Top image: A$AP Ferg performing live in Toronto. Photo © CZR-E for The Come Up Show

Bypassing typical menswear-vernacular in pursuit of a fresher form is Astrid Andersen, who’s been crafting a dope, new dialect for lads since 2010. For SS16 she’s partnered with creative-king A$AP Ferg to create a track and accompanying video to properly notch her season, transcending the habitual monotony of fashion collections and transforming it into a multifaceted bomb of creativity.

Her sources of inspiration are organically comprehensive. Her executions on the old-age notion of luxuriousness: even more thorough – finishing off with a feminine warp and a slick insertion of modernity.

Red Bull Studios’ Catwalk Studio provided the kit to help the pair materialise their exacted concept. (Bull’s expertise in maturing fashion-concepts shine through previous projects including ‘Fred Butler x Charli XCX’ and ‘Alex Mattsson x Zebra Katz’.)

Rapper, designer, an almighty creative: A$AP is more than just a hip-hop artist, making this collab truly symbiotic. He inherited his artistic penchant from his father; attended art school; launched his own label; and could tell you more about the explosive Lagerfeld-Yves Saint Laurent spat than the average fashion-journalist. Speaking the same language is a concrete bond that Ferg and Astrid share.

Lewis Firth: Whereabouts did you grow up?
A$AP Ferg: I grew up in Harlem, New York City. I went to an art and design school and now I am a rapper, and have a deal. I never thought I’d ever have a deal. And this is crazy to me. I am busy every second of my life right now. I’m blessed. And I get to hang out with cool people like Astrid Andersen.

LF: Before you rapped, before joining A$AP Mob, you were massively into fashion, right?
AF: My father had a boutique in Harlem. Seeing him work was a massive influence for me. I saw how stuff was mass-produced – simple things like how shirts were embroidered, to more complicated processes like how to get things produced overseas. You know, I own about two silk-screen machines, and I used those to make money way before I got into rapping. I wanted to be the biggest fashion designer at one point in my life. I used to watch all of the fashion shows and documentaries. I followed the competition between Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent, battling each other over who made the best dresses and who got the awards. I was so into that. I’m still into that.

Saint Laurent Houndstooth Coat £2,300

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