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

Tyler Brûlé ends the May 08 issue of his Monocle magazine with an interesting observation piece on the meaning of local products. With the rebirth of locally-made businesses, he wonders if consumers are going to begin to wonder why they’re paying premium prices for products that are made cheaply in Asia and whether these consumers will continue to buy into a brands that leverage national heritage if all their production is outsourced elsewhere.

From Melbourne to Gothenburg to Minneapolis, retailers of everything from vegetables to fine knitwear are surveying the landscape, speaking to consumers and responding accordingly. When these businesses venture out into the wholesale market to purchase goods they’re disillusioned by rails filled with expensive, shoddily stitched garments made in countries with dirt-cheap labour costs and questionable employment laws. They’re unimpressed by porcelain companies that still sell their Swedishness but manufacture in Thailand. They’re worried that there’s no respect for finish or detail and that some of the world’s most respected premium brands (many gobbled up by dim private equity firms all working to the same, short-term strategies) have squandered everything in order to improve their margins while unwittingly offloading the real intellectual property - the painters, pattern makers, seamstresses and master carpenters.

I once asked the owner of a major Italian luxury goods house if she felt she was duping her consumers by playing up her brand’s Italian heritage while quietly manufacturing in China. She responded by saying she was creating jobs in China and that customers no longer cared where things were made and didn’t think about things like “mark-up”. I then asked her why, if she was so proud of her job creation in Shenzhen, wasn’t she proudly promoting this fact on her hangtags and labels? At this point the interview was brought to an abrupt close.

Few companies want to confront the follow-up question. Other than price, what’s the difference when both an original and a fake are cut, stitched, glued and bolted together in China, Vietnam and other low-wage markets? Is it really justifiable to get angry with consumers for opting for a fake when the mark-up for an original is extortionate and there’s no real difference in quality or the working conditions for the people that made the items?

Monocle

This Friday saw the launch of a new empire for 15 year old Russian fashion Czarina Kira Plastinina as she opens her first US store in New Yorks trendy Soho area. Plastinina, who currently owns 40 stores in Russia, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan, was on hand with her Millionaire Wimm-Bill-Dan co-founder father to inaugurate the store and greet the press. Decked out in her own designs, Plastinina looked every bit the part of a Princess, with her white track suited father (cell phone in hand) as the dutiful king.

Though originally made possible through funding by her father, the Kira Plastinina line is now a multimillion-dollar franchise with more US stores opening on the west coast later this month. The stores interiors are reminiscent of the inside of a young girls room, with the second floor of the New York flagship actually housing a Queen size bed adorned with zebra fur and hot pink pillows. The walls, which are decorated with unfortunate images of Plastinina’s muse Paris Hilton, are also painted with tradition Russian textiles- in hot pink and silver. The clothing itself could be described as young and flashy looking, with nylon jumpsuits and lycra dresses priced reasonable enough to afford with a weekly allowance and perfect for a night out on the town in Moscow or LA.

In addition to clothing and accessories, the store also contains a series of Kira Plastinina chocolate bars as part of a collaboration with confectionary titan Dylan’s Candy bar. On hand to document your shopping experience, the store has even installed a photobooth and video recorder where you can take pictures, make a short film, or give your congrats to Kira.

While many have doubted how successful a line of uber-girlie clothing targeting tweens will be in a market already saturated with competitors such as Forever 21, Delia’s, and H&M, if the line of people crowding the register within hours of the stores opening are any indicator the American fashion market may be in for a new cold war.

Address: 594 Broadway, NYC

Contributed by Laura Feinstein

New York streetwear brand Alife has opened a rather fabulous looking store in Tokyo. No news about who the designer is - but if you are in the neighborhood, do make sure to check it out: 3-15-10 Jingumae, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo.

Read the rest of this entry »

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?

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Target’s new 60 piece eco-collection will first go on sale at Barneys locations in New York and Los Angeles. Barneys New York will host the first sale event from May 9th - 11th. The collection will then go on sale at Barneys LA May 16-18. Target commissioned the line from noted eco-fashion designer Rogan Gregory. Gregory already designs more upscale lines for Barneys and Bloomingdales. Target’s buying power allowed Gregory to sell his collection for less and still use interesting and dynamic fabrics.

Target has the resources that enabled us to innovate, he says. A mill would say we couldn’t order a certain fabric unless we could promise certain volume. Target leveraged its volume to get what it wanted.

Target looks to use the debut events at Barneys to generate buzz. The line will begin to appear in Target stores at the end of May.

WSJ Online

Renewable, sustainable cork bag with raspberry organic cotton & hemp detailing. A cork bag? Now, that’s something new. Wheee! But hey, years ago I heard the rumor that the world is running out of cork. I guess not.

swissmiss: cork goes eco-glam