CACTUS PLANT FLEA MARKET - THE MYSTERIOUS BRAND THAT PHARREL USES AND IS MUCH MORE THAN HYPE
June 03 2021 – Felipe Aristizabal
For six years we have seen this mysterious happy face with four eyes and a stunning puff print on the t-shirts and hoodies of the most recognized designers and artists in the world. One of the most representative is Pharrel, which has a lot to do with the brand since in 2012, a woman named Cynthia Lu arrived at the Billionaire Boys Club offices looking for work with some Cèline sneakers that, curiously, Pharrel was wearing. also using at the time, so they instantly had a connection that made Cynthia start working as her stylist and personal assistant.
Known by her friends as "Cactus" or "Plant", Chyntia Lu is the creator and owner of the CPFM brand, a woman full of mystery and secrecy that makes the brand even cooler . To this day there are no photos or interviews of this woman. Legend has it that she began by herself in a small apartment in Brooklyn where she created pieces she found in Parisian flea markets, mainly for Pharrel, who kept her amazed with the creations she made, and encouraged her to make more. until 2015 when Pharrel received his CFDA award as a fashion icon and told his incredible assistant Cactus to follow his instincts and that's how he started the brand. To find a piece from the brand in its beginnings you had to go to some very selected boutiques and buy, if you were lucky, some hand-dyed garment with its characteristic texts "WWCD", "We Are All Powered By The Sun" and many more .
The brand began to gain greater recognition over time and likewise, artists such as Kid Cudi, Kanye West, Travis Scott and even the Rolling Stones themselves have commissioned with the brand and have launched collaborations for their tours or advertising campaigns. Among the numerous collaborations such as ASSC, Comme des Garçons, Stüssy, Alpinestars, among others, the collaborations carried out with Nike stand out the most. The day Cynthia arrived at the Nike operations center, she brought with her bags full of prototypes that she had made and threw them on the table, leaving Nike executives with their mouths open.
To date there are two big launches with Nike; The first launched in October 2019, which featured several very exotic clothing items, but the one that stood out the most was the Vapormax collaboration, which has a raised swoosh that represents garden wire. From this collection we were fortunate at Libur to have the blue hoodie and at that moment we realized the quality of this brand. For this reason, for the second launch we are not far behind and we managed to obtain five garments in different sizes that will be available for sale starting June 3, 2021. What stands out most about this second collection is the quality of the garments, in Libur we have never had a Nike piece with such well-done attention to detail.
Recently, the founder of Off-White and creative director of the Louis Vuitton brand, Virgil Abloh, said that Street Wear was going to die, but he also firmly believed that Cynthia Lu was exactly its future.
"She is a pure artist. Her designs stand out on their own and do not need to be promoted,"
Virgil says.
"Its anonymity is not a trick to make its design go further,"
In a market that is dominated by men and hype , Lu shows that there are still original ways to develop a brand.
The information for this blog was taken from:
-GQ
-HIGHSNOBIETY
