Union Los Angeles is a trailblazing boutique indicative of basically every era of street culture. J.Crew is a mass-market retailer that specializes in staples designed for a global audience. Out of nowhere, Union LA and J.Crew have collaborated on a capsule collection. Chocolate, meet peanut butter
Well, maybe it’s not that left-field. Union LA and J.Crew coming together was once inconceivable, yes, but, with NOAH founder Brendon Babenzien breathing much-needed life into J.Crew’s menswear division for a couple years now, there’s never been a more perfect union.
Babenzien, like Union LA boss Chris Gibbs, is a lifer in the industry some call streetwear. Both men have been in the biz since the early days, their fates intertwined around a brand you’ve probably heard of before.
Gibbs worked at Union’s original New York location back when it was an IYKYK institution overseen by James Jebbia, founder of Supreme (among other folks). Gibbs later moved out west with co-founder Eddie Cruz (who went on to Undefeated), eventually heading up Union’s sole American location in LA.
Meanwhile, Babenzien worked for Supreme for nearly two decades, professionally growing up with the world’s biggest streetwear brand.
Gibbs and Babenzien met somewhere along the way and they’ve kept in touch since. J.Crew x Union wasn’t something they’d always planned but once the seed was planted, it began to make more and more sense.
“I think there is a ‘silk road’ of trust between the two brands that made this a really dope project because on a granular level, Brendon and I know and trust and respect each other’s sensibilities, even though they are quite different,” Gibbs told Highsnobiety.
Safe to say, Union LA x J.Crew is authentic as collaborations get.
You so often see corporate stuffed-shirts and semi-relevant cultural figures smashing their heads together until they shake out some same-y co-branded merch.
But in this case, you’ve got two longtime friends seeking the common (and uncommon) ground in…
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