Babushka Boi: A$AP Rocky on His New Store, Creativity, and the Real Reason He Started Wearing a Headscarf (Before Everyone Else Did)
Tomorrow, A$AP Rocky will unveil the first permanent retail home for AWGE, the mysterious creative collective of which he is both the leader and only spokesperson. Housed in the first-floor streetwear-focused menswear room of London department store Selfridges—a highly entertaining retail space that also features a skate bowl and men’s make-up concessions—the AWGE space will be set in a re-creation of Rocky’s home turf, Harlem. According to Selfridges: “Scaled city icons include record, barber, and bakeshops; billboards, traffic lights, and yellow taxicabs; as well as personal memories, messages, and locations important to Rocky and to AWGE, all there to be explored and discovered.” Like much streetwear, AWGE’s collaborative products will be released in drops, with around 40 on offer tomorrow at launch. These will include “Ben Hundo” $100-bill-print pieces, a hand-stitched babushka-wearing Rocky doll, a collaboration with Japanese brand Needles, and more pieces with Midnight Rave. And yes, there will be babushka scarves.
As well as AWGE (about which he was guarded), the babushka menswear trend started by Rocky was one of the topics riffed on when he met up with Vogue Runway in Paris last week. After a long day spent in the recording studio, the rendezvous was quite late on the eve of the Loewe show he would attend the next morning. Hunkered down on the balcony of his suite at the Lutetia, with his longtime Fashion Manager Matthew Henson and some friends chilling just inside, Rocky was kind enough to shoot the breeze. Not up for discussion however were his recent troubles in Sweden, a subject that Rocky hinted might well inform some upcoming creative projects.
Below, a little edited for flow, are some of the highlights from our conversation with this babushka boi and bellwether of contemporary culture.
Vogue Runway: So I went to your first Selfridges tie-up, the Bodega, a few years ago—not the launch, I just passed through because Selfridges is my local department store—and really enjoyed it.
Rocky: Thanks, man. It’s my local store too—I stay right around the corner [in London]. So this time, we are doing collaborations with various individuals and different designers and whatnot. AWGE is a collective, not out of A$AP, and we have collaborated with people like JW Anderson in the past as well as Needles, Guess, tons of people. AWGE is just a collective of creative people. Everyone bounces ideas off each other, and that goes on and correlates to the designs and aesthetic and sometimes even the videos and music. So it’s about a collective of ideas. Brainstorming: That’s the best part. It’s like exercising. The collaborations at the new store are with various different brands, but it is an exclusive thing. We were cautious. I think everybody involved is noteworthy and are notable brands. It is my interpretation of still being in the race and dictating things that I think should be.
VR: What are some of those things in menswear now?
Rocky: I feel like men should be able to do nail art without feeling feminine. [Rocky reaches out to show me his fingernails, all of which have been painted with Prada motifs including the broken heart and Frankenstein from AW19]. Yeah! This lady who is really, really good drew Prada on my nails when I was shooting my Prada collaboration, and she did my nails for the photos.
VR: So I know you are going to be selling a babushka scarf and printed bag in the first AWGE drop. And I enjoyed the “Babushka Boi” video a lot, apart from the sausage scene.
Rocky: Ha! You eat pork? That’s why it subconsciously disturbs you. Subconsciously, you’re like, what if I am eating mutant human pigs? That’s why you should stop. I highly recommend it!
VR: Are you vegetarian?
Rocky: Pescatarian, adapted from a vegan project.
VR: Let’s step away from the mutant sausages, towards the whole babushka situation. You started with the headscarf action towards the end of last year, right? And from there it just became a thing. I was at a show today, Y/Project...
Rocky: Oh man, that is always good.
VR: …and I counted three guys in there doing the headscarf look. And it’s on the street here in Paris a lot. So how did it start? Was the idea from Matthew [Henson], or was it you or was it you two together?
Rocky: It was me, a million percent. [Tilts his head and calls into the suite] Matt! Whose idea was the babushka?
Henson, from inside the hotel room: Um, yours. But, I mean, is that recorder on?
VR: Why? Is this sensitive information?
Henson: No, no!
Rocky: I had a TV appearance.
Henson: He had a TV appearance, and he wanted to cover up a scar. So that was the best alternative to canceling.
Rocky: I was walking around like that in the babushka that day because my face got cut.
VR: How did it get cut?
Rocky: Well...I always tell a different story about that.