Why did you choose the name Black Rainbow/BKRW?

We have many reasons for Black Rainbow. At the beginning, one of the graphic designers that did our website, Sebastian, did a lot of designs with rainbows. The first thing we said was it would be crazy to do the background with all these kinds of rainbows. We tried to think about the concept more than just graphics. My partner Jess said, okay, we can use the name of Black Rainbow. I said okay, but if we choose the name we have say why we called it Black Rainbow. At this time, when we started to do the concept of the website, it was really “black.” The street culture was really down; nothing was really happening. It was not dead, but it was really quiet in Europe. It was the beginning, about three years ago in the US, with the new brands. But in France, Belgium or even in Germany and England, it was really quiet. For ten years, it was the same brands everywhere, same market everywhere, same music everywhere. It was really a dark market. That’s why we said okay, but black is not really funny, so let’s make it Black Rainbow. A rainbow is between the sun and the clouds, so we are in the mix of the culture. We change the generation, so we are between two generations. We are the cloud and the sun, so we come from the cloud and we go to the sun; so that’s the Black Rainbow.

What are some of the goals behind BKRW.com?

I want to explain to people what this culture is. I think t-shirts are not enough. Street culture is really a big family, and is really a big influence in the world. Today you can see that graffiti is everywhere, in the music, in the advertising, even in the fashion industry. Streetwear is not only for young teenagers who’re wearing baggy clothes in the street that don’t understand what they are doing. You have some really smart and really interesting people who do a lot of things. I think the people that go into this industry, go into this culture, have to know where they come from and where they are going. You can see what Stussy is doing today. You can see what [Hiroshi] Fujiwara is doing for this culture today, but not only in the streetwear, even in the fashion industry, even in the car industry, everywhere. That’s why I try with the website to show people all the capacity of the street culture. I don’t want to say it’s just fashion. It’s not for only one year; it’s not for only two years. I remember when I was young, people would say that in two years we won’t hear about graffiti anymore. Now, more than 20 years later, it’s still here and strong. For streetwear, it’s now more than 15 years later and we’re still here and strong. I’m 37 years old, and the young people from 13 years ago are still here and they are still pushing. That’s why I say it’s not just a fad. It’s a culture. We have codes, we have some artists, we have some influences from everywhere, and we have some business too. We have a lot of things inside this culture. That’s the first part of the website.
    But also on the website we want to show people what street culture is. I want to talk to the clients, to the people that come to see and that have bought these kinds of clothes. You’re not part of the street culture just because you’re wearing a Hundreds t-shirt or a Stussy t-shirt. You’re in the street culture because you live and think street culture. We don’t care if you wear baggy clothes. We don’t care if you wear a suit. We care what you’re doing, what you’re thinking, what you do for this culture. It’s not so easy to be in the street culture. Too many people want to be there, but they are not. Like, “I got my New Era cap.” Yeah, bullshit, what’s that? You can wear a New Era cap if you come from rock and roll or you’re a truck driver. We don’t think that because you’re wearing something that you’re part of this culture. That’s why we try to show people what street culture is. That’s why you can see on the website some photo shoots. You can see some graffiti, but not only graffiti. Also some artists’ portfolios. It could be graphic design, it could be pictures, it could be canvas, it could be whatever. Street culture comes from the street, and the street is big. It’s not a small world. So this is what we try to do with the website.

Explain about the “Encyclopedia” section and some of the features you’ve done on the website.

This part of the website, the encyclopedia, is important for us for two reasons: first because everybody has to know about the beginning of streetwear. It’s also important to know who started streetwear, when they started their brand, with who and with what. Encyclopedia can talk about the old streetwear brands and the new streetwear brands. Everybody knows everybody and everybody influences everybody. If you don’t go on the encyclopedia, you don’t understand anything. You can take a look at Haze. Everybody knows two logos of Haze, but not everybody knows what he did, with the link from hiphop to streetwear. You can also go to see Fujiwara. Fujiwara doesn’t come from hiphop. You can go to see Leilow from Hawaii; he doesn’t come from hiphop either. With the encyclopedia you can see streetwear comes from the street, but it also comes from rock and roll, from punk, from hiphop, from funk. There are many influences. If you don’t look in the Encyclopedia, you don’t understand the beginning of this culture. Today, with the new generation, you can see it’s not only hiphop, it’s not only metal, it’s not only funky, it’s more than that. If we don’t explain the links of the creator of the brand, of the manager or the designer, or director of the brand, you don’t know where he comes from, so you cannot understand what street culture is. So this is what we try to do with BKRW. We try to explain to people, we try to show people, that streetwear is really large. You can come from anywhere, even from country music. You’ll see all the facets of streetwear.

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