'Gummo' x Supreme Spring 2022 Collaboration
Directed by frequent Supreme collaborator Harmony Korine.
After dropping its Spring 2022 Tee range and taking a break from its major collaboration series, Supreme is now gearing up to release its latest special release centered around Gummo. Released in 1997, then-23-year-old and now-frequent Supreme collaborator, Harmony Korine, directed the experimental American film. The film takes place in Xenia, Ohio, a small city that was hit by a tornado in 1974, and was shot in Korine’s hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.
Gummo focussed on romanticized depictions of contemporary American life, with Korine drawing from his experiences of growing up in Tennessee. The series of loose vignettes in the decimated city come together to form a chronicle of everyday violence, poverty, destruction, abuse, loneliness and teenage boredom with moments of Vaudevillian humor, absurdity and gritty tenderness.
Characterized by its bold experimentation and pastiche – both narratively and visually, Harmony Korine casted local non-actors for Gummo. Some of which the director met at bowling alleys and fast-food restaurants. Aside from the leads Jacob Reynolds and Nick Sutton, who were discovered from cable T.V., Gummo also features Linda Manz, Mark Gonzales and Chloë Sevigny, who designed costumes for the film.
The dynamic nature of the film is also thanks to how it was made, despite having a script, many scenes were improvised or developed spontaneously. Additionally, Gummo is pieced together like a collage with a mix of traditional 35mm film, home-movie-style VHS and Hi-8 footage, and Polaroid photographs – shot partly by the cast itself. “It’s like looking at a book of private photos,” Harmony Korine has said of the approach. “There’s a picture of you in front of a castle or maybe a monument. And next to that is a picture of your grandfather on the toilet. And next to that is a picture you took of Michael Jackson. If you looked at them on their own without knowing the context, then they would seem singular or random. But just because one is next to the other, a kind of narrative comes through. That goes along with Gummo. That’s how Gummo was written.”
Upon its release, Harmony Korine was praised for his originality by distinguished filmmakers including Jean Luc Godard, Bernardo Bertolucci, Errol Morris and Werner Herzog. “Venomous in story; genius in character; victorious in structure; teasingly gentle in epilogue; slapstick in theme; rebellious in nature; honest at heart; inspirational in its creation and with contempt at the tip of its tongue,” wrote director Gus Van Sant, “Gummo is a portrait of small-town Middle American life that is both bracingly realistic and hauntingly dreamlike.”
For Spring 2022, Supreme has put together a special range marked by imagery from Gummo and original artwork by Harmony Korine. The selection is comprised of a Coaches Jacket, Football Top, Hooded Sweatshirt, two T-Shirts and two Skateboards.
The Gummo x Supreme Spring 2022 collaboration will see a global release, available via the streetwear imprint’s website on April 28, 11 a.m. EDT in the United States and April 30, 11 a.m. JST in Japan.
For more contemporary fashion, Dr. Woo and READYMADE come together for an artful release.
