Founded in 2010 by Jefferson Osei, Abderrahmane Trabsini and Hussein Suleiman, Daily Paper is the Amsterdam based menswear label merging African heritage with a passion for contemporary fashion. Primarily a menswear label, Daily Paper takes inspiration from their creators African cultures, incorporating their influences into modern design with a unique rugged character.

The brand’s focus lies in the creation of authentic apparel, with an emphasis on tailoring and an eclectic use of materials. The products are created to compliment the consumer’s passion for individuality and personal style. Devoted to quality garments, fine detailing and great silhouettes, for seven years Daily Paper has stayed true to their unique brand aesthetic.

Having already collaborated with well-respected brands including PUMA, Sandalboyz, Denham, Solebox, Filling Pieces and Colette, the latest collaboration, ‘The PUMA x Daily Paper Autumn-Winter ’17 collection, pays homage to PUMA’s two decades of commitment to African football. The Dutch brand merges contemporary streetwear stylings inspired by their African heritage onto PUMA’s football team kits, team gear and classic sneaker silhouettes from the sports archive. Intricate graphics and colour-blocking patterns are reminiscent of the vibrant team kits of PUMA sponsored teams from the Confederation of African Football; Ghana, Cameroon and Ivory Coast. Several pieces in the collection also prominently feature the number 20 written in Amharic; a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia.

In their latest campaign, titled ‘Children of the City’, Daily Paper travelled to South Africa to capture its collection. Having released women’s collections previously, their pieces for AW17 demonstrate the progress, with the brand serving up a second women’s range. Daily Paper’s quest to explore the concept of stealth and survival through the eyes of its youth, led them to document South Africa’s street style. Shot with street-casted models in the coastal city of Cape Town and further north in Johannesburg, the collection moves Daily Paper into a whole new market. And their new range of apparel demonstrates the brands evolution. For this collection the brand used technical inspired trims, 3M glow in the dark prints with earthy tones and subtle branding.

With so many clothing brands on the market today, it’s difficult to narrow it down to just one. But with a well-respected range of ready-to-wear garments online and in two Amsterdam based stores, not to mention an on-site Barber, Daily Paper is rapidly becoming the only streetwear brand to talk about…

How did you establish Daily Paper? Was it difficult to turn an idea into a brand?

Daily Paper started In 2008 as a blog and we wrote about things we liked; fashion, music, parties, whatever. Wherever we went, we wrote about it. In order to promote the blog we made T-shirts and the sales went extremely well. That presented us with the opportunity to make a clothing line out of it. Between 2010-2012 we began to look for manufacturers and in 2012 our first collection came out of five T-shirts. Our objective was always to be inspired by our African roots and do it in a contemporary way.

Was there a cult following amongst Dutch teens from the start?

Not from the start, but it didn’t take long. We were getting support from local kids in Amsterdam because we are children of the city ourselves. The city related with the clothes we were making and this eventually spread out to the whole nation and beyond.

What are the inspirations and highlights of your AW17 collection?

For our latest campaign we travelled to South Africa to capture the collection titled “Children of the City.” Having released women’s collections in the past, the 2017 Fall/Winter campaign demonstrates its advancement with a second full women’s range. The first instalment of the collection is availability via Daily Paper’s web-store, our Amsterdam stores and global retailers. We place major importance on details: from in-depth research on various aspects of African history as inspiration for our collections to interpreting this information into original designs and prints in our pieces. For the 2017 Fall/Winter campaign, all roads led to South Africa’s street style metropolises in our quest to explore the concept of stealth and adaptation through the eyes of its youth. The collection received a whole new light, being shot with street-casted models in the coastal city of Cape Town and further north in Johannesburg. The results were an extraordinarily atmospheric fashion photo series with a touch of documentary elements that uses the streets of South Africa as a stylish backdrop.

This is an extract from Issue 8, The Nomad Issue of Viper Magazine. Read more from the magazine here. Buy physical and digital copies here.
Words by Giovanna Mae
Photos by Patrick Kenawy