I Love Ugly is the New Zealand label with the challenging name suggestive of architectural brutalism. The brand's April drop, its third capsule range this year so far, takes the comparison further, photographed on the streets around its flagship store in Los Angeles.
I Love Ugly turned to Adri Law, the highly-regarded fashion photographer known for his austere approach, to shoot this latest collection and the result is that the pieces are shown at their best: in hard-edged, strictly urban settings. Each look perfectly complimented by monochrome ETQ. Amsterdam Sneakers including the Low Top 1 and Mid Top 1 styles.
The collection majors on shirts and lightweight jackets, designed to deal with the vagaries of early spring weather. Sharp sweat shorts are a take on one of the season's big fashion stories: the reinvention of sportswear worn in a preppy context.
I Love Ugly's skinny jeans are distressed to the knee and thigh, while perfectly-cut tailored jackets impress with their elegance.
Previous I Love Ugly collections haven't shied away from possibilities of pretension. The brand has quoted German philosopher Nietzsche's concept of a rebirth due to the full exploration of Dionysian artistic energies. We think I Love Ugly's aesthetic, a simple yet surprising take on classic design, is strong enough to take on such heavyweight company.
I Love Ugly also tells us that "good design needs room to breathe", which we'd heartily agree with. Let the fabric and the cut speak for themselves without the necessity for fussy, non-functional additions. I Love Ugly does that in spades.
