Seeing as I've never been backward in coming forward in waxing lyrical about the demise of Bape, it's really only right that I should give a little mention here to developments that could actually turn the brand around.Bape has just wheeled out the second collection from its Ursus sub label, the formation of which was announced back in July. Ursus has been produced in collaboration with creator Nigo's friend and fellow designer, Tetsu Tet Nishiyama, who is the creative director of WTaps.
This is an example of what appears to be a softening in attitudes towards Bape among the Tokyo clothing institutions. A few years ago the likes of Hiroshi Fujiwara and other label luminaries couldn't find a good word to say about Bape, accusing it of selling out as Nigo jumped into be
d (metaphorically speaking) with hip hop stars and became involved in Pharrell Williams's disastrous BBC label. All that bad blood seems to be water under the bridge now, with the announcement first of the Ursus label and more recently a Bape collaboration with Fujiwara himself and Fragment Design.
With the state of the economy in Japan, these collaborations could well be a bid for survival among the high-end labels. It is certainly the case that this new found co-operation is being welcomed by customers.
Now if those damn gangsta rappers could just leave Bape alone, we might be ghetting somewhere.
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