Exclusively on AnOthermag.com, Dev Hynes is revealed as the face of adidas Originals’ collaboration with OAMC, photographed by Juergen Teller
Musician Dev Hynes says he can’t remember exactly when he first started wearing adidas – it’s been, put simply, “forever”. “I grew up desperately wanting a pair of Predators,” he remembers, as today he is revealed as the face of the sportswear monolith’s sneaker collaboration with Paris-based label OAMC, in a campaign photographed by Juergen Teller.
OAMC – which debuted its collaboration with adidas Originals at its Autumn/Winter 2019 show in Paris last February – was founded in 2013 by Arnaud Faeh, formerly of Carhartt, and Luke Meier, who worked as head designer at Supreme, before becoming creative director of Jil Sander alongside his wife Lucie Meier in 2017. An acronym which changes every season (for Autumn/Winter 2019, it’s Overtly Aggressive Manic Culture), the young label specialises in clean-lined, modern menswear. “It’s the new idea of luxury menswear,” explains Meier to AnOther. “The aesthetics of now, with uncompromising levels of technique and materials.”
The campaign, which is released today on AnOthermag.com, sees Hynes captured in the OAMC-designed sneakers by Teller on a sun-lit rooftop and garden. Taken in the photographer’s typically spontaneous style, the light-saturated images combine portraits of Hynes with various esoteric elements, including blood oranges – whether held in Hynes’ hands, sliced in half or printed, large-scale on paper posters – in reference to the musician’s band, Blood Orange. “It was very natural, very fun... Super relaxed, which is how I like it,” Hynes tells AnOther of the shoot, over email; working with Teller was “a dream”. “Honestly, he’s such a sweetheart and I’m such a big fan,” Hynes says.
“I have listened to Dev’s music for quite a while, and I really respect him as a master of his craft,” Meier says of the choice to have Hynes to appear in the campaign. “He’s the real deal: he writes, performs, and produces. He is perfect for the collection because he represents a lot of what OAMC is about – being in the moment and responding to what’s important right now. His work is not only quality, but it reverberates within the moment.” Hynes – who says he is currently working on “a couple of film scores” and a new live show – says the admiration was mutual. “I collaborate with people if they are friends, and/or, I respect them as a person,” he says.
The collaboration with adidas Originals first appeared as part of the label’s Autumn/Winter 2019 collection, which melded the functional tropes of hiking-wear and surgical uniforms with luxury fabrications and finishes – by way of the 1990s grunge movement in Seattle. “It had a lot to do with my personal life,” exlains Meier. “I wanted to explore some of the relationships between the idea of uniform, both in terms of how certain cultural movements adapt it – like the Seattle scene in the 90s – versus how it can be imposed, like with surgical scrubs and hospital clothing.”
The resulting adidas Original sneakers – titled Type 0-1, Type 0-2, and Type 0-3 – find their roots in adidas’ past styles, from the classic Stan Smith to the cult GCS9 hiking boot, albeit reinterpreted. Colourways range from “flesh”, “black” and “off-white” to “medical green”; details come from trekking, hiking and climbing shoes. “What is beautiful about hiking footwear in particular is that it has a very handmade feeling, almost vulcanised and taped, but yet manages to be highly functional in the same breath,” Meier says.
This latest collaboration continues a slew of partnerships between adidas and the fashion world: previous high-profile collaborators have included Jeremy Scott, Stella McCartney, Rick Owens and Yohji Yamamoto. From the music world, Kanye West – via his clothing label Yeezy – and, more recently, Beyoncé. “Great collaboration, in the truest sense, is when two sides come together to create something that they couldn’t otherwise create on their own,” says Meier.
