Monthly Archives: May 2008

by bobbyhundreds

Every so often, it comes back to basics. I’m sure you’ve noticed it’s reincarnation in the casual fashion sector over the past few years — low-key apparel with minimal branding, seeping into the literal fabric of society. American Apparel’s sweatshop-free dissemination from L.A. to the rest of the world. H&M’s eventual migration from east to west. Japan’s Uniqlo and Muji have officially hit our shores as well.

Supposedly the wave of the present, shockingly affordable basic clothing that’s not only frequently updated on the floor but up-to-date with the latest design trends. But is it just another mallstream fad akin to The Gap’s rise in the ’80s?  How long before the consumer backlash this time around, tired of seeing Everybody in Khakis Japanese Selvedge?  Or perhaps now, the loss of individuality is overshadowed by the dollar’s unyielding descent.  Unique fashion is an afterthought if we don’t have enough gas money to get to the mall.

Uniqlo has successfully cracked the American market, with the help of their SOHO flagship store, the brand’s largest retail store in the world.

And an Americanized squashed-down version of Muji, Japan’s staple multi-leveled department store that not only sells Muji-branded basic apparel, but housewares, bathroom supplies, pencils, stationery, you name it.

by bobbyhundreds

At the heart of New York City resides the Ecko headquarters, fashion mogul Marc Ecko‘s own designated building in the swirling metropolis, holding a roof over the his and Seth’s empire (Ecko, G-Unit, Avirex, Zoo York, and Complex Magazine). It’s rather respectable, isn’t it? To start off as a pharmacy school student, selling 6 t-shirts, to running an enterprise worth well over $1 billion.

I mean, opinions on apparel and publishing aside, you gotta admire this guy’s marketing ammunition. Saving white rhinos from being killed, duping the White House into believing he’d bombed the Air Force One, making an entire video game based around graffiti, the Barry Bonds baseball auction. C’mon, just getting Barry Bonds to publicly call him an idiot, being interviewed on the morning news and plugging the Marc Ecko name-brand into homes across the nation. Gargantuan.

This is Marc’s glass-encapsulated office. Essentially, his bachelor-pad away from home. See the personal chefs in the corner (supposedly Marc likes to whip up some gourmet dishes during the workday as well), a basketball court, library upstairs, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

He’s also amassing quite the art collection. Most of this stuff done personally for the man himself. This is in the lobby, and I guess the lights start flashing?

Vintage KAWS.

Bradley (Complex) showed me a dope video by BLU. I just put it up in VIDEO DAZE. New’scool.

Back down in Nolita. Say hello to esteemed jeweler and artisan, Gabriel Urist.

It’s cool to be around creative people like Gabe who are not only involved in other areas of design, but are mastering and reinventing their craftstmanship. Right now, he’s working on official NBA merchandise, and he also has the MLB license as well.

Mighty Healthy just got their delivery of limited, online-exclusive 123Klan x Mighty Healthy t-shirts. On sale on their website NOW. I stole this one because I HAD TO BE FIRST (and Scien rules).

Over at SSUR+PLUS, wrecking shop with Sammy and Dave. At the end of the day, if you’re in New York, it always comes back to Russ’ shop. Anchor.

Check out this original “Breadman” sticker in decent condition. Has got to be over 3 years old by now.

Virgin America > Southwest = Duh.
Virgin America > JetBlue = Working plug outlets. (I looked like I was running a special ops recon mission from my seat. Wires everywhere like an octopus.)
JetBlue > Virgin America = The chips are free.

by bobbyhundreds

Kanye West performing at the G-Shock 25th Anniversary Party here in New York. Your first look at all-new material, written at 8am the day before. And some rhymes just conjured up on the spot.

2 more clips from Kanye’s Wednesday night performance.
FYI. NSFW. LOL.

Sorry. Vimeo pulled the videos because I was bringing them too much traffic?? Isn’t that a good thing? Waaaaack.
Back to Youtube??

by bobbyhundreds

Ok, first things first.  If you haven’t already, check our ONLINE SHOP to see our new Summer 2008 Lookbook.  And starting today, you can visit The Hundreds Los Angeles or The Hundreds San Francisco to get the entire Summer range of apparel, from denim to button-ups and everything in between.

Alright, literally turned the corner and bumped into Ray (Mighty Healthy) this morning. He was super fashion guy Mr. Mate, decked in Nudies, red Gourmets, Hufzinger, the whole 9 yards.

He took us down to into the dungeon, aka the Mighty Healthy studio, which he and Denis share with renowned jeweler Gabriel Urist.

I think we got into 4 different conversations throughout our day about NY vs. LA vs. SF food. But when all is said and done, nothing can fade a New York slice. I dunno what it is about the pizza out here, but I’ve been chasing this taste for the past decade out in L.A. It’s like a Los Angeles burrito, you can’t replicate this anywhere else in the world. Denis says it has to do with the city’s water and ovens. Whatever it is, I can eat pizza here every meal for a week straight. (Which, correct me if I’m wrong, some New Yorkers do).

Another one of my favorite things about the City is that due to the sheer amount of people in the highly condensed radius, you’re bound to run into familiar faces on the sidewalk. We pounded the pavement for the better part of the afternoon, ran into Scott (Mike23), Jensrocker, and Tony Arcabascio. I would’ve liked to take photos for you, but it’s NYC and I think they kinda punch you in the face for that sorta thing.

The people-watching is unrivaled as well, this dude is my new hero. Selling rare kicks and apparel streetside on Lafayette. Only in New York.

Ended the afternoon at the aNYthing store in Chinatown, to say whatsup to NA. Speaking of Tony,

Ok, don’t ask me why or how, but somehow we ended up midtown at the Season Finale party for America’s Next Top Model (?!????). The models from all the past seasons gathered to watch the new Top Model get crowned, gossip, chew gum for dinner, give each other dirty looks, use wristwatches as belts, and fiddle with their Blackberries. Super super bizarre. And I still don’t get this show, because most of these girls look like they fell off the Ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. Some of them are just branches, period.

Ok, that’s enough of that.

So this year is Casio G-Shock’s 25th Anniversary and we have a few collaborative projects lined up in the upcoming months with the historic watch brand. Tonight they invited us to a private gala with Spike Lee hosting, and pretty much every streetwear persona known to mankind was in attendance. Let’s just say that If they enforced a dress code of no hats or sneakers, it would’ve been a ghost town. Lots of awesome C-List celebrities also, like Lindsay Price (half-Korean and recently divorced might I add), Eliza Dushku, and that crazy coach who got kicked off Making The Band, who was dancing like an absolute maniac next to me for 3 hours straight. By the end of it, I was missing an arm and some teeth.

Some A-listers also. Spencer Fujimoto, Nick Tershay, and Ben Hundreds.

Oh yeah, Kanye West performed. I was fortunate enough to pull off some footage of his performance, which I’ll post later on today. 5-minute freestyle, topless girls with space helmets on, even cooler and more impractical sunglasses, this intimate concert experience might have been better than his tour show.  He even references Hypebeast, get that.

Until then, just remember, Diamond is the bomb.

by bobbyhundreds

by bobbyhundreds

I’m about to get onto a cross-country flight, so once again, I’m stacking up on the reading material. It’s kinda like I’ll be sitting on the toilet for the next 5 hours, except middle-aged women will serve me peanuts while 200 other people will be sardined around me.

The May 12th issue of Newsweek is centered around “The Post-American World,” and features Fareed Zakaria’s cover story on “The Rise of the Rest.” Ben and I were just talking about this last week, how the U.S. has quietly taken a backseat to the rest of the world not only in terms of economic and industrial power, but entertainment, fashion, and culture as a whole. Whereas most red-white-and-blue-blooded Americans have always known the world to revolve around..well.. them, Zakaria shows that we are entering an era where the rest of the world is moving on to a Post-American reality. One in which is not determined or dictated by a U.S. standard.

I started to notice this over the past couple years of traveling around the world. Even up to a decade ago, most people I encountered overseas (as much as they hated America), were fascinated (or at the very least actuely aware) with what was going on in American pop- and subculture. What we were wearing, what TV shows we were watching, how big our boobs were getting. But these days, especially when traveling throughout Asia, it’s become glaringly obvious that anything American is actually kinda uncool. If anything, it’s representative of low-class or second-rate quality.

Even though the previous generations had always looked to American music and our social phenomena to gauge what was cool in the world, they eventually used them as the boilerplate to found their own re-appropriated cultures. So now, Hong Kong doesn’t have to look to New York, let’s say, to figure out who’s who or what’s hot. Because they have their own brands, designers, retailers, etc. that are doing it better and bigger themselves.

It puts us in an interesting position, in an industry that is based on chasing Cool, or influencing it in some way. It used to be an asterisk on your resume at the International Street Culture Job Fair, to say that you were a successful brand in America. Nowadays, most international retailers, brand connoisseurs, designers, what-have-you, truly couldn’t care less. In some circles, it could actually work against you.

I write about this because 80% of our readers are coming from the States, and I think Zakaria does a good job of reminding us that as the world grows, we need to continue to grow with it, instead of staying comfortably sheltered under the stars and stripes. Anyways, I probably did a terrible job of summarizing the article,.. whatever, you probably just skipped to this sentence because it was at the end and you saw a bright colorful picture coming up. So do yourself a favor and read it online.

Again, today’s lesson is America pretty much sucks. For example, ID‘s Agyness Deyn issue already dropped elsewhere around the globe like 2 months ago, but of course the States had to get it last, hitting newsstands last week. Still, worth the wait.

2 girls fingerpainting?

Agyness and Vivienne Westwood. Game over.

Ok onto the fun part. Jackson dropped off a boxful of his old surf and skate mags from the 80s and 90s. Check out that Jovontae cover in ’92.

Back before his name was Earl.
Jason Lee.

Man, the style was so much sicker back then. Especially because this is when most of it was materializing. Mike V not only made the chain wallet cool, but he introduced the cargo pant to youth culture. Word.

Update. Rene is now behind-the-scenes at Fitted Hawaii. (Ola dropped by today and approved this!)

The O.G.’s..

The Dream Team.

Long before Nash Bridges, Steve Berra was on Television.

A lotta my friends didn’t get it, but I was heavy into Acme as a kid. Mainly for the classic Americana, cartoon graphics. And Eric Ricks.

Remember when they called a boardslide a railslide? With or without a rail?

I’m late for my flight.

by bobbyhundreds

You can tell a lot about a man by his wallet.  That Supercuts discount card?  5-year-old receipts from Dairy Queen?  Dilapidated business cards that no one wants?

We had the good fortune of entertaining our Canadian guests for the better part of today.  Here’s Garry (Livestock/i.e.)’s wallet.

Craig’s (Addict):

Scotty iLL’s Marc Jacobs:

Ben’s Goyard:

Mine.  Go Martin.

by bobbyhundreds

These days, Shoemaster aka Shoes aka Chad (Nike) hates everything and everyone. Including you. And me. (But not cupcakes. Those, he clearly loves).

Chaos aka Radass aka Chris Paez (Dolorosa) and Viet aka Vito aka Beato-My-Vito aka Veetles used to run a brand together. Chris went on to do bigger and better things with his tattoo studio. Vito is hopelessly stuck working with The Hundreds, enduring Ben’s verbal abuse, Benjie’s toilet destruction, and my senseless preschool jokes.

Giant aka Mike Giant (Rebel 8) hammered out this chest piece for Chris a few years back. Said Mike hit him up for just a few hundred bucks. He should sell it on eBay.

by bobbyhundreds

Foreign Family unveiled their FFPOPUP GALLERY last night in K-town, with a gallery hosting the work of both MR44 and Johnny Punishment (much of which had sold out already by the time I got there).

The men of the hour.  MR44 and CHAD.

The real party was in the back.

And Elia, of course, holding down the e-mail list.

Also, FF are throwing a sample sale today between noon and 8pm at the space, so there you go.  Another chance to catch the gallery, no excuses!  554 S. Western Ave., L.A.

by bobbyhundreds