TCC’s Lookbook Features The Best Of Indian Streetwear - Mumbai To Miami

Third Culture Collective is Melissa Vazquez-Aldana’s concept store in the making, that aims to bring contemporary Indian designs and fashion over to Miami, to an untapped audience waiting with open arms. Aesthetically and culturally similar to Mumbai, Miami is a city bursting with fresh talent - artists, musicians, designers, the whole shebang - so much so that it was hardly shocking to Melissa how organically people took to the designs she brought over to showcase. “Miami style is a completely eclectic phenomena -it’s so diverse and that’s its appeal. For some, the less you wear, the better, since it’s so hot! You have the bohemians and the surfers who prefer having loose and flowy silhouettes and wearing lots of vintage piece, and then you have the hip-hop influence. Miami has many faces, and none of which are too distant from what Indian designers have to offer” she tells HG.

Melissa approached BumbleBumGang and iiipoints collective - promoters of Miami’s hippest venues and music, technology and art festivals with a proposal for a lookbook dedicated to showcasing Miami’s emerging female creative talent associated with the collective. The artists featured in the project were carefully selected for their unique sense of style and personality - it was important to align the artist with the look. The artists picked their own clothes, based on which designers they felt organically suited their own personalities. This Look book features Indian designers such as NorBlack NorWhite, En Inde, Lovebirds, Strange Shrew, Manish Arora and Little Shilpa. The lookbook was photographed by Frederic Pinet, produced by Cess Erb-Orengo and Sushi Chanrai and casted by Ashley Venom

Niska

Niska is the first female hip hop artist to rise out of Haiti who raps in Creole. On asking Niska when she would wear NBNW, she said, “I would probably where the more casual and loose attire during the day for lunch, or a day party. Where as the more eccentric, bright jackets and outfits i would wear behind the camera. maybe during a video shoot or performance.”

Nala

Nala is a DJ and producer who now lives in LA, and when we asked her where she would wear Lovebirds, she said “ I would probably wear it to a daytime event for example, if I was DJing at a fashion forward, high-end event.” Commenting on Mumbai’s sense of style from the clothes she sees, she tells TCC “I like how colorful it is. It’s loose and airy, but still very conservative, which is nice. I would say that they probably experience a lot of heat in Mumbai based on the items I’ve seen. “

PoorGrrl

Duped to be Miami’s ‘Performance Extraordinaire’, Poorgrrl is an experimental performance artist with a musical side project who claims if she wasn’t so lazy, she would make everything she wore. Upon interacting with works of Indian designers Strange Shrew and NBNW, she said “What I wore in the shoot was much more contemporary than what my ignorant mind would have imagined thinking of Indian/Mumbai fashion. I guess I would be thinking khaki and earth tones, but was pleasantly surprised with the stellar holographic over sized hoodie y’all let me wear!”

Step Sisters

Mona and Nenah are a rap duo based out of Miami who believe that fashion is just as much an art as their music. They both naturally gravitated towards Manish Arora, and Mona says, “I already dress very bold and out there so his designs would have no conflict towards my daily look. His pieces would look sick in our videos and maybe to events and award shows.” “I would wear his clothing outside the shoot, he has dope pieces I could make look like a movie, I’d were them to shows, clubs, and maybe the corner store, I stand for standing out” Nenah, adds.

All photographs have been shot by Frederic Pinet