A few months ago when we were freaked out hard over the Comme Des ****down hat that one of the A$AP Mob was wearing in their VICE shoot a couple of months back? Itmade us get all excited about streetwear again, even after tumblr completely over-saturated the internet en masse with endless photos of their swag new swag? Well, Ukrainian-born, Coney Island-raised Russ Karablin is responsible for turning us all into gaggling tweenage girls, as he designed the hats almost a decade ago, before recently re-releasing them as part of a whole Comme Des ****down range.
If you know your streetwear – as in, really know, not just who collaborated on the last Hundreds line, or whatever – then Russ's name will mean a lot to you. He has been running SSUR, his main brand, for the better part of 20 years, and has released an impossible amount of clothing under masses of different brand names, including The Cut, Rebel Ape and Natural Born, throughout that time. The brands he currently has on the go are SSUR, Comme Des ****down and Caviar Cartel, but that could change at any moment. I had a chat with him about his time designing streetwear and why his Comme hats are so ****ing cool.
