Heather holds a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design, Remington honed his skills alongside Scott Sternberg, and while they both worked for the original Band of Outsiders, they only met some years later sharing an Uber Pool in LA. They launched Abc. in 2015.
The Abc. studio is based in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, with a satellite office in New York City. It started as a love story and morphed into an experimental brand with a focus on clothing, accessories, and unique and conceptual projects. Their collections - often rooted in themes such as in the intersection of art and science, critical thinking, California, and the power of crystals – are divided within what they call the “The Abc. Universe”: a core-focused offering called “Abc. 123.”, a denim offering called “Abcd.”, and dedicated collaborative capsule collections.
Advisory Board Crystals works with all the top retailers globally while also continuously working on special collective projects with art institutions and artists such as The Whitney Museum, the K11 Art Foundation in Hong Kong, Olafur Eliasson, Ai Wei Wei, Elliot Hundley, Jonas Wood, Michael Chow, Alex Israel, Ivory Serra, Kenny Scharf, and the Andy Warhol Foundation. Ongoing partnerships include the IRC, the Wikimedia foundation, and Marvel, to name a few. They also have an upcoming project with the NBA scheduled for the Fall.
Our collective consciousness is an ever-revolving door in search of the current zeitgeist: the set of shared beliefs, ideas, and moral attitudes which operate as both a unifying force and one of division. The United States of America invented a certain flavor of culture that has proliferated globally: film, music, sport, entertainment... These halcyon days lasted decades until the democratization of technology accelerated information/misinformation through the internet and social media.
Maybe that is why everything feels so weird right now? Are we in the midst of a shift in consciousness? Many believe the difference between now and then is based on pre and post pandemic life. We felt a shift coming before 2020. Is this the 80-year cycle? Will history repeat itself or are we writing a new future? For us critical thinkers, this acceleration has replaced the status quo with the current status quo, but with the explosion of op-ed mixed with the deterioration of “quality”, what is status and where did the quo go?
Our Fall/Winter 2023 collection opens with a nod to the OG’s (Terrence McKenna, Timothy Leary, and Alan Watts) who explored how psychedelics can directly alter consciousness and maybe in turn activate our inner life force: ironic quips presented in question form to inform fact, “Drug Free Body” a found vintage graphic printed in massive text on a t-shirt, “Marijuana Miracle or Myth?” printed on the back of an embossed nylon anorak. Marijuana is not a drug and never was unless you think it is? Maybe this isn’t about cannabis at all. As we say, our work is to incite thought. All opinions are our own and subject to change at any time. Are yours?
Enlightenment, mindfulness, the body, spirit, athletics, counterculture, basketball, and art, all work as a stream of consciousness of people, places, things, and adjectives that define the intended audience of this collection. Growing up in the 90’s, marijuana and athletics were viewed as incompatible, pairing them highlights a shift in thinking. What was, no longer is. We created a fictional 31st team called “The Fantasies” for our NBA collaboration. Is the “American Dream” a trope for consciousness? Is it still possible to achieve your fantasy? Being a part of “The Fantasies,” something that is equal parts fictional and equal parts real, allows you to dream: in a take on vintage athletic apparel many pieces sport woven trims, our Abc. logo takes on an athletic guise that reads “As Worn by America’s Top Minds.”
Our second shoe and capsule collection with Vans builds on the theme of counterculture; an integral part of the “American Consciousness.” Waning with Christmas spirit, counterculture is a critical part of any society whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society. With everyone wanting to be “different”, the tidal wave of “group think” behavior has created an ocean of sameness. Our take on the SK8-Hi harkens back to originality; what it means to truly d-o-i-t-y-o-u-r-s-e-l-f.
In “American Consciousness” the juxtaposition of sport, the mind, and consciousness, depict a more layered and complex flavor of American culture; a critical thinker’s take on the role of fashion in the evolution of consciousness.
