Courtesy of A Kind of Guise
Since founding A Kind of Guise in 2009, Yasar Ceviker has managed the brand’s visual storytelling taking the different collections across the world from Nepal to Indonesia, street-casting local models in clothes. This season saw Ceviker head to New York City to indulge his love of classic mob movies like Goodfellas und The Godfather in Little Italy. We caught up with the German designer to take us through the AW19 photo series:
Is there a personal connection to the New York Italian community?
The father of a good friend of mine is originally from Italy (Napoli) and he used to live in NYC in the early ‘80s. He introduced his son to the community when settled down there a few years ago. Since then, my friend and I have bounced ideas back and forth what we could do in the US as he always wanted to help. We finally made it happen this year with our Autumn/Winter ‘19 collection.
What is special about this community? How is the shrinking geography of Little Italy affecting it?
Everyone knows everyone and if you are a friend of someone, they welcome you like a family member and offer their help right away. Some might still own one of the restaurants and cafes in Little Italy, Manhattan, but most of them have moved away a long time ago like most Italians and Italo-Americans, mainly due to high rents and gentrification. Today, Little Italy is quite small and you realise very quickly that the main customers are not locals anymore, but almost all tourists. However, for some places it feels like time has stopped in the past and with a little bit of imagination you can visualise how it may have looked more than 30 years ago.
Courtesy of A Kind of Guise
Who are the characters in the lookbook?
As with every collection, we select a country (or culture) and create a story around a topic, which can an imaginary place, club, etc. For this collection, we’ve come up with a small family-run restaurant called Gennaro’s (Gennaro is the name of my friend’s father), where pizza and international dishes are served. For the campaign shots, we travel as a team of two and ask random people, who fit the story, on the streets if they can wear our items for a few photos (in exchange of the item or money). We then look for the right setting. Sometimes vice versa. With my friend in NYC, of course, it was a little bit easier as he knew people and places and we were able to organise it beforehand.
How does the setting interact with the character of the brand?
I never was a big fan of the over-styled model campaigns. By doing it our way, we do not need a big team, we can be more flexible and I can continue doing what I love. With the setting and the random models, the story comes to life and create authenticity around the brand.
Courtesy of A Kind of Guise