Such a good atmosphere and even better back-story. I had the fortunate experience of getting to know Chris Jullian & Samantha Alonso last month in Vegas in their shop Fruition. I literally just camped out in the store and soaked it in the atmosphere. Make no mistake, there is true vision here beyond clothes on shelves. It feels way more like a curated view in to golden years of American POP-fashion rather than just vintage clothing. Of all the stores I have ever been in worldwide, the best could take a lesson on how to strategically place different pieces to tell a story. Let me step back tho. This shop carries the rarest and some of the most iconic & coveted clothes during the birth of hip hop and standout street fashion from the 90’s. Like Chalkine jackets, Nike Air Jordan stuff, LL Cool J Troop jackets, Coca Cola polos, classic Ralph Lauren, MCM bags, Dapper Dan Gucci and Vintage Dior. As well they pair it up with current designer wear like the hard to find Jeremy Scott designs. What’s funny about the place is some people get it and some people don’t. Of course its not for everyone, but for those that it is for, it’s a gold mine. And in one fell swoop when I think if Vegas I don’t think of MGM, rather MCM.
So I have been into Kenna for a minute and always loved his sound. There so much synth-pop music out right now and this is a perfect fit for my taste. Like perfect working music that isn’t Hip-hop or Jazz. The N.E.R.D. albums rank in my top 5 albums of all time so it’s obvious I would love this project. It’s produced mainly by Chad of the Neptunes. Kenna’s first album was excellent too. All the videos were super art directed and rarely showed his face. (youtube them) So the title of this album is “Make Sure They See Your Face” and the videos are up to par. Check out the link below for a the first single and a fresh Hype Williams new video treatment. What would we do without YouTube, seriously…
So the big show just ended the big fashion week in Paris. The Marc Jacobs helmed Louis Vuitton season debuted and has pretty much sent critics into a frenzy. For their bags he’s taken them outta this stratosphere with the help of renowned artist Richard Prince. Amidst the reaction to the collection there a ton of varying opinions which is interesting even if you could care less about “fashion, fashion” or consider Louis Vuitton as super pretentious. Its just a good brand evolution just to analyze. Reading this article reminds you that “that the most valuable thing that any luxury-goods house owns is its brand” and with a conservative cash cow of monogram bags that are popular from the suburbs to Canal St. you still need some realm of the brand that is progressive or unpredictable even if the critics hate it. Its not for them, its product for the fashion forward. I’d agree with what this guys says. Its all to easy to play it safe and be less controversial. Some many brands could learn from this little model. Oh yeah, you gotta see the actually show, sound provided by Daft Punk. Look for the womens show, its in the lower left hand corner. Look out for the LV Sponge Bob that’s in the thumbnail, next level.
What a great read. I have no qualms saying I really like Bathing Ape. I still, yes still, find the brand and Nigo extremely fascinating. I actually don’t own much Bape, and I don’t really wear any pieces - more just for collection’s sake. But beyond the actual pieces of clothing and its perhaps unfortunate cache among celebrities that don’t really ‘get it’...I still find it to be a brilliant, brilliant brand“ almost a little unreal. Conde Nast Portfolio did this super lengthy write-up about the brand, its team, day-to-day with Nigo, how he is perceived now in Tokyo, what the future might hold and more. It has to be the most behind-the-scenes look into Nigo as a person that I’ve read to date - and it might not be what you’d expect. Set aside 30 minutes and give it a read, again, just really fascinating. ***How crazy is the idea of Nigo taking Bathing Ape public and having it valued at $1.5B???
It’s getting chilly, kind of rainy…and very un-summer like here in Grand Rapids. Another sunny-season has come and gone…and I can honestly say I had one hell of a fun one. I made a post at the beginning of the season about getting back into cycling via way of fixed gear…and it’s a good thing I did. I can honestly say I haven’t had a summer this fun in a while…and the main reason for that would be my man Neil Hubert’s Wednesday late-night fixed gear races here in downtown Grand Rapids. I met so many new people, made new friends, blended scenes, got in great shape, broke a rib or two, and had too much fun riding thru my city super late at night with a mob of peaceful like minded people shaping the new, younger, culture of Grand Rapids. The rides/races themselves ranged anywhere from alley cats, messenger races, sprints, ‘ghettodrome’ track races, chill group rides and whatever other random stuff Neil came up with. But the actual races aside - what it did and will continue to do for Grand Rapids is build culture and community. What started as literally about 8-10 people eventually grew to races of 30+ riders and even more scenesters/on-lookers soaking up the action. Simple things like this in a small, but growing city like Grand Rapids are so important for building community and culture. I hope we continue to see this trend here, I love it. Thanks to Neil and everyone else who made this summer super fun. Check for us mashing thru traffic. ***And to the out-of-towners who don’t think we have proper hills here, I have three words: Martha and Godfrey!!
The first time I ever heard anything from Double Threat was mix they did of some Jeezy stuff titled ‘Halloween Massacre’...and the first thing I thought was like, why can’t we hear hip-hop like this more often?? Slightly weird sounding, non-traditional production, maybe even a little scary sounding. I actually didn’t know the song was produced by them back when I first heard it, but Virgil sent me the link their Myspace just the other day, and there was the track along with my new favorite ‘Straight Out The Rarri’. Love that right now…so massive sounding. Throw this stuff on at your next house party…give those hipster kids something to research.
Umm…this is next level architecture in my book. The renderings leave nothing else to be said. Shingeru Ban has turned on a light blub for modern urban living. Its such a smart idea, big metal shutters that allow you to open up your unit like a big window. This building is gonna feel so “alive” with each unit opening and closing their shutters. Kinda plays with the notion of opening and closing your small window on a normal façade doesn’t it? And the website for this project, sheesh. Even though you cant do much on it yet, its awfully well designed. Units in here are gonna sell like hot cakes. If I was crazy rich I’d buy a unit with out even looking at the floor plan, yikes!
Love this place. I was in Chicago this past weekend catching up with Virgil and doing a little shopping, etc. Good times. A highlight would have to be our visit with some crew to ‘The Violet’ hour, a relatively new (right?) night spot in Wicker Park. Loved it man…super cool. The whole concept is perfect, they only let in as many people as there is seating for, all the drinks are a simple $11 and amazing/well executed, the scene is somewhat hushed and quite ‘un-bar-like’ in its feel, Virgil dubbed interior design as ‘being inside a Tiffanys box’ - a good call, and best of all, the exterior, has no windows and is pretty much comprised of black painted plywood with a very, very simple door. It seriously looks like its out of business or being worked on - just one guy, quite polite, in a suit managing the door. The whole reservation process is kind of wild too - I guess they don’t answer the phone until its dark. Yeah, great spot, great drinks, cool crowd…and very well executed. ***No website, I love that
I actually shouldn’t really be saying “my” trip, because a honeymoon is most certainly an “our” trip kind of thing…ha… But moving on. A year ago at this time I was starting to really try to figure out where I wanted to take myself and my then-fiancee-now-wife Holly for our honeymoon. I knew I wanted somewhere that would be considered paradise…somewhere that is as close to Heaven-on-Earth as possible. It didn’t take long after a few Google searches and quick looks through some travel magazines that Tahiti was what I needed to look into. And it wasn’t long after that that I was trying to figure out what hotels I wanted to stay at on the islands of Moorea and Bora Bora. So anyways, here I am, almost 2 months after we were married and spent what had to be the most beautiful week and a half of my life, and I still can’t quite wrap my head around the utopia that is the islands of French Polynesia. We flew from LA to Tahiti and hopped over to the island of Moorea shortly after landing. This 10-minute flight was like nothing I’d seen before. The sun rising over the Pacific ocean with the island of Tahiti visible behind us and the island of Moorea ahead of us…truly blissful. We spent the first 4 nights at the Sheraton Moorea. Moorea is, simply put, a beautiful island with beautiful people, full of amazing history and colors and sights that you really have to see to believe (pictures at the link below…) We were fortunate enough to take a Jeep safari tour of the island, and at the climax of that tour found ourselves looking out at this. Unbelievable…I really could go on forever but I have to move on and tell you about Bora Bora. Bora Bora is somewhat of a fantasy, make-believe kind of place, even when you are there. You don’t believe the water actually looks like that. You go in it, but you have to convince yourself that it is real. Even with the abundance of overwater bungalows, they seem to fit right in to the natural, simple landscape of the island. Bora Bora is small enough to get around the entire island by motor-buggy or car in about 45 minutes. Just one road that goes around the whole place. We stayed at the IC Le Moana there. Beautiful property, lagoon, just about everything…perfection perfection perfection. We had some seriously good food (seared red tuna anyone!! mahi mahi!! and the pineapple on these islands is the best in the world). Oh - I have to mention the snorkeling we did…a seriously crazy amount of beautiful fish, stingrays, and these incredible sharks. One last thing - if you stay at the IC Le Moana, you can hop over on a free boat ride to the brand new IC Thalasso Resort where they have a beautiful lounge area filled - no really - filled with about every piece of classic furniture that exists in white. I could seriously go on and on about this trip, this place, the hotels…everything…but it’s really best to just look at some pictures to get the idea. Link below.
Ha… How could I not post this?? This is the internet at its finest…random objects in random places that look like faces…Perfect. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen things before that look an awful lot like faces and laughed to myself…but it’s the internet that reminds me I’m not the only one who thinks certain things are funny. This will have to be a short post because to be quite honest, I’m not sure what else to say about this. Ha. Just go look…
