In a bid to showcase and champion 22 global brands that operate with craftsmanship, responsibly made products, and local communities close to heart, MR PORTER launches its second carefully curated Small World collection.

With so many brands on the market operating with enormous scale in terms of production quantities, market share, and visibility, without direct exposure or awareness, it’s easy to overlook those with more of a niche – especially those that choose to create and share with more environmentally and socially conscious methods.

These are precisely the type of brands that MR PORTER keeps within its crosshair as it carefully curates its Small World collections responsible style; across a range of categories including ready-to-wear, accessories, fine jewelry, and more.

To fall within this code, brands listed within Small World must achieve six pillars outlined by MR PORTER – Heritage Craft, Future Craft, Made Locally, Made To Last, Made With High Standards Of Animal Welfare, and Made From Considered Materials – without sacrificing their unique style, authenticity, and heritage. Sure, this is a tall order, but that’s what makes the lineup all the more impressive.

For the second iteration of the collection, 319 products (164 of which are exclusive to MR PORTER) have been selected from a global-spanning arrangement of brands from Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, the UK, France, Portugal, and Japan.

Newly introduced brands to Small World include Karu Research, Corridor, La Paz, clothsurgeon, COTTLE, King Kennedy Rugs, Adish, Carleen, Obida and Lady White Co.

There’s plenty to digest from MR PORTER’s Small World 2022 collection, so head on over to the retailer’s online platform to dive head-first into the full product offering.

Today marks the release of the long-anticipated Maison Margiela x Reebok The Question ‘Memory Of’ and Zig 3D Storm ‘Memory Of’. We previously detailed the drop, but in short, the sneakers are stripped down and reconstructed versions of the originals. The Question is a rugged basketball hightop with a retro feel and chunky sole, while The Zig 3D Storm is a ghostly, almost phantomesque, runner with clean edges and geometric pads.

While the drops have a shared genealogy, they could not be more different, and yet they have a distinct familiarity. The spawn of Maison Margiela’s love affair with Reebok, elements of the luxury house which The Question + Zig 3D Storm have inherited make the shoes instantly distinguishable from previous generations.

Much like Maison Margiela’s Reebok collaboration, Berlin has a duality that makes it diverse, distinguishing it from any other city in the world. We linked up with BIPOLAR and ACTE, two collectives that represent diametrically opposed subcultures within the city’s creative network and paired them with The Question and The Zig 3D Storm respectively.

BIPOLAR – who perhaps understand this duplexity best – are cultural pioneers of the Berlin club scene, specifically establishing themselves as a production and arts platform versed in genres from techno and house to hip hop and trap – with side dishes of socio-critical commentary. They are raw, rough, and rebellious. In their own words, the collective is, “a state of mind that is not stable at all. It’s a matter of extremes – like the name, the concept is based on a connection of two poles.”

It was only natural that we equip BIPOLAR with The Question ‘Memory Of’.

ACTE in stark contrast are surgical, clean, and minimal – they embody the essence of modern Berlin, their aesthetic reminiscent of the Bauhaus ideology that form follows function. Their work brews beneath the surface and while their forte is in refined commercial campaigns, ACTE aims to commit itself to utilizing art as a tool to reinforce society and have an approach that is highly intellectual in that they tend to say more by saying less.

Enter The Zig 3D Storm ‘Memory Of’.

Berlin is a city of contradictory and yet interrelated correlations, and just like Berlin, aspects of the Maison Margiela x Reebok collaboration may not be for everyone, but there can be no doubt that the release will achieve maximum appeal to those for whom it was intended.

Learn more about the drop.