On my favorite brand, Aimé Leon Dore

unless you're big into fashion, you may not have heard about aimé leon dore, but i have been a huge fan since its second release, and even briefly received a nickname based on the brand. I have a beanie from one of their early seasons that just says "leon" which invited one of my friends to call me fuckboy leon. i even went so far as adopting it into my twitter handle for a while,  going by @notfuckboyleon for a couple years. but that is neither here nor there. what is important is the new york based brand, ald for short, and more specifically the immaculate clothing offerings every season.

their very first collection, released in early 2014 under the creative direction of native new yorker teddy santis, was lauded by one of my original writing idols, jon moy, who was quoted saying he wants to buy "EVERY. SINGLE. PIECE." and i see where he was coming from. the collection consisted of smartly tailored, cozy basics ready for the january cold in new york. there were thermal-lined oxfords and chinos to compliment severely tapered jogger sweats and slim crewnecks, topped off by thoughtfully-detailed outerwear. branding was incredibly minimal and tasteful for a "streetwear" brand launching in 2014. hindsight proves that ald really paved the way for the huge elevated streetwear trend that we would see over the coming years. 

it's hard to believe that after such a strong debut ald would still have so much room to climb. however, that collection simply formed a most solid foundation that would open up all kinds of possibilities for the brand. the silhouettes and color palettes had been established, opening the door for experimentation with different fabrics and iterations. the second collection, a pre-fall effort, basically expanded on what the debut established, but working with fabrics in lighter colors and weights and chopping off the bottom of sweats to make shorts. however, it is the third collection, "0214" THAT I WANT TO HIGHLIGHT AS THE SEASON THE BRAND REALLY PROVED ITS WORTH, AND ALL THAT IT WOULD BECOME.

, this collection saw the brand make its first foray into denim. as about the biggest denim guy you'll ever meet, this is what caught my eye first upon seeing this collection 6 years ago. for a debut effort, i simply cannot believe how top notch those jeans look. they are perfectly distressed and look to be of the highest quality. i guess that's what "made in new york" can get you. the other debut of this collection was knitwear, and let me tell you i want that cream fisherman's sweater and matching beanie even more than i want those jeans - and that's saying a lot. finally, this collection featured a couple ~perfect~ wool top coats, that answered the one question I had following their debut collection, where the satin bombers were a1, but the terry overcoats felt just a little out of place when everything else was so tight. add to that the perfect pair of gray wool trousers and this collection felt like ald had fully grown up - less than a year after it first debuted. 

in the 6 years since these two collections, ald has only proven that "0214" was nowhere near the fully-grown version of itself. no, i think 2020 is the year ald finally fully matured. just this year, it has since seen multiple collaborations each with New Balance, new era, even one with porsche. 2020 has also seen arguably its best spring/summer offerings, not even including its denim & cashmere, leather goods, or uniform installments.

that brings us to their latest release, the fall/winter 2020 campaign. Instead of shooting on models (at least for the campaign photos and video), they instead opted to shoot on basically all of their favorite new yorkers. The campaign featured everyone from the legendary artist futura to rappers smoke dza and jadakiss, to local east-coast-media-elite favorites like barber rob mcmillen and my personal favorite Lawrence "larry" schlossman and his dog pepper. The result is a campaign that feels like an ode to the city the brand calls home and a thank you to everyone that helped it grow from a 13-piece capsule collection just 6 years ago to a 40-look collection with little if any overlapping pieces and even fewer misses. Below are just a few highlights of my favorite shots but i really think you should go check out the whole lookbook, because it's just endless heat.