Red x Yeti

Me and JoeyRBTs was having a discussion about shoes one day, and we somehow got on the subject of the boat shoe. We was talking about how versatile they are and how they are a necessity in a successful wardrobe. But then "it" came up. The Red Boat Shoe. We were saying that it doesn't exists, because we have yet to see em in person, but always in ads or in fashion shows. Just like Big Foot, its always photographed and talked about, but only seen rarely by the lucky. So the search began. I found a pair of Sebago Dockside boat shoes on eBay that look to be legit and wearable (found some on Zappos.com too). I'd cop them, but as always, they don't have my size (A problem me and Joey face all the time because of big feet). But just like the search for Big Foot, I will keep a look out for em wit a pair of binoculars and video camera in tote.

http://www.zappos.com/mens-sebago

Essay: Leaving the 21st Century by Mark Vallen

"Collectively submerged in a whirlpool of useless information, frivolous distractions, and unneeded products, people everywhere have been reduced from citizens to mere consumers."

During the early 1970s, Christopher Gray edited an important collection of writings he titled Leaving the 20th Century. Gray's anthology compiled the declarations and tracts from an obscure circle of late 1950s French dissident artists and intellectuals who called themselves "Situationists". Observing the present state of society, it's easy to conclude the rants of the Situationists still pertinent... with Gray's book simply needing its titled updated to Leaving the 21st Century. The Situationists were predicting in the 50s that capitalism would transform society into a "commodity spectacle" where people would be transfixed and depoliticized by a never ending barrage of manufactured events and enticing products.

Himself a member of the Situationist movement, Gray wrote: A new form of mental illness has swept the planet: banalization. Everyone is hypnotized by work and by comfort: by the garbage disposal unit, by the lift, by the bathroom, by the washing machine.

Young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. Everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit.

Gray's Situationist cohorts proposed battling the ills of society by creating "situations from which there would be no turning back" (hence their name). Situationism never had an explicit political platform, instead it relied on human desire and the subconscious to act as triggers in the quest for liberation. In short, the Situationists wanted to expose people to creative acts that would force a reconsideration of society and its functions, subsequently making a "return to normal" impossible.

The screaming banality observed by the Situationists more than 40 years ago has now grown so pervasive that few seem to notice any longer. Collectively submerged in a whirlpool of useless information, frivolous distractions, and unneeded products, people everywhere have been reduced from citizens to mere consumers. A-historical and self-possessed, we stare incomprehensibly at the world through our television screens. We live in a drowning pool of hyper-materialism. As Situationist inspired rebels wrote on Parisian walls in 1968, Life is elsewhere.

The transformative art the Situationists spoke of would not necessarily spring from a calculated political approach launched during times of great social turmoil. Sometimes artists working in isolation during socially conservative times can set greater things in motion, which is something we need to grasp in our present condition. Today's expressions of cultural/political dissonance are forming all around us.

Different times and places always produce artists that speak for that particular frame of reference, and conservatism supplies fertile ground for new ideas and actions insofar as it provides something to push against. So rest assured, the next resurgent cultural tsunami is just around the corner.

Backpacks vs. Totes

Tote bags are the new big trend in men's fashion. Everywhere you look, tote bags. They've become hard to escape. I kind of like them in some instances, but I must say they can a bit effeminate at times. I actually have one, but I don't use it much. I'm still more comfortable with a backpack. However, the tote is great when I need to carry around something that won't fit in a backpack. Like when I was in San Francisco this summer and I had to trek through the city carrying does huge sketch pads fro my art and design classes my tote worked out great. I like both, but a lot of people are picking sides.

Fill the empty spaces...

with pretty things.

Jeff Staple PSFK Conference Presentation

This is a video of Jeff Staple's, owner of Staple Design and Reed Space, presentation at PSFK Conference Asia 2008. Jeff Staple is a major force in streetwear. He is the sole founder of Staple Design, a menswear clothing brand and design and creative direction firm. He also owns the New York boutique, Reed Space. If you follow Staple design you know the clothing line started as just a t-shirt line years ago, but due to hard work the brand currently features a full menswear line with high quality cut and sew pieces. The firm's design, creative direction, brand mangaement, and marketing work is also amazing. He is currently doing exactly what I would like to be doing with my life. His career path and accomplishments are all major sources of inspiration for me. The video explains why.

Essentials: To Better Living

The 3 week Art + Design program I was doing is over now and I'm stuck in San Jose, CA with absolutely nothing to do. So I guess I will start some projects.

1) Read a novel

-A Portriat of A Artist As A Young Man

"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce. It depicts the formative years in the life of Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce and a pointed allusion to the consummate craftsman of Greek mythology, Daedalus.

A Portrait is a key example of the Künstlerroman (an artist's Bildungsroman) in English literature. Joyce's novel traces the intellectual and religio-philosophical awakening of young Stephen Dedalus as he begins to question and rebel against the Catholic and Irish conventions he has been brought up in. He finally leaves for Paris to pursue his calling as an artist. The work pioneers some of Joyce's modernist techniques that would later come to fruition in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake."

2) Learn Adobe Illustrator

3) Start eating healthy and exercising daily.

4) Learn to use my camera.

5) Nothing

TresBienShop.net

A little while ago I posted a video of the making of the Sweden based men's wear shop, Tres Bien. Along with many others, I believe Tres Bien is doing great things in retail. As seen in the video the physical shop is beautiful, however the online shop is just as great. Everything is amazing, the presentation of the products, the design of the site, ease of use. The shop is based in Sweden, but there is also a currency exchange feature that will display all the prices in six different forms of currency, one being the US dollar. I think this is a great idea. It makes shopping so convinent. However, the best thing about the shop is of course the products. The shop carries brands such as APC, Church's, Comme des Garscons, Common Projects, Dries Van Noten, Final Home, Folk, Gitman Bros, Head Porter, Junya Wantanabe, Kitsune, Maison Martin Margiela, Mismo, Nike, Obident Sons, Opening Ceremony, Pendleton, Our Legacy, Raf Simons, Rogues Gallery, Shipley & Hamos, Wood Wood, Surface to Air, and Woolrich Wollen Mills. Tres Bien is doing great things with retail on and offline. Like me you may not be able to afford many of the products they carry, but that still doesn't stop me from daydreaming. Especially about those Our Legacy Camo Chinos. However, they are actually having a pretty good sale on the site at the moment. The photos above is a couple collections I made of some of my favorite peices.

As of now I'm in San Francisco taking some design classes. I'm having an amazing time and I will be posting some pictures of my trip soon.

Refinery 29 Video: Shipley & Hamos

Refinery29 is a fashion site catered mostly to women, but they have done some great videos profiling some young amazing menswear designers. I will be sharing some with you. First up is the duo, Shipley & Hamos.

Who the fuck is Sidney Lo?

Are you tired of hearing his name? Probably not, but I am. It feels like every other day I hear some reference to him on a blog or in an interview or in a superfuture forum(where he is whorshipped by denim enthusiast). So I got tired of wondering "Who the fuck is Sidney Lo?" So I just googled him and it actually turns out there's actually a good reason for the hype. Here's a post about him and his little art project done by Cool Hunting.

"Sidney Lo's show, "What Are Your Wearing Today?", which he describes as "an exercise in time and digital replication," is a group of photographs documenting the passage of time and the agent of change that it is... Every day, for one year starting 10 March 2007, Lo (a Brooklynite by way of San Francisco) photographed himself. He shaved his head to physically illustrate the passage of time and its inherent ability to transform. To coincide with his growing hair, he also worn the same jeans daily to further illustrate the ephemeral nature of physical things as time passes. "

Nantucket Red

Refered to as nantucket red or sundried red, the color has been very popular as of lately. I actullay own two peices in the color, Polo chino shorts and a vintage oxford. Both pieces are probably the favorite two peices in my closet, but I get really tired of hearing, "Why are you wearing pink?" Who cares what color it is? The bottom line is it looks great. This season it has shown up in the collections of Our Legacy, APC, Ralph Lauren, Gitman Bros for Hyr Collective, J Crew, Brooks Brothers, and many more. The color is actually kind of hard to avoid. Probably because it's a detour from the norm and it goes great with a lot of different things, especially a chambray shirt or a nautica inspired top.(i.e. stripes) For more on the color and it's history click here.

"Bottoms"-Up

This post isn't so much about fashion, as much it's about how you can draw inspiration from normal everyday things, and quickly become the new "It" item in town. A couple of girl's I know have recently fallen in love with high heels that have "Red Bottoms" or soles that make them feel like they are walking with the elite of Hollywood. So I did some research and found out that the guy who makes these high end shoes name is Christian Louboutin. He changed the game up by simply drawing inspiration from models walking on the street. In 1992, the up and coming designer drew his inspiration from his models who walked home from his design studio which was in Paris' Meat Packing District and got blood on their shoes from the multiple meat businesses that surrounded him. This is where he got the inspiration to paint the soles of his shoes red to differentiate himself from other big name designers. Now this is his trademark that has made him an household name in fashion even to this day. The moral is, always keep your eyes open, and above all, your mind. You too can be the next GREAT.

More at: http://www.christianlouboutin.com/

The Making of The Erotic House of Peter Saville

Top Five Mags- Joseph

With the popularity of blogging and the recent decline in the quality of many top name publications many people have lost their interest in magazines. However, I'm still a big fan of a great magazine. I believe with the amazing design, articles, interviews, and advertising featured in some of the top quality magazines out there, it's more than a few pages with pictures and text. It is an artform. An artform that I'm very interested in. Kermit was telling me about this new mag he recently discovered and we decided to both do a post listing our top five favorite magazines.

1. Monocle Magazine- This magazine is the end all be all when it comes to design. The content of the magazine revolves around a broad range of topics, described as a current issues and cultures publication. The last time I read monocle there was a great article on design schools and the role of their graduates in today's economy. The article featured John Medea, the president of the Rhode Island School of Design, argubly the most most respected design school in the United States. The articles in Monocle are always great, but more than anything the magazine is held in such high regard due its flawless layout and overall design. Monocle is simply how a magazine should look. The publication is also great in regards to product design with collaborations with top tier brands like Woolrich Woolen Mills, Comme des Garcons, and Porter. Monocle is a very new magazine. It was just established in 2007; however, it is not evident with the worldwide success of the mag and numerous physical Monocle Shops in cities such as Los Angeles, London, and Palma, Spain. Monocle is certainly on a pace to change the magazine world.

2. i-D Magazine- "ID is a British magazine dedicated to fashion, music, art and youth culture. i-D was founded by designer and former Vogue art director Terry Jones in 1980. The magazine is known for its innovative photography and typography, and over the years established a reputation as a training ground for fresh talent." -Wikipedia

3. Vice Magazine- "Vice is a free magazine and media conglomerate founded in Montreal, Quebec and currently based in New York City. The magazine covers contemporary indie and youth culture. The magazine's readership comprises mostly young "hipsters". Vice is known for its controversial content, and often strikes a sardonic and ironic pose on debauchery, sex, drugs, violence, crime, and social issues involving race and economic class." -Wikipedia

4. The Fader- "The FADER, or FADER, is an United States-based music/culture/fashion magazine that covers hip-hop, reggae, independent rock, pop and dance music from around the world. Founded by Rob Stone and Jon Cohen in 1998, The FADER is a freestanding, independent New York City-based magazine."

5. Hyr Collective- HyrCollective.com is a online fashion magazine created by Candian tastemaker Ryan Willms. I know this post is about print magazines, but I had to feature Hyr largely because I believe Hyr is the best thing on the internet, one of the best things to happen in the recent world on men's fashion, and it has been my bible for the last year. Just one year old, Hyr has made a lot of progress. The magazine regular features interviews, photoshoots, and features all revolving around quality menswear. The web mag's success is largely due to it's unflautering concentration on the basis of design and it's great eye for the best brands, designers, products, projects, and happenings in men's fashion. The site may make you question the institution that is GQ. Off the hills of their first product collaboration with Gitman Bros and Tannis Hegan Hyr is sure to soon be a major force to reckon with.

(No particular order)

Top 5 Mags- (Frogg's Edition)

1.) Indie Magazine- This is a British Mag that is dedicated to fashion, the normal and the not so normal. The stories are excellent, but the photography is excellent-er. The photos not only show pictures, but tell a photo story in relationship with the corresponding articles. Definitely art within itself.

http://www.indiego.at/
2.) 10 Men Magazine- A comprehensive look into British Fashion with excellt articles and awe inspiring photography. The number 10 is used throughout the whole magazine in conventional and unconvetional ways. Most are "lol" moments which not only grasp your attention, but tilt your head to the side and be like "What tha?"

http://www.10magazine.com/

3.) Motor Trend Magazine- Keeps you updated on whips that are out, coming out, rumored to be coming out, and beautiful machines you can't live with out.

http://www.motortrend.com/index.html

4.) Details Magazine- Aimed at a slightly younger audience than its Father-Mag Gentlemen's Quartely, this Mag is full off fresh ideas for fashion, food, and exceptional culture.

http://men.style.com/details/

5.) Sole Collector Magazine- All about shoes..shoes...inspirational athletic excerpts...oh and more shoes.

http://solecollector.com/

(In No Particular Order)