Dipstreet Aesthetics Capsule

One of South Africa’s premier sneaker and streetwear retail outlets, Dipstreet, recently released their AW17 Dipstreet Aesthetics capsule collection. We chatted with founder Tusa Mamba about his inspiration behind the collection and lookbook.

Q: What lead you to drop a Dipstreet capsule collection?

A: I’ve wanted to do it since I started Dipstreet but always had “bigger stresses” to deal with. Last year, the new store was booming and we found ourselves in a place where all the brands we were carrying couldn’t keep up with the demand which served as an opportunity for us. Most importantly, there were also clothing vibes I wanted for myself that no one was making, so here we are.

Q: What inspired the capsule collection and the black and white theme?

A: I love black and white clothing and aesthetics, which is evident in the the store’s colours. It’s the most predominant colour in my wardrobe because I’m always in a rush so I don’t have time to think about what to wear and black/white always work with each other or by themselves. So it was the easiest thing to start off with. I really love comfort clothing hence the tracksuits and big bulky sneakers like the Vapourmax and Airmax 95/97 are where we’re going, so the range was made for them. It’s a celebration of old school logos. Grime tings you know.

Q: What is your favourite item from the range?

A: That’s hard because I started off with a lot of designs and cut it down to my favourite, but the white Dipstreet logo short sleeve and the black tape hoody.

Q: What was your involvement in the design process?

A: So I came u p with like a basic mood/idea and then just worked with the existing logos etc. (like the shoelace logo by Nicholas Christowitz) to create items and then sat down with Lawrence and put everything together on photoshop to see what works and what doesn’t.

Q: Who conceptualized and shot the Dipstreet Aesthetics lookbook?

A: When coming up with clothes I already knew how I wanted the images to be and what kind of models would go with the range, so the concept was easy. Lawrence shot the 1st day on the rooftop and then I shot the rest of the scenes for the stills. The video was shot by Lenzo who worked his magic.

Q: What was the process behind producing the Dipstreet Aesthetics video?

A: I hit up Lenzo and Sanele and told them the concept. We went location scouting for a day. I then showed them the merch and models I wanted to use, shot it then we got a beat from Steve Kent and made magic!

Q: Can we expect more Dipstreet ranges in future?

A: Yeah, quite a few. We’re going to try be as consistent as possible. We’ve got two more being finalised design wise already and the next one already in production!