The guys from Crossover Concept Store managed to get on the line with Slam Jam‘s Marketing Director; Giovanni De Marchi about the brainchild behind “Boom Town Slickers” collection. Check out the interview session below:-
1. Just an introduction to Malaysian folks, can you tell us the meaning behind the name of
“Slam Jam”?
The name Slam Jam was an idea of Luca Benini, the founder of the company. Back in the late
eighties when everything started, Luca was pretty influenced by Hip-Hop music and one of the most
relevant record labels at that time was Def Jam Recordings (LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, among others).
That was where the word “Jam” came from, while “Slam” just sounded good next to it.
2. Why Carhartt WIP for Slam Jam 25th Anniversary capsule collection? Other plan besides
partnership with Carhartt to celebrate the Silver Jubilee?
The history of Slam Jam wouldn’t definitely have been the same without Carhartt WIP. They can be
considered as one of our closest friend and their incredible heritage gave us a lot of assets to play
around when we put this collaboration together.
Besides Carhartt we are working on many other projects to celebrate the Jubilee. A few names?
Stussy, Vans, Puma, ASICS, Head Porter, VISVIM and many more.
3. Next big thing for Slam Jam?
One of the key projects we are currently putting a lot of energy into is the launch of a new line,
ROUNDEL LONDON, which comes from a global license we got from the LONDON UNDEGROUND.
Designed by Andrew Bunney and totally made in Italy, the line is a celebration of the city of LONDON
and its subcultures. The brand is entering its fourth season and it’s available at selected retailers
worldwide.
4. How does Slam Jam see itself in the NEXT 25 years?
Over the past years, Slam Jam has been mainly focused on scouting new brands to bring to the
European Market as a distributor. Since a few years we are a much more complex and bigger
organization. We started a production department to develop owned and licensed brands and we
are investing a lot on our on-line retail slamjamsocialism.com Maybe a Slam Jam proper collection
will be available in-store, one day?
5. Few words on Slam Jam and this collection for your Malaysian fans?
For the past twenty-five years, Slam Jam have been eagerly exploring the world, listening,
observing, intercepting trends, editing and mixing them up. The result is a bridge that joins
streetwear and fashion. Music, visual arts and the energy from underground cultures have
always been the fuel for Slam Jam’s engine. A childlike enthusiasm for this world made the rest.
6. We know the close relationship and journey through the history of Slam Jam and Carhartt
WIP. What do you say about the change of Carhartt WIP throughout this history? And the
change of street scene in Europe?
I strongly believe Carhartt WIP is a great marketing case history. Our friends were just able to take a
brand (Carhartt), with more than a hundred years history, deeply rooted in the workwear market, and
bring it to the street/fashion market, becoming one of the most successful in that segment. On top
of this, they were wise enough to keep evolving in a market so dynamic and aggressive, without
compromising on the integrity and the consistency of the original brand. Carhartt WIP today is a
perfect example of combination between urban sportswear, hardcore streetwear and fashion, which
is what is going on in the street scene in Europe nowadays.
7. Tell us more how did the “Slam Jam x Carhartt WIP” start in the beginning? What is
meaning of “Boom Town Slickers”, and the collection too?
For the celebration of our Silver Jubilee, we came up with the idea of putting together 25 projects
(one for each year in our history), with 25 different partners which we have been working together so
far. Among these partners, Carhartt WIP has always been one of the most relevant for Slam Jam, a
long-term with whom we shared the most important stages in our history. So it was absolutely
natural to start from this collaboration.
The idea behind these collection was developing 25 styles (again, one per year), picking some
Carhartt Classics and twisting them up. On top of those, we put a few original designs.
The name BOOM TOWN SLICKERS is an idea of Marie Schuller, the art director who developed the
whole photo campaign and video.
The Boom Town is London (where the models casting and shooting took place), ever changing and
multi-cultural, while the word “Slicker” is referred to the attitude we wanted the models to have in
the campaign.
8. Why these five themes for Boom Town Slickers? What’s the idea behind each?
The idea was to have 25 items, split into 5 programs, to be launched on the 25th of each month,
starting from February 2015. Five total looks made of Carhartt WIP classics reinterpreted alongside
new designs, playing with the themes “Duck Canvas”, “Denim”, “Reflective”, “Bandana” and
“Thermal”.
9. The name “Boom Town Slickers” and the lookbook concept seems to intertwine with each
other. Correct us if it isn’t please?
Absolutely. The look book is a take down of the video where the models play like it was a casting
session. Throughout the whole imagery, we wanted to give an early-nineties/low-fi kind of touch. The
five characters Marie (the director) was able to select were just amazingly expressive. The result is
something that is still Carhartt WIP, but with a touch of “fashion” that is the result of the collaboration
indeed.
10. The lookbook of “Boom Town Slickers” has few distinct emotion poses, is there any
relation to the collection itself?
Not really. We wanted every character to play freely without any special brief of suggested poses.
The result is a collage of quite fascinating young personalities, which tells us about their dreams.
The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd drop from the Slam Jam x #CarharttWIP “Boom Town Slickers’ collection are available exclusively at Cover by CROSSOVER.
