Written by Menswear Style in New Collections on the 22nd October 2019

This Autumn, the icon of global luxury meets the renegade of Japanese streetwear to celebrate music and mobility with a capsule collection of leather goods, apparel, and accessories. Launching on October 26, MCM X A Bathing Ape mines the two brands’ shared design influences – opulence, the street, music, pop culture – to invent new fashion statements for the modern streetwear disciple.

The collaboration naturally suits two groundbreaking brands that have, in their own ways over multiple decades, captured the zeitgeist of fashion and pop culture. Both labels are known for their embrace of a confident, status-driven luxury – MCM for the logo-rich bags and luggage worn by the ’70s and ’80s jetset, BAPE for the genre-defining apparel born from an era of youthful ’90s indulgence. Secondly, both MCM and BAPE, then and now, have been organically tied to music, from the former’s founding at the height of Munich disco to the latter’s association with influential global artists. Finally, both labels achieved global relevance by their natural proximity to streetwear movements – MCM finding a renaissance in the New York hip-hop community of the ’80s, BAPE coming of age during the explosion of Tokyo’s Harajuku scene in the ’90s. Now, the two aesthetics collide.

The MCM X A Bathing Ape apparel collection is characterised by a fearless play with pattern and the fusion of BAPE’s iconic shark and camo motif with MCM’s signature Visetos. The Track Jacket, plus matching Track Pants feature an allover camo print with MCM Visetos or logo details channelling the bold attitude and overtly rich design language of the 1980s. The Milo Sweater, meanwhile, proudly boasts the collaboration’s logo – a BAPE ape rendered in classic MCM tones of cognac and brown. An assortment of graphic slides, T-shirts and keychains rounds out the full offering.

In accessories, BAPE’s artful yet playful shark motif featuring an open, grimacing shark’s mouth is emblazoned upon classic cognac Visetos. MCM’s most iconic pieces – the Backpack, the Large Wallet, the Mini Wallet, and the Weekender Bag – undergo a graphic transformation with shark graphics, bold logos, and other fierce, animalistic patches. Sumptuously detailed, the Camo Backpack features gold metal hardware, black webbed straps, and black leather piping, and is finished with gleaming gold metal collaboration plaque.

Colour, confidence, music, mobility, pattern – with this collection, MCM and BAPE unite to celebrate these codes. Each having made history on its own, the two style icons define the present together. The collection consists of Womenswear and Menswear as well as Unisex leather goods and accessories. With exclusive launch events on October 24th and 25th, the capsule collection will be available worldwide at selected retailers from October 26th.

Inspired by Tokyo’s Harajuku scene and streetwear, we take a first look at the MCM x BAPE Unisex Limited Edition Capsule Collection which features a fearless play with pattern.