Sometimes collaborations born with a commercial purpose can become pretexts to give life to artistic projects worthy of note. One of these is by Aries, Havana Club and Joshua Gordon. 

The famous luxury streetwear brand has, in fact, announced its collaboration with the Cuban rum company and the English photographer and filmmaker, which produced not only the capsule collection Aires x Havana Club, but also a photographic exhibition and a book. 

At the heart of the artistic research of this six-handed project is the drag and trans community of Havana. For this reason, Joshua has been in close contact with the subjects of his photos for over a month, taking pictures in different parts of the Cuban capital. 

“I’ve always found trans women fascinating, powerful and beautiful. […] I always wanted to work on a project just about their identity and transition and this was a perfect vehicle.” – Joshua Gordon.

In addition to these polaroids, Gordon then moved to a London studio where, with Aries Sofia Prantera’s creative director and designer Jane How, he took a series of images in which the symbol of the Giraldilla – which appears in the Havana Club logo – alternates with the pieces of the Aries x Havana Club capsule. 

“I see the Aries brand as a champion of less obvious ideas about subcultures, outsider perspectives and art.” – Sofia Prantera.

The entire work will be shown to the public in Milan, London, Berlin and Tokyo throughout the month of November during events where it will also be possible to buy the Butterfly book that contains the shots, the items in the collection and a limited edition bottle of Havana Club. 

All the products will also be available online from Tuesday 5 November, while the Butterfly exhibition and installation will be open to the public in Milan from 5 to 12 November at Spazio Maiocchi and in Tokyo from 28 November to 5 December at the Komiyama Bookshop.