The Supreme Team’s Second Coming

There are often hoards of teenagers lined up outside Supreme’s SoHo store, but at the release of Supreme x David Sims at New York’s Dashwood Books on Wednesday night, the crowd was mostly over 21. Major fashion players like photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin and Vogue Paris editor-in-chief Emmanuelle Alt were among those who waited their turn for a signed copy of the book. “We have the power to mesh these worlds into one,” said Supreme brand director Angelo Baque, who was dressed in Gucci loafers, a Thelonious Monk tee, and a white Supreme baseball hat. “We’re a skate brand. A lot of people want to say ‘street wear’, but honestly, we’re more complex than that.”

The skaters featured in the book—Tyshawn Jones, Sage Elsesser, Sean Pablo and Aidan Mackey—aren’t exactly front row regulars. “They could give a fuck about fashion or David Sims,” said Baque. “No disrespect to David, but they didn’t know who David was.”

Baque compares today’s skate crowd to those who worked with the brand in the late ‘90s. “It’s a second coming,” he declares. “Before modeling or looking good, they were through-and-through, one-hundred-percent skaters. Now it’s the same thing again, where these kids are skaters first and foremost.”

Baque’s favorite photo in the book? “I love the photo of all four of them sitting in the tub, where Tyshawn is slapping Aidan in the chest,” he says. “That was a very genuine moment. It wasn’t set up. It was just like, ‘Yo, the kids are talking shit in the tub—go get the photo.’ I nudged David and was like, ‘This is it.’ And it just happened.”