Have you ever gone to a free party?
The person writing this has, and it was a pretty good experience on the whole, albeit with a few questionable characters knocking about. If you’re not aware of what a free party is, it’s a kind of semi-illegal rave where organisers reveal the location on the night of the party, usually some field near a town with a funny name somewhere in Wales.
Lots of people off their faces. Lots of waterproof clothes. Lots of high BPM’s.
Anyway, the relevance of all this?
It’s what has inspired the South2 West8 & AFFX WRKS collaboration.
The two brands have recently revealed a collaboration that blends both the of their strongest attributes, but in case you’re not aware of those, listen up.
South2 West8 is a Japanese outdoor clothing brand that specializes in producing gear inspired by a traditional Japanese method of fly-fishing known as Tenkara – think waterproof jackets that are cropped and have large pockets.
AFFXWRKS, on the other hand, is a clothing brand that centres itself around combining functional aesthetics with contemporary styling, with a focus on inspiration gathered from musical influences that stems from the brand starting out as a radio programme.
So, we’ve established that the two brands’ strongest attributes are fishing and musically-inspired garments, you’d be forgiven therefore for thinking that they’ve come together to produce a sea shanty outdoor collection, but as we said earlier, they haven’t.
What they actually have produced is far cooler than that – a collection of outdoor clothing influenced by the UK’s FreeTekno Movement, basically gear that is inspired by raves that take place near those funny Welsh towns.
The FreeTekno Movement was birthed in the 90’s by organisers such as Spiral Tribe and Bedlam, who believed in creating spaces for like-minded people to come together outdoors, through music. The movement and attitude of the scene still rings true today through free rave parties like UK Tek.
Each item from the collection serves its own unique purpose to a free party go-er, and we’ll recap the main ones now:
- A pair of trousers that zip open to allow for maximum breathability when dancing for long hours.
- A bag designed to hold drinks when out, but then transforms into a belt for when the party ends.
- A waterproof head cover that sits over the top of a cap when the weather turns, and then can be packed away when it’s no longer needed.
Each item has been meticulously thought out under the lens of what a 24-hour partygoer might need, with relaxed cuts, waterproof fabrics and pockets aplenty. It’s no secret that we’re big fans of functional gear at Proper, and it’s certainly refreshing to see functional gear in the realm of collectively listening to music.
To purchase any of the collection, head over to Nepenthes London.
