London’s rap and fashion talents collab on tour merch

Selfridges is linking up the talents of rappers, MCs and spoken word artists with those of London’s most exciting emerging designers to create limited-edition capsule collections.

The Shakespeare reCITED line includes five such collections: Novelist X New Future London, Krept & Konan X Astrid Andersen, James Massiah X Liam Hodges, and fellow Dazed 100ers Rejjie Snow and Little Simz X Life’s a Beach and Caitlin Price, respectively.

All veterans of either MAN or Fashion East’s emerging talent showcases, Astrid Andersen, Liam Hodges and Caitlin Price make up some of the biggest names in street-inspired fashion showing in London. East London label New Future draws inspiration from 90s rave culture, which comes through in their merch collaboration with Novelist.

The proceeds of each capsule will go to a charity of the pairing’s choice, all opting for ventures helping disadvantaged young people. Novelist, for example, is supporting Marsha Phoenix, a south London housing project for young women. 

Merch is having a moment right now, with Kanye’s ‘Pablo’ line reportedly taking $1 million in two days, Zayn Malik’s recent collection accompanying his debut album, and Justin Bieber’s V-Files line. Among London’s grime and hip hop artists, Skepta has been the most recent musician to pick up on the merch hype with his Konnichiwa range.

A series of events over the summer will accompany the launch of each collaboration – head over to the Shakespeare reCITED page for more information