Regardez: Fashion Night Out 2011

 Fashion's Night Out is the official kickoff for NYFW but for me I was already 2 days deep into fashion week. Myself and everyone else in NYC seemingly decided to join in on the fun. Alexander Wang, Atelier Minyon, Opening Ceremony at the Ace Hotel, Chanel, MAC, Billy Reid, John Varvatos and Calvin Klein were places Jai Marshall and I hit during our evening out! Checkout my pics on my tumblr  as well as everything else I did that week. Every season I meet more great people,meeting someone who's work you respect never gets old.


La Videoteca from Opening Ceremony on Vimeo.

Yeah your eyes are not playing tricks! Jai and I are totally in this video we had so much fun recording it. I am still finding glitter in my hair. Oh and P.S. I LIVE IN NYC!!!

Arrêt Regardez et Ecoutez! Bosco Pacer EP

BOSCO -PACER- from supadope on Vimeo.

It's been two years since BOSCO has released any new material since her last ep "Spectrum" and now she presents "Pacer". Pacer is a six-track conceptual album in collaboration with producer and chillwave Washed Out band member Dogbite. The album tells the journey from Atlanta to California in a 1978 Teal Pacer thats translated through soundcapes, ambient, textured vocals and melodic instrumentation. During this voyage the two will experience their fate through life, love, lust, and desire. Though Dog Bite produced majority of the EP, Ira G produced two tracks. Pacer includes Bosco flipbook with videos, exclusive baby video, and music.

track list-
king of the land
pacer
needled heart
kids
yea-yay
beauty & the stone


DOWNLOAD PACER  http://www.boscopacer.com/

Regardez: Cats (Teaser)

Cats (teaser) from najee wilson on Vimeo.


Cats is going to be the title of an upcoming editorial totally shot and styled by myself. Featuring the beautiful Amy Chadwell. Checkout her blog The Style Blazer its the inspiration behind the shoot can't wait to share it with you all! Oh did I mention I am using film, gotta start with the basics!!

Regardez: Cavotress & Other Projects

Designer Julie Wheat is known about the city of Charleston and beyond as a rockabilly who stocks an insane archive of vintage clothing. I have had a few chance meetings with Wheat, who back in December 2010 help on the "Going Rogue" shoot as seen in issue 2 of VENT Magazine. But on Tuesday I had the pleasure to see first hand. We discussed our upcoming collaboration as well as her design aesthetics. Seated on her houndstooth couch that was the focal point of an expansive living room. Which could limelight as a sewing room or in this case showroom. We chatted about favorite designers, or at least i did. "There are so many designers out there but it's hard to choose a favorite when I haven't met many of them in person.  I am so new to the industry as a designer myself, I feel it's just not right for me to choose at this point in my career." said Wheat,After I spoke about my recent encounters with Vuitton Creative Director Marc Jacobs. Designers aside Wheat, implores that she is simply concerned with clothes!

 This became all to clear as we lumbered a few racks from the forest of racks in a storage room at her Mt.Pleasant home. Her love of fashion seemed to be with her from childhood says she in a vintage Gianni Versace polka dot sheath dress. Wheat's line of Bardot-esque of swimwear called Cavortress is made for the woman who cavorts. Like in that movie Blanket Bingo, not in a slutty way!










So since I am moving to NYC in 2 weeks I thought it would be a great idea to partner with some of my favorite locals. I pulled together a rack of pieces from Julie's Archives that will be on sale along side my own rack of rags and designer pieces. Rhett Lightfoot Boyd who stocks Cavortress will be hosting us and of course his shop will be open as well to outfit you. So between the three of us you have the chance to find the perfect thing. I will be selling items for the home, some art, clothing and loads of books and films. So please if you in the Charleston area make a trip to 69 Spring St at The Rogue Wave Surf Shop for the Tres Frais Summer Sale. This coming Saturday August 13, 2011 8am-6pm I will also be giving a special gift with every sale from my shop.

Regardez: RWSS and Adam Kimmel SS2012

Rhett (Creator and Owner of Rogue Wave Surf Shop) is the epitome of surfer turned purveyor of a lifestyle brand. Adam Kimmel,for his first runway presentation presented the Surfer, but not the typical surfer, the modern surfer. This modern version of the classic archetype would not be caught in a pair off trunks off the beach but instead in a relaxed unstructured suit.




SIGHT|SOUND from High Seas Films on Vimeo.
This idea is what drives Rhett to carry clothes and accessories that are both well crafted but have a honed look. Rogue Wave Surf Shop ( 69 Spring St Charleston,SC ) located in a quaint unassuming building might be overlooked if not for the rack of sun bleached vintage tees and longboard on the porch. Once you cross the door your plunged into a surfers heaven. Rhett Lightfoot Boyd Jr who is the perfect host offers up drinks, loads of knowledge about every item he stocks and interesting stories about the space which the store occupies.Discover the likes of Bunker Spreckels surfing's divine prince of decadence, or brands like Apolis, Billy Kirk and Riviera Club. I picked up the film "Sight Sound" starring Mikey Detemple who actually weeks ago came to Charleston to premiere the film in the shops backyard. I can't wait to watch it and the other film Rhett let me borrow from his personal library.I am sure it will be the perfect chaser to a summer which is nearly over.

 LeRoy Grannis and his legendary photographs will forever be burned in my mind. Especially when I think of the surf,surfers,and surfing. The late Lee McQueen used his image of a boy surfing in a black suit as the starting point for his Spring Summer 2008 Collection. I really regret not buying the shark head screenprinted tee back then but I have since made up for that.

 

Regardez:Brittany Bosco for VENT Magazine

Brittany Bosco from VENT on Vimeo.

Here is a behind the scenes look at our Covershoot featuring Brittany Bosco.

Regardez:Anna Wintour

Regardez&Ecoutez:Band Of Outsiders Tavi and I.

Band of Outsiders fw 2011 from VENT on Vimeo.

It is so strange to me that one Tavi and I just so happened to attend this first actual runway presentation by Scott Sternberg for Band of Outsiders. But even more strange that we are kind of in the same place with our blogs.  On March 27,2011 Tavi posted about the thoughts she was having during the show while seated next to Anna Wintour.

"This is the outfit I wore when I found myself sitting front row next to Anna Wintour at the Band of Outsiders show. Yep, found, as though the moment "this is the end" rang out in the room set to Jim Morrison's voice I'd snapped out of myself for fifteen minutes til I stumbled upon a hollow body vaguely resembling someone familiar and decided to run away with it. I couldn't tell you what the clothes presented looked like. I couldn't tell you what anyone was wearing or what I had written in spontaneous texts to spontaneous people while waiting for the show to start (something about math class? What they had for lunch that day, maybe?) And I couldn't really even tell you what I was feeling. At that point in the day, in the week, in the Fashion Week and all those that came before, I think that if I were to respond truthfully to the many obligatory questions of how was I, it would've been "N/A." I felt like I was watching everything going on around me through a window. Usually I could see out of it but every once in a while I was forced to look at my own reflection, which was less fun.

I wanted to be mature and witty and polite and strike up a conversation with Anna Wintour, I really did. But like, it was the end of the day? And I was exhausted, in so many ways? And not prepared to enter a room as the last one to be seated and find out two seconds before sitting next to Anna Wintour that I was sitting next to Anna Wintour? And I was wearing the sweater Kathleen Hanna gave me and felt kind of in the middle of an overdramatic identity crisis, like I had no right to wear the sweater OR sit next to Anna Wintour? And when I did look around a bit, no one looked happy and it was kind of a huge downer? So I let myself be kind of shy and quiet that night, to join the rows of sullen-faced people who looked as though they secretly wanted to be at home with their pets wearing comfortable clothing and eating fattening food.

Anna Wintour was perfectly polite when we exchanged standard greetings and goodbyes. But it doesn’t matter how much you like or dislike Anna Wintour, even if you feel unfazed by her or her sunglasses or Vogue, even if you feel, as I did, like one of the only people in the room who isn’t after her job. You will feel intimidated. It is unavoidable.

Of course, it's more the idea of Anna Wintour than the person, who was just a lady with a bob in a sophisticated dress sitting with her daughter at work. But that's kind of what Fashion Week is, a lot of facades and all that. At this point it would be really helpful if that Doors song had a lyric mentioning smoke and mirrors or something, but it's mostly stuff about sex and a guy killing his dad, so, uh, nevermind.

Fashion Week is weird. It is very high schooly. Someone will take that and decide that it means Fashion Week highschooliness is getting me down hard without realizing how highschooly what they're doing is. I love fashion but it's disappointing when you have to sift through a lot of junk before you get to, like, the clothes, and the whole point of it all. It's more disappointing when the clothes aren't very interesting. Lately I've been looking to other places for a creative outlet and for inspiration. I miss following magazines and obsessively checking style.com the way I used to but something is different about it now. A year ago I got to go to Paris to interview John Galliano at Dior, and a couple weeks ago today he said he loved Hitler and got fired. Fashion photographs look more posed and the Rayanne Graffs I meet at school more inspiring. I only really miss being obsessed with fashion the way you miss any aspect of a former self, in a nostalgic way, not necessarily as part of a desire to go back. Now I'm more intrigued by mixing fashion with the other stuff I've been enjoying. What's that idea that one person had, about combining your ways of thinking so that you could hear a song as a color and taste a food as a pitch in a song? To me that's much more interesting than relating fashion to fashion, to like, combine mediums, and absorb as many songs and movies and stuff that I can and let all the references intertwine until it's something that makes sense to me. I guess that's what my moodboards are, and outfits are a way to translate it so it feels like part of my identity.

And it's nice to not always share all of that. It's nice to keep some things to myself. It's nice to go to school events and V-Day in the church basement and start a band and make collages and zines and mixtapes and keep a diary and write love letters and snail mail.

I guess the Anna Wintour thing just made a lot of that much more obvious. It wasn't until I got home that I realized how vast the difference is, and how one side of it is nicer to just visit every once in a while, get out of it what I get out of it, ignore or laugh at the rest, and bring the enjoyable stuff back home to add to my collection of all that stuff I'm trying to absorb.

That fell apart into being really train-of-thought, but once I used the "reflection" metaphor in the first paragraph I started feeling really ridiculous and overly serious. None of this was supposed to dramatically hint at anything, other than maybe that my blog is turning away from fashion a little, naturally. How depressing would it be if I was that obsessed with only fashion for three years? That's how old my blog will be in a few days. Strange."

I use the point she is making to say that I love all the experiences that I have had thus far with fashion but wish to allow myself growth in what ever form it presents itself. VENT Magazine is one example but it is pulling me away from my original starting point and wearing me down. I LOVE Fashion but blogging is now work and no longer the outlet it once was. Perhaps I am feeling this way because after what will soon be two years since Undergrad at SCAD I am without a design job and many steps away from living in NYC.I still have not even shared my experience at NYFW this past Feb. totally because I am so spent. Articles,Interviews,Fashion Weeks,Fashion Shows,Press Junkets, Events,and After Parties are all the tip of the iceberg. But I am not complaining I just feel lost at the moment and am figuring out the direction my life is taking. As far as posting on this blog I know that when I can I will. Here are the pics I snap with my iPhone during the Band Of Outsiders FW 2011 show. Special Thanks to Stacy Smallwood of Hampden to letting us tag along with her and Tomoko Lee of 495news showroom. I cannot begin to tell you how many dreams came true for me at this show! Grace Coddington(American Vouge),Anna Wintour,Kanye West,Kirsten Dunst,Humberto Leon(Opening Ceremony),Aziz Ansari(Friend),Donald Glover(Community),Josh Peskowitz,and Brad Goreski were just a few of the faces I remember runing smack into while at the very intimate show.

Regardez: Buckler on VENT Television

Buckler FW 2011 from VENT on Vimeo.

Regardez:NYFW Day 2 Ruffian, Zac Posen and Buckler

On Day 2 I hit the ground running or should I say slipping on patches of black ice in my Lanvin shoes all the way to Lincoln Center for the Ruffian show. I had met Claude Morris and Brian Wolk last May in Savannah at a SCAD event. So when I recieved the invite to see their FW Collection I was excited to say the least. My after taking my seat on the second row the show started about 45mins after that, standard for shows at LC. Lorenzo Martone took his seat right in front of mine which if I have to look past someone it could have been worse. The collection entitled Tuxedo Park consisted of all the typical elements of evening wear but was interesting to see this idea on the body of a woman interpreted in lace, fringe, chopped taffeta, satin and sequins. The clothes had a bit of a masculine edge but was still very feminine. There were several jackets and gowns that would look fantastic on a woman of any age. After the show,instead of trying to fight my way out of the Studio tent were the show took place I struck up a convo with Adrianne Pasquarelli of Crain's New York Business who was seated next to me. She asked me what I thought about the show and we talked until the tent had all but emptied with the exception of a few people. Our conversation ended up become the topic of an article she writes. Instead of going backstage I spoke to Lorenzo for a quick second just long enough to introduce myself. After I went to Times Square to meet up with Jai she had an appointment at the Zac Posen showroom so I went along with her there.

Zspoke is the diffusion line for Zac Posen his collection was perfect for the modern woman looking to pull back on spending big bucks but wanting more from her clothes. Everything from the bags to the jackets and evening gowns are more than desirable. The showroom smelled of peonies which added color the the long wooden tables that they sat upon. Ben who showed us the collection was super accomidating answer Jai's questions and my few questions like "Which bag was Zac's favorite?". On our way out we ran into Zac who was running back into his studio with a rouge piece of champagne colored satin.
After Zspoke we had about and hour before Buckler which was to take place on the street. We took lunch at Soho Cafe and warmed up for a bit before making our way to the Buckler show.The AAU show was that night at 8 but after a $35.00 cab ride from Brooklyn I missed the show that started almost an hour late.