a bathing ape, neighborhood, etc

[Johnny]

Love the cynicism here, all entirely justified as far as I can tell. It's ridiculous to suggest that Nigo is a designer in a creative sense - he just directs the production of things and markets them extremely well. Don't really know much about the other brands mentioned, but my impression is that it's all for people who know (and care for) exactly nothing about fashion.

 

[butbeautiful]

nn has runway shows, has collections and produce their own sew and cut.

and on the other hand, neighborhood has only like their own tees, military jackets, sneakers and assessories right?

so if i were to say the indie or underground labels in japan, n(n) and undercover is doing a great job - working both into high-end fashion and streetwear.

 

[faust]

nn has runway shows, has collections and produce their own sew and cut.

and on the other hand, neighborhood has only like their own tees, military jackets, sneakers and assessories right?

so if i were to say the indie or underground labels in japan, n(n) and undercover is doing a great job - working both into high-end fashion and streetwear.

did you see the last n(n) runway show? it was a big joke. even the buyers here say that he is nothing but a stylist. undercover, however... i've been changing my mind about Jun after I saw the lookbook for F/W 05 women's - it's really excellent.

 

[butbeautiful]

i must give thumbs up for n(n)'s earlier seasons one BUT BUT definitely not ss 06 and last's.

as for under cover, yeah he might not be like the usual fashion designers around but he has own thinkings and doings.

will post something from his written book by w.w soon.

 

[nqth]

Looking forward to this, Butbeautiful, and the pics from Sing Guerrilla, too:-)

 

[philip gentleman]

undftd - are you involved with that store, or just a fan? the la brea store interior is nice.

the "premium" and "limited edition" scene in new york has totally faded. the queues at supreme, rival, and bape are not really happening anymore. especially since the market is completely saturated with grey-market and consignment shops like alife rivington club, nom de guerre, clientelle, and classic kicks.

 

[MTRLBY]

bape has always released everything in limited edition.
but ever since nigo started that alliance with pharrell, and gotten popular outside japan, its credibility has been going down in japan.

 

[pointup]

found this interesting article that has to do with this

A seat on the style council

Ah, there, I’ve said it the loaded word. Let me say it again: stylist. I think it’s high time to restore this important term to wide currency, and not to disparage the validity of styling as a mode of expression, or as a career path. (I’m not one of those who would slag a young talent off with a dismissive “Oh, her? She’s just a stylist.” Styling is as crucial to good branding work as design, and maybe more so, but it’s not a replacement for it.) Not at all: it’s a term that is useful in the world because it observes—preserves—an important distinction.

For, as my mentor Jon Olson always reminds me, the practice of design necessarily involves solving problems. Further, these problems present constraints; whether these originate in the client’s budget, the target audience’s availability, or in the technical limitations of the medium is immaterial.

The important part of this idea is that the task of the designer is to present the client with a solution within an ambit circumscribed by factors beyond his or her control, factors that limit the ability to unrestrainedly impose personal taste. When a designer—a Paul Rand, a Saul Bass, a Neville Brody—can consistently succeed at this and still develop a recognizable personal style, well, that (by my lights, anyway) is where all the artistry resides.

Exercises in pure styling like A Bathing Ape, or to a significantly lesser but still important extent, the work of people like Shepard Fairey, fail this test. A Bathing Ape addresses no issue, solves no problem, admits no constraints. It’s about nothing but itself, a blank screen onto which the customer can project any desired attribute: all of which makes it the ultimate antibrand for a headlong-rushing, amnesiac culture like Japan, but a piss-poor example of design.

And, coming full circle now, kids who mistake this kind of work for design are the same ones most likely to feel that the price of admission to the ongoing discussion consists of little more than throwing one Photoshop layer over another, slapping some freeware fonts over the thing, and braying about “reprazenting.”

That they’re clearly not operating in the same tradition as Josef Muller-Brockmann, or Henry Dreyfuss, or even Joshua Davis seems to escape them. I’m not even sure why they’d bother to call themselves designers, except that it has a vaguely contemporary sexiness to it, whereas stylist sounds like someone named Marcel you might find working at a hair salon.

for the whole article go here... http://www.alistapart.com/articles/bathingape/

Its a good read!

 

[surver]

great article and poignant insight, pointup.

i thought the wording sounded familiar, and lo and behold, it's by my friend adam greenfield. i highly recommend his site to everyone; he has quite sharp critiques into many aspects of the contemporary culture that we live in: www.v-2.org.

i'm not sure it's entirely fair, or 'correct', to negate nigo just like that though. i think he is smarter than that. i think the stance of 'antifashion' is the very crucial thing that nigo is propagating. i believe that he is entirely conscious of what he is doing, and that everything that BAPE is, is made so vulgarly and blatantly like it is, plays on the very (commercial) fashion and mass-cultural system that we live in; basically saying: 'it's all a joke and let's see if i can make everyone a bigger joke by creating this 'emptiness' and get everyone excited and scrambling for it!'... and wow, has he suceeded... and made millions off of it!! just look at his collection of cars and LV trunks to say the least. i once ran a graduate architecture studio in taiwan and one of my students actually did a great project examining and deconstructing the cynicism and operationof BAPE, eventually transforming it into a method of design.

on stylist... isn't the 'great', all hailed, tom ford but 'just' an ultra-talented and genius STYLIST? there isn't an inch of 'designer' in him but wow, what a great marketer and what a genius to make the world kneel at his feet!!! how different (conceptually) is tom ford from nigo? (i'm not comparing them at the superficial quality/level of products here so don't get me wrong that i'm equating the two on that level...) and plus, isn't everything nowadays closer to 'styling' than design? from the everything-looks-alike-architectural-curves & blobs to the same said for furniture, products, etc etc etc... that is the level where mass-consumption resides and demands...

real authenticity and originality are so rare... and where there are, they are not so understood and accepted...

 

[Fade to Black]

the "premium" and "limited edition" scene in new york has totally faded. the queues at supreme, rival, and bape are not really happening anymore. especially since the market is completely saturated with grey-market and consignment shops like alife rivington club, nom de guerre, clientelle, and classic kicks.

It's interesting to find out that the hypebeast scene dominated by long queues at the likes of Supreme, etc. is dying down (i'm not being sarcastic, i haven't followed the sneaker scene since the Forbes dropped last November)...don't alife, clientele, etc. charge extremely jacked up r*pe prices for those same sneakers that go for retail at Supreme, etc.? But I guess when you factor in availability, it is much easier to get them at the boutique sneaker stores, although the increased price makes them available to fewer people.

It's the same queueing/reselling scene that killed sneakers here in hong kong, it seems all the people who get the shoes for retail mostly buy to resell, and true sneaker heads can't even get their hands on some SBs for less than r*pe!

 

[philip gentleman]

It's interesting to find out that the hypebeast scene dominated by long queues at the likes of Supreme, etc. is dying down (i'm not being sarcastic, i haven't followed the sneaker scene since the Forbes dropped last November)...don't alife, clientele, etc. charge extremely jacked up r*pe prices for those same sneakers that go for retail at Supreme, etc.? But I guess when you factor in availability, it is much easier to get them at the boutique sneaker stores, although the increased price makes them available to fewer people.

It's the same queueing/reselling scene that killed sneakers here in hong kong, it seems all the people who get the shoes for retail mostly buy to resell, and true sneaker heads can't even get their hands on some SBs for less than r*pe!

yes - all those stores charge stupid prices to stupid kids. the laws of supply and demand in technicolor. the scene is almost totally dead here though. the only people still hunting are japanese tourists, hong kong kids looking to resell in asian markets, and guys that wear gold fronts from new jersey.

i wrote my master's thesis on new marketing and anti-marketing, and how the culture of collecting has re-originated urban shopping districts. i studied this scene closely in tokyo, los angeles, and new york for the past several years and still watch closely but only as a spectator.

 

[Honey~Blade]

I'm really digging the Undercover stuff, but ofcoz I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.

 

[butbeautiful]

I must say BAPE has lousy quality for an expensive price tag.

 

[butbeautiful]

I'm really digging the Undercover stuff, but ofcoz I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.

i dig it too but I guess you can buy a similiar pants from thift stores and do the ripping yourself too.

but Under Cover has good cut&sew tees and lovely jackets which are too good to be missed.

 

[horriblyjollyjin]

http://cgi.ebay.com/BATHING-APE-BAPE-STA-CHICKEN-NUGGET-GOLDENPALACE-COM_W0QQitemZ5605036570QQcategoryZ1467QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Bape fanboys vs Dior Homme fanboys = ?

Oh yeah, japanese limited street pos brands are so great.
http://www.superfuture.com/city/supertalk/index.cfm?page=topic&topicID=3620
great quality, totally worth the price.