The ACF site is centered around the idea of moving at the speed of global culture. The new website acts as a channel where brand inspiration, art projects, collection information, and the ACF community come together. Storytelling lives at the center of ACF clothing, and the product is brought to life through more in-depth knowledge and cultural context. Editorial content, ACF Creative services, and product stories are now connected in a manner that encourages the ACF fan to lose themselves in the site.
SS20 El Charro Negro
The new collection is based on the Yeehaw Black aesthetic, which was inspired by a trip to Mexico and falling in love with the Charro culture. This is a sequel to the AW17 Billism collection, as the designers found themselves mixing western Mexican style with their usual sartorial punk, heavy metal work, and expanding on what was covered on billism. The wrangling cattle, riding, training, and keeping of horses are practices that have been mastered by Black Americans since the 1800s, but the impact that African American men and women have had on cowboy culture is not well known. During the Civil War, Texas slave owners left cattle wrangling up to the Black slaves they purchased while the slave owners fought in battle. After the war ended, many slaves had become expert cowhands, and roughly 25 percent of cowboys were Black. Mexican culture is so rich in handcraft techniques such as embroidery, tapestry, metalsmith, weaving, prints, and naturally these elements have been incorporated into the new collection.
This collection illustrates the truth of art, and comes first as artistic expressionism and cultural craftsmanship ethos. The artistic expressionism was presented on the garments by using the outside labelling. The intention is to demonstrate the inclusivity of the brand as part of a global village, billism in the Congo to El Charro Negro in Mexico, and stretching to other countries that share similar aesthetics, standout pieces from Art Comes First’s SS20 collection include a light tan suede western-style jacket, which features all over graphics such as two guns, a Native American war bonnet, cowboys, playing cards, a Stetson hat, and cowboy boots. Other notable mentions include fringed brown jeans, a long-line take on a denim western shirt — featuring collar, chest and cuff embroidery— and finally, the black and gold vest as well as going back to a new idea of sartorial western by returning to their core tailoring and wide brim hats made in England.
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