During Paris Fashion Week, Another Man and adidas Originals hosted Objects of Legacy, an intimate dinner and cocktail soiree to celebrate adidas Stan Smith
You can trace adidas’ Stan Smith trainer to various historical touchstones, to conversations that have scored not just style evolution, but cultural discourse. In the Casual scene of the 1980s, the shoe became shorthand for effortless cool on football terraces across the UK, and was a staple overseas for stars like David Bowie, Harrison Ford and Mikhail Baryshnikov, who wore them in the 1985 wartime thriller, White Nights. Into the 2010s, it was the go-to for designers like Raf Simons, Yohji Yamamoto and Phoebe Philo, as conversations around hyper-minimalism and versatility took hold at runway shows and in broadsheet newsrooms. Today, the trainer is indexed by so many influential names, faces and moments that it has become a cultural artefact – as relevant as a museum item as it is a piece of contemporary sportswear.
On Saturday night during Paris Fashion Week, deep in the poured-concrete levels of a vast Unesco Heritage Site called Espace Niemeyer, Another Man, BeGood Studios, architectural practice Casper Mueller Kneer and culinary studio We Are Ona staged a multidisciplinary evening with adidas Originals to explore the lineage and enduring relevance of the green and white trainer. Objects of Legacy, the event, was somewhere between a rave, a dinner party and an exhibition, in which names including Pusha T, Willy Chavarria, Gabbriette, Cruz Beckham, Paloma Elsesser, Wisdom Kaye, ASAP Nast, Damson Idris, Raphael Luce, Mark Gonzales, Nia Smith, and Fai Khadra mingled between floors and intricate spatial designs. Opened in 1978 as the headquarters of the French Communist Party, the building was designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the renowned architect behind the headquarters of the UN in New York, and Brasília, a planned city that became the Brazilian capital in the 1960s. Later, it played host to numerous iconic runway shows, from Prada in the year 2000 to Thom Browne and Jean Paul Gaultier.
Another Man’s editor in chief Ellie Grace Cumming and Torben Schumacher, global general manager for adidas Originals, welcomed guests through three distinct area designs, with dedicated spaces for photography, pre-dinner cocktails, dinner and a closing drink. Attendees Camille Bidault-Waddington, Imruh Asha, Tshegue, Thue Nørgaard and Theo Liu enjoyed a cocktail selection of French Palomas, Clarified Espresso Martinis, a Spicy Cucumber Margarita from Tico Tequila and delicious wine from Penfolds. For dinner, the party was served a first course of Spinach Tortellini, Scallops, Ricotta Di Bufala, Girolles, followed by Smoked Guinea Fowl, Celeriac, Apple, Demi-Glace. The evening’s richly textural and fragrant dessert was an Orange Blossom Frozen Parfait, Pistachio, and white chocolate.
After dinner, guests were treated to DJ sets from Andy 4000, Simo Cell and headliner Object Blue, whose dynamic experimental electronica rounded off an evening of innovative interactive spatial design, culinary craft and plinths tracing the history of the Stan Smith. Guests danced, mingled and stared in awe at the central room’s vast domed ceiling, before heading up the building’s serpentine exit ramp – Objects of Legacy-branded tote bags in tow.
