Photography Adrian Crispin

Styling Ann-Kathrin Obermeyer

Models Joseph "el Pollito" Nieves, German "the goon" Rodriguez,

        Liam "el chico" Samuels & Camila "la cubanita" Costa

Any visitors to the Latin enclave of New Jersey and West New York will know that one needn’t journey as far as the Caribbean to enjoy the colours and rhythms of Cuba, the smells of authentic empanadas and freshly fried churros, and the sounds of Son and Cuban Jazz over rounds of Cuba Libres and Daiquiris. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the 90-block stretch of Bergenline Avenue in Union City, NJ and the bordering areas that overlook the Hudson River were first populated by exiles who sought political asylum in the aftermath of Castro’s Revolution in 1959. During the Cold War decades that followed the area became home to an intense concentration of Cubans as many thousands more refugees joined them — most famously in 1980 during which some 125,000 emigrated in mass boatlifts from Mariel Harbour, in the hope of finding economic and political freedom in America. Against the backdrop of this complicated and ever-changing history, the area known as ‘Havana On The Hudson’ plays out its charm with a sensibility quite unlike anywhere else, which for this issue we celebrate with a commissioned series by photographer Adrian Crispin, featuring the spring/summer collection by Levi’s Made & Crafted, inspired by Cuba’s past and its future.