Imaginary Foundation launches into the Dance Music Universe.
We’d say the San Francisco-based Imaginary Foundation is exploring new worlds… Dance Music to be exact, but we’d be lying. The heritage of the brand began in the late 80s in London, U.K. as Anarchic Adjustment, which emigrated to Northern California soon after and became one of the first rave wear companies in the United States. The brand, known for its amazing wearable art, is reaching new minds and hearts within the dance music universe with the perspective of having been there from the very beginning. This makes their latest venture a rebirth of the brand in its actual birthplace, with new generations of ravers becoming aware of Imaginary through social media exposure and a planned presence at several major festivals this year.
Imaginary Foundation brand catalogue includes Tees, Tanks, Sweatshirts, Woven and Jackets for Men and Women, Accessories including backpacks, hats, socks, beanies, pins and stickers as well as Fine Art and print imagery from the original artist behind the brand.
Fresh Music Freaks sat down with Jody, the Head of Operations to pick his brain about this new direction.
FMF: What is the Imaginary Foundation?
JR: The Imaginary Foundation is the cultural outreach outpost of the Imaginary Foundation think tank, formerly of Geneva, Switzerland, now located in a secret location in the Swiss Alps. The stated goal of IF is to bring clarity and serenity to the world by creating art and images which reflect and amplify the good qualities of being a human in the family of mankind.
FMF: Why does the Director stay so secluded?
JR: The Director is very old now, but still hiking 5 – 10 miles a day. He spends much of his time in solitude, meditating and communicating with colleagues around the world. He has given our new direction his blessing.
FMF: The Imaginary Foundation (Brand) has been around since the early 2000’s why the shift into dance music now?
JR: While we’ve been attending raves since the late 80s until now, none of us had actually made it to a big, modern EDM festival until last year’s Lightning in a Bottle. There, we were completely blown away and transformed by the scale and scope the culture had reached. We were also quite surprised to see a whole lot of clothes that looked like ours, but were not made by us. Clearly, we had been significantly influential from outside the festival scene. We decided we needed to bring IF home.
FMF: Why is clothing the medium that was chosen to spread the message?
JR: Human beings express their inner selves via what they wear on their outer selves. We want to give people positive ideas and messages they can use to express and transform themselves. Those messages attract more attention when they are worn rather than being read on a sign or printed on a page.
FMF: We have seen some new prints recently that look almost minimal in design compared to some of the early styles…is this a new collection?
JR: We had an opportunity to create some new screen print designs for one of our wholesale accounts, so we devised the Space Agency line, three shirts whose design are inspired by our deep and abiding love for NASA.”
FMF: The original supporters of the brand already have a strong understanding of your product lines, what can dance music fans expect in the future from iF?
JR: IF has experimented with women’s wear off and on over the years, but we now plan on going full bore with women’s bohemian influenced festival wear that will appeal to multiple generations, styles that will include leggings and cute tops in our unsurpassed all-over sublimation print imagery. We have a very deep and original set of print designs to work with, so expect to see us bringing back all the bangers that have apparently so inspired the other clothing brands in the festival scene. It will all debut at Lightning in a Bottle this year, and then head out to possibly EDC Las Vegas and Oregon Eclipse, and potentially more festivals in the fall.
FMF: How is iF bridging the gap between the loyal supporters of the brand and this new demographic?
JR: We’ve created a new social media channel on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter called The Imaginary Family. We’re hoping that our supporters old and new, dance music fans, festival-goers and anyone else wearing our gear will tag their social media images with our #imaginaryfamily hashtag. We are looking forward to seeing thousands of smiling faces all over the planet by this time next year.
FMF: Thank you for taking time out of your day to speak with us.
JR: Absolutely and thank you.
Fresh Music Freaks will continue to update the community as new product lines are released.
About Imaginary Foundation:
The Imaginary Foundation is a think tank from Switzerland that does experimental research on new ways of thinking and the power of the imagination. They hold dear a belief in human potential and seek progress in all directions. The small clandestine team is headed up by the mysterious “Director,” a 70-something über-intellectual whose father founded the Dadaist movement. Avoiding direct publicity, the team has sought clothing as an unlikely vehicle for bringing their ideas beyond the academic realm and into popular culture.
In his vision for the Imaginary Foundation, the Director knew that the human mind has more than one mode, that indeed it has an “ecology” of being. He knew that imagination, intuition, inspiration are basic to psyche… A philosophy of research began to form: imagination as fundamental to all learning; artistic making as a model of integrating vision, materials, structure, and imagery.
“What makes true vision is the poetry of life and the richness of nature”
The Foundation’s basis has been a strong sense of community, free inquiry, creativity, and the experimental spirit. Over the years the Foundation has generated a critical mass of creative people in many different fields, for whom it’s been a catalyst for experimentation and innovation.
“The Imaginary Foundation is a crazy and magical place, and the electricity of its members seems to make for a wonderfully charged atmosphere, so that sometimes before sessions one becomes excited and a little anxious, as though a thunderstorm were sweeping in.”
Imaginary Foundation is moving forward with a passion for spreading their message…
“Somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known.”
Want to get involved and help spread the message?
Social media influencers are encouraged to contact Imaginary Foundation HERE
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