Back in October, I met one of the most iconic indie rockers during CMJ. This would be the handsome man behind Mister Heavenly and Islands, Nick Thorburn. My meeting with him was strictly business and before gazing deep into his eyes, I was captivated by this little piece of plastic around his finger. Then as he motioned his hand, I noticed it was a white LEGO ring.
That was my first stumble upon this toy/accessory and on my second, I decided to personally own one. Still unsure if it’s the reason that Nick Thornburn has the same designer copy of the ring or how my childhood memories evolved around building LEGO forts, either way, I have fallen for this trend. Mine was $5 at the Brooklyn Flea which probably added to the desire of purchasing it. You can find high quality editions online or go cheap, and head to your nearest hipster flea market. These kind of creative crafts are always a hit in the DIY community but what are your thoughts, the trend of Lego Rings, Yay or Nay?
Opportunities to make fun of hipsters never cease, but this video may be overkill. Posing as representatives from Brooklyn Vegan (the site denied their involvement in the making of the video), a group called Million Dollar Extreme took to the streets of Williamsburg to check out the local fashion.
The crew interviewed numerous guys with ray-bans (hipster stereotype #1) and ironic facial hair (hipster stereotype #2) and girls who listen to Holy Ghost and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. (hipster stereotype #you get it), really running their point into the ground.
We get it, Williamsburg has hipsters.
Though apparently this is news to the interviewer, who describes the area as a, “funky, underground neighborhood.” Not to sound pretentious, but really, where have you been?
“People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it’s safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.” –Unknown
Sunday night, at the House of Yes, here in Williamsburg, a new line of fur heavy fashion will debut in a show called Nutria Palooza. It’s billed as a cruelty-free alternative to traditional fur fashions. Why, you ask? Because this fur comes from animals already killed as part of a Louisiana state initiative to control the animal’s population. That’s right, Lousiana, and the animal, the nutria, or coypu is more commonly known as a swamp rat. With help from a grant from the Barataria-Terrebonne Estuary Foundation, Cree McCree founded a line of products to utilize the leftover corpses of these state-deemed varmints, called Righteous Fur. Louisiana started paying trappers by the pelt when the nutria, originally brought to the swamplands from South America for fur-farming, grew in numbers so great their population threatened the local eco-system. In addition to the fleece, Righteous Fur uses the nutria’s distinctive bright yellow teeth in jewelry as well. Their hide is being used to sole shoes. “If they’re being killed anyway..then why not make something beautiful out of them?” McCree told the Times. As previously mentioned, nutria fur is nothing new, with fashionable Hollywood icons like Greata Garbo wearing it back in her day. History seems to be repeating itself, with modern designers taking nutria notice. From the Times:
Designers like Billy Reid (who recently won a major fashion award…), Michael Kors and Oscar de la Renta have incorporated nutria lining or trim in recent collections, and the fur has shown up on Etsy, the online store that specializes in handmade and vintage crafts, in the form of merkins — triangular patches sewn onto flesh-colored panties.”
Righteous Fur first debuted at a release in New Orleans, but Sunday, the show comes to the big city “guilt-free.” If only we could invent guilt-free alternatives to everything that weighs morally on our consciences. It evidently doesn’t even have to be very different than the guilt-filled alternative. If you wanna check it out, you can get tickets here.
Fashion Night Out’s is Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour’s scheme to make “shopping fun again.” So, to do this, a ton of stores stay open late and get prospective shoppers boozy on free cocktails while hoping they make some rash purchase choices.
Even Gawker is in on it. Our neck of the woods has also hopped on the bandwagon and are throwing down.
Williamsburg didn’t get their act together to make a nice little flyer like Franklin St. but you can find all the events at the FNO site and plan according now that shopping is fun again.
The trend may be old hat to hipsters in areas like Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who started wearing fedoras, rounded derby hats and, in warmer weather, straw hats, more than two years ago. But now hats are starting to catch on among some men in suburbs, the Midwest and beyooooooooond. Gap and J. Crew say they have witnessed strong hat sales this spring and summer while department stores like Barneys New York have been expanding their assortments after years of general indifference to hats. Sales of designer-brand “blocked” hats such as fedoras and straw hats in particular “are definitely robust,” says Jay Bell, a vice president at Barneys.
Tune in next week for an explanation of Cigars: For Smoking.
It’s not surprising that fashion-minded job seekers would want to work at Beacon’s Closet, the pricey yet popular second-hand clothing store on North 11th St. featured in the WSJ yesterday.
Employees spend their breaks trying on clothes and getting first pick at the fresh crop of daily imports. Almost everyone who works there is in a band (one manager estimated 70-80%), and managers seem to be sympathetic to the demands of the touring lifestyle.
Still, it’s not easy for managers to recruit and keep people around.
Due to the neighborhood’s talent pool, Ms. Wheeler, who runs the store operation while Ms. Peterson keeps the books, said the challenges of attracting and keeping gifted employees, and especially scheduling work shifts, are somewhat different than they would be at, say, Saks or Bloomingdale’s. Many of her workers’ first commitments are to their musical careers, with retail coming in a distant second.
To land the coveted job one must go through what amounts to an audition, picking through a bag of used clothes and identifying items the store might want to purchase. That process is called a “buy,” and it’s the bread and butter of the entire operation.
American Apparel does not hire or retain applicants based on ‘beauty.’ Our main priority is finding people with a strong sense of style who can inspire customers as they make selections from our extensive line. This is an integral part of the job, and we look for people who will enjoy it as a creative outlet. It has never been the policy of American Apparel, as some blogs claim, to fire employees who are not “good looking” or any of the other accusations implied by the anonymous or unverified third party sources. The company legitimately reviews current photographs of job applications and employees to consider their sense of style and the way in which they present themselves. Through personal interviews, we evaluate whether they possess the skills and personality required to successfully sell our products. This is a standard practice among fashion-forward retailers.
If you want to talk to the man himself, you can email the company’s Founder and CEO at dov@americanapparel.net. If he answers, let us know, it’ll be like getting an email from Steve Jobs but maybe hairier?
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