Bally CEO Frédéric de Narp with Usher, left, and Swizz Beatz. Photo by John Sciulli/Getty Images for Bally
Bally's Hip Hop Party for Street Collection Bally X Shok-1
Swiss fashion house Bally introduced its street collection Bally X Shok-1 in Tokyo recently. Then, the collection went on tour. Bally CEO Frédéric de Narp and Swizz Beatz, a Grammy Award-winning music producer and co-designer of the collection, traveled to Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive on Oct. 18. They transformed the Bally flagship store into a hip hop dance party.
“The lights are low. The thread count is high and the CEO is on the dance floor,” Swizz Beatz told the crowd. It included Claudia Cividino, Bally North America CEO, hop hop star Wale, Japanese musician Miyavi Ishihara and model Shaun Ross. Also in attendance musician Usher, blogger JNELV, designer Sheron Barber and other denizens of the music and design world.
Swizz Beatz gave extra praise to de Narp for making hip hop and street part of the Bally story. The musician said that his community buys the styles of many fashion houses, but then they are ignored. “They blur us out of the picture,” Swizz Beatz told the crowd. “But we’re not going to do that anymore. This is your store tonight.”
In impromptu comments to the crowd, de Narp said Swizz Beats was a creative collaborator of the highest order. “Swizz is not just talented in music, DJing and performing. He’s also talented in arts. identifying the best artists in this world; coming from humble sources or very famous sources. The Shok- 1 collection, edited by Swizz, is just the most amazing one.”
Swizz Beatz worked with street artist Shok-1 to design high end sneakers, tees, hoodies, accessories among other styles which feature graphics of X-Ray photos.
