Itâs okay if the only reason you know about Casablanca is because of their collaborative sneaker collection with New Balance. The reason thatâs okay is because the brand is less than four years old and already itâs beginning to demand the attention of popular cultureâs most tasteful arbiters. Founded by Charaf Tajer, Casablanca considers itself to be a modern reimagining of the timeless apres-sport aesthetic, finding a balance between luxury and leisurewear, comfort and elegance. This imaginative vision is no joke. Collections from Casablanca feature deep, meaningful inspirations that seem to combine ideas that wouldnât go together. The Casablanca Memphis Icon T-shirt is just a single part of a Spring/Summer 2022 collection that ties together the retrofuturist world of Japan in the 1990s with the relatively controversial Italian Memphis Design Movement.
As its name suggests, Casablancaâs Memphis Icon T-shirt is deeply inspired by Milanâs 1980âs Memphis movement. Though the design trend was wildly polarizing, its influence on culture has made it pretty popular and it was even co-opted by cultural titans like Karl Lagerfeld and David Bowie. The radical approach to design was a pushback against the popular minimalism of the 1970s and often featured clashing colors, shapes, and patterns mashed together. This t-shirt takes a tasteful level of Memphis influence and puts together a kaleidoscope-like graphic on the chest, ultimately opening up to a table tennis racquet beneath a pink Casablanca logo.
Earlier this year, Tajer told GQ that the brand is about portraying the beauty of the world. Tajerâs parents met in the Moroccan city of Casablanca and the brand is run out of Paris. The combination of these two cultures is something the Casablanca founder seems to treasure, telling GQ that he âlearned about proportions in Paris, and color in Morocco.â In another interview with V Magazine, he tells them that â50% of design is color, the other 50% can be put down to proportionâ, making it clear that heâs intent on weaving together the beauty of both.Â
The Casablanca Spring/Summer 2022 collection appears to build on the idea of combining cultures through the interweaving of Milanâs 1980s Memphis Design Movement with Tajerâs appreciation of Japan in the 1990s. Titled âMasao San,â this collection is dedicated to one of Tajerâs friends from Japan who introduced him to the futuristic culture and SONYâs workforce from the 90s. Mixed in with that is the colorful, post-modernist aesthetic of Memphis Design, which has been described in the past as âa shotgun wedding between Bauhaus and Fisher-Price.â Â
After just a short period of exposure to Casablanca, it becomes clear that the brand is trying to do something different, something that tries to transform the world we live in. Though it can sometimes feel like weâre stuck in the same old cycle of taxes and laundry, there is a lot of beauty in the world, and so much of that beauty can be rediscovered through the combination and reconstruction of old aesthetics. In his interview with V Magazine, he closes with a brief thought on beauty, explaining that Casablanca is meant to âbe the lens through which people see positivityâ and reminds us that âSometimes it is important to stop and reflect that the world has this beauty.â Whether or not this Casablanca collection delivers on that vision is up for interpretation, but we could all use a t-shirt that reminds us to be a little more playful, and this one might do just that.
Buy and Sell the Casablanca Memphis Icon T-shirt, alongside other pieces from the San Masao collection on StockX here.
