L.A. Youth (Part Two)

Here's the second part of our L.A. Youth shoot. For this, we focused on Koreatown and the Arts District neighborhoods. More to come! Stay tuned...

Neighborhood: Arts District

Neighborhood: Koreatown

TBT: We ❤ the 90's Outtakes

For our very first TBT, we thought what better way to do it than put the shots from our very first photoshoot that didn't quite make the initial cut. They're so good, we thought we might as well share them. Happy TBT!

Check out the original shoot here.

Happy Holidays!

Eat, drink, and be merry, y'all! Here's to another year of great shoots and pictures with amazing friends!

L.A. Youth (Part One)

This shoot is centered around the youth of Los Angeles. We wanted to capture the current fashion of the youth today, by each neighborhood, as we see it. For our first series, we chose to represent three neighborhoods that we are not only most familiar with (Silverlake, Hollywood, and Echo Park), but where we think the youth culture of L.A. is rooted and most prevalent.

Neighborhood: Silverlake

Neighborhood: Hollywood

Neighborhood: Echo Park

Innovation at Work

Leather is one of the most widely used commodity in fashion. Imagine true, genuine leather made from animals (same content, texture, patina) but without the need to slaughter innocent animals in the process. Andras Forgacs of Modern Meadow explains how to produce leather, much like cultured foods, in an economically sustainable and cruelty-free environment without having to sacrifice the beauty and appeal of actual leather (because it is the real thing). Listen to the below talk and start re-imagining the future of fashion. True innovation at work.

Unintended Consequences of Fast Fashion Collaborations

At the heels of yet another retailer/designer collaboration, I wanted to bring about the subject of the democratization of fashion. The idea of having top-tiered quality clothing being readily accessible to the public has always been very exciting to me. Having the ability to purchase designs from some of the most famed contemporary and designer brands like Lanvin, Missoni, Lagerfeld, Marni, and most recently, Isabel Marant, known for her modern French chic aesthetic, at relatively "democratic" prices, makes the bargain hunter in me squeal with delight. 

And then eventually, almost inexplicably, the excitement wears off. 

I've thought about this post for a while now, and I've been trying to decide whether I support the idea or not. What better way to decide than to actually go to the store and buy the merchandise, right? So I did. 

I went in to the H&M store in Glendale and at the time, they were having the Maison Margiela collaboration, where they revived pieces from the house's archival collection and "re-interpret" them exclusively for H&M. Surprisingly, as I looked through the racks, I've noticed that there were still a good amount of product in the store. In fact, every style in the collection (at least in the men's category) was still available in most, if not all, sizes, which made me realize that this was a huge miss for the designer. (Turns out, designers and retailers rarely do these collaborations for profit/sales volume, but more so to gain new customers and increase "media impressions.")

I came across one revived style that caught my eye: the denim jacket. It was a very cool denim jacket and what made it special was that it had panelled frays all over the seams, making the reverse side of the fabric show through, creating a subtle color-blocking effect on the garment. It was a cool concept and ingenious in its execution. The fit was impeccable and the price, at about $120, was fairly reasonable for the garment itself. After I got home, it didn’t take long until the piece, much like the rest of the collection, soon lost its novelty and started to feel as though it was just any other denim jacket. The next day, I returned the jacket in the store.

Can Fashion Be Vegan?

I recently converted to being a vegan (is it called "veganism"?), and I'm having an inner conflict inside me, not in terms of food, but in terms of fashion. By definition, being vegan means you do not use or consume any animal byproducts, whether it be through your diet or through your clothing/accessories/shoes, etc. I've been trying to reconcile my use of leather products and the fact that I'm not being a very good vegan by having these products. I've had these products way before I decided this change in lifestyle, and some, not most, carry some sort of personal value so it's been particularly hard to simply get rid of these. 

This change has actually made me realize that it's really a shame how there are less than a handful of designers out there, specifically menswear designers, who do not practice non-leather, or vegan, fashion. This has actually made the change for me harder since most of the leather products I own are more practical. Take shoes, for instance. As much as I want to wear sandals and sneakers all the time, there are certain occasions that call for a much dressier look. What I don't understand is how far advanced we are technologically as a society that we haven't created a dress shoe that does not use any leather material. It sounds ridiculous, but yet, the reality is that we have depended so much on this inhumane resource that we have become comfortable with the antiquated idea of using animal skin as part of our everyday life. 

Like I said, I, myself, still use leather. But by no means do I support it. However, I believe it's about time we evolve ourselves from using this resource and therefore challenge designers to be more creative and be more innovative in their designs. We have the capabilities and the technology to be able to use alternative materials that achieve the same look as leather. It's really a matter of us, too, as consumers to be able to support a more humane process of both fashion and of lifestyle. It's time to be a little bit more conscious of what we wear, don't you think?