A bold meeting point between music and fashion, A$AP Nast’s new Comme des Garçons Shirt capsule collection takes inspiration from New York hip-hop
For years, A$AP Nast has worn Comme des Garçons with a near-religious devotion – so when the time came to release his debut album, 90s Era Nasty, a collaboration with the brand felt both personal and inevitable. “I thought it would make sense for me to collaborate with the brand I love most in the world to do my merch,” he reflects. “So, we had a meeting with Adrian [Joffe]. And then it was happening.” The resulting 12-piece capsule with Comme des Garçons Shirt is distinctly artist-led: a meeting point between music and fashion, between Rei Kawakubo’s legacy and Nast’s vision – and the first time a musician has collaborated with the line.
Nast has been wearing Comme for “I don’t even know how long,” he says. “I can’t count on my hands anymore.” But for the musician, Kawakubo’s world offers more than visual appeal – it’s a blueprint for being and creating. “She showed me how to be myself,” he says. “In a world where so many people are followers, Rei created a brand where people can look completely different.” The freedom Kawakubo carves out in her work – the space to think and move through the world differently – has shaped not just how he dresses, but how he makes music. “There are so many copycats now. People don’t think for themselves,” he observes. “You’ve got to get your ideas out into the world. You never know whose life you might change.”
For the capsule collection, Joffe offered existing CDG Shirt styles – T-shirts, shirts, and knitwear – as a starting point for Nast and his in-house design team to create their merch. “I had creative control, for the most part,” he affirms. His name is seamlessly woven into the CDG Shirt logo and then sprawled across shirting with an instinctive ease that only a true devotee could bring. Elsewhere, it’s scrawled on the backs of cardigans and over tees, in a visual harmony that feels neatly in step with the brand’s playful DNA. The unifying thread of the collection? “New York hip-hop. It’s very chanty,” he says of the capsule’s energy – merch-like in spirit and devotional in feeling.
Shot by long-time collaborator Dexter Navy, the campaign channels the same layered energy as the collection itself, with the sharp imagery mirroring exactly where Nast is creatively: “I’m just creating ... it feels organic to me,” he admits. “I feel like I’m in a world where I am creating again.” The photographs are pulled directly from Nast’s world: 90s Era Nasty stamped across shirting, leopard-spotted numerals on a cardigan, and his signature “N” pendant reworked as a graphic motif. “I just hope the world sees it the way we see it,” Nast muses. “This isn’t just a collab – it’s worlds colliding and making something new.”
On May 2, Nast dropped No Hammer, a single from his upcoming album – Comme des Garçons is, of course, mentioned in the lyrics. The capsule collection will be unveiled through a series of in-store activations across Dover Street Markets, beginning May 8 in New York, and launching globally in-store and online on May 15. But as Nast points out, while flicking through rack after rack of Comme in his home, “This is a religion for me. It’s tatted on me” (he does, in fact, have the logo inked on his body). In many ways, this isn’t just a fitting collab to support the album – it’s an ode to Rei Kawakubo and the design ethos that continues to inspire him and his music. “My phone has every single runway show on it,” says. “When I die, I’ll be buried in Comme.”
A$AP Nast x Comme des Garçons Shirt launches globally in-store and online on May 15.
