in 2013. In 2016 the designer hosted a performance-presentation hybrid in a deconsecrated church in Marylebone. — MARTINO CARRERA
“Training Humans” exhibition running at Osservatorio Fondazione Prada in Milan.
Dubbed “Making Faces,” the Parisian installation will include art projects and architectural modifications focusing on data gathering, surveillance and facial recognition. Visitors will walk through images spanning from the 19th century to the present and retracing the history of facial capture and analysis. Pages from phrenology and physiognomy textbooks, historical mugshots, “training images” used for facial recognition software and measurement tools used to study faces and heads over the last 200 years will also feature in the space.
The Prada Mode platform will also offer panel discussions with leading theorists and practitioners focused on facial recognition’s history, in addition to inviting members to join parties with music performances, specialty dining and cocktails.
As reported, the inaugural Prada Mode was staged in concurrence with Art Basel
Miami Beach in 2018. This year, the traveling format touched base at Art Basel Hong Kong in March and Frieze London in October. — S.S.