When I happen to write about brands that I don’t know or that have just started, I always like to understand where they come from. Understand what sparks – there are always many – have led a person or a group of people to get involved in an increasingly saturated world.
THE NEW ORIGINALS is an Amsterdam-based brand that was officially born in 2015 and lays the foundation of its philosophy by aiming to build bridges between different backgrounds and contexts, offering a platform dedicated to creativity. Regardless of everyone’s background, we should all have the same chances to develop our creative potential, but unfortunately we know that this is not always the case.
The brand’s beginnings, however, date back to 2011, when a group of friends ran a blog to shake up and curate interest in fashion, design and music. TNO began to make a name for itself in the Amsterdam nightlife scene by hosting parties under the pseudonym TNO SoundSystem. Officially founded in 2015 by Rizky Lasahido, Maru Asmellash and Eben Badu, TNO has since become a brand in its own right.
“The basis is and remains of course clothing but our creativity reaches far beyond. As a brand, we are deeply rooted in Amsterdam’s cultural landscape. Grounded in its many components and disciplines such as art, music, fashion, nightlife and other areas of creative expression.”.
Trying to think outside the box, acting free from boundaries that are only imaginary, THE NEW ORIGINALS moves precisely on these concepts and its latest campaign for SS22 is an empirical demonstration of it.
Precisely because of the brand’s philosophy, THE NEW ORIGINALS moved away from everything we usually see in the fashion world and decided to put the mathletes of a Ghanaian boarding school at the center of the narrative of its SS22. Mathletes are those students who compete in math competitions at any level by demonstrating their skills in that specific field of study.
The project has seen THE NEW ORIGINALS involve the director and creative multidisciplinary Ebeneza Blanche, already author of works for Skepta, Nike, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, etc., , who has created a wonderful short film entitled: SS22: MATHLETE.
Blanche put together her personal experiences with the mission of THE NEW ORIGINALS, which focuses on authenticity through a visual that tells and shows us the lifestyle of students at a Ghanaian boarding school.
“Being a troublesome teenager raised partly in the western world, my mother always said to me ‘Keep on and I’ll send you off to Ghana as punishment’. Fast forward and I find myself in Ghana attending boarding school. My experience there was immensely disciplinary and I found it hard to fit in. The surroundings, language and culture were very different from what I was used to. This project was an opportunity for me to shine a light on the schooling system in Ghana”, told Blanche on the sidelines of the project presentation.
The campaign video you can see up here, written and directed by Blanche, takes us right into the daily lives of the kids at boarding school, between a lesson in class and fun outside.
The SS22 photo campaign was shot by Ghanaian but Amsterdam-based photographer Kwabena Sekyi Appiah-nti.
Below you can take a look at shots from the SS22: MATHLETE campaign by THE NEW ORIGINALS.
