PSFK Author:
Orli Sharaby

Nice interview over at Coolhunting with Scott Patt, Creative Director at Converse. Here are some highlights.

Scott Patt on Converse as an iconic entity:

I learned it’s not just a physical shoe, or even just an American/global icon, but almost a spiritual entity that throughout the last 100 years has been indelibly connected to sport, music, art and culture. It is a transcendent phenomenon in that it is the most democratic shoe in the world that everyone wears in their own way.

On Converse as art’s greatest canvas:

Some of the greatest artists now and over the past 50 years have chosen Converse as their brand. Not to mention, the All Star itself is the greatest mobile blank canvas ever created, next to the classic white t-shirt.

More at Coolhunting

We were struck by this New York Magazine article last week that more or less chided all of humankind for its addiction to unnatural footwear in recent centuries. From the article, we learned that shoes compromise the natural structure of our feet, so that we pound too hard on our heels and aren’t able to roll our toes off the ground like we’re supposed to. While this particular PSFK contributor is quite a bit more comfortable in 4-inch heels than in slippers, that might just be an anomaly: barefoot is indeed better.

So we were happy to see Josh Spear direct our attention to Vivo Barefoot, sneakers that are designed to put minimal strain on our natural gait. Wearing them will feel slightly strange at first, with every cobblestone or crack in the pavement felt through the sole (kind of like rock climbing shoes), but we think that’s kind of cool.

One of our favorite musical artists, British Sri Lankan M.I.A., has just released her own clothing line (also called M.I.A.). The singer/DJ/musician is known for wearing bold, bright-colored outfits, and her eponymous clothing line will of course reflect her own personal style. She explains:

With my stuff, because everything’s really bright, if you lose it or someone steals it, you can see it from miles away and you can be like, ‘Oy! Give me my shirt back!’

via NME

H&M and Forever 21 have nothing on Steve & Barry’s which, as a NY Times article pointed out today, is selling quite fashionable clothing at prices even Walmart can’t compete with. The most expensive items at Steve & Barry’s cost $8.98, and the store’s clothing lines are designed by the likes of Stephon Marbury and Sarah Jessica Parker, rivaling similar collabs at Target and H&M. At such a low price point, you’d think that the clothes would be falling apart at the seams, but the crazy thing is, they’re are actually well made. Many of the dresses are lined (Parker just wore one to a movie premiere), and the basketball shoes designed by Marbury are strong enough to hold up during professional games.

So how does Steve & Barry’s do it? The Times presents the company as an interesting case study in progressive business practices. For one thing, their profit margin is extremely thin — nobody’s scraping off a hefty CEO salary, even the CEOs themselves; when employees travel, they stay in Motel 6; office furniture is comprised of hand-me-downs and Salvation Army finds. On top of that, the company maintains only a tiny PR office, and doesn’t spend money on advertising or marketing at all. All of this translates to a new business model and, in the end, savings for the consumer.

NY Times: Is This the World’s Cheapest Dress?

Vice Magazine has released their global trend report for 2008, and PSFK thought it would be a fun idea to do a little comparison with last year’s report, which we covered back in February 07.

LONDON Girls:

2007: Ecstasy and ketamine are really big again because London coke is so bad and expensive. This means girls are starting to wear white oversize Katherine Hamnett shirts that say “Love” in big bold black print, accessorised with eight-hole Dr. Martens and leggings.

2008: These young ladies all go to live shows at Rough Trade stores and carry tote bags. The overriding look is a cartoonish imbalance between tiny, skinny, Lycra-clad legs and huge bomber jackets. This lack of proportion can be evened out with the careful application of fucking massive loose-laced Docs.

NEW YORK BOYS:

2007: Boys here are really hairy lately. A good rule of thumb is shave on Monday and let it grow until Saturday, when it will be perfect. We’re also beginning to see long, chin-length locks a lot more often. Also still hanging on, but probably on the way out soon, are old men’s hats like fedoras, trilbies, and bee-bops. Jeans are mostly dark, raw denim and skinny.

2008: Do you skate and listen to Children of Bodom? Then we guarantee you have a lifetime supply of plaid shirts and plaid jackets in your closet. Guys like this are always surrounded by a crew of nicely groomed male “fans” who either work at Opening Ceremony or desperately try to look like they do.

TOKYO Girls:

2007: The girls have been wearing a lot of high, thick heels or wedges with skinny jeans or overalls. Either that, or brightly colored skirts and leggings, like our model here. Go for a thin V-neck top with a small and cute single-diamond necklace.

2008: Compared to the boys, girls are practically funereal, with tons of black, gray, and white and just a hint of color. Bagginess is a big factor for girls, like Ayaka here in a huge men’s Gap sweatshirt worn like a dress, with a big scarf thrown around her neck loosely to emphasize the bagginess. Leggings and engineer boots tighten the bottom half, getting a good loose vs. tight balance.

Vice Magazine Global Trend Report 2008

Vice Magazine Global Trend Report 2007

Using an unusual technique, a Philippine prison is trying to rehabilitate its inmates by turning them into wannabe Versaces. Al Jazeera reports from Manila’s maximum security prison, where noted fashion designer Puey Quinones visits once a week to teach the prisoners, some serving life sentences for crimes like murder and kidnapping, to sew, bead, and hand paint textiles. The idea was conceived in order to exercise inmates’ imagination and keep them occupied, but has since evolved into quite a successful give and take. Prisoners are paid for their work, but love working with Quinones for the simple fact that they get to express their creativity and have something of a link to the outside world. For Quinones, about 90% of the handiwork on his clothing is now done by inmates - designs which have appeared on celebrities, in magazines, and on billboards.

Puey Quinones says:

“These guys are really talented. They just need to correct their eye. Because, you know, they’re stuck in the prison, so they have limited, um, how do you call this?… Inspiration!”

According to a couple of inmates”

“We’ve learned to keep our dignity in tact.”

“We’re proud enough to be a part of Puey Quinones’ success. It feels so great, because, although we’re just prisoners, we can see our work outside”

At the New York Time’s style blog The Moment, guest blogger Mark Jolly, editor of luxury travel site globorati, reports on an emerging hotel trend: “Big-boutique” brands - such as aloft by Starwood or ANdAZ by Hyatt - are drawing guests in with their promise of a whole self-contained lifestyle, kind of like hipster total immersion. When you stay at ANdAZ, you can be a full-fledged environmentalist for the weekend, immersing yourself in its “eco-luxury” accommodation. At aloft, with its quirky, open-floor plan rooms, you can imagine you’re a successful Soho artist living in the loft of your dreams.

For the luxury traveler, the newest incarnation of the lifestyle hotel means discovering a defined personality — the sort of personality in which, perhaps, you’d like to see your own image: urbane, sophisticated, and a cut above the style of that poor sap in accounting who just spent the weekend at a cookie-cutter five-star in Newport Beach. Checking into a lifestyle hotel is the hospitality equivalent of sporting a limited-edition pair of Pumas instead of the window-front generics at Foot Locker. It’s a brand choice.

The Moment: Mark Jolly on Emerging Hotel Trends

In an article published this week, The Guardian tells us that in an average person’s lifetime, he or she will spend 36 total years sitting down. As humans, though, we didn’t evolve to be sitting creatures, so our bodies aren’t adapted to that lifestyle. Good posture is one way to minimize the health problems of sitting all day long, but if you follow all the rules, you’d be sitting “with a 110-degree angle between your legs and spine, with your bottom pushed well into the back of the seat and your back, legs and bottom in contact with the chair.” Awkward.

Or, you could just put on an Ergoskin undershirt. According to the official description from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, where the Ergoskin won an innovation award last year:

“Ergoskin” is an orthopedic underwear with ergonomic bio-feedback to promote a positive posture: nano-sized, locational “sensors” and “pistons” are woven into the fabric in order to act either neutral when the posture is ideal as programmed or to release mechanical impulses to the skin when a non-ideal posture is assumed for too long – the feedback is on a time-lapse, as constant movement (tensing and relaxing of muscle groups) is endorsed.

More or less, when the shirt detects that your posture is bad, it’ll stimulate your skin with tiny electrical impulses, prompting you to straighten up. The Ergoskin is not available to purchase yet, as it’s still in the prototype phase.

[via DVICE]

Kudos to Adrian, who points us in the direction of Loopwheeler, a delightful little shop in Harajuku that’s making t-shirts the old fashioned way. Way back in the 30s and 40s, a device called a loopwheel was apparently used to create cotton shirts. The process was painstaking and laborious, but the finished product was extremely high quality. Loopwheeler has recovered a whole bunch of loopwheel machines and has now bringing back the antiquated process. They produce t-shirts, sweatshirts, and other simple fare, all of it apparently the softest cotton around.

Pictures via this Flickr pool.

[via Fatlace]