Monthly Archives: January 2009

by bobbyhundreds

So, this weekend kicks off the Chinese Lunar New Year, so the atmosphere is sorta like Christmastime back in the States. Everyone’s a little more relaxed, family-oriented, and not so interested in work. In fact, in mainland China, the factory workers take the entire next month off, which kinda makes up for the whole working-on-Saturdays thing (still not worth it, if you ask me).

Throughout Hong Kong, they have these New Year’s festivals all over the place, with the biggest one going down in Causeway Bay.  So we headed out there tonight, and it was the biggest mistake of our young lives.  I’ve never seen so many people in one place before.. it was kinda like being at a concert, stuck in the moshpit, but everyone is all moving forward at the same time.  It was the perfect environment to simultaneously develop a healthy combo of claustrophobia and agoraphobia.

The vendors were selling pinwheels, red silk boxers, blow-up hats, and since it’s the Year of the Cow in the Chinese calendar, all kinds of cow paraphenalia.  Cow toilet seat covers? Cow foam trucker caps? Even beef jerky.

Anyways, check the vid. Takes a minute to load. Patience, my young Padawan.

by bobbyhundreds

Everyone is always on the move in Hong Kong.  The craziest thing is rush hour, not in regards to traffic, but in terms of human bodies. After work gets out, the sidewalks are clogged like backed-up plumbing, people everywhere, spilling over into every side-street and corner. What would normally be a 5-minute stroll, can turn into a half-hour crawl by early evening.

Aside from foot, there’s countless other ways to travel in HK, and everyone’s got their weapon of choice. The bus, the MTR subway, taxicabs, suped-up rice rockets, luxury cars, motorcycles..  It’s a hassle to drive here, the gas prices are some of the highest in the world and the license application process is arduous.  Then there’s the issue of having to pay for your own residential parking spot no matter where you live on the island, and don’t even think about trying to find parking in the city itself.  If you own a car, it’s usually reserved for weekend use. Or you can just go with a Barbied-out bike to squirrel through the streets.

Speaking of wheels..

by bobbyhundreds

After work, we headed over to the Subcrew studio to link up with the dudes for dinner.

Right when we got to the crew’s headquarters, KS was glued to The Berrics. We all gathered ’round and watched Marc Johnson swiss-cheese fools.  Really, best website ever.

Deacon’s (Daily Dozen Creative) always got something to say. He shares the studio loft with the Subcrew guys, where he works on his own fashion range,.. he’s a true, thoughtful Hong Kong designer who has a broad knowledge of clothing and style, and an even more extensive repertoire in the global marketplace.  

I was browsing through his inspiration board and was curious to know why the fixation with technical, progressive athletic apparel.. for example, imagery of sleek wrestling uniforms or Michael Phelps’ swimsuit in the Olympics.  He proceeded to expound on the marriage of fashion and technology, why Facebook is key to branding, and why Coco Chanel might very well be responsible for streetwear. Listen:

The guys were hungry, time to hit the HotPot restaurant.  It took us a minute to find it, turns out it was in the same narrow building as a “massage” parlor.  The sex industry is huge in HK, and in the seedier corners of the city, you’ll find neon pink tubes adorning doorways. That indicates that there’s a $40 massage upstairs.. except, this massage is less about acupressure and more about cheap perfume, showers, and stilettos.

Season (Hypebeast) and Kobe (Subcrew) point out the obvious.

The restaurant was tucked away deep in the corner of a space with 5-foot ceilings…  Sorta in-between floors I guess you could say. The low overhangs were padded with cushions, which probably come in handy for people’s foreheads after 20 rounds of Tsingtao Beer blow out.

So the HotPot was kinda gnarly, but tasty.  The traditional Hong Kong hotpot dinner is kinda like a Japanese shabu-shabu, but with more diarrhea involved the following morning.  The waiters bring out plates of raw food, beef, shrimp, dumplings, vegetables, tofu, etc.  You dip the food in the communal boiling pot of water in the middle of the table to cook it, then enjoy.  

Sam serves up the giant shrimp (which was still alive and wiggling pre-dunkage *gasp*).  As I noted the other day, Sam is a huge star in Hong Kong film and rap music.  The entire restaurant turned around when he walked in, the pretty girls gasping and giggling at the sight of the youth icon.  Sam’s story is straight storybook status.. All these dudes grew up being local skaterats (kinda awesome), and Sam was spotted one day skating by a filmmaker who cast him in HK’s first true critically acclaimed independent film.  From there, he kinda blew up, and now he’s a movie star, musician, popular DJ, and oh yeah, he also has Subcrew.

After dinner, we stumbled back over to Subcrew HQ where we cleared out the space for Sam’s DJ’ing, a more interesting round of shuttlecock and darts, and a popular HK drinking game involving dice and a lot of screaming.

by bobbyhundreds

We’re not just in Hong Kong to eat chicken joints and play shuttlecock with the locals. Believe it or not, we actually make apparel for a living, and you’re looking at ground zero for clothing manufacturing here in the Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong.

This neighborhood is known for the open fabric market that acts as the sourcing hub for fashion designers from around the world.  Whether you’re looking for a camo twill, perforated patent leather, or wet nylon, these shops have it all.  

Here we’re running through poplins to source a proper weight and color material for possible Spring/Summer 2010 pieces.  Poplin is woven with a basic natural cotton, but also semi-synthetic rayon and silk to provide a softer hand-feel and slight sheen.  Basically, its purpose is to hold its form and structure, while still being cool and comfortable. A good idea for a short-sleeve woven, let’s just say.

B-rad is cool and comfortable.  Hand-feel, maybe not so soft.

Sham Shui Po is also surrounded with a flea market of sorts.  A sea of vendors who are peddling specialized collections, everything from used kitchenware to Japanese porn to power drills.  One man’s trash is another man’s .. trash.

by bobbyhundreds

A couple nights back, we met up with Kevin and Eugene from Hypebeast over a genuine German dinner. Sausage, sauerkraut, pork knuckles, pate,..

and Lowenbrau.

Yesterday, spent the afternoon with our Chinese counterparts, Subcrew.  These fellas have become our HK family over the years, and remind me so much of the crew back home.  Their branding and business structure run parallel to TH, from their stores to design to overall personality and core mission, and all their dudes lock up similar to us.  We even met up with one of their UNITY store managers, who is like the Tony of China.  Except for the dirtbag part. *Wink.

After dim sum, we sat down with KS, Frankie, and fellow HK fashion designer Deacon (check his blog for rants on stale high fashion!) to start formulating a collaboration project for the upcoming year. These are the best projects to work on, natural, organic, with the homeys. And especially since both of our respective brands are at similar places on opposite ends of the world…

Last night, late-night drinks with Poon (CLOT) and actor/rapper Sam Lee (Subcrew), who just flew in from mainland China off a DJ gig.  

Poon hates being blogged, but his toys are open game.  Check it out RIM fanatics, Poon’s test-driving the Blackberry Curve part 2.  I thought it was a Bold, but it’s like 3/4 of the size, miniature styles. It also has a fricking laserbeam attached to its head.

Some handheld snapshot digicam with a super wide-angle attachment. Nicey.

Sam went nutso with the hairjob for the upcoming Chinese New Year.  But when you’re Sam, you can do anything. 

by bobbyhundreds

On the other side of Sneaker Street in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong is Ladies’ Market, which is my favorite place to go to buy $3 punkrock belts, insect taxidermy, and travel-sized alarm clocks.  Stuff. There’s a lot of it. There are also plenty of street performers.

Whatever you’re looking for, Ladies Market’s got it.  Oh, one thing.  It might not be .. you know, “real.” 

So, it’s one thing to walk streetside and pick through the bootlegs, but it’s all about the secret stockrooms upstairs in the dingy buildings that run along the back.  A password and the knowing nod can take you into the down-low bootleg stash rooms that are swimming with fake grade-AA designer labels, far from the eyes of any government authority.  Spycam steez:

by bobbyhundreds

The Chinese New Year is fast approaching, with the annual festivities beginning one week from now.  The days leading up to the lunar calendar new year are frenzied in China as the people flock to shoe stores to buy a brand new set of kicks.  The tradition goes that you gotta kick off the new year (no pun intended) with a fresh start, and one of the symbolic ways of doing so are getting laced with crispy sneakers.

The last time I took you down Sneaker Street in Hong Kong was almost 3 years ago.  Brad, Vito, and I headed back over to the Mong Kok district on the Kowloon side to jump in on the weekend’s raging sneaker bender. Both sides of the street are lined with cluttered sneaker boutiques, stocking the freshest, rarest, and most up-to-date Nikes, Adidas, Vans, Red Wings, Doc Martens, New Balances, etc.. 

by bobbyhundreds

World-renowned Agit-Pop Artist Ron English released his famous Abraham Obama busts at DNM here in Hong Kong a week back, and was even in-store for a signing.  First thing I had to do upon arrival was check out the exhibition on its final day.  

The world loves this guy.

This is still one of my favorite Ron English characters:

The Red/White/Blue bust is releasing at Toy Tokyo in New York in a week, and Ron will be there for a signing as well.

There’s also a Barracuda pop-up shop next door to the Mindstyle gallery in DNM.

Plus the MOCA CHINA.

Check out the bathroom in this space:

All that incredible art was inspiring, so I showed my appreciation in the Comments book.

by bobbyhundreds