Midnight Studios Founder Shane Gonzales Recruits A$AP Nast for 'Ray Gun' x Diesel Campaign
The collaboration celebrates the influential magazine’s visual legacy.
A$AP Nast‘s modeling career continues, following his recent gig for Stüssy. The rapper is now the face of Shane Gonzales‘ new Diesel collaboration, realizing an ode to Ray Gun, the ultra-influential ’90s music magazine that played a key role in shaping the Midnight Studios founder’s design cues.
Lauded for its imaginative layouts, Ray Gun delivered adventurous covers and content for much of its eight-year run, challenging readers with inverted text, stylized imagery and other touches of whimsy. Gonzales’ love for the breadth of artists covered by the Californian publication drew him to it at an early age, channeling that admiration into his new Diesel partnership. Here, nine limited edition items are infused with the explosive spirit of Ray Gun; T-shirts, hoodies, leather and denim jackets all feature prints and artwork sourced from the pages of Ray Gun: The Bible of Music and Style and modeled by Nast as he takes on the role of family patriarch in the accompanying campaign.
“When Diesel reached out to me, I jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with a brand that I follow and admire,” Gonzales said in a statement. “As a young designer, getting to meet and work with an icon such as Ray Gun founder Marvin Scott Jarrett, who personally took me through the magazine archives, was beyond my artist dreams. Seeing all my favorite musicians from cover to cover inspired me to mix my modern punk aesthetic with the magazine’s original artwork, typography and style to create a collection that not only modernizes, but stays true to the punk rock sensibility.”
Look for Gonzales’ Ray Gun collection to arrive on Diesel’s web store, its physical outposts and stockists like Fred Segal Sunset and Social Status on November 13.
This new collection follows Diesel’s other recent high-profile partnerships, including its seasonal Eric Emanuel collaboration.
