Stampd throws a Hollywood Hills house party to celebrate its latest Puma collaboration
Given designer and 2016 CFDA / Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Chris Stamp’s mantra “Made to Make It†— which glows in neon on the wall of his La Brea Boulevard boutique — it’s hard to think of a more appropriate setting than a Ciroc- and Red Bull-fueled house party in an $18.5-million Hollywood Hills mansion to celebrate his latest Puma collaboration surrounded by a cadre of professional athlete/magazine model types.
Pieces from the Fall/Winter 2016 Stampd Athletics for Puma collection — the third collaboration between the global sports brand and the L.A.-based minimalist-luxe streetwear brand — were displayed in one corner of the living room across from a floor-to-ceiling view of the Los Angeles basin. A lesser lineup of muted-palette shoes and workout wear might have been overshadowed by the backdrop — not just the view but the enthusiastically poured drinks, the thump-thumping music and the plumes of pot smoke — but Stamp has built his brand on a less-is-more aesthetic, and the pieces here more than held their own.
The shoes, displayed in museum-like vitrines, included black, white and asphalt gray riffs on Puma’s Blaze of Glory NU sneaker with draw-cord adjusters instead of traditional laces, a slip-on Trinomic Sock NM with a super-subtle wave-like pattern (a stylish nod to the Pacific Ocean) and the newest silhouette in the collaboration — a Stampd take on Puma’s low-profile States silhouette, rendered in shaggy Italian suede with the Puma side stripe done in barely there perforations. Stamp was sporting a pair of the latter ones (in black, naturally) and, when we caught up with him at the party, he promptly handed one of them to us to make a point.
“It’s all deconstructed inside,†he said, “so it’s light and comfortable and kind of the perfect summer shoe.â€
Sure, as the guy whose name is on the shoes — right above the laces — he’s got skin in the game, but anyone pinching the thin, pliable suede upper between two fingers might find themselves hard-pressed to disagree.
Apparel-wise, the collection includes short- and long-sleeve T-shirts with a cracked mud effect, micro-perforated sweatshirts, sweatpants and zip-front hoodies all with bonded zippers (a nod to the world’s addiction to technology, the last of those pieces boasts a tablet-sized zipper pocket).
New for the fall/winter collection are women’s apparel pieces that make the most of the workout-to-workplace athleisure trend, with standouts including turtleneck crop tops and bottoms that combine ¾-length compression leggings and running shorts in a single garment.
Among the beautiful people on hand to help Stamp celebrate were professional football player Larry English, singer and actress Christina Milian, rapper Thurz and models Nicole Williams, Sharina Guitierrez, Karrueche Tran and Daniela Lopez.
Oh, and how, exactly, did we that the mansion in which this took place is worth $18.5 million? According to a PR rep for the event, that’s the asking price for the currently on-the-market Rising Glen Road property whose former owners, we’re told, include singer Britney Spears and late actress Brittany Murphy.
The States sneaker dropped Aug. 11 exclusively at Stampd’s La Brea flagship, with the rest of the Athletics X Puma Fall/Winter 2016 collection hitting retail — including on Puma’s and Stampd’s websites — Aug. 20.
For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me @ARTschorn.
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