Dubbed “your favorite reference’s favorite reference” already, Denzel Simmons – better known under his Instagram moniker Storage Based – is not your average streetwear archivist. Based in Brooklyn, Denzel’s feed and real-life collection are a treasure trove for those seeking more than just nostalgia-laced moodboards. In a space saturated with the same endlessly-rehashed images and surface-level curation, his approach is deliberate, research-driven, and culturally grounded. Storage Based isn’t chasing hype or aesthetics for aesthetics’ sake – it’s almost like an antidote to the algorithm, rooted in substance over spectacle.
“About ten years ago, I wanted to stop looking at the internet and what people filtered us to see and I wanted to go back to print when there was a bit more originality.”
Denzel Simmons, to Only NY, on starting Storage Based
Denzel’s work lives at the intersection of Black culture, Hip Hop, and streetwear – not just as fashion, but as a deeply coded cultural language. While others might repost the same five images from ‘90s lookbooks that show up in your top Google search results, Denzel is digging in the crates, scanning pages from long-forgotten zines, and contextualizing moments many overlook.
Inspired by early online archivers like Gary Warnett (aka GWARIZM) and UpNorthTrips, he bridges the analog and digital, shedding light on the connective tissue between Black revolutionaries, hip hop, streetwear iconography, and Black cinema, among others. Every post is a reference point, not just to a garment or a trend, but to a story, a time, a place.
His personal archive includes everything from vintage cassette tapes and old magazines and books to movie posters and VHS tapes. And they’re presented not as ephemera, but as evidence – cultural receipts, if you will – that document the origins and intentions of movements before they were co-opted or watered down. Whether through Instagram or intimate Pop-Up events, Storage Based draws the map back to authenticity, back to roots. It’s curation as a form of education, not just aesthetics.
“If we put all the clothes and material things to the side, all the surface level shit, what do we have to talk about?”
Denzel Simmons to Garms Race
Raised in the gritty rhythm of Brooklyn, Denzel came of age watching Dipset flip fashion codes on their head and later immersed himself in the city’s melting pot of skaters, artists, and streetwear heads. As much as he’s an archivist, he’s also a stylist, self-taught graphic designer and vintage collector, hands-on and fully embedded.
When he provides styling and creative direction for projects like ‘From Brooklyn to Babylon’, a photo tribute to Dancehall, Reggae and Carribean lifestyle in the UK during the ‘80s, they go beyond mere homage: they also interrogate which pieces and symbols have real staying power within the culture – Clarks Wallabees, anyone? – and don’t come across as mere style choices, but as cultural through-lines. In a time when the industry craves the next big thing at lightning speed, Storage Based serves as a reminder to slow down and look back – not out of nostalgia, but out of reverence to keep cultural memory intact.
