Senssese and Dustbox World Premiere
100 Sutton Street, Brooklyn, NY
It’s 11:46 PM on October 18th, 2024. As I write this, the girls, boys, and they / them’s of the snowboard world are scattering about New York City, following the premier of Sensesse’s streetstyle_24 co-directed by Mikaela Kautzky and Maria Hilde, and Dustbox’s Spirit directed by Bryden Bowley. I’m on the last train out of the city, reflecting on the events of the evening, while the guy behind me is fast asleep, phone in hand, snoring, insta reel on repeat. He must be having some strange dreams. “Can dreams affect your mood when you wake up?” I asked my phone, for his sake as well as my own; after all, something about this evening had me feeling like I stepped out of a dream myself.
It began in a familiar place, my old neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Except I didn’t recognize anything and when I rounded the corner onto Sutton St. there were snowboarders everywhere. Strange. I approached cautiously. What sort of dream is this? Danimals was talking about chickens and I hugged some friends. Feeling anxious I kept it moving, bypassing the crowd and straight into the venue. I found myself in a cavernous room. Chairs were arranged in strange occult-ish patterns. Which way is the movie screen anyway? I walked through some thick black curtains to find myself in the middle of a fashion shoot. Okay this is getting interesting.
There’s a model, wearing a brightly colored drop waist corset mini dress, patchworked from woman’s garments; they are holding a snowboard wrapped entirely in thick denim, and wearing a matching helmet. The outfit feels like a forgotten fragment of my Y2K snowboard youth, as I was once a bobble-head helmet kid, sacrificing function for fashion with my denim top-sheet Ride Kink snowboard. Kennedi comes up to me out of nowhere. They’re wearing purple eyeshadow and a patchworked and deconstructed bomber jacket made from traditional menswear shirts. Overtop, a puffer scarf, held together with oversized safety pins, with the words “fuck borders” screen-printed. The look appears to be a critique of no-questions-asked-sold-the-windshield-nationalism, but the fact that they are wearing snowboard boots leaves it up for multiple interpretations. I begin to settle into this strange sequence of events. This feels good.
Suddenly, I’m back in the big room, except this time it’s filled with people. Lights flicker, music hits, and models begin pouring out of the black curtains. A model wears a bra fashioned out of headphones. Iconic. Another model, wearing a heavily distressed boat neck long sleeve top, and a patchwork micro mini skirt with cascading lingerie panels (a piece recently worn by Julia Fox), drags a half empty snowboard bag down the runway. Freud would have a field day interpreting this. My personal favorite look of the night was a melangé patchwork slip dress, made from easter-egg-pastel colored woman garments, completed with a denim helmet bonnet hat. Where am I? Did these characters emerge from some dark winter night fantasy land?
Overall, the looks felt cohesive, often reclaiming and reappropriating traditional fabrication (menswear shirting and suiting, womenswear lace and chiffon) and destructing the traditional values assigned to the fabrications through the use of patchwork and silhouette. The showing was a collective effort from multiple designers: Maria Hilde, Mikaela Kautzky, Noah Lugh Brown, Love Is Shouty But Iconic, Flintmaker, Bebejalebi, Badaeun & Biko, and Tessa Crocket—all of whom are connected to Sensesse and the world of snowboarding, and together build up the material manifestation of Sensesse aesthetics. The vibe was equal parts gritty, functional, and absurd. Like any good runway show, the clothes became a portal into a world free of daily conventions with the end motive to make you feel something, as opposed to selling you something.
As the models descended back into the void of the black curtain, the crowd roared, and a video flashed onto the adjacent wall—as if these characters were transported straight from the runway into a 2-dimensional video world. Sort of like a reverse Mason Margiela moment, only giving pure snow-fantasy instead. This marks the beginning of Sensesse’s film streetstyle_24 directed by Mikaela Kautzky and Maria Hilde. The video is peppered with refreshing imagery that straddles between hallucination and memory—a bubble-gum bubble on the verge of explosion, a sidewalk glimmering with cosmic energy interrupted by timberland boots. Who is this person? Was that AI generated? They are doing something different here, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. As I try to wrap my head around it all, I find myself entertained by the snowboarding. Sophia Zhichkina, Kennedi Deck, Jack Kuzyk, Maria Hilde, and Stine Tønnessen, among others, dazzled the screen with snowboarding that felt urgent and inspired from within—in other words, you can tell they were busting their ass, and doing tricks that felt unique to their individual, all while having a good time. Around the halfway mark there is a particularly lovely dream-like sequence (and a moment of realization for myself), with a prolonged shot of a person in a brat-green bedroom bouncing on their bed. The image is immaculate. It feels queer-coated but maybe I’m projecting. Either way I’m obsessed with this moment. It feels like a doll playing inside a miniature house. It goes on for what seems like forever but I don’t want it to end. The combination of folksy music, skirt-over-pant styling, and blinding backlight feels like a portal to another dimension.
It was at this time I realized these folks aren’t interested in documenting snowboarding, they are interested in mythologizing it. What I mean is, unlike many snowboard videos that are desperate to capture some aura of authenticity—Kautzky & Hilde don’t care to serve some watered-down version of reality. Instead, they are constructing a strange new world and inviting us in—I can’t explain how, but snowboarding holds the key. It’s worth mentioning that this is a world built from scratch, from choice of camera down to the music, which was created specifically for the film by Sassy 009, and Enemy, under the umbrella of Sensesse Music. I must say, it appears every stitch has been considered, from the runway show to the last trick, in this generous offering from Kautzky, Hilde, and the Sensesse crew.
Next thing I knew, there were like 15 boys up on stage and it was time for the Dustbox. While streetstyle_24 felt like some sort of primal-subconscious-scream with little to no regard for snowboard conventions, the offering from Dustbox felt vaguely like somewhere I had been before—sort of like the lovable and familiar yet unfamiliar streets of Greenpoint—as if to ease me out of this dream-like evening. With Spirit, director Bryden Bowley—a true master of his craft coming off a string of snow video hits—skillfully leans into the conventions (the cameras, the film, the angles) but refuses to put them on a pedestal, allowing him to successfully navigate the classic snowboard video tropes and present something that feels familiar yet re-imagined. At times you find yourself caught up in a classic snowboard film—lured by the beautiful 16mm combined with mind melting snowboarding—only to be perfectly interrupted by a tik-tok inspired dance, or a hardcore show snippet, as if to remind the viewer it’s not that serious. It’s a really good vibe and an impressive balancing act where many have faltered.
This is sure to be one that die-hard boarders will be watching over and over in the coming months. And the snowboarding is spectacular. Noah Peterson’s part is a standout for me. The backside wallride backside 360 out put a big smile on my face. Has that ever been done? He does some mind-bending-tech-shit (hardway 360 gap 5050 I think it’s called) to close it out before proclaiming “I could cry”. I felt this moment. Tommy Town’s does a magical halfpipe handplant thing. Emma Crosby does a really nice creeper drop down 5050. Some unnamed hero 360’s down a 6 stair to jam down a pillar in the rain. Epic. Brett Kulas does all sorts of great stuff.
Bean generally looks amazing, as he surfs and slithers into crazy features before ending it with an absolutely iconic front lip reminiscent of OG Mikey Leblanc (my personal favorite front lipper of all time). Big fan of Ryan Collins (and his scarf), he’s giving medieval knight on snowboard holiday vibes and turning everything he touches to gold. Jonas Harris is doing crazy stunts while serving health goth—making a strong case for more makeup in snowboarding. Love it. Cody Warble does the unimaginable, conquering the Derek Lever drop down rail in Stockholm. Didn’t think that was possible. And finally, Cooper Whittier ends the video with a perfect song choice and so many wild maneuvers I can hardly describe, you just have to see it for yourself. He must be one of the most talented snowboarders on earth, right? Bravo.
It's 1:32 PM on October 19th. I wake up from a nap on my couch where I was just 24 hours ago. Did I ever even make it down to New York or have I just been rotting here with my dog for the last 24 hours? Either way, I have a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach and I’m feeling proud of my snowboard friends.