Designers 101

[Mippipopolous]

Could anyone give me any info on The Viridi-anne?

[thomaspaine]

[balloons]

nbhd and sophnet are two brands I don't know much about and would like to know more about

[ramseames]

I can talk about both of them tonight once I'm into my hotel.

[sid3000]

does anyone have an opinion on 'arts & science'? I cant tell if it's something worth monitoring or a kitschy #lifestyle brand

they make a lot of knick knacks (my weakness)

[whinefields]

anyone have any info on 08 sircus? this one store in la carries the brand - along with mastermind and kolor - but i had never heard of it before.

[Vaeltaja]

Any info on Obscur?

I know a bit about the brand, but not a whole lot.

[ramseames]

Balloons I don't feel 100% right now so I'm just gonna run through NBHD quick and then tomorrow I'll go over what I know about soph aight?



Founded in 94 by Shinsuke Takizawa. The name literally refers to the neighborhood of Harajuku, where him and his friends were living at the time (and where the vast majority of Tokyo's fashion culture is situated nowadays). The general concept behind the brand is doing relatively basic pieces with influences from motorcycling (they actually have helmets for sale) and then to a lesser extent other subcultures/themes like the military, trad wear, etc. They have their mainline which is quite american in terms of where those influences are originating, they have Luker which is supposed to be a little less expensive and looking towards Britain instead of the US, they have SVG archives which I don't really understand the distinction between mainline and it but they release some of the best pieces under it so its worth mentioning, and then they have their kid's line One Third, literally referring to the scale of the pieces. They've got 10 stores of their own, 2 flagships (harajuku and shibuya, like a 15 min walk apart), and then 8 stores in Japan and China called Hoods. They collaborate occasionally, they did converse first strings recently, some limited edition denim for Heineken, a rain smock with cav empt, they do loads of sunglasses with Effector, and probably some others.

No different from any of the other brands at this price point/doing this sort of thing where a much greater portion of what western stockists carry than they should is just screenprinted tees and sweats and stuff. Which is a shame, because the things they do really well are stuff like the flannels, denim, and big shitty looking milsurp-esque coats and such. Quality is generally quite high, its not a repro brand and some things come predistressed, but its all "worth" the price and probably a lot better value than most. Plus there's a large secondhand market for it and you can find things in good-decent condition for fractions of MSRP in places like:

Album of some of my favourite/the most unique pieces they've done:



Lookbook links:







Short interview that haven did with him:

[bels]

someone explain the difference between Robert Geller and Patrick Ervell to me?

[germinal]

[can-]

ervell's clothes are much more modern, restrained and fundamentally based in American sportswear. the geller ideal is more in line with ann, schneider, harnden-- it's a very gothic, dark and romantic characterization coming from the 1800s

[Vaeltaja]

[ramseames]

dun worry i didn't forget about you

[grippers]

Any info on Blackmeans & Yujiro Komatsu?

[Mippipopolous]

How about Nom de Guerre? I've seen some cool pieces I like here and there in SF WAYWTs and classifieds, but know next to nothing about the brand.

[balloons]

Tiger of Sweden

anything worth knowing about them or is it just kind of like Acne but not as big here for whatever reason

[parastexis]

I've been reading a little about Hiroshi Fujiwara but would like to know more

[ramseames]

Fujiwara I covered a little bit in the short thing I wrote about soph, but basically he's like the godfather of harajuku street fashion. He has his own design company called fragment, he designs for soph with uniform experiment, he had a collab with levis for a while called fenom, he's the H in nike HTM (http://www.businessoffashion.com/2013/1 ... chine.html), he's designed guitars for eric clapton, he was a hiphop DJ in the 80s, etc etc.

I preordered this book on him back in september but it keeps getting delayed which blows: http://www.amazon.com/Hiroshi-Fujiwara- ... 847842398/

[can-]

[Syeknom]

[McOdsen]

, regarding the NdG original shop and its inconspicuous location and all that, what's the point? Exclusivity? How do they make enough money initially to keep going and all that?

[can-]

I have no idea where their capital came from. I know in 2014 that kindve place would have a terrible time trying to stay open because now there is a surfeit of retailers in lower manhattan selling the same kind of 'small batch' men's gear. I relate the place and the opening to supreme because of a similar focus on quality product, community and in-group coolness. likewise with supreme they sold all their own product direct with no middle men which helps.

they were obviously still struggling when the recession took them out in 08

[Rosenrot]

[smiles]

Arts & science. Started by Sonya park, a stylist living in japan. The clothes are supposed to be unisex (to a certain extent) most of the shirts are blousey and most of the pants are baggy. Natural fibers and all that jazz, lots of linen. Definitely Japanese farmer as Rosen says but also on the same spectrum with brands like yaeca and sassafras. Wouldn't be surprised if inventory carried them at one point or another. From what I've handled of them they feel a little too 'warm' to be strictly minimalist.

Blackmeans. Head designer had a stint at undercover. Obviously influenced by the Tokyo punk scene and he was probably hanging out with jun in the 90's. Allegedly a very small operation, the shop is downstairs and the atelier is upstairs where crusty punks are creating your personalised leather garments. Lot of the stuff that doesn't get picked up by overseas retailers is much more wild from what I can tell. Similar to facetasm/sasquatchfabrix they are interested in Native American and other indigenous cultures and design motifs. Lots of embroidery and fringes.

Toga and toga archives and toga pula and toga virgilis. Designed by yuriko furuta iirc. She studied abroad and came back to japan to be a stylist. Started toga (which is toga archives) in 97 and introduced the other lines later. Lot of prints and colourful stuff from what I've seen. My girlfriend has a pretty cool toga short coat thing. See if I can take her picture.

[whinefields]

[birdman caw]

Been interested in Jun Hashimoto lately. Does anyone about a line/sideproject/collab called AZ that he was part of?

[CleanThug]

Would like some general stuff on Undercover & Undercoverism

[deadkitty]

check out trashpile's post on mf

[CleanThug]

I knew about tnf purple label but what is White Label???

http://m.hypebeast.com/2014/3/the-north ... ean-market

like purple label except directly affiliated with tnf mainline?

[can-]

looks like the Korean only line?

Korean getting some cool shit recently. lavenham Korea comes to mind