Stormzy's Banksy Designed Stab-Proof Vest Nominated for Beazley Designs of the Year Award
The rapper wore the statement piece during last year’s Glastonbury festival.
Stormzy made waves at Glastonbury Festival 2019 not only for his performance centered around his soon-to-be-released Heavy Is The Head album, but for his wardrobe selection. The rapper commissioned the ever-mysterious Banksy to design a stab-proof vest with the United Kingdom’s Union Jack flag spray painted across the front. Now that very vest has been nominated for the prestigious Beazley Designs of the Year Award. The winner will be announced by London’s Design Museum next month.
Stormzy and Banksy’s vest is one of 74 nominees and comes with Banksy’s own description as, “capable of stopping bullets up to .45 calibre and is fully stab proof, yet not machine washable.” Stormzy wore the vest to comment on the influx of knife crimes in Britain. During his Glastonbury performance, Stormzy also utilized his headline spot to speak on the injustices of young Black youth being targeted by a biased judicial system.
“This year’s exhibition explores key moments in design from January 2019 to the moment global attention shifted in late January 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold — the selected projects respond to urgent questions of inequality and censorship, health and sanitisation, and the ongoing possibilities of design and technology,” Tim Marlow, the director of London’s Design Museum told the Evening Standard recently. There’s also another notable nominee: the design technology created to transform Robert De Niro and Al Pacino’s respective ages in the Martin Scorsese film The Irishman.
Earlier this week Banksy officially confirmed through his Instagram account that he was the artist behind a new mural of a girl hula-hooping with a tire spotted outside a beauty salon in Nottingham, England. His Girl with Ballon & Morons Sepia 2007 work also garnered £1,232,500 GBP (approx. $1,598,060 USD) at auction this week.
Stay tuned for more updates regarding the Beazley Designs of the Year Award winner in the near future. In related news, Stormzy appeared on Headie One’s recent star-studded album EDNA.
