Returning to Amsterdam's Bijlmer, Daily Paper explores identity, cultural memory and the meaning of home through a campaign directed by Ebeneza Blanche.
What does home mean when you've grown up between different cultures?
For many children of immigrants, home isn't always one place. It can exist between languages, neighbourhoods, traditions and the communities that help shape who we become.
It's a question that sits at the heart of FOUNDATION, the latest campaign from Amsterdam-based fashion brand Daily Paper.
Founded by three friends with African roots, Daily Paper emerged from a shared experience of navigating identity through fashion, music and community. Over the years, those influences have become central to the brand's visual language and its connection with a global audience.
With FOUNDATION, Daily Paper returns to the people, places and cultural references that shaped its beginnings.
A story rooted in the Bijlmer
Images by Ebeneza Blanche
Shot in Amsterdam's Bijlmer, the campaign pays tribute to a neighbourhood shaped by generations of immigrant communities, including people with roots in Suriname, Ghana and other parts of the African diaspora.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Bijlmer developed its own cultural identity, with music, fashion and everyday community life contributing to a creative language that reached far beyond Amsterdam Zuidoost.
These influences are part of the story Daily Paper wants to revisit.
Rather than treating the neighbourhood as a backdrop, FOUNDATION places its people and familiar rituals at the centre of the film.
Among its references are the uncles gathering outdoors with their bird cages, the residential blocks that have served as meeting points for generations, and the everyday moments through which communities maintain a sense of belonging.
Details that might appear ordinary to an outsider can carry entire histories for the people who recognise them.
And that's what makes them important.
Finding home between cultures
Images by Marian Coenen
Directed by Ebeneza Blanche, FOUNDATION explores the experiences of a generation raised between the cultural traditions of their families and the environments in which they grew up.
Drawing inspiration from West African cinema, 1990s hip-hop and the visual identity of the Bijlmer, Ebeneza approaches the campaign as a tribute to the immigrant families who established lives in the neighbourhood and the generations that followed.
The film is narrated by Maikal X, known for his role in the Dutch hip-hop and reggae group Postmen, connecting the campaign to another chapter of the Netherlands' musical history.
Together, these references create a story that is both personal and collective.
Although FOUNDATION is rooted in Amsterdam, its themes extend far beyond the city.
Across Europe, generations of people have grown up negotiating different languages, traditions and identities, creating new cultural expressions from the worlds they inherited and the places they call home.
The experience of belonging to more than one culture is not always straightforward. But it has also shaped some of the most influential creative movements in contemporary music, fashion and art.
The importance of remembering where we come from
There's something particularly meaningful about a brand revisiting the communities that helped shape its beginnings.
As fashion brands grow and reach international audiences, their original cultural references can become familiar visual symbols, sometimes disconnected from the people and places that gave them meaning.
FOUNDATION offers an opportunity to bring those connections back into focus.
The neighbourhood isn't simply an aesthetic. The people aren't just background characters. Their experiences are part of the history being told.
And while the campaign celebrates Daily Paper's own journey, it also raises a broader question about cultural memory.
How do we make sure the communities that shape culture remain visible as that culture travels around the world?
That's what makes FOUNDATION worth discussing.
Not only the clothes or the images, but the stories behind them.
The people who built spaces for themselves when those spaces didn't already exist.
The communities that turned different cultural influences into something of their own.
And the generations that continue building on what came before them.
Because sometimes moving forward means remembering the foundations that made the journey possible.
Daily Paper — FOUNDATION
Campaign directed by Ebeneza Blanche
Film narrated by Maikal X
Shot in Amsterdam's Bijlmer
Campaign information and creative credits supplied by Daily Paper.
