The Weeknd And Futura 2000 Announce Limited Edition Capsule Collection

  24 May 2017 (Toronto, ON) – The Weeknd and Futura 2000 have joined forces to proudly present a limited-edition XO artist capsule collection, celebrating The Weeknd’s 2017 Starboy Legend of The Fall World Tour. The collection is presented in partnership with Bravado. This XO artist capsule collection was originally introduced last month in Los Angeles as a pop-up event and has now been extended to Toronto.
The collection leverages Futura 2000’s iconic handstyle and character drawings, rendering powerful gestures and plays on The Weeknd’s iconography, XO brand logos, and Starboy album lyrics and color palate.
To correspond with The Weeknd’s Toronto show this Friday, the capsule collection will be available at Nomad (819 Queen Street West) as a pop-up retail release, powered by Bravado. The collection will be available for a limited time, starting Thursday May 25, running until Sunday May 28.
The sprawling collection includes Alpha Industries MA-1 bomber jackets, Levi’s denim jackets featuring embroidery, skate decks, caps, and an array of hoodies and tees. Toronto will feature several styles available in an exclusive jade color way, as well as the larger, multi-city, black color capsule.
Futura, alongside his artist management and design agency ICNCLST, collaborated with The Weeknd and his XO creative brain trust to create this exciting artist capsule collection. From initial color stories and patterns, to graphical layouts and logo re-designs, the teams worked with one another to create a collection that would celebrate Futura’s iconic art style and The Weeknd’s powerful sonic and aesthetic identity. This project was a fully synergistic collaboration, with the unified team collaborating across all functions of creative inspiration, art direction, creative direction, and design.
From The Weeknd“I’m really excited about this collaboration. Futura’s been a legend in art and fashion for so long. It’s an honour to work on something like this with him.”
From Futura 2000“I have a history of collaborating with musicians across four decades of my artistic career. It’s one of the most-inspiring ways that I can express my artistry. I’ve collaborated with the likes of The Clash, Cabaret Voltaire, Unkle, NIGO (under his previous imprint APE SOUNDS), The Deftones, John Mayer, and now very proudly The Weeknd.”
From La Mar Taylor: Creative Director for The Weeknd“The vision was to always make XO a respected and recognizable brand across all platforms of art. Collaborating with Futura was a very honouring achievement. I’m very excited to share this with our generation.”
From Sky Gellatly: Futura’s Manager and Co-Founder of ICNCLST Art and Artist Management“Music and art are kinetic, non-linear forces. When combined, they have the power to captivate both sight and sound. As artist managers, we work to align my talent with brands, galleries, and collaborators that are both harmonious—but also potentially unexpected. Futura and our team have long considered The Weeknd as being an amazing potential collaborator; his sound and art direction has always been charged, dynamic, irreverent, and entirely unique. The Weeknd, and his team’s creativity, has always captivated us. It’s amazing that this project has come together so organically with Abel, La Mar, Sal, Drop and the whole XO family.”    
ABOUT THE WEEKNDStarting off his career anonymously, The Weeknd first broke into the music scene with the 2011 mixtape House of Balloons followed by studio album Kiss Land in 2013 and the widely recognized Beauty Behind the Madness that earned him two Grammy Awards in 2015, an RIAA triple-platinum certification for cumulative sales in excess of 3 million, 16 RIAA certifications from tracks alone with “The Hills” [7x-platinum], “Can’t Feel My Face” [5x-platinum], “Often” [2x-platinum], “In The Night” [platinum], and “Acquainted” [platinum]. “Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)” even garnered The Weeknd his first ever Academy Award® nomination in the category of “Best Original Song.” The Weeknd’s fourth full-length album “Starboy” released last November.  The title track featuring Daft Punk broke the record for “Most Release Weekend Streams Ever” upon its release. In less than a week, the single amassed over 17 million streams globally and 6.5 million streams in the United States, becoming #1 Most Added at Top 40, Rhythm, Urban, and Hot AC.
About Futura 2000 A pioneer when graffiti met contemporary art, Futura (American, b. 1955), alias of Leonard McGurr was known as early as the seventies for his radical approach in the street, introducing abstraction to an entirely letter-based discipline.  His work caught the attention in the 1980s, and Futura (then Futura 2000) found himself part of a wider art movement that included the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Julian Schnabel. Entirely self-taught in what he calls “the subway school”, Futura has been compared to Kandinsky and Klee for his mastery of color, movement and line; and friends Basquiat, Kenny Scharf and Rammellzee for his progressiveness and of-the-moment relevance. Radical then, his methodology can now be viewed over a span of decades as something consummately pure. When compared to the many street artists who have come along since, Futura’s work still stands apart for its subtlety, use of white space, and elemental quality. The artist knows all that is needed – as it was at the beginning – are clouds of primary color, arresting movement, and skillful tricks with a spray can. Insight and proficiency have kept him relevant for 40+ years with no signs of slowing down, and successors have yet to match Futura’s impossibly thin aerosol lines. Futura can followed on instagram at @futuradosmil, and contacted through his artist management agency:  ICNCLST Art and Artist Management (www.icnclst.com).
ABOUT BRAVADOBravado is the leading global provider of consumer, lifestyle and branding services to recording artists and entertainment brands around the world. Part of Universal Music Group, the leader in music-based entertainment, Bravado represents artists in more than 40 cities and provides services including sales, licensing, branding, marketing and e-commerce. Their extensive global distribution network gives artists and brands the opportunity to create deeper connections with their fans through apparel, consumer packaged goods and unique experiences