RSVP Gallery is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a new partnership.
The Chicago-based streetwear retailer is joining forces with denim label Agolde and its parent company Citizens of Humanity to create a subbrand, also titled RSVP Gallery.
To celebrate the partnership and its 15th anniversary, RSVP Gallery and Agolde are releasing a vintage-inspired capsule collection and coffee-table book on Friday. RSVP Gallery is also working with artist Theaster Gates for the collaboration.
“The launch of this capsule collection is not only celebrating the 15-year anniversary of the brand, but also launching [RSVP Gallery] in a manner in which it’s never been before — a brand that’s sitting under another door, other than collaborations that we’ve done in the past,” said RSVP Gallery’s Don C, who cofounded the retailer alongside Virgil Abloh. “I love it because [Agolde] is mostly a denim brand and we thought we complemented it well in the showroom because we’re menswear and we’re not doing denim like that.”
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The capsule collection is centered on a vintage workwear aesthetic and was inspired by the early ‘90s, which Don C said were formative years for him. The collection offers men’s pieces like puffer vests, rugby shirts, varsity jackets, tracksuits and more styles.
Don C explained the partnership came about after connecting with Citizens of Humanity’s director of marketing Jared Freedman, who wanted to help bring RSVP Gallery to a larger customer base.
“He really thought that RSVP Gallery was an amazing brand and he didn’t understand why it wasn’t amplified in a manner in which he thought it should be,” Don C said. “I told him it’s really just infrastructural problems and my bandwidth being short and things like that. He was like we should do something, so it just authentically turned into a friendship and a business relationship.”
RSVP Gallery will continue to produce collections under its subbrand within the Citizens of Humanity brand portfolio. Don C said the second collection is in the works.
Through the partnership, RSVP Gallery is debuting its coffee-table book, which chronicles the retailer from its inception and gives insight into pivotal collaborations and moments throughout the last 15 years.
The book is meant to be interactive, with ripped-up pages and sticker pages that give the reader ways to discover more about RSVP Gallery. According to Don C, one highlight of the book is a section on RSVP Gallery’s “white wall,” which was an actual white wall in the retailer’s back office which he and Abloh used to take polaroids of their friends and famous visitors. He said the brand has polaroids from notable figures like Rihanna, Pharrell Williams, Future and more, all wearing an RSVP Gallery T-shirt.
“I had saved hard drives, polaroids and different content since the inception of RSVP in 2009,” Don C said. “It’s just so many fun things — being able to see all of the people who have been through the shop, all the events that we’ve done and been a part of over the last 15 years has been really refreshing to see that.”
Don C also reflected on the role RSVP Gallery has had on the overall streetwear market over the last 15 years, reminiscing how Abloh leveraged the retailer’s network of talent for his creative projects and the many brands RSVP Gallery helped launch.
“We launched Off-White, we launched Pyrex, we launched Fear of God, we launched Just Don,” he said. “We were the first retailer to have all of these brands — we don’t stunt that, but that’s a fact. From a creative standpoint, not only did we launch, but we also creatively work with these brands behind the scenes to help them launch their businesses.”
For the next 15 years of RSVP Gallery, Don C stated he hopes to continue growing the business to reach more people and thinks the partnership with Citizens of Humanity will help achieve that goal. He also has plans to open another RSVP Gallery location in Chicago next summer.
