Cultural Diffision, Take One

Lukewarm lookbooks have come and go, but there are a select few that rise to the occasion. What comes to mind now is the meticulously groomed Spring / Summer collection¹ from creative director, Hiroshi Awai. Bathed in Japanese attention to detail, CREEP's design breathes a distinct crispness wildly sought out by other style seers in the past. While relying on valuing customer appeal, by maintaining affordable garments with high quality, CREEP² allows its inspiration from functional American workwear and Japanese avant-garde design blending the themes with ease, bridging the needed gap in cultures to introduce bold, desirable clothing. What started as women's wear line rooted in rich heritage thrives as a staple for what is next to be in your wardrobe.

Seriously, I cannot find a flaw in this collection. Every item is wearable, and embodies my steez; an inspiration doused in cultural diffusion³ to the utmost limit. 'Shit, just got real" when I saw this lookbook. Bandana adorned outfits paired with soft-toned bucks, high contrast color items juxtaposed against peaceful autumn tints, elaborate patterns, clean cuffs, and excellent outerwear? You bet I am there.

Items from the collection can be found on Asos.com, Piece of Brooklyn (671 Vanderbilt Ave at Park Place,) Steven Alan (103 Franklin Street,) Odin New York (199 Lafayette Street), and several locations on the West Coast, Canada and Japan.

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¹ Documented by Photographer Karen Roze with Model Daniel Bonder posing.
² Creep was founded in Osaka, Japan by Kiyofumi Awai in 1997. Since then, Creep has sold its cutting-edge design in dozens of stores in the US. In 2009, Hiroshi Awai, based in Toronto, Canada, joined Creep as men's creative director. Hiroshi is taking the line in a new direction by combining innovative Japanese design with his passion for the simple beauty of functional American workwear. See more at creep-clothing.com.
³ Cultural diffusion, as first conceptualized by the Alfred L. Kroeber in his influential 1940 paper Stimulus Diffusion, or trans-cultural diffusion in later reformulations, is used in cultural anthropology and cultural geography to describe the spread of cultural items—such as ideas, styles, religions, technologies, languages etc.—between individuals, whether within a single culture or from one culture to another. It is distinct from the diffusion of innovations within a single culture.

Diffusion across cultures is a well-attested and also uncontroversial phenomenon. For example, the practice of agriculture is widely believed to have diffused from somewhere in the Middle East to all of Eurasia, less than 10,000 years ago, having been adopted by many pre-existing cultures. Other established examples of diffusion include the spread of the war chariot and iron smelting in ancient times, and the use of cars and Western business suits in the 20th century.

See Also: One Eight Nine's Interview with Hiroshi Awai.