Ruben Bissoli introducing 8IGB community clothing, the new dimension of hype streetwear

Subversive, unique and creative. 8IGB community clothing will drag you into a totally new dimension of streetwear. Born as a skate lifestyle inspired apparel brand, based on graphic parodies and dual meaning slogans which often have a spicy twist and a sexual component, the concept comes from the desire to give a very intimate and free dimension to clothes, with a certain love for bad taste mixed with a poetical and decadent view of life. Easy shapes for difficult prints. 8IGB community clothing was born in a small building at #8 of a little alley in the 18th district of Paris; 8IGB actually stands for 8 Impasse Grosse Bouteille. This building is the most utopian place ever seen, it’s where people live with open doors, where every neighbor is a best friend, where you never feel lonely, where you can paint, read or enjoy a beer together in the courtyard, where there is always an extra place for whom wants to join in. The philosophy is, open doors, open hearts and open bar…

On the back of each piece you will find the slogan «I don't match», which is the way the designer feels about society and different tribes. On the other hand the little wooden stick with the typical red head called "match», is an object that is close to us and illustrates us very well, all similar but all different, like in a matchbox, small, nice and friendly but if you scratch it will burn. That's why the designer chose to place a real match stitched under the logo on each item.

Ruben Bissoli is an Italian fashion/graphic designer. After he attended Istituto Marangoni Milano he moved to Paris to attend Studio Berçot. Finishing his studies he soon worked for Balenciaga as a designer assistant specialized in prints, t-shirts and knitwear. After this experience he worked in free-lance as a graphic designer. His versatile spirit took him afterwards to work in accessories, so he became shoes head designer for the brand Elevenparis. The experience at Elevenparis reinforced his sensibility and interest for street-wear. With 8IGB community clothing Ruben Bissoli wants to express a spicily ironic vision of life set free from "good taste" and strict society codes through simple cool-to-wear clothes, inspired by vintage sportswear, pop culture.

Check out our hype interview with Ruben Bissoli, founder + creative director of 8IGB community clothing:

Tell us more about the ‘I don’t match’ philosophy behind the brand?

My brand was born during a very difficult moment in France, the atmosphere was dark and quite tragic, and I needed to express myself in a darkly ironic way at that time to face that reality; fortunately, I was leaving in this building that people called 8IGB were friendship and sharing and care were a spontaneous everyday habit. A place where your neighbor is also your best friend and when you feel scared or lonely you can knock at the door even at 3 in the morning and find a comforting shoulder, I named my brand 8IGB in honor of this place. The “I don’t match” slogan comes from the fact that I build a brand for people who feel like outsiders among outsiders, I build this brand to represent those who don’t belong to any category.

In the 8IGB building, we were all best friends even if we did not have the same interests or background at all, but if I have to find the element that linked us together, we were all outsiders in our domains.

You have recently made the Paristopia puffed shirt as NFT, which is wild and we love it. What were the visual references or inspiration for it?

I’m glad you loved it!!! The idea actually came from a brainstorming between me and the R(E)CREATE, a French-Taiwanese fashion consulting agency with whom 8IGB collaborated for this project. We wanted something that represents both the heritage of Paris and the modernity of Taipei, and that speaks about a not-very-flourishing future for the planet, it was during summer when the water was missing, temperatures were incredibly high, that’s why we thought about this dystopian (but possible) desert. We collected these keywords and wanted to play 100% digital by giving those keywords to an Artificial Intelligence to propose to us some graphics, we chose one and rearranged it, and of course to give it the usual 8IGB ironical twist we added the sentence “Good morning! Today is another day” which opens to different interpretations like “today is the day to start thinking about changing behavior”, or “today is just another day and we’re still behaving the same way”.

We found amazing your collaboration with Parasite Eyewear using 3D technology. How did this start? Just walk us through the design process of both.

The sunglasses were a very interesting project. I was at that time in a press agency called F141, the owner of the agency was suggesting I organize a collaboration with one of the other brands of the agency but I did not really react to that (lack of time or ideas?). One day I was doing some research for the make-up I wanted for the next coming lookbook, I came to prosthetics and fake skin makeup, and I thought it was a shame to limit this effect only for the shooting, so I tried to transform in my mind this makes up into a sellable product, and the solution was the sunglasses. I started sculpting them roughly in 3D on my IPAD the same day and the day after I called the F141’s founder and announced to him that I had a collaboration in mind with Parasite (a very cool and innovative eyewear brand), he gave me the contact straight away. I was scared about their reaction because it’s a very strange design. They contacted me a few days after to tell me that they were so monstrous that they were worth being realized, so they took my rough 3D sculpture and made it mathematically and physically realizable and wearable, and voilà we had the 1 8IGBxPARASITE sunglasses. They are called ARCADE because in French the “arcade sourcilière” is the protruding edge of the upper part of the orbit and which corresponds to the eyebrows.

How important is it to be open to creativity and to “different “nowadays”?

Nowadays creativity is something that covers a much larger range of domains, Creativity is in everything, we have to think differently because systems and structures do not last forever and we constantly have to reinvent the world. Being different is not only to be seen or to shine, it's above all a way to show that there is another way but there are also many other ways of thinking, living, loving, and creating. I don’t think that the key is to be different but it’s to be the most sincere and close to who we are and what we love.

What are some of the biggest challenges, in your opinion, that digital creatives will be facing as we transition to Web3?

On one side I think that is the fact that the sustainability side of it is questionable, according to some theories, but on the other side is having a lot of sudden success so it became a trend and like all trends, they tend to be dropped at some point so 3D web has to find its essential place in people habits, I’m sure it’s already the case. From my humble side, as a neophyte of 3D, the biggest challenge is the technique. I wish I had 48 hours to dedicate half of my day to learning and learning and learning. 3D design it’s a huge mountain of knowledge to handle.

A few words about METATOPIA video and your Fall Winter 22/23 collection.

In Metatopia I wanted to mix 3D with a very epic tone of voice, inspire by the “poema epico cavallersco” like King Arthur and the round table knights, there was a sort of parallelism between the hope of a new kingdom under King Arthur and the Metaverse, a world where everything could be possible with different rules different hierarchy (or not at all). I assume the reference might sound forced or very far but I found the perfect representation in Boris Vallejo’s and Julie Bell’s illustrations.

What’s your favorite project that you’ve worked on?

Is difficult to choose, but my favorite project will certainly be every time one I’m working on, so my favorite project will be the next one. Ha ha. If I have to choose from the past ones I would say that it was ENCLOTHES, one of 8IGB’s installations when I worked with SYSTEM F (a set design company), it is my favorite because with system F I met wonderful friends and people that could really translate with very few elements the 8IGB’s essence. It was the beginning of the brand so I was leaving in a very chaotic and saturated environment, my room was like a deposit, I had clothes all over the place and my idea was to present my collection but at the same time show the young designer real intimate and domestic reality which is far from glam, sequences, top models, podiums and so on. System F came up with the idea to create a sort of monospace apartment made of moving boxes that served as furniture, it was actually a massive block of boxes in which we could find, a tv, a fridge, and of course the wardrobe where I presented the collection. The result was amazing and much better than what could have possibly been expected.

A letter to your future self. What would you write?

It’s a pretty challenging task. But I would write:

“Dear me,

Please always believe in 8IGB, and feed it with knowledge, culture, relations,

No matter how hard it is, how lonely and invisible sometimes you can feel.

Let 8IGB evolve the same way you are evolving and always try to be honest with your creations. Find the right path for you and the brand to exist in harmony.

Try to listen more to people who have an objective opinion and stop trying to find confirmations in your small circle but spread your attention to the larger one.

You’ve done a lot, keep doing.”

I guess tomorrow I might write a completely different thing but let’s keep my bright side talking for once.

@8igb_communityclothing

interview by @mirawanderlust

RED•EYE WORLD