Green Team Supreme
It’s Love, Snips, Music baby as Heineken Green Room State of Mind put fashion heads together and make art. With the Green Room State of Mind project, Heineken Music has been exploring the links between music though art-based projects. The latest phase enters the fashion field with a series of installations that sees Heineken Music collaborate with indie boutiques MNEP, Replacement and Sevendays/Select.
Text + Images Heineken
The links between music and fashion are legendary. From designers Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood whose 1970s London boutique was a focal point for the city’s developing punk scene and helping to spawn the scene’s DIY fashion ethic to contemporary couturier Karl Lagerfeld who is reported to won more than 100 iPods and has minions filling them with music from cities around the globe.
Closer to home fashion designer Jimmy Lim put together a recent collection inspired by indie rock heroine Polly Harvey (of PJ Harvey). Those links go both ways. Hip hop is famed for its crossovers with labels like Phat Farm, Sean John and Rocawear all closely linked to music moguls Rush Simmons, P Diddy and Jay-Z. And then there’s MacBeth, the street and skate wear label set up by Blink 182’s Travis Barker and Gwen Stefani’s LAMB and Harajuku Lovers lines.
With the Green Room State of Mind project, Heineken Music has been exploring the links between music though art-based projects. You might recall Green Room State of Mind’s previous project, a 15-minute visual narrative on the EDM scene in Malaysia directed by Edwin Raj. The latest phase enters the fashion field with a series of installations that sees Heineken Music collaborate with indie boutiques MNEP, Replacement and Sevendays/Select. Asked to illustrate their own musical passions through art, each scene-defining store boutique held its own preview party throughout July to launch their Green Room States of Mind exhibit.
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“Music is in everyone’s life,” explained Maggie Pang, co-owner of MNEP, a new streetwear boutique and café in Subang Jaya who is involved in the latest State Of Mind outing. “It’s a big influence on everyone, no matter what kind of music you listen to: when you’re growing up, when you’re happy, when you’re sad. There’s always music there.” It’s an attitude that neatly explains the concept for MNEP’s installation. “Our Heineken piece is a music evolution,” Maggie explains. “A lot of eras have a defining fashion so our piece starts with an ape – no clothes, no music – and then it evolves….”
In a neat exploration of the journey that music and fashion have taken together, MNEP’s Green Room State of Mind piece, subtitled Music Evolution, starts with its own Year Zero: an ape. The piece, a series of backlit full-size digital prints, is summed up by boutique co-founder Maggie Pang, thus: “Many eras have a defining fashion and music link so our piece starts with an ape, where there are no clothes and no music, and then it evolves through different stages: The Beatles era and the Michael Jackson-street look of the 1980s and ending up with someone sporting a nu rave look and wearing an iPod.”
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While MNEP’s piece reflect the street themed look of this blacked out top storey boutique selling clothing from labels like Supreme, Vans and Hong Kong’s Skool, Sevendays and Select in Bangsar adopted a more minimal approach in their neon-tube construct, entitled Electric Feel; it reflects the design and ethos of the boutique itself. “The boutique’s concept is what we call minimal chic, as you can see by the interior of the store,” says Roxy aka DJ Roxy, who co-founded and runs Sevendays and Select along with producer and scene-maker Alvin Teoh aka DJ Goldfish (as if you don’t already know). “When to comes to music I think about how it makes me feel. So, really, it’s about the way that music electrifies your soul.”
Electric Feel takes an almost literal approach to their musical inspiration, channelling electronic music into an electric work of art that recalls the minimalist approach of original light surgeon Dan Flavin, a pioneer of fluorescent tube installation exhibits. Even the power source is part of the work. “The inspiration came from the song ‘Electric Feel’ by MGMT where the energy is really strong,” explains co-founder DJ Goldfish. “So, it’s not just about music and fashion,” continues Sevendays business partner DJ Roxy, “But art and design and lots of other influences as well.”
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By contrast, salon and boutique Replacement took a very maximalist approach to their Green Room State of Mind, a mannequin that recycles some of the materials that the salon uses. The result is a quirky, offbeat installation that sees the head revolving. It’s a philosophy that has seen Ricco’s hairstyles and creations become iconic Malaysian symbols, with an instantly recognisable direction and flair.
Subtitled Three Rs: reuse, recycle, replacement, salon and boutique Replacement’s piece, is a handcrafted mannequin put together from found material around the salon. The quirky, offbeat installation uses a dismantled fan make the head revolve as it absorbs the influences of music, art and fashion from every direction. “I think that the piece reflects the salon,” comments founder and co-owner Ricco Cheng. “There wasn’t a specific vision that inspired the piece, I simply sat down and worked until I knew it was finished.”
If you didn’t get to see the Heineken Green Room State Of Mind works previously, make sure you do at Heineken Green Room this August 1. Heineken Green Room Saturday August 1st, 2009 9pm-2am Zouk KL Featuring Filthy Dukes (UK), Verbal (M-Flo/Teriyaki Boyz), The Blink & Goldfish Show, Xu + Didjital By invitation only. Invites can be obtained by registering at www.heineken.com.my/greenroom. Strictly ages 21 years and above only and subject to availability. Club rules apply. Entry for Invites & Guest List closes at 11pm & normal club charges apply. So come early.
Heineken Music fans who RSVP for the event at www.heineken.com.my/greenroom will additionally receive a series of discounts for the stores (15% @ MNEP and Sevendays/Select, 10% on styling and boutique products @ Replacement, and 15% if both are bought together). In addition, each boutique will also be selling 10 limited edition Heineken Music creations of their own design on a strictly first come basis.