Created with our teenage days and our love for 2000s in mind, we focused on redefining the idea of sportswear by combining it with our appreciation towards Hawaii.Coincidentally, Hawaii is also the forefront of feminism rights in America. Japanese American Politician, Patsy Mink, has dedicated her political career in opening doors for women and minorities. She founded TITLE XI Amendment, which permitted no discrimination in athletic fields and opened doors for females athletes. With this understanding, she quickly became the muse of the collection. Feminism and motherhood is a strong value in our family. We believe in equality in sports and households. Also, motherhood is an irreplaceable backbone of all male athletes and young adults.If 2000s Hawaii vacation memory is the beat of our collection, then Patsy Mink’s strong and capable women aesthetics gave us the spice for our chorus.
For 2021 Spring/Summer, we focused on redesigning the idea of a varsity jacket. Growing up in a sport environment, a varsity jacket is the highest honor to receive. The day we acquired our first, we couldn’t wait to share it with our parents. We could never forget the moment when our mom was wearing her dress with our varsity jacket seating courtside cheering us up. With the collection, we worked on recapturing that memory in our new approach. We deconstructed the representation of a varsity jacket, combined it with fluid panelling and volumned bottoms. The look we want to bring out is an interesting balance between masculinity to femininity and sports to agriculture. The combination of these contrasts is what defines NAMESAKE. Not genderless, but gender-combined team.For the garments, we have explored ways to tweak traditional pocket shapes and shoulder lines to achieve a subtle feminism touch. Additionally, we expanded our hand knit technique with the inclusion of crochet panels and pattern, while adding a new sport-inspired herringbone rib.In terms of graphics, we merged all aspects into a singular representation that pays nod to 2000s Hip Hop, Sports, Hawaii, Patsy Mink, and feminism rights. The stand out is our new represented icons of 3’s that signify Mink’s saying of “what you endure is who you are.”
As we continue the DNA of “re-use, re-purpose and re-start,” we keep exploring new options to be more healthy to the Earth and new ways to represent the past. Since varsity jacket is often leather based, we explored into sustainable options. We ended with 100% recycled weaved polyester fabric and 100% paper fabric that represent both the glossy and matte aspect of leather. To provide a touch of the Islander culture, we redefined a floral shirt with a patched floral pattern fabric made out of washable paper fabrication. We also incorporated IKAT yarn and IKAT weaving to create nostalgic, but yet, vibrant slub colors.This season we continue our quest to implement more embroidery techniques that blend basketball motifs with hand-done feel. We have continued our collaboration with France female artist Delphine Dénéréaz, who is known for her unique hand-crafted rug inspired by sports culture. We have created a unique hand-weaved rug with recycled thick threads to recreate our take on NBA logo. This was translated into a statement bag. These continuous narratives continue our journey to represent “basketball craftsmanship.”
Continuing the narrative of basketball and agriculture, “Muscle Memory” adds another layer of feminisms role in sports and household. It creates a new formality that aims to transcend gender and era.
