photo credit Willy Vanderperre for System Magazine
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut album xx, The xx – Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith – have collaborated with Raf Simons to produce a capsule collection inspired by the album. Featuring imagery from the original album art, the designs were finalised in Paris following Simons’ Spring Summer 2020 show and includes t-shirts, patches, a cap and a set of pins.
The collaboration has been photographed by Willy Vanderperre and styled by Olivier Rizzo for System Magazine and is available to view HERE
This is the latest in a series of creative collaborations born out of deep mutual appreciation between the band and designer, who has cited xx as one of his all time favourite records. Previously, The xx performed at New York’s legendary Guggenheim Museum at Simons’ invitation, and in 2017 Simons collaborated with acclaimed photographer Alasdair McLellan to create the video for The xx’s ‘I Dare You’.
Talking about the collaboration in issue no. 14 of System Magazine, Raf Simons says:
“The album xx represents a very distinct sensibility linked to youth culture at the time. It succeeds in articulating and putting into words what is going on in the minds of kids when they’re dealing with love, heartbreak, friendships. And not in the stereotypical way, it seemed much more real in a way. More authentic.
Working with the guys has been so amazing and so easy to do at the same time. We have worked together before, of course, and I just think we are already quite attuned to each other in the sense that we know very well what we want and what we can offer each other.
When they reached out to do something together to celebrate the 10th anniversary of xx, I didn’t have to think twice. I have been a fan of theirs since the very beginning, and I’m so happy and grateful for the fact we became friends and got to collaborate in so many ways”
The xx’s Romy Madley Croft adds:
” I was introduced to Raf’s work through the collaborations he had done with other musicians. How he wove bands’ work into his work really excited me. I hadn’t seen that so much; it felt like an homage to merch while being something completely new and different.
We met Raf for the first time in 2014 when he invited us to play at The Guggenheim in New York for Dior. Obviously, it was the most incredible invitation to receive. We had a fun time and went out after the show when we had the chance to talk to each other. We felt an immediate connection. I thought that he was a very emotionally intelligent person and I really enjoyed talking to him. I felt really close to him from the beginning. He had such an in-depth, thoughtful, considerate and meaningful intent. I love that about him: nothing is flippant, everything comes really from a thought-out and cared-about place.
The concept of the DIY aspect in the 10th anniversary merch collection, using patches and pinning them on yourself, is something that feels very teenage to me. This links nicely with the first album – we were teenagers when we wrote the songs, and I was definitely doing that kind of thing with what I was wearing. I got in trouble at school because I was cutting up my uniform. My dad once got a voicemail from school saying “She looked like she was going to a rock concert”, which I thought was hilarious. I love that Raf wanted to combine those ideas from him collection into our collaboration”
