New York, Made in Italy

Jeff Staple built an entire aesthetic around the least glamorous bird in the city. The pigeon—the thing waddling through Times Square, eating dropped pizza, utterly indifferent to everything—became the logo for his brand Staple, a declaration that you could find identity in whatever the city actually gave you rather than the version of it that existed in movies. That’s New York thinking at its most honest: making something out of the unglamorous, specific, slightly grimy reality on the ground.

Ellesse comes from the opposite direction. Italian, founded in 1959, ski slopes and tennis courts, the kind of heritage brand whose logo you’ve seen your whole life without quite placing it. They had a significant moment in 1980s hip-hop—the emblem appeared on the right people at the right time—and have been steadily building on that cultural capital ever since. On paper, Staple x Ellesse is a geography problem. In practice, the friction is the point.

Their spring/summer 2018 capsule takes its color palette from the streets and skyline of New York—the specific grays and blues of the city at different hours, the particular quality of light off glass at midday. The product names work as a kind of verbal map: Rockafella Popper Pants, Jefferson Shorts, a bucket hat called Vermont. Ellesse’s Italian aesthetic stays intact underneath, visible in the cut and logo placement. The collection is less a merger than a conversation between two very specific sensibilities that have no obvious reason to get along.

I’ve always liked what Staple does. Not everything, but the sensibility. There’s an earnestness to his New York boosterism that avoids the nostalgia trap—he’s not mourning a city that no longer exists. He’s documenting the one that does.