Groove on

Get down with Bianca Chandon founder Alex Olson’s disco playlist
By Tempe Nakiska | Fashion | 16 October 2015

Alex Olson’s output as skate brand Bianca Chandon is fuelled with the fire of disco and ball culture, his influences go far and wide and here he’s put them down in a crooner of a playlist just in time for cold weather blues.

The pro skater, photographer and designer – and son of Punk Rock skate legend Steve Olson – challenges traditional notions of skate brand norm by drawing from NYC ball culture and the 70s and 80s LGBTQ club scene. It’s a combustion that hits as hard as the dancefloor belters that shaped the era, and the soulful Motown strains that filled venues before Studio 54 existed.

“I had the idea of pulling from the fashion element and introducing kids to that and trying to do the opposite where you introduce skateboarding to fashion people or a certain element of skate to them,” said Alex in our recent interview. “Then the music element naturally came into it. It was like, ‘this is what we’re into, let’s do something with it.'”

Olson doesn’t mind a spin on the decks himself (have a scope and you’re sure to find some of his mixes floating around the web). We were curious as to what’s been on rotation as of late, so asked him to make us a playlist. Cue ‘Love Songs of the iPhone 2015’ – a funk and soul infused trip that’s grooving us into cooler weather with a real good attitude.

Alex Olson’s Love Songs of the iPhone

1. A Broken Heart Can Mend by Alexander O’Neal

2. Open Your Eyes by Bobby Caldwell

3. Saturday Love by Cherrelle

4. Give Me Night by George Benson

5. Rise by Herb Alpert

6. Music and Light by Imagination

7. I Want Your Love by James Mason

8. Make It Last Forever by Keith Sweat

9. Inside Your Love by Leon Ware

10. Arrow Through Me by Wings

Read our recent interview with Alex Olson, check out more from Bianca Chandon and shop the collection at Dover Street Market

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