Thursday, 7 February 2008

Only the good die young




On July 10, 2000, Pierce was found hanging in his Las Vegas hotel room at the Bellagio by hotel security. Two suicide notes were found at the scene. Pierce, a Los Angeles resident had apparently been in Las Vegas to do a photo shoot for a fashion company.


Sometime around 4 p.m. EST, Friday, February 17, 2006, Harold Hunter's brother discovered him in his Lower East Side apartment, dead from an apparent cocaine overdose. Police investigators later stated that cocaine was found both adjacent to and on the body. He was 31 years old.

Justin Pierce and Harold Hunter are two of many whom i have looked up to from a tender age. Not only did they star in Larry Clarks 'Kids' but they also encapsulate a specific attitude about life, and such things, which was prevalent among New York's skateboarding teens and culture in the mid 90's. The urban freedom and absence of responsibilities they symbolise has always fascinated and memorized me.



Wednesday, 6 February 2008

Subliminal

Started the evening through means of beverages at Juno bar.



The media have some weird and wonderful ways of imprinting subliminal messages into our psyche. Desert Eagle??? And the government question why gun crime is on the rise eh?





Supreme contacted me recently and said they have been thinking about printing a step by step photographic urban workout.




Again we witness the work of the subliminal. This Gordan Brown propaganda implictly shows the viewer that Tony Blair is dead a.k.a no longer in power, but at the same time uses a distinctly red colour to convey the continuing superiority of Labour.




Who said pre-teens cant be sexy eh?




One of the many 'sportswear' items we sported in the ill heated store. GLC were way ahead of their times...




This was the jacket i picked up at the shop. Its like a fisher price jacket from the mid 90's.




Style Wars




Style wars has a crazy, hella, stupid nice website. Peep it here




It's crazy to see how fresh everything was back in the 80's, and how the scene had a seriously competitive element with everyone styling on each other. I think Hip-Hop and the whole streetwear culture has in one sense lost the positive competition that existed back then and in another sense, has emphasised it to the extent guys are now willing to kill over lyrics / graffiti (I myself have witness graffiti crews go at it at full steam). For some reason unknown to me when they posed back in the 80's with some dope puma clydes and matching phat laces it wasn't really 'posing' as such, whereas nowadays guys are definitely posing and succumbing to the outer 'hype' and their inner 'beast'.

Tuesday, 5 February 2008

"In the dark of night, I let of my gun for light"

It’s All Good

Photographs by Boogie

"A gritty, graphic, and gripping exposé of the underworld and its inhabitants, It’s All Good, the first monograph by Boogie, presents the predators and the prey in the drug game today."

Just found a new new site full of photographic books. Sure ill be copping a couple titles in the upcoming weeks. I myself have got a couple possible projects (not of the photographic kind) in the pipeline currently just bubbling, so watch this space...

Suits you sir

If i was a better person i would loose the whole slack and bag and gain myself some fit. The trials and tribulations of becoming a fully fledged man eh?




This picture provides a limited glance at some of the upcoming Fred Perry x Comme des Garcons collaboration. I'm sure they have colaberated before (correct me if I'm wrong) and I'm equally sure the outcome was something similar to this (again, correct a brother if hes wrong).


Would appreciate some opinions. I can understand these may not be for everyone but open your mind and try to empathise kids...

I'm trying to utilise the comment function of the blog more as i go on. I want to hear what the readers (If there are any....) think about the contents of my posts becuase im equally as interested in other peoples opinions as i am in my own (although it may not seem so).

Monday, 4 February 2008

Sunday, 3 February 2008

My fasination with Illustration

Just received a graphic novel of sorts from my cousin in Brazil who works as an illustrator (mainly working on graphic novels/comic books). It titles itself '21st century Pulp Fiction' and is all over pretty dope as it involves a montage of different illustrators portraying their individual take on the theme/concept. For me what made it stand out was the graphic design included and the ways in which they mixed up the illustration work with bits of graphic design... Very nice. Kind of like a Tribes of Tokyo meets creative review.



I recently red a short article on the importance of the contents page, due to its provision of an initial impression for the reader, so i was impressed with the opening page as it wasn't your typical contents page and made use of some interesting graphic design as opposed to illustration.

These are some extracts of a specific illustrator i particularly took to. His stuff was all quite minimalistic.

Yet another illustration i took to.

These three scans are some of the amazing pieces of graphic design the book offered. They are all surreal pieces and remind me of some kind of outerspace supernova.

Im becoming more and more fascinated with design in its own right as i continue to publish this blog, so excuse the deviation. I've also got some accrobeau logo and sticker designs in the pipeline so the blog will soon be blessed with a new header and a more sophisticated presentation.
Get at me if you have the skills needed to alter / amend the appearance of the blog through use of HTML and any other computer codes that may exist.

Friday, 1 February 2008

"It's a secret"

My conscience has been riddled with guilt of late due to the intolerable lack of representation for the UK streetwear scene and movement in my blog. This is the first of many posts to come where i will basically document a worthy UK streetwear brand and shed light on the darkest and most sordid corners of the UK culture and brands that support it.

Todays serving of UK streetwear apparel will be "Trapstar"


For those who don't know (Get educated) here's what urban dictionary had to offer in regards to the term "Trapstar". Not only did they offer definitions, the second of which amazingly incorporating the supposed athletic aspect and prowess of trapping, but they also provided us with supportive quotes, supposedly giving the objective and boring definition some context and reality!


1: A drug dealer,one who deals drugs,sells all kinds
of drugs,makes profit by hustling and or selling drugs

"tonight ima finna me a trapstar and buy 5 pounds of purp."

2: A Drug Dealer who works in a Trap house. Trap Stars are usually very good athletes being able to run fast, shoot fire arms well, and sell drugs amazingly fast. Trap Stars always stay with a firearm because of the money they have and becuase of the fact they have to protect their drugs and their life for the junkies.


"We been trappin all day, pockets on swoll like arnold used to be."

However i think Trap(ped)Star places less emphasis on the pushing of narcotic substances such as cane and more on the trapped star within each of us. For those out there i hear pleading to jump on the bandwagon and become a member. Trap(ped)Star has some simple words of encouragement for you.

"You are a member. Theres a star trapped in all of us, its your choice..."


For me, there are three distinct reasons why Trap'star' shine the most (no pun intended) amongst the flurry of young Streetwear brands in the UK.

Firstly, Trapstar have created a sort of Urban myth around which most of the hype about their brand circulates. The whole masked secretism of the brand only goes to make people more interested, kinda like why we all wanted to know what Kane's (WWF) face looked like or why our older brother always said we couldn't look under his bed.




Secondly, what sets Trapstar aside from many other brands is their packaging. In my opinion their presentation of product reflects a shear streak of genius. I would be happy to walk out of a shop with a overly priced piece of cow pat as long as it was presented as well as Trapstar clothing is.




And last but not least is Trapstars amazing capacity to rake in the most sought after endorsements of the 21st century. Busy P, Kanye West and the Cool Kids are but a few of the glittering names on the Trapstar endorsement roster, all of which inevitably do alot for the brand image and publicity.

Obviously there are always going to be elements of any brand i have my ambiguities about and in terms of Trapstar these uncertainties tend to revolve around their incorporation and innovation of iconic logo's (e.g. Radiers logo), which in my opinion can be seen as played out. However Trapstar do it alot better than several other brands (Namely Bape) and it's not significant enough to stop one appreciating the originality of the Trapstar product









"It's a secret"