Smack in the middle of an economic landscape that has torn retailers apart and sunk galleries into oblivion, up pops Swiv Tackle Circus in Oceanside, CA, a gritty little beach community on the northern edge of San Diego and an outpost for skaters, surfers, and artists. As original as its name, Swiv Tackle Circus has redefined what it means to be a retail store, gallery, and community gathering space. Known as a “gallertique” as in part boutique and part gallery, the 3,500 square-foot space owned by Shaney Jo Darden and Jeff Black, and managed with partners Desiree Dawn Kuhn and Kirsten Kuhn, gives new meaning and hope to the concept of having a business and artistic gathering space that pushes forward creativity and new ideas, rather than constricts life based on outside forces of bad economics. The concept is the epitome of DIY in that it’s so CYOO (create your own oasis).
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Swiv Tackle Circus”Gallertique” Brings Together Fresh Concepts in Retail, Art, Community, Sound Creating a Modern-Day Moulin Rouge for Skaters, Surfers, Artists, Fans of the Lifestyle
Coachella Music Arts Festival Mixes Pioneering Performers from Prince to Portishead with Burgeoning Artists Like Metric, Data Rock, and Hot Chip, Resulting in a Ripple-Effect that Will Impact Music Culture
As the first festival of the summer circuit, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival produced by Goldenvoice, which took place last weekend April 25-27, is where you’ll see a good chunk of the bands that will be doing the festival circuit this summer. It’s also the place where new up-and-coming bands, particularly in the indie rock genre, electronica, rave, and synth are showcasing for the first time in front of larger audiences, particularly internationally as a lot of these bands will hit up the European festival circuit later in the summer.
Trade Show News: Compass Gives Upscale Sneaker Footwear Brands a New Show; MAGIC to Launch ECOllection; Bread & Butter BarcelonaAttracting More Core American StreetFashion Brands
Given that sneaker culture and footwear in general is such a vital part of fashion particularly when it comes to street and contemporary fashion, it’s amazing to us that the old-school trade show, WSA, hasn’t gotten a facelift in years. Now, however, it’s got competition: Compass is the new directional trade show for high-end sneakers and top tier footwear created by BPMW, the founders of another very cool, intimate trade show in NYC called Capsule.
CCS Bought Buy Footlocker for $102 Million
Mama Clothing is One of the Few Streetwear Labels for Women on the Market Today -Check-out What They Have to Say About their New Collection, Collabs with New Era, TooFly, Adidas, the State of the Women’s Streetwear Industry
Mama Clothing, founded and designed by Gabriella Davi-Khorasanee, is one of the few women’s streetwear brands on the market today -even though ironically, there is a growing demand for this type of apparel. What makes Mama unique are many things, including how Gabriella goes about choosing her inspiration and researching her designs before releasing them.
Kmart Launches”Boarding” Apparel Line, Pissing-off Action Sports Industry in Their Attempt to Become the New Target/Wal-Mart, Cool-Shop-Discount-Destination
Not to be outdone by Target’s new collection from Shaun White, Laird Hamilton’s with Steve and Berry’s, nor Wal-Mart distributing OP, Kmart has announced a sort of soft launch of their new action sports inspired collection called “Boarding” to be released in 100 “strategically located” stores this summer (and a possible roll-out to another 1,400 later in the year). While the name is obviously boring, what’s interesting is that the Boarding logo looks like a mash-up between Quiksilver and Rip Curl.
Nine Rulaz Line, Created by Mighty Crown -Masters of International Soundclash and Word Competitions, Releases another Fresh Collection with Denim, Sneaker Collabs, T-shirt Graphics, Jackets
Nine Rulaz Line is an amazing apparel collection based out of Yokohama, Japan, that continues to find new passionate fans in America, the UK, Jamaica and other places where dedicated fans of music inspired design rule direction. Nine Rulaz is unique in that the owners, including DJ Master Simon, are from Mighty Crown Entertainment, an internationally known music group that are the word and soundclash Champs of Japan, having sold-out the 35,000 seats in the Tokyo Dome annually with their soundclash event. They’ve also won 6 champion titles in the UK and even Jamaica, where they were the first non-Jamaicans to win as word champs. Ironically, when placed in a street fashion setting like MAGIC, it’s often only people in the know that realize that Master Simon is in the house, and that the brand called Nine Rulaz, that’s creeping into American and UK youth culture street fashion scenes, is actually created by such heavyweight music afionados of soundclash.
Miyavi’s Japanese Visual Kei Kabuki Rock Catapults Growing Subculture of Japanese Music Fashion Mash-ups Influencing New Youth Markets Across North South America, France, the UK
Ever-alert to the taxonomy of the risible, those of us at Label Networks absolutely love it when we discover the climate change of a new trend. This is clearly the case in the wake of Miyavi, a self-described “visual kei rocker” that is changing up even this concept of original Japanese visual kei J-rock bands into, as Miyavi describes it, “my own sense of visual kei, which is influenced from Japan, kabuki, but many cultures into its own show, sound, fashion.”
Street Fashion X Graffiti Art at THELABELLAB Exhibition at Crewest Gallery Featuring Drifter, David and David, Pretti Vacant, with a Special Feature”Bomb It” -The Graffiti Documentary
In what’s becoming a growing movement in street fashion and art collaborations, on May 17, 2008, the 2nd LABELLAB Exhibition took place at Crewest Gallery in downtown Los Angeles featuring live fashion art creations and installations by LABELLAB members’ Drifter, David and David, and Pretti Vacant Accessories, with a special screening of “Bomb It” -The Graffiti Documentary by Jon Reiss. The Exhibition was an exciting opportunity for emerging street fashion brands to depict their independent style through artistic interpretations in a unique gallery in downtown Los Angeles.