After reading more into it, it looks like 1882 is a collective artists brand that tells stories of Asian Americans' lives and addresses topics from Asian Americans' initial arrival at Angel Island to their current affairs in the United States.

If you're wondering about the name, 1882 is a reference to the Chinese Exclusion Act, signed in 1882, which severely restricted the entry of any Chinese workers. Last year the Chinese Historical Society actually had a panel discussion that Hyphen sponsored, and it looks like their "Remembering 1882: Fighting for Civil Rights in the Shadow of the Chinese Exclusion Act" Exhibition is still going on! Definitely check out the exhibition if you're in the bay area. There's some unbelievable stuff there.

Anyway, apparently 1882 just released their Spring 2008 collection. It was done by Eddie from Commune (The Birth, Barracks, ID) and Arnold from Greyone (Full Circle, 2 Of a Kind).

See more of the collection at hypebeast and highsnobiety.

I absolutely love these kind of things. It reminds me of that one line from Blue Scholar's "Life and Debt" and it goes "And I love how you don't like art without a message." It's good to know that for every instance of highly distasteful branding, such as the Chinese Laundry advertisement Alvin wrote about today, there are better things out there. Are there others on your radar? Please share!