For years, adidas has been supporting luxury fashion from the sidelines. The brand has collaborated with brands like Prada, Wales Bonner, Gucci, Stella McCartney, Willy Chavarria and Balenciaga but never brought out its own premium line – until yesterday. A-TYPE is adidas’ new, ever-evolving collection, reimagining icons from the Three Stripes’ archive through the most premium of fabrics assembled by ateliers. Drawing from the brand’s storied past and recontextualising signature looks for the present moment, with A-TYPE, adidas Originals has its own moment in the spotlight – paying tribute to the brand’s heritage, legacy and cultural impact.

On Monday night, during NYFW, the brand celebrated the launch of A-TYPE with a rarely blank-walled moment at Jeffrey Deitch on Wooster Street. People packed into the gallery dressed in head-to-toe leather (new A-TYPE, of course). The collection is adidas Originals at its most sophisticated: the timeless Superstar, the Firebird tracksuit and the Airliner bag, all crafted from premium supple leathers from European ateliers. With the pieces hanging from the ceiling like art itself, party-goers attempted to guess the fabric of the two new regular-fit t-shirts. They are cashmere – and so too are the shoelaces on the new artisanal Superstars, by the way. (The pair arrive in a moulded shoe box accompanied by wooden shoe trees and white gloves.)

By the time I spotted the glass box with adidas’ Airliner, first used by athletes to carry their shoes in the 1970s, and new sterling silver pendant necklaces, rings and earrings at the party, I started putting my pinky up while I ate my catered falafel bites. Moving beyond nostalgia, the first collection offers a contemporary homage to the legacy of adidas Originals, elevated with elegant materials and touches. And everything about A-TYPE does scream sleek – even the imagery hanging from the roof (again). To commemorate the arrival of the inaugural A-TYPE collection, the brand tapped Gabriel Moses to capture DJ Hank Korsan, Pusha T, Tyshawn Jones, Selena Forrest, Fiffany Luu and Paloma Elsesser, all styled by Matthew Henson.

To really bring it home that A-TYPE is exclusive (if the fashion week party at one of New York’s most iconic art galleries wasn’t enough), the collection is currently only available to adidas’ friends and family. But this won’t be the last time we see adidas Originals standing proudly and alone in the luxury space: with each season, A-TYPE will revisit different icons from throughout the brand’s history. Thankfully, further public launches are due to be announced – because everyone deserves a Three Stripes moment dripped in premium supple leathers and cashmere.