For Autumn-Winter 2023, AMIRI releases its new Icon campaign, starring legendary Brooklyn music duo Black Star: Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli.
Conceived by Founder and Creative Director Mike Amiri, photographed by Karim Sadli and styled by Ellie Grace Cumming, the campaign expands this season’s narrative, which echoes the multi-layered process of music production, inspired by the 90s hip-hop that scored Mike’s formative years growing up in LA.
The Icon imagery showcases the Autumn-Winter 2023 collection – defined by fluid tailoring, artful shapes and a fusion of 50s and 90s Americana. Reflecting AMIRI’s long-standing relationship with music as an expression of cultural messaging and ideas, the campaign speaks to Black Star’s craft: the duo’s capacity to revolutionize old-school techniques through progressive flow and rhyme mirrors the collection’s artistry and silhouette.
The season’s relaxed proportions and sophisticated downtown sensibility is authentic to Black Star’s instinctive style. Supple in construction and fabrication, the duo wear a dropped shoulder car coat cut in soft vegan leather, and a black double-breasted brushed wool overcoat with a rich brown contrast collar, dressed over a layered sleeve dress shirt, mixed-media knitwear or a mohair argyle cardigan and paired with snap closure pleated pants – elevating a 90s classic. Throughout, signature headwear shapes – the driver hat and the paperboy – are worn as iconic symbols representing the collection and the cultural eras this season draws inspiration from.
A highly influential and prominent force during the defining 90’s era, Black Star pioneered the self-expressive and intellectual ‘conscious rap’ genre; their seminal 1998 record, “Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star”, is cited as one of hip-hop’s most significant works, an intellectual album that addressed societal issues through hooks and punchlines. In 2022, the duo reunited to release their sophomore record, “No Fear of Time”, twenty-four years after their debut.
The campaign includes an accompanying video soundtracked by Black Star tracks “Yonders” and “The Main Thing is to Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing”.
