Designed for spring and summer 2013, Tribe is the first collection created by Dream Nation in cooperation with a sewing and digital printing company from Łódź and its largest commercial success so far.
Luiza Jacob used to have enough dressmakers and materials sent abroad. But it turned out that her streetwear sells so well both inside and outside Poland, especially in Japan and the United States, that production must be sped up and improved. Technological change came hand in hand with а conceptual shift towards primordial inspirations. Tribe was mainly inspired by Indian South Africans and the African tribe Ndebele, known for their love of colourful geometric patterns, which cover their clothes, homes, and everyday objects.
Embeded gallery style
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The prints were created in collaboration with Robert Kuta, a graphic artist. The colours in his designs are separated by expressive black lines – similar to the Ndebele patterns. His prints are also strongly reminiscent of the work of the South African photographer Roger Ballen and video clips by Die Antwoord. The thick, childish lines and splashes of colour vaguely resemble a human figure. The collection is complemented by prints with photographs of Aztec pyramids, rainforests and drawings of dragons. Most of them are covered with geometric patterns, which look like tracks that a UFO left on a field. There are long and medium-length dresses, t-shirts, shorts, double-faced sweatshirts with short sleeves, overalls, and, of course, leggings. The lookbook of the collection directly refers to the tradition of Benetton’s catalogues – models of different skin colour and countries of origin, unisex aesthetic, slightly erotic, hippie atmosphere – this is precisely the tribe that Luiza wants to emulate, her ‘nation of dreamers’.
Author: Karolina Sulej, transl. Bozhana Nikolova, May 2015