Last week, we were invited to the grand opening of Villa and Starter‘s Clubhouse at the Paramount Hotel in NYC. The Clubhouse serves as Villa’s very first retail space in NYC, albeit a temporary pop-up. There was much to celebrate, as Villa had just released their eye-catching “Emerald” boot, created in partnership with none other than the iconic Timberland brand. However, the focus of the evening wasn’t the boot, rather the debut of specially crafted NBA All-Star gear. Villa partnered with Starter to release the All-Star “Slam Dunk Pack” which includes 6 throwback-themed varsity jackets which are available at the Villa web store.
We caught up with Naturel, who curated the art at the venue, and discussed a few topics ranging from how he got the opportunity to partner with Villa and starter, his past projects and projects he’s got in store for the remainder of the year.
Basically, let us know why you’re here. How did you connect with Villa and Starter?
Villa approached me. They seeded me some Timbs and I appreciated what they were doing on a store level. Opening locations in the hood, making sure managers came from that area – I respect that. Coming up in PG County, I shopped at stores like that.
You’re one of the biggest influencers in the game right now. Can you tell us about the pieces you curated for this pop-up?
Thank you (laughs). They reached out to me and it was really simple. New York, but for All-Star Weekend, they wanted to accentuate these packs. So, they have the Big East Pack of Starter jackets and apparel and everything. Then they had the Forgotten Franchise Pack as well. We really wanted to land the New York theme. We could’ve done the basketball theme, and overdo it, but we wanted to run with the New York theme. I spent 12 years up here hustling. I lived in Brooklyn, in Clinton Hill, and I used to ride the subway to work all day, every day. In some stations they would have the older mosaic tiles and I always loved that. At first I thought about doing a big mural, but I really wanted to land that for them. I didn’t want to overdo it so it would be like, “Oh, it’s a Naturel thing,” I wanted to downplay it a little bit to make it more about them.
You’re wearing the Villa X Timberland “Emeralds.” What attracted you to them?
They do a lot of forward stuff that other stores in their lane don’t really push out to do. They do partnerships, they go outside of their region, they reach out to folks like me – they take risks. In the lane they’r win, it’s been easy for folks to just do enough. They’re really pushing it. I love the fact that Timberland is coming out with a bunch of colors, I have all of them (laughs) and the new “Emerald” is a killer.
Aside from this collaboration, what would you say are some of your favorite collaborations from 2014?
I guess one of my favorite collaborations would have to be with Flawless, man. I love all of the partners that I’ve worked with, and I’m very thankful and fortunate to even create with them in their lane with their products. I enjoy everything that comes on the table. The Flawless collaboration is hard to put into words, because it’s not just business – that’s my brother. There’s also the HLZBLZ collaboration with Lanie – that’s like my older sister and I’ve been waiting on that for a long time.
Who can we expect you to work with?
I’m not sure. It’s not one of those things where I make a plan to work with folks – if it happens, it happens; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. This year, I’m working on a lot more paintings, I have a Scope in New York in March, in a few days i’ll be in Hawaii for Pow! Wow! with a lot of other great artists and then Miami again in December.
RELATED: VILLA AND TIMBERLAND MEET ONCE AGAIN. THIS TIME, IT’S FOR AN “EMERALD” GREEN 6″ BOOT.