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RSVP gallery!!! (Fashion!!)
NEW PROJECT ALERT!!! Part of the reason I have been in a cave for the past month or so. It feels so good to be writing this post sitting at RSVP gallery a new concept shop I just opened up with a couple of good friends. All the traveling and relationship I have built can now have a home. The part-gallery, part-shop is a random assortment of POP art and Luxury. It feels good to see all The Yeezys and Louis in one case for sale. I have always wanted a rack of *A Bathing Ape® in Chicago. It's also a one stop shop for THE BRILLIANCE product. Nopattern Books & the only Boxed Water Fridge in the world. A splash of Vintage CHANEL and hallmark Louis Vuitton pieces is always a good thing to offer as well. The design of the space reminded me why I went to architecture school in the first place... NEON and NONSENSE® All in all I just love having a platform to showcase cool stuff. Come visit. Whew!
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> Date Posted: September 29 2009
> Posted By: VIRGIL
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JAK and JIL went to a Fashion Show!!! (Fashion!!)
Fashion blogs are a dime a dozen now. The runway shows are glittered with a group of street photographers. In my mind none as good as Jak and Jil. Their motto is "HERE AT JAK & JIL, EVERYDAY IS FASHION WEEK." genius. Superbig-well-compositioned photos go along way in telling a story. Even in the photos where someone is wearing something totally crazy, this sites lense somehow makes it make sense. Also it looks like JAKandJILL went to the same school of design as CHUCKandBEN. Bookmark business!
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> Date Posted: June 30 2009
> Posted By: VIRGIL
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Super good interview with A.P.C.'s Jean Touitou! (Fashion!!)
Hypebeast did a really good job on this one - and by the way, I'm loving the huge new interview header thing they have on their site, great design. So yeah, I'm pretty fascinated by brands like A.P.C. that seem to keep things so simple but maintain such a 'rich' or 'thick' brand, you know? I think sometimes the smaller (not that APC is super small) brands rely so heavily on some crazy cut, or cool graphic, or something that is super temporary to set their tone instead of really kind of letting the clothing simply represent the image/idea that they started with in the first place. Does that make sense? Anyway, funny cause Jean Touitou touches on this a bit in regards to 'rock and roll' based brands. I love this guys candor too, just very matter of fact, very to the point. His comments about why they do collbaroations, specifically with Nike are so nice to hear - they did them so they could have a shoe people could afford to buy instead of doing all the work themselves at a smaller scale of economy. Love that. No cool guy answer, no 'synergy' stuff, etc. So yeah, check the interview - full of really great insight.
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> Date Posted: June 9 2009
> Posted By: BENJAMIN
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Thom Browne Short Suit is on my Must Have List!!! (Fashion!!)
So I am in the midst of "upping" my taste level of designers. Going beyond the knee-jerk reaction of saying "that's weird" and really studying what they are trying to say. Coming from adolescent-Polo growing up, you figure Purple Label is the epotime of American "dressing up". I had always known Thom Browne's take on menswear but no I see how it is super revelant in this moment in time. The "suit" is no longer the working uniform... why not have fun with it. Thom Browne is made famous by his "short-suit" flooded trousers, shorter sleeves and little tweaks to a traditional suit. The end esult is something refreshing. If you have the confidence to pull it off, you get to have all the fun. Isn't that what fashion is about? Wierdo or status quo. Word on the street is the company is in limbo, I have a feeling that won't be the case for long.
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> Date Posted: June 3 2009
> Posted By: VIRGIL
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Tim Walker's photography for Hermes!!! (Fashion!!)
Ben and I email a lot...just constantly sending emails back and forth about design, music, art, life, emoticons, splash pages, internets, e-viruses, www's, and so on. I would say that of all the links I send Ben, about 20% either get no response because they were just really not that interesting, or I get one of the following: "Meh. ha.", "Ehh...", "Hmm...not for me". 79% of the time I get "crazy dude..." or "SO cool man..." or "HA" (a capital 'HA' means it was a really, really funny video I must have sent). The other 1% is reserved for links like this: Tim Walker for Hermes, upon which I receive an incredibly rare (think Honus Wagner T206 baseball card rare) response of: "Holy crap, those are awesome! Make a post man!" Keep in mind, for Benjamin to say "Holy crap" about a link I've sent must mean it's really, really special. Tim Walker is a 39 year old photographer from London who honestly is doing some of the most beautiful, simple, elegant, and downright cool work out there. It can't hurt that he was a full-time assistant to Richard Avedon in the 90's and started out working for Vogue at 25 either...sheesh. So, this post is wholly about Tim Walker's photography in general, but more specifically this set for Hermes I found on Booooooom. First of all, that first picture with the guy in the window in the field is just ridiculous. I love it. Took me a second to wrap my head around it. And the African tribal stuff and those giant snails!? I love it. So creative. The fact that this stuff is for Hermes makes these even better. As Ben said, "Awesome to see a really, really old brand like hermes doing something like that. they're one of the only luxury brands that isn't owned by a holding company - they're literally still like super small." So yeah, there you have it. Tim Walker. A true master...
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> Date Posted: May 29 2009
> Posted By: CHUCK
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Best in Lookbook, Saskia Diez!! (Fashion!!)
On my usual stroll thru the internet it's amazing how quick really great photography will stop me in my tracks. This look book changed my mind about what a good lookbook looks like. Jewelry designer Saskia Diez has got a very fresh aesthetic and very cool jewelry. Real simple, cool designs, great materials. Flipping thru all her look books makes me want to get off my couch on this friday night and start shooting all these knick-knacks around my loft. Hmmm... This Canon G10 and its Macro setting are worth a whole other post on its own. Check the link, get inspired.
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> Date Posted: May 8 2009
> Posted By: VIRGIL
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House of Holland, PANTONEs for Days!! (Fashion!!)
Runway shows are a blast style.com is a close runner up. True you miss the excitement of it all but to really soak in each piece is kinda difficult when there are like 3 whizzing by. Any who. If you see alot of shows it hard to remember a specfic one unless they really go all out. I just flipped thru the first 3 looks of the House of Holland latest collection and was blown away...driven to post about it. In design school they always tell you just to focus in on one idea/point of inspiration. Once you keep adding other points of reference the strength gets lost. This collection is a perfect example of one REALLY good idea. The thing designers stare at the most...the PANTONE book. Mine is like an AMEX card, I never leave home with out it. Last week I decided to take it outta the bottom of my backpack and an hour later I get an email asking for PANTONE call outs. Back to House of Holland. Not only did they execute the PANTONE idea perfectly, white separating lines and all, they put them on super serious fashion silhouettes. That one men's look is spot on. Check it out. Even if your not into fashion this collection is just great to look at. Get inspired.
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> Date Posted: March 3 2009
> Posted By: VIRGIL
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Important read: Interview magazine, James Jebbia!! (Fashion!!)
The Chanel or Vuitton of street/skate wear. I don't own much Supreme, mostly cause I'm a slim guy and they don't make my size...but I am a HUGE fan of their brand. I love classics, basics, true cultural referencers, etc. That is what Supreme is to me...its this like ultra simple brand that does just the most classic stuff. Ha, I guess everyone feels this way though right? So, James Jebbia, the man behind Supreme was just interviewed in the famed Interview magazine. Too cool, super insightful. I've always wanted to hear more of his thoughts. I love his matter-of-fact approach to starting Supreme. Letting things happen naturally, not trying to 'be' something, etc. Here are some choice quotes:
"It cost me, like, $12,000 to open the store."
"With Supreme, there were no grand plans—with the name, with the store, with anything. It all just evolved."
$12k, how nuts is that?? I love it. Check the interview though, great read on a brand that paved the way, if not created the market, for every other new 'niche culture' brand in the past 10-15 years.
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> Date Posted: February 27 2009
> Posted By: BENJAMIN
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Book I'm half finished reading: Deluxe, How Luxury Lost Its Luster! (Fashion!!)
I'm too impatient to wait until I'm completely finished with a book to write a review here...sorry. My friend Rick gave me this book last Christmas, and I just got around to starting it like a month ago. Basic gist: a full, very thorough, report on the inner-workings of the luxury goods market and the brands that comprise it. All the history of them up until about 2006 I think...so pretty current stuff. It's all the heavy hitters: LV, Gucci, Hermes, Prada, Dior, Lanvin, Chanel, etc, etc. Since I'm not finished with the book I can't give a complete review - but I can say its been amazingly eye-opening. And more than anything else - I've learned to watch Bernard Arnault like you watch Steve Jobs...if not far more so. Man, he makes Gordon Gecko look like a Boy Scout troop leader...no joke. He's an incredibly shrewd man who has shaped almost everyone's view and conception of 'luxury' in the past 20+ years...either directly or indirectly. It's not that I hadn't heard of him, or knew about him before - but this book really gives you a blow-by-blow of his rise to power - and more importantly his influence over literally what the market would define luxury as...super crazy. Anyway, the book. It's really just amazing to see the often, if not always, humble beginnings of the now massive luxury fashion houses. And as you can imagine - its never as pretty as you'd think under the hood. From my reading so far, only LV and to a much greater extent Hermes are the 'real' luxury brands per the original definition of luxury which had a lot less to do with expense and more to do with purpose and the artisans behind the products. Again, to disclaim, I'm a huge fan of LV - but I'm not ignorant to the fact that there is a lot of marketing at work attempting to influence my opinion on a brand...but with that being said, its even still eye-opening to look behind the scenes of these brands, what makes them tick, their margins (!!!!) and how they seem to break traditional business rules. Really interesting stuff. This post was longer than I was shooting for...my bad.
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> Date Posted: December 17 2008
> Posted By: BENJAMIN
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Patrik Ervell, good as gold!! (Fashion!!)
So ever in search of the perfect jacket I came across this fine piece of work by New York Designer, Partik Ervell. Sure its not for the faint of heart but my attitude is your only live once so act like you are somebody. I am a fan of Patrik's overall design aesthetic. Easy to wear clothes with a touch of fashion. Like if Banana Republic wasn't gear toward the middle of the road and more like the alley that Freeman's is in. Opening Ceremony stocks his stuff. It's where I schemed Look 22 from Fall/Winter 2008. Too bad for me my arms are too long and it dosen't fit. I might keep it in the archives tho, its kinda too perfect.
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> Date Posted: November 30 2008
> Posted By: VIRGIL
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