Giorgio Di Salvo

Paolo Budua

This book serves as a retrospective of the Milan-based clothing brand VNGRD, created by designers and artists at the heart of the city's underground scene. VNGRD is a clothing brand created in Milan in 2005 as the natural creative expression of a group of designers and artists who lived at the heart of the city's underground for years. Thanks to the creative direction of Giorgio Di Salvo – one of the two co-founders – and a mixture of extreme graphic design and unprecedented product research for the time, VNGRD quickly gained cult status, racking up collaborations with brands like Stüssy, SUPER, FUCT and Slam Jam. It came to be recognized by the likes of Kanye West, also sowing the seeds that gave rise to the Octopus Brand. Thanks to a naïve, uneducated stance on clothing design and the firm refusal to obey any commercial habits in a world that was transitioning from a traditional model to the current ultra-connected landscape, VNGRD challenged everything and connected many of the people who would go on to become protagonists of the zeitgeist. This is a comprehensive archive of the brand's graphic and design work, with never-before-seen pieces and behind the scenes looks. Featuring contributions from many of the friends and collaborators they have encountered during their journey, the original VNGRD team has produced a book that celebrates the history and heritage of the brand, demonstrating how its vanguardist attitude stood the test of time and predicted many of today's trends, inspiring the prime movers of the clothing world (and beyond).

Paolo Budua

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