June Ambrose, Puma’s inventive director for ladies’s basketball, is ready to depart the model on the expiry of her contract on the finish of 2023, BoF has discovered.
The movie star stylist and costume designer mentioned she has determined to maneuver on from the model to pursue numerous private initiatives within the coming 12 months.
Ambrose has held her function at Puma since 2020, after she was launched to then-chief govt Bjørn Gulden by her longtime pal and shopper Jay-Z. In her tenure, she considerably scaled Puma’s ladies’s basketball assortment and designed collections that infused components of efficiency sportswear with fashion-forward design and her signature vibrant colors — components she had been recognized for by means of her work as a fancy dress designer for the likes of Alicia Keys, Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige.
Her work within the music business contributed to a few of hip-hop’s most iconic vogue moments, at a time when luxurious manufacturers had been reluctant to work with rappers. She was liable for Missy Elliott’s unforgettable black puffy swimsuit in her “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” music video, for instance.
Earlier in her profession, Ambrose labored at Puma’s rival Adidas, the place she served as inventive director of the German model’s collaboration with Elliott.
“I used to be in a position to visually disrupt what the style of music regarded like and I noticed a white area to do the identical factor on the earth of sport,” Ambrose mentioned. “I got down to create one thing that on the time was new and contemporary — product that was each efficiency and life-style on the similar time.”
Ambrose helped to construct Puma into a good identify in US ladies’s basketball at a time when the WNBA and its gamers hardly acquired any protection in mainstream media. Her first assortment for Puma was a streetwear-inspired tackle efficiency basketball clothes. Ambrose tapped 5 of Puma’s WNBA athletes for a star-studded launch marketing campaign: Breanna Stewart, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Katie Lou Samuelson and Jackie Younger. Later, she created a signature ladies’s basketball sneaker and a set for Stewart, a two-time WNBA champion.
After increasing Puma’s ladies’s basketball class, Ambrose’s place on the model developed right into a wider-ranging function. She was tasked with main inventive course for the model’s buzzy return to New York Fashion Week in September 2022, for which she placed on a prolific present that included Puma’s signature motifs, similar to its tracksuit stripes and leaping cougar emblem, into sudden silhouettes: a tuxedo jacket with joggers; a Puma bodysuit paired with a ballgown skirt. Fashions that walked the runway included Usain Bolt, Winnie Harlow and Nigerian Afrobeats star Davido.
Ambrose additionally launched a number of co-branded collaborations with Puma — which carried her identify alongside the model’s — together with a 20-piece capsule which launched in January 2023, comprising efficiency basketball and streetwear-inspired attire similar to sweatpants and hoodies, in addition to sneakers and equipment.
Ambrose performed a key function in serving to Puma attain beforehand underserved shoppers in not solely ladies’s basketball but additionally motorsports, which has quickly become a key category for the brand, trying to capitalise on the soaring popularity of competitions like F1 and Nascar in North America, notably amongst feminine shoppers. In Could, the model signed a landmark multi-year licensing deal to solely produce and promote F1 attire, footwear and merch.
That month, Ambrose and Puma launched a womenswear Components 1 collaboration with Scuderia Ferrari. The gathering offered out on the in-person launch activation held in Miami forward of the Grand Prix. In October, Puma employed A$AP Rocky as creative director of the overall F1 partnership.
Within the many years previous to her function at Puma, Ambrose had already been a pioneer on the intersection of vogue, hip-hop and sportswear. Her initiatives included designing a basketball jersey-turned-dress for a Jay-Z music video, and he or she as soon as staged a vogue present for the NBA the place athletes walked the runway.
In Puma, she discovered a platform that allowed her to carry this dynamic area of interest into mainstream widespread tradition.
“Athletes have now been built-in into the excessive vogue and popular culture dialog,” mentioned Ambrose. “It’s just like the tunnel walks are actually runways and field seats are like sitting entrance row at a present.”
Thank you for being a valued member of the Nirantara family! We appreciate your continued support and trust in our apps.
- Nirantara Social - Stay connected with friends and loved ones. Download now: Nirantara Social
- Nirantara News - Get the latest news and updates on the go. Install the Nirantara News app: Nirantara News
- Nirantara Fashion - Discover the latest fashion trends and styles. Get the Nirantara Fashion app: Nirantara Fashion
- Nirantara TechBuzz - Stay up-to-date with the latest technology trends and news. Install the Nirantara TechBuzz app: Nirantara Fashion
- InfiniteTravelDeals24 - Find incredible travel deals and discounts. Install the InfiniteTravelDeals24 app: InfiniteTravelDeals24
If you haven't already, we encourage you to download and experience these fantastic apps. Stay connected, informed, stylish, and explore amazing travel offers with the Nirantara family!
Source link