Bape returned to Latest York City Wednesday night to have a good time the brand’s thirtieth anniversary with a performance-meets-fashion show titled “Bape Heads.” Held on the live music venue Terminal 5, the event featured the debut of several men’s and girls’s fall 2023 collections and special performances by Lola Brooke, Coi Leray and Lil Baby. 

The event kicked off with segmented runway collections featuring Bape and its 4 sister labels Aape, Bape Black, Bapy and Apee. Greater than 100 men’s and girls’s looks featuring the brand’s latest ready-to-wear, accessories and footwear hit the runway before the performers took the stage for individual sets. The brand brought out the likes of Chania Ray, Chris Brickiey, Fabolous, Fiffany Luu, Fivio Foreign, Hamidou Diallo, Jaylen Brown, Jalen Mills, Jett Kain, JT, Kacion Mayers, KJ Martin, Lynn Ban, Maria Beltre, Pardi and more to honor its anniversary.

While the brand launched in and operates out of Japan, Bape selected to have a good time its thirtieth anniversary in Latest York because it has close ties to the town.

“Bape selected to have a good time its thirtieth anniversary in Latest York, a city that has been a very important marketplace for the brand because it expanded outside of Japan,” said Thomas Hui, chief operating officer of Bape. “Latest York’s connection to streetwear, music, street art and hip-hop culture has been closely related to Bape throughout its history, making it a perfect location to pay tribute to the town and culture that played a big role within the brand’s success.”

Founded by designer Nigo in 1993, Bape, known also as A Bathing Ape, has been a number one brand within the streetwear market. Its close ties with Japanese streetwear, its signature camouflage print and ape head logo have resonated with fans during the last three many years. They’re still core elements of the brand and in-house design team’s ethos even after Nigo’s departure in 2013. He’s now creative director of Kenzo.

The brand’s consistent slate of collaborations has also helped maintain its popularity amongst fans. Bape has collaborated with musicians like Pharrell Williams and Kanye West, in addition to other fashion brands including Adidas, Comme des Garçons, Supreme and Heron Preston, amongst others. 

“Bape has cultivated a robust sense of community and exclusivity around their brand,” Hui said. “Their limited-edition releases and collaborations with high-profile artists and designers create a way of exclusivity and hype around their products. Overall, Bape’s success could be attributed to their ability to create a singular brand image, stay relevant and cultivate a way of community and exclusivity across the products.” 

Operating multiple subbrands is one other option to proceed to resonate with customers, in accordance with Hui, who explained that every subbrand is supposed to cater to “different markets and demographics.” For instance, he stated AAPE is a cheaper line aimed toward younger customers, while Bape Black offers more elevated and splendid pieces.

“Launching subbrands allows Bape to experiment with recent styles and designs without diluting the predominant brand’s identity,” he said. “Each subbrand can have its own aesthetic and marketing strategy, enabling Bape to explore recent ideas and trends.”

On the runway, the Bape line (the most important collection of the night) riffed on three key themes: “Sport Mania,” “College Classic” and “Denim Painter,” through ’90s hip-hop-inspired styles. For example, women’s basketball shorts with an après-ski inspired sweater; logomania and warped camo denim (which looked great in shades of purple); graphic puffer and teddy jackets with skin-baring women’s fashions, or men’s flannels, hoodies, workwear layers, tracksuits and varsity jackets.

“This season, Bape has created recent graphics comparable to the Bape Monogram letter pattern and enlarged ‘ABC Camo’ camouflage prints. The gathering combines vintage signature items with recent elements and encompasses a vibrant and daring color palette inspired by vinyl record covers. The gathering also includes dazzling jewelry accessories to finish the luxurious feel and produce back the retro Y2K aesthetic of the millennium era,” Hui added.

The Black Bape men’s line offered luxe takes on classic garments (which looked especially great in the shape of leisure suiting mixed with utility pants and colourful landscape knitted sweaters) inspired by the “retro outdoor” trend, whereas the brand’s Aape line drew inspiration from ’90s streetwear, hip-hop and skateboarding (a handful of models rode down the runway on skateboards) with youthful, sporty knits and reworked sweatsuits in an array of poppy pastel shades and gradient-effect tie-dye. A key men’s look of Aape was noted to be an apricot-hued tracksuit with allover Moonface monogram motif.

Moreover, Bapy centered around “the office essentials” while Apee catered to its Gen Z and Japanese Gyaru audiences with early 2000s nostalgia. Standouts in womenswear included impressive tailoring (a black blazer and white button-down atop pleated skirt and crochet trousers); luxed-up logo denim (starting from utility pants to a singular gown) and tweedy jackets, and a pair of silver paillette trousers with embellished pastel pink hoodie (and matching, glittering gloves). Across menswear, a mixture of utilitarian dress, street and sportif styles nicely played off one another with modern élan.

The runway portion of Bape Heads concluded with a variety of the brand’s signature camo shark full-zip hooded tracksuits (worn with large, inflatable wings). Throughout the show, each look was accessorized with oversize, sparkling statement jewelry and a robust array of the brand’s signature sneakers and footwear.

Going forward, Bape has plans to proceed to expand internationally, with recent stores slated for Europe, the U.S. and Asia-Pacific regions, and to proceed dropping launches and collaborations.