Neighborhood x Fragment M-65

Here’s another new jacket that I came across at Zembia for Fall/Winter 2006. Neighborhood and Fragment collaborate to do a M-65 jacket. There is a cross hatch stitching pattern on the inside of the jacket and on the left shoulder, much like the Nike Supreme Blazers released earlier this year. The overall design is quite subtle and the jacket comes in either beige or black. For more pics, visit their site here.

-phil

300: The Movie

Warner Brothers have just launched the website for 300: The Movie, a historic film based on ‘Spartans’ and adapted from critcally acclaimed and award-winning writer Frank Miller’s graphic novel. Miller also wrote Sin City (with Sin City 2 to be released in the upcoming year as well). Release date for this movie is set in 2007. Expect it to be BIG. Check the trailer. The use of ‘colour themed’ scenes, shown in the trailer, make this to be one of the most anticipated movies in the upcoming year.

300: The Movie Official Website
-e

GQ’s The 25 Most Stylish Films of All Time

GQ recently released their list of the most stylish films of all time and they’re right on with the films listed. Actually nearly most of my favorite films are on this list. Without any doubt, Ocean’s 11 (the original Rat Pack version of course) made it on the list. If you ever watched the original 1960 version of Ocean’s 11 you know what I’m talking about. It is THE definition of cool. Old blue eyes aka Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and the rest of the Rat Pack. It’s a heist film. In Vegas. Come on. Sure it wasn’t the greatest film I’ve ever seen but it has timeless style.

I’m glad GQ didn’t limit the list to American films only. Godard’s feature “Breathless” which started the genre of French New Wave Cinema (Click here for my review of “Breathless”) as well as Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 (which is probably one of my favorite films of all time), made the list. I absolutely loved Wong Kar Wai’s “In The Mood For Love” and it definitely had a reason to be on this list because its stylish cinematography/photography that made this film. Trainspotting, A Clockwork Orange, Rushmore and of course my favorite film of all time, The Godfather Part II were notables of the list as well.

Drum n’ Bass

Victor Wooten – renown bassist in the music industry for his beats and rythms – and Carter Beauford – drummer for Dave Matthews band – jam a little. Easy to appreciate if you fall under the following categories:

• play the drums
• play the bass
• have ears

-e

Jay-Z Endorses Armand De Brignac

As you may all know, Jigga is back. With a new CD, “Kingdom Come”, on its pending release in November, Hov’s first single, produced by Just Blaze “Show Me What You Got” comes with a newly released music video. To no surprise, it’s very typical Jay-Z music video. There’s the nice car (Ferrari 430), the exotic location (Monte carlo, South France), the boat, the money, hm whatelse, hot video girls and of course, Crist… wait. What used to be a staple in his videos, particularly “Big Pimpin’”, Cristal, the prestigious champagne, was shunned by Jay-Z in the “Show Me What You Got” video.

Managing director Frederic Rouzaud of Cristal recently said the people in the Hip Hop culture were affecting its marque in a negative way. In retaliation, Jay-Z publicly denounce Cristal saying he will not drink the champagne nor will he promote it. As well, the various clubs that he owns will not serve the product either. Replacing Cristal in his videos was the French champagne, Armand De Brignac. Armand De Brignac is a lot more expensive (about $ 1000 US per bottle) but expect the company to see large profits due to Jay-Z’s name dropping.

Don’t expect all the rappers to do the same but Diddy already said “Fuck Cris”. Could this be a new trend? I guess it won’t be long until we see video girls getting drenched by Armand.

Click to view Jay-Z new video “Show Me What You Got”
Offical Website of Armand De Brignac

- Jon

Sneaker Pimps Toronto 2006

Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and A Tribe Called Quest blasted in the background while a huge crowd of people gathered around the artists for a live painting. For many, one eye was focused on the artists as they skillfully painted, while another eye suspiciously and discreetly checking out everyone else’s shoes. With hundreds upon hundreds of customized Dunks, Air Force Ones, Chuck Taylors, and Superstars, a cold and shitty October Friday night in Toronto seemed like Christmas for any avid sneakerhead in the city.

Withdrawn on a very quiet street, 99 Sudbury was the perfect venue for Sneaker Pimps, the largest worldwide Sneaker tour. It was a vast improvement from the much smaller location last year at the Spin Gallery on Queen West. Although the legendary Pete Rock cancelled last minute, I must say it was a huge success and the huge crowd signified the large streetwear/sneaker fan base Toronto has. Dave White and Jordan English impressed the crowd with their live art installations. Apparently even Samuel L Jackson (yes, Samuel L. “Royale-With-Cheese”, “Get these motherfuckin’ snakes off the motherfuckin’ plane” Jackson) came to take a look at the exhibition.

And then there was the shoes. Well… I won’t explain any of them. I’ll let the pictures I took describe them.

Here are some of the pics I took at Sneaker Pimps:

Undercover x Vandalize

TK from Sillything shows us snapshots of a jacket produced by Undercover and Vandalize, two Tokyo based brands. The MA-1 styled jacket has a vest that actually fastens onto the jacket giving it an ‘outdoors look’ if desired. I love the detailing on this jacket, which includes a ‘U’ and ‘V’ symbol on the sleeve. This unique jacket will be available at the Undercover store in Hong Kong. See more pics here.

-phil

LOST – Los Angeles graffiti

PingMag has a nice piece on LOST, which is a small run magazine out of LA illustrating the graffiti in the area. From what is shown here, LA graffiti has a lot to offer in terms of diversity. Aside from just showing the best graffiti that LA has to offer, LOST also has features with photos to other cities. The eye-catching graffiti artwork showcased here is absolutely impressive to say the least, and the magazine does a good job of showing the subcultures that exist from these designs. To see more, check out the whole interview by Ian Lynam.

-phil

Eminem Sneakers for Charity on eBay

Eminem has teamed up with Nike and designed 8 sets (64 pairs of shoes in total) of limited-edition sneakers in the Air Max series, from the Air Max ’87 to the most recent Air Max 360. These limited-edition Air Max sneakers are autographed by Eminem and put on eBay to raise money for the disadvantaged youths around the world. All 100% of the proceeds will go to the Marshall Mathers Foundation and UNHCR’s ninemillion.org campaign.

Check out the eBay auction for more details.

- A style

TechnoMarine x Gumball 3000 Watch

TechnoMarine became a major sponsor of the annual Gumball 3000 Rally. For its 6th annual edition of the racing marathon, TechnoMarine has partnered with Gumball 3000 to design a stylish limited edition piece. This Black PVD chronograph set in 135 full cut white diamonds and will be restricted to 1000 pieces only. A must have item for your personal collection.

Check out Technomarine.com to see more of their gorgeous collections.

- A style

Creative ads around the world

With so many mass marketing ads around nowadays, advertisers find it more and more difficult to get noticed. Here are some really creative and clever ads that different companies have used in public spaces to grab the attention of people. More pictures of the creative ads can be seen here.

-phil

Sneaker Pimps Toronto Photos Will Be Up Soon

Speakeasy is off to Sneaker Pimps at 99 Sudbury. Check back here tomorrow or Sunday (at the latest) for photos of the worldwide sneaker show.

Nike Un-tiffany Dunks?

I just came across this pics at nicekicks.com via Niketalk. If they are actually real and are planning to come out, then they are definately one of the nicer Dunks I have seen in a while. Although not as hot as the original Tiffany Dunks, these come pretty close. The past year or so, I have been losing interest in the newer released Dunks, and Nike shoes in general, but it is shoes like this that keep me looking out still. According to nicekicks.com, these are set to drop in December, so be on the lookout.

-phil

Trovata

The Newport, California based clothing company has an unique way of promoting their clothing line. Known for their preppy meets surfer look, the people from Trovata come up with fictional stories to market their seasonal collections. From their website, customers can read the narrative as they acquire about their apparel. Their latest novella for the Fall 2006 collection called ‘A Mountain Spelled M-U-R-D-E-R’ is definitely an amusing read. The clothes aren’t bad either.

- Jon

DISSIZIT (Slick) x RECON (Stash) Tee

One of the more interesting designs and collab for t-shirts I have seen in a while. It’s a simple Stash graffiti signature and two rusted spray cans at the bottom. The black and white backgrounds for the tees give it a simple feel and at the same time contrasting the image of the cans. As much as I want these t-shirts, I will probably have a hard time finding them in Toronto (probably have to scour eBay). The two artists (Stash and Slick) will also be exhibiting at Melt Gallery LA. More info and images on the t-shirts at SlamXHype via Mr. Kim. Info on the gallery exhibition available at Supertouch Blog.

-phil

Six Keys (Art Gallery and Miniramp) Hong Kong

I came across this on the kix-files blog from Warren of HKSkateboarding. He introduces Six Keys, which is an indoor art gallery with a mini ramp inside. From the photos, the set up and the environment looks pretty impressive. On the mini-ramp itself, there is actually a painting of a wave which livens the atmosphere. Skateboarding scene is definately doing some nice things in Hong Kong. More info and pics here.

-phil

HBO’s The Wire

I must say it just truly sucks how we don’t get HBO up here in Canada. Sure we have TMN but even TMN’s a bit late on airing some of the best shows on television. It’s kind of pathetic hearing Canadians saying the catch phrase “let’s hug it out bitch” now, two years since HBO aired that Entourage episode in the US. I was late catching shows like “Entourage” and “The Sopranos” and having to catch up 3,4 seasons of episodes is tiring. Looks like I’ll be catching up on a couple of seasons of HBO’s underdog, “The Wire“.

After catching “The Wire” on TMN’s free preview, I must say I’m extremely impressed by the writing, the acting and just the sheer entertainment of the show.

If you haven’t heard of it, I don’t blame you because this show has been under the radar in my opinion (at least in Canada). I’ve heard it from here and there but nothing to really provoke me to catch any of the episodes. “The Sopranos”, “Entourage” and even the low-rating “Deadwood” have been getting more promotion than “The Wire”.

Set in Baltimore, “The Wire” revolves around the city’s drug scene. The show depicts the lives of every part of the drug “food chain”, from junkies to dealers, and from cops to the politicians. It’s the sheer grittiness, realism and insight that will draw you to this show.

Definitely check it out if you have the chance.

The Wire Official Website

[Image VIA HBO]

- Jon

TBG – Too Black Guys Fall ’06 Collection

It is not very often that a fashion label out of Toronto, Canada makes so much noise in the streetwear scene but Too Black Guys or better known as TBG deserves every bit of the attention. To be honest, I haven’t heard of this line much till recently although rappers such as Ice Cube and Leaders of the New School have been reppin the brand since the 90′s. It was the interview with Inquiringmind that first caught my attention, and so I went to their site to take a look at their clothing. I was pleasantly surprised with what they had to offer in terms of design as the colours they used were fresh and the designs were clever.

However, TBG touches on an extremely sensitive subject in the context of race, as many of their satirical designs play on the theme of slavery. This will definately be one of those things where people hate it or love it depending on how they perceive TBG’s message. To see more of the collection, go to High Snobiety or visit TBG’s website.

-phil

Sony BRAVIA – The Advert Commercial

You’ve probably seen it already on the web or on someone elses blog but I had to post this commercial from Sony BRAVIA. Directed by Jonathan Glazer, (who’s famed from ‘Sexy Beast’ but most particular from his music videos which featured Radiohead, U.N.K.L.E, and Richard Ashcroft just to name a few) he does an amazing job on the ad which involved 70,000 litres of paint exploding in and around an apartment building. You have to feel for the crew as it took 6 days to clean the entire mess.

Regardless, the end result looks spectacular. I know it’s a commercial but to me, this is art at its finest. Music from Ludwig Van just adds a cherry on top of this masterpiece.

Here’s the commercial from Sony BRAVIA’s official site. Don’t you dare watch it on Youtube. Trust me it’s not the same.

While you’re on the BRAVIA site, you might as well check out the previous advertisement named ‘BRAVIA Balls‘, which featured 25,000 bouncing balls going down the streets of San Francisco.

[Image via Sony BRAVIA]

- Jon

Varoom Illustration Magazine Issue #2

Here’s an interesting article that I came across at Dexigner Design Portal. Illustration Magazine Varoom by The Association of Illustrators, will release their second issue next month. The magazine examines international trends in illustrations in contemporary society. Varoom regularly features interviews and profiles of artists around the world, with the next issue looking at artists ranging from Iranian to Japanese backgrounds. The magazine will also include regular features from respected designers and critics discussing the contemporary illustration scene. Varoom will be available in design and gallery bookshops in the UK, Europe, USA and Canada, as well as on subscription. Look for it in November 2006.

-phil