“Livin’ better now, Coogi sweater now” – Notorious B.I.G.
The photograph you see on the cover of this article is perhaps the most famous one ever taken of Notoroius B.I.G.
Taken by Dutch photographer and filmmaker Dana Lixenberg, the image depicts the New York rapper as he is busy counting several $50 bills, wearing what would become synonymous with his timeless style, the iconic COOGI sweater.
t was news a few days ago that a collaboration between Supreme and COOGI will be released on Friday, May 5, so I’m taking the opportunity to tell the story of those unique sweaters.
COOGI is an Australian fashion brand founded in 1969 by Jacky Taranto, in Melbourne, under the name “CUGGI,” derived from a fountain on the small island of Alacoueli in the Adriatic Sea, where his father was originally from and from which he moved to Australia in the early 1930s. His DNA has always been linked, almost inextricably, to his woven and super colorful sweaters. The naming changed permanently in 1987, some 18 years after his birth, from CUGGI to COOGI, so that it more closely resembled an indigenous Australian name.
COOGI and Taranto’s adventure began by focusing everything on American and European tourists visiting Australia, marketing their products as a kind of souvenir of the time spent in “the land down under” – an expression dating back to the time when European explorers decided to set out to discover the land that lay beneath the Asian continent.
It was Egyptian designer Hazem Elsheltawi who came up with the pattern and chose the fabrics that made COOGI highly recognizable.
But it was in 1994 that COOGI took its place in urban culture, thanks precisely to Christopher George Latore Wallace aka Biggie Small aka Notorious B.I.G., who not only made it a garment that became emblematic of his style, but also quoted the brand in masterpieces such as “Big Poppa” and “One More Chance”, making COOGI gain unprecedented popularity.
That same popularity began to wane in the late 1990s and early 2000s until, in 2002, Tarantino decided to sell his brand to U.S. investors Norman Weisfeld, Bruce Weisfeld, and Jimmy Khezri for $25 million. From then on, the COOGI name was licensed to many manufacturers, decisively lowering the quality of the products.
From 2014 onward, the brand returned to focus its efforts and work on men’s knitwear, bringing back the Coogi sweaters, which, even today, and I would be inclined to write, especially today, continue to enjoy unique attention from true fashion addicts who literally make them disappear from vintage stores that are lucky enough to have some.
