“The Harmattan is a dry and dusty West African trade wind. It blows south from the Sahara into the Gulf of Guinea between the end of November and the middle of March. On its passage over the desert it picks up fine dust particles which color the sky and distort the sun.”
“Winds from the North” is the name of fashion brand Gold Coast Trading Company’s current collection for Spring/Summer 2012. Those windy passages were also the main inspiration source for CHILLNGR to create Vol. 3 of the Popular Bass Minimix series that accompanies the designs on a regular base. Being well known for his dubby, eerie soundscapes the Copenhagen-based musician put together a beautiful dark Dub arrangement of his own productions that perfectly narrates the journey of the Harmattan wind from dessert to city to sea (that sounds a bit cheesy now). Every Popular Bass Mix is 14:44 minutes long, referencing 1444 as the year European colonists started to deport the first Africans – the whole philosophy of Gold Coast Trading is centered around a strong political stance and a lot of research (and beautiful imagery and more, all to be explored on their website). Vol. 1 and 2 were mixed by Sweaterbeats and Johan Hugo, both worth a listen.
Definitely worth a look is the collection itself, merging the dusty soft pastell-colors of the Harmattan season with geometric patterns, clean shapes and cooling material. It’s simply perfect (and I seriously love that shoes, the bomber jacket and the white blouse…).
(pictures courtesy of Gold Coast Trading, photography by Bo Streeter, styling by Emeka Alams)