Longtime UP readers will remember when we first covered New York-based high fashion brand FOXYLAB in 2020. Though that was only barely two years ago, it feels like an eon has passed since then. The art world moves fast, and so does FOXYLAB NEW YORK founder Oxana De Castro. In my 2020 interview with her, she said: “You don’t want to look back and regret that you didn’t do what’s in your heart.” Since 2020, FOXYLAB NEW YORK has grown far beyond the two lines we discussed then.
With previous collections collaborating with Edward Acosta and City Kitty and De Castro’s line of reusable upcycled clothing “Eternal Beauty,” De Castro has focused on how art can connect to other mediums, industries, and causes beyond galleries and museums. In FOXYLAB NEW YORK’s latest venture, the company is merging two fields whose connection is often overlooked: Art and Athletics. The overlap between artists and athletes isn’t new—Author Haruki Murakami ran marathons, Pittsburgh street artist Baron Batch was a running-back for the Steelers, and countless other athletes across the spectrum of sports have their own creative practice.
For “Disclosing Athletes’ Creativity,” a line of clothing which spawns from collaborations between artists selected by FOXYLAB NEW YORK and interested Olympic athletes, De Castro wanted to pick sports which lined up with the brand’s identity. “We narrowed the list down to athletics, handball, modern pentathlon, 3×3 basketball, artistic gymnastics, and beach volleyball, because of the common values with FOXYLAB NEW YORK: audacity, heart, friskiness, courage, and ingenuity,” she wrote in the press release.
“We narrowed the list down to athletics, handball, modern pentathlon, 3×3 basketball, artistic gymnastics, and beach volleyball, because of the common values with FOXYLAB NEW YORK: audacity, heart, friskiness, courage, and ingenuity,” she wrote in the press release.
Some of the athletes, such as Eythora Thorsdottir, are as young as seventeen and just beginning their professional life, while others like Ulyana Batashova have established careers outside of athletics. Batashova in particular is an entrepreneur who runs the athletic clothing brand Under By Me. FOXYLAB NEW YORK paired Thorsdottir with Italian 3D artist Marcello Silvestre and Batashova with Vietnamese-German painter Felix Nguyen. De Castro wrote that Nguyen could “highlight the kind heart underneath [Batashova’s] strong spirit.”
All Olympians suffered setbacks due to the ripple effect COVID-19 had on every industry, and FOXYLAB NEW YORK had setbacks of its own with the abrupt halt in supply chain production the pandemic created. “All in all, it’s been an incredible journey, though,” De Castro said.
Each of the athletes involved in “Disclosing Athletes’ Creativity” was chasing their own dream of the Tokyo Olympics. All Olympians suffered setbacks due to the ripple effect COVID-19 had on every industry, and FOXYLAB NEW YORK had setbacks of its own with the abrupt halt in supply chain production the pandemic created. “All in all, it’s been an incredible journey, though,” De Castro said.
Since our last coverage of FOXYLAB NEW YORK, the brand has expanded into collaborations with Forbes 30-under-30 nominated watercolor artist Talia Zoref and a collaborative line with Emirati artist Diaa Allam which mixed high fashion from both Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Both Allam’s and Zoref’s pieces were shown in L’Officiel Arabia, marking the first time an Israeli model was the magazine’s cover girl.
Each of the athletes in “Disclosing Athletes’ Creativity” has broken barriers in their own way; Russian handball player Vladlena Bobrovnikova, who partnered with British illustrator Elena Smith, won Russia its first Olympic gold for handball in thirty years.
Both FOXYLAB NEW YORK’s partnership with Diaa Allam and Talia Zoref and the “Disclosing Athletes’ Creativity” collection highlight the brand’s global presence. Its focus is beyond the New York art scene, rather, any creative who has a vision, a drive, and an entrepreneurial spirit could align themselves with FOXYLAB NEW YORK’s mission. Each of the athletes in “Disclosing Athletes’ Creativity” has broken barriers in their own way; Russian handball player Vladlena Bobrovnikova, who partnered with British illustrator Elena Smith, won Russia its first Olympic gold for handball in thirty years. These athletes are unafraid of “firsts” and shooting for the stars, which is the spirit De Castro’s brand exemplifies as well. De Castro took a risk by leaving a construction company and starting her own business, and it’s paid off in spades, but the initial fear of not knowing what will happen after a big change hits every creative, whether an artist, an entrepreneur, or an athlete.
The “Disclosing Athletes’ Creativity” line will feature eight t-shirts and pants. Though the release will be very limited at first, each item will be an exclusive head-turner. The list of each creative artist-athlete pairing in “Disclosing Athletes’ Creativity” and links to each participant’s online profile is as follows:
Rebecca Silva (Brazil) and Meir Srebiansky (France)
Ulyana Batashova (Russia) and Felix Nguyen (Vietnam, Germany)
Dominique Jones (USA) and Edward Acosta (USA)
Jestena Mattson (USA) and Moko (Croatia)
Eythora Thorsdottir (Netherlands) and Marcello Silvestre (Italy)
Vladlena Bobrovnikova (Russia) and Elena Smith (UK)
The collaborative collection will be available for purchase on FOXYLAB NEW YORK’S site this summer, with exclusive interviews with the artists and athletes about their creative process. FOXYLAB NEWYORK also has a YouTube channel with an array of professional video content, an online magazine (@FXLB_MAG) with a variety of educational, entertainment and expert content, such as interviews, articles and feature publications.
Keep in touch with Oxana De Castro and FOXYLAB NEW YORK on the brand’s Instagram for further updates on when the collection will drop, so you can get your own piece of this exclusive meeting of the minds through fashion.
