In their centennial year, New Era Cap is commissioning a myriad of exciting collabs with cutting-edge brands like Yohji Yamamoto, Casio G-Shock, and Daniel Arsham. Here are Pentagon’s top picks of the best releases.
New Era x Yohji Yamamoto SS20 Capsule
Steeped in black, the Y’s sub-label has opted for a subtle wisp of branding in the form of a purple ‘Y’s’ stitched script logo across all the garments. We like this collection because it doesn’t try too hard: Yamamoto transposes his signature style of understated class onto classic pieces like a hoodie, bucket hat, and backpack.
The large majority of garments produced by Yamamoto under the Y’s luxury sub-label rely on the meticulous cutting of fabrics to form elegant, flowing shapes, instead of relying on big – and often jarring – logos; this collection fulfils the latter, but not the former.
New Era’s collection with Y’s is not quite a full infusion of Yamamoto’s aesthetic, because the cuts of the garments are pretty standard; instead, this collection represents a meeting of two fashion monoliths, briefly nodding to each other in a gesture of admiration and respect, before going their own way. Most of the hype around this collection will be from the name – not to say that it’s a bad thing, because the collection is intended to be worn on the streets, in everyday settings.
New Era x Casio G-Shock
Continuing this theme of big-name collaborations between non-lateral brands, the New Era x Casio G-Shock collab is very steezy, featuring a gold-accented 59FIFTY, and DW5600NE-1 watch. The reputation of being the world’s toughest watch will certainly make the G-Shock a staple in any sport spectator’s wardrobe.
The products come in a special edition box for devoted collectors to cherish and preserve these single-issue pieces over the years as they appreciate in value.
New Era x Daniel Arsham
Our final pick is the Daniel Arsham x New Era New York Yankees 9FORTY, which channels the renowned visual artist’s ‘stripped’ aesthetic where “the objects of modern life have fallen into aestheticized obsolescence” (source).
In an imagined dystopian future when baseball fields are barren and reclaimed by nature, and when the once-revered ‘NY’ logo is as ambiguous as a hieroglyph, the 9FORTY would just be a relic, with its cultural value lost to the dark recesses of the past.
It is no surprise, then, that beige was the colour Daniel opted for in his own take on the 9FORTY. You don’t have to be an art-fanatic to enjoy this one: it’s a fantastic piece to sit at the precipice of any neutral fit.
These new collaborations will set a grand stage for the next century of New Era clothing, built off the frame of the century before.
