Yep, he may be my boyf but he’s a badman & I know you’ll be interested in what he’s gotta say, so this evening I did a little interview with him. It’s exclusive!!!
For those ones (in the dark) that don’t know you, introduce yourself Mr Nash Money….
Born and grew up in NW london, I left school quite early not knowing what I really wanted to do except have fun and experience life. I always wanted to be a carpenter but living in the big city the only options school gave me was being a joiner and working on building sites so I thought fuck that. Spent most of my youth trying to skate and travel the world.
Why did you leave school early? Did you get chucked outta school on your ear?
Mmmmmmmmm, all the teachers digged me, although I was a real bad student….they thought I was cool, kind & polite.
That you are Mr Nash…
You wanted to be a carpenter so where did this trainer fascination come from?
Well from my skoooool days really. If you wanted to be a dapper at skool you had to wear the donnest creps. Back in the day you couldn’t afford to buy enough to save them and keep them minty fresh for years like nowwa days so they weren’t cherished as much as they are now in my eyes.
True say, one of my first pairs were purple, black & white bws…which were yours??
Well, when I started school everyone had Champions, Fila and Jordans. I wanted to be different and I got some Converse Jams in black aqua think it was the Hornets colour way. I actually customed them back then too thinking about it.
What did you do to um?
It had a removal patch that covered the laces, i got my Mums sewing machine and sewed a a black denim patch to it. Well raggo, with loose ends around the edges, I ended up bursting the gel unit on the underside so I could get my parents to get me a knew pair of Nikes.
Haha! cheat!
So did your mum have a big influence on what you do now?
Yeah, definately. When I was like 9/10 years old she had a stall on Portobello Rd selling girls dresses and a workshop on Ladbroke Grove underneath a hairdressers called “Have it Off”. I would spend my summer holidays with her trying not to help but after drawing thousands of pics of the ninja turtles you’d get bored and I started helping her with the pattern cutting and other bits and bobs.
You can design clothes then too eh? Tell me about that…
Fuck sure, I think I have a good eye for design. The thing is I have my head in too many places. I want to design furniture, houses, cars, clothes, shoes, gardens, whatever. If you have the mind for it I think you can do it all, its just about the time.
Can you tell us about who you’ve been designing for & what’s in the pipeline?
Mmmmm well, as its you sofi….
Yeh but im gunna tell the public too you know!
As you all know my cap with Mishka just dropped and I’ve had the honour of being part of the Exhibition Fashion V Sport @ The V&A. I’ve got what hopes to be big, something coming up with DC shoes.
Next custom please?
Well, its kinda close to my heart as a skool kid it was one of my favs. My good mate back then introduced me to The Prodigy and BW’s which come hand in hand, as most of the band used to wear them. At iD the BW option came up and I was so excited. So I decided to do my self a pair of iD BW’s. I think from now on I will do my customs on Nike iD’s now cos it’ll mean less work for me and a more unique outcome. And I may start selling them to order too (you heard that here first).
You’ll make a lotta people happy…Obviously a lotta people ask you for a pair of kicks, your in high demand boy! Did u ever think your customs would be this successful?
You know what, I get a amazing responce from my audience, and it makes me so happy. Makes me feel like I have actually acomplished something. With out sounding big headed I really fell I have some influence in the sneaker industry since I started with my first custom back in 2003 (Air Force 1 Moccasin).
Even to this day I believe Nike can do a amazing range of mens Shoes/Sneakers with the mac AF1 and it still amazes me that they have not stepped to me.
Whats next?
You will see my newest custom hopefully in the december issue of Sneaker Freaker along with some custom sweats and a few bits and bobs. Then a few more strange pieces which I have to keep under raps.
This Weds sees the launch on a new book “Art & Sole” by Intercity, that features you. Tell me about it…
It features my Afrocentric pack and the Nash FBT 360′s. Its pretty much about sneakers but in art form.
Find Nash - myspace & blog
The “Art & Sole” Book Launch Party is at Size, Carnaby Street this Weds 15th. New Feature “Nash in the Attic” coming soon…keeping ya posted.
Nash Money….
October 13th, 2008 by admin
Seb Chew…
October 13th, 2008 by admin
We all know n love Seb Chew for a number of reasons, firstly we love him for being the big Daddy behind LDN’s “YoYo” at Notting Hill Arts Club. A dapper weekly night showcasing new talent followed by anything to get your shockin out, line up’s have included Mark Ronson, Busy P, Dj Q & MC Bones, Lupe Fiasco, Sinden & The Cool Kids…you get the idea! It’s crackers! The Polydor A&R man also signed the “Scissor Sisters” & more recently “The Klaxons”. Being big on the bassline right now we love Seb’s sets & have booked him a couple of times, he always smashes it. I thought I’d ask him some things he probably doesn’t get asked much, why he likes Bristol & I’m gunna ask about Garms…he’s always turned out nicely, so let’s see what he has to say….
Holla Seb! We’ve booked you a couple of times for Donuts here in Bristol. The crowd love you, we love you, do you love Bristol & why??
Mainly cos of the grimness… I think people appreciate the grimness there more than anywhere else. You know that you can go quite hard and people won’t be scared.
Donuts gave you a Rockers NYC T as a present once, you seem to wear it a lot. Tell me about what floats your boat, clothing wise….
Ha, or maybe I just wear it when there’s goons with cameras about. I really like what they do, I’ve been into streetwear stuff for a long time ( really via skating and early stussy etc ) and have seen alot of trends come and go and i feel like now it really needs something fresh and interesting to come along rather than the same old stuff all the time. I think there’s so much average stuff out there so when something original and cool comes around it kind of wacks me round the head and makes me happy. I think thats what the rockers lot have done as far as I can see so far.
There really isn’t too many other things I love, old classic skate stuff, Kaws is good but I prefer the older stuff he did pre Original Fake. Supreme are always strong but you have to buy their stuff in the US cos the prices here are so silly. It feels abit like a mugging off when you see the prices in the NY shop.
Oh and i really like visvim, but I think that could be cos I’m getting old and have too many pairs of Nikes, that I need to move onto something else now!
Will you be taking part in the upcoming Streetfighter x Trapstar Battle at YoYo? The night stays fresh because you do things like this, your line ups smack it already, so what do you have planned for the future?
Nah, we won’t actually be playing, I got a bit shamed last time. I sucked and got beat in the first round. Oh well, I didn’t profess to be a G at it or anything ( unlike some people….Charlie Crockett ).
For the future at YoYo we just want to keep booking new people that are exciting us. In Aug / Sept we’ve got Mistajam from 1xtra, Rusko & Drop the Lime from NYC. Trying to keep it set in black music ( I hate that term but you know what I mean ) but also push it a bit with other stuff too.
Since your a man of talent spotting, is there any artist from Bristol that you think is gunna make it big?
With the Bristol thing, I’m not too up on the band stuff from there, but definitely from a dance and electronic perspective, there’s always something interesting coming from there. I’m really feeling that Joker dude…yeah he’s heavy.
I would like to know Seb Chews top 5 tracks of the moment…
1. A Milli, A Billi – Lil Wayne / Jigga
2. Terminator – Caspa
3. I’m On – Nas
4. Universal Mind Control – Common
5. Bulletproof – La Roux
La Roux is dope, she’s new & we have just signed her, she is managed by The Klaxons manager. Her new track “Bulletproof” is like Yazoo meets The Knife!
YoYo it – myspace.com/yoyouk
Interview with Timo from CTRL….
October 13th, 2008 by admin
Not meaning to pick a favourite brand in Donuts, but, I have to admit it, there is one above all the others that has a big place in my heart. That brand would be CTRL from Helsinki, Finland. The brand was born just over 10 years ago & since then has done 13 clothing lines, a lot of Skateboards & collabs with Rockers NYC & Vice Magazine. I managed to get a few words of Timothy Khun of CTRL & here’s what he had to say.
Hello Timo! How do you feel to be such a big part of Donuts & being one of our favourite brands?
i feel good and vibrant! It makes me feel alive, my pops was a sailor man and he got to know all these people all around the world, so i guess i’m sailing as well, meeting and staying in touch with people around all of the seven seas. i’m a lucky bastard! Sometimes i might end up ordering a beer and running out of cash tho… but getting along, seeing the world and meeting up with dope people is just epic for me!
You’ve conquered many countries around the world, how do you aim to conquer the UK?
It’ll happen sooner or later. We got some tight heads that are down with our stuff and spreading the sincere and playful word, like this diamond like girl Sofi at Donuts. She’s like an ambassador!
i think that we are fairly unknown in a way over there. the market over there is quite alive with many domestic brands etc, so all we gotta do is to get our stuff visible and there’s no question that it’ll find the right crowd! We can also do it through our tolerance for massive amounts of alcohol, and that’s a good connection with the U.K heads right there….
and Gavin Watson of course… Monty Python and the Queen are soon wearing our stuff as well.
Nah, but seriously. It’s kinda tricky to be just a mail address or a phone number telling to some shop owner, ”Yo, we do cool stuff. Place an order…. You need to meet up, have a pint, share some thoughts and realize, damn, this shit is good and the people behind it are tight! We love U.K and we’ll just wait for U.K to love us back!
One of the reasons I love CTRL so much is because you don’t seem to make stuff that you know is popular right now, you seem to make what you feel like & the brain of CTRL never ceases to amaze me. What you gotta say about that?
Maybe it’s because we reside in Helsinki, which definitely def hasn’t got all that Milano, Paris vibe to it… Sometimes when we go out for travels and get some free trade show beers and are inspired, we just talk about crazy stuff and then sometimes, just spontaneously something crazy comes up, like let’s do this t-shirt print with feathers and tar for the Las Vegas trade show so we’re like ripped off cowboys whne we go there… and it all of a sudden ends up being one of the designs. It just kinda cumulates from a far flung slightly drunk hilarious joke… next thing you know, it’s a print or an item in the collection.
We don’t wanna take shit all too seriously in a way of being like we can’t laugh about ourselves…
The Uranus is a brilliant example… we have loads of those coming up again for our next SS09 line… Also Brand Of Gypsies since we always down with the free beers and booze and actually our designer has some of the survival blood running through his vains.
To quote you “Ctrl has no intentions on staying as “an exclusive, small, cool brand” – instead CTRL wants to be a HUGE COOL BRAND”. A typical question in interviews, but I do really wanna know what you have planned for the future?
Well, we want to continue seeing the world ad carrying our work with us wherever we go. Meet up nice people and so on… Maybe sleep in a hotel instead of some couch in a small friends apartment… That’s why we wanna be huuuuge…
We have no intentions of just categorizing us as a small exclusive brand. We have quite a wide line both for girls and boys so this kind of olds it as well. There’s not many f the ultra super hyped super exclusive shops that are able to carry all that stuff, so that’s why we kind of wanna offer it to a wider, but still a cool category of shops and people.
We’re always amazed when we see totally different kind of people wearing our stuff and seeing that it works, both visually and message wise. Even in genres we don’t know too much about. And we’re like, ”Hell yeah! That’s dope… I mean he’s happy wearing it and we’re happy for our brand elevating in to new crowds and still it can be seen as a cool brand and not a sell out”
Like if you think about music. The idea behind it is for people to hear the music you do. If you have skinny cheap mondays or not doesn’t really matter… If you love the tune, the people behind the tune should love you back and be happy about it. That’s how we feel!
Lastly a message from you to us Timo…
We love that thang you doin out there and keep going straight outta CTRL at doNUTS! Love and respect in epic amounts! We need to hook up some day & drink a brew.
Find CTRL here – www.ctrlclothing.com
Nash : Trainer Confidentials…
October 2nd, 2008 by adminThe video is finally out! Nooo not that kinda video…this film was made especially for the Fashion V Sport Exhibition at London’s V&A Museum. For those of you that are intrigued as to how he creates such visions of beauty then have a watch of this…my boyf is a legend (though i dont need a video to tell me that)…Nash Blog xxx
