HUF x HAZE
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Eric Haze was born in 1961 in New York to parents from the Upper West Side. Haze was drawn to art through his father's friend's pop art collection and meeting the free thinking, abstract expressionist Elaine de Kooning - who gave Haze oil paints while she painted a portrait of Haze and his sister in 1971.
In '72, Haze began spreading his graffiti throughout New York City and by '74, he started showing his art publicly, later exhibiting paintings and drawings alongside friends Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat in the 1980s. As part of the seminal New York City collective “The Soul Artists”, Haze was one of the original pioneers to bring graffiti above ground into the mainstream and the first graffiti artist to brand his tag as a logo, creating one of the first street wear clothing companies to rise out of the hip hop era. Eric Haze also appeared in the 1983 documentary Style Wars.
In 1985, Haze graduated with honours from School of Visual Arts in NYC with a degree in graphic design. In 1986, he set up a design studio - and due to his unique positioning of coming out of the hip-hop era, began establishing clientele and relationships within that market and community. He has created logos, album covers and identity design for clients including G-Shock, the Beastie Boys, Hurley and of course now, HUF.
In 1991, Haze relocated his design studio to L.A, where he also founded his clothing and accessory brand, HAZE. By 2005, the brand had three stand alone flagship stores in Tokyo.
Later the same year, Haze returned to New York City, setting up a new studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Haze has since presented solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Paris and Tokyo.
Now Collaborating with one of our favourites in the shape of HUF, the collaboration, which was initially dedicated to the late Joshua Prince, aka Dust La Rock, a past HUF designer who passed away in 2015 - also marked the last capsule completed before the untimely death of the iconic Keith Hufnagel, and as such now serves as fitting tribute to both legendary figures.