BAPE's Pharaoh Collection Redraws the Shark Hoodie as a Pharaoh's Mask, Out November 7

BAPE has given the hoodie its own page calls a representative icon a new face. The Pharaoh Collection, announced on Friday, November 6, on BAPE's Japanese and US accounts, with both reels saying available from Saturday, November 7, at BAPE Store and bape.com, is built around a Pharaoh Full Zip Hoodie: the Shark Full Zip Hoodie with its hood graphic redrawn as a pharaoh's mask. Around it are a varsity jacket, two crewnecks, seven tees, a balaclava and a pin set, thirteen pieces in all, on an ancient Egypt theme.

BAPE's own page tells the hoodie's story the way the brand likes to: it credits Skatething, one of the creators from the label's early years, with the 2004 Shark hoodie, a face taken from fighter-jet nose art and a hood that zips over the whole head, and says it has run through tigers and pandas since. The pharaoh is the next variation. Its eyes, the page says, combine the Eye of Horus with the cat's eye of Bastet; in the photos the striped headdress sits where the shark's gills would be. In Japan it costs ¥46,200 and comes in red, green and black.

The rest of the line

The Sphinx Varsity Jacket is the most expensive piece, at ¥132,000 in Japan and $1,429 in the US: a brown or dark green body with cream leather sleeves, a red pyramid spelling out A Bathing Ape on one side of the chest, a bandaged mummy ape head on the other and three winged sphinxes down the left sleeve. The Gold Skool Crewneck Sweatshirt, in an olive the brand calls Old or in black, puts a pharaoh-masked ape in a gold circle under Point of No Return and over B.C. 2000; the Stone Tablet Crewneck, in black, is the other sweatshirt. Both are ¥28,600 in Japan and $309 in the US.

BAPE

BAPE

The tees run through the same cast: the Mummy Ape College Tee wraps the College logo's ape head in bandages and sets the letters in stone blocks, and there are Flying Sphinx, Pharaoh Cat, AB Pyramid and Scarab Ooparts tees, each ¥12,100 in white or black. Two long sleeves are ¥14,300: the Pharaoh LS Tee, with the mask across the chest, and the PONR Camel LS Tee, a Point of No Return soldier on a camel. The Pharaoh Balaclava Hat, ¥16,500, is a cap in red, green or black with the mask's eyes on the band and a shark-mouth face flap, and the Pharaoh Pins Set is ¥7,700.

BAPE

Where and when

BAPE Japan's page lists a bape.com web-store pre-sale on Friday, November 6, at 12:00 in its Japanese version and 3pm in its English one, with no time zone given in either, and says the collection is available at authorized A Bathing Ape retailers; its reel and BAPE US's say available starting November 7 at BAPE Store and bape.com or us.bape.com. The US shop had 19 listings up at 11am Eastern on Saturday, ten designs across their colourways, from the $59 pins set and $129 tees through the $155 long sleeves, the $179 balaclava and the $309 crewnecks to the $1,429 varsity jacket. The Flying Sphinx and Pharaoh Cat tees went up on the US shop at the same minute, $129 each, though outside its Pharaoh collection page. What it doesn't have is the Pharaoh Full Zip Hoodie itself: whether it's Japan-only or still to come, BAPE hasn't said.

Our read

This is the third BAPE drop of the week, after the Las Vegas Grand Prix capsule, in person from November 7, and the adidas Golden Era collection, out November 7, and unlike those two it has no partner on it. The Shark hoodie is the piece BAPE's page itself calls its representative icon, and the Pharaoh version redraws the face rather than recolouring it. That makes the US listing gap the thing to watch: the collection's headline item is, for now, a Japan purchase at ¥46,200. The varsity jacket at $1,429 is the one US buyers can get, and the Pharaoh LS Tee at $155 is the cheapest way to wear the mask.