Posts in Clothing

Ghostly has always pushed the boundaries beyond being just a record label, recently for a limited time in New York they have paired up with the handsome boutique Odin and opened a shop carrying everything from the Ghostly catalog on vinyl, to limited editions shirts, headphones and some of the nicest office supply that you need to see and hold in person. The address is below, i’ll be behind the counter this Sunday, stop by and say hello, we have Tycho – Dive vinyl and a Charles Bergquist poster that is pretty amazing in person.

We are thrilled to announce our first collaboration with the renowned New York men’s boutique Odin. Now through January 6th, Ghostly fans living in New York (or visiting) can stop by our temporary space beside Odin’s original East Village store and shop from a specially curated selection of Ghostly art, design, graphic tees, and vinyl.

Ghostly at Odin features a collection of some of our favorite limited edition prints, offered both framed and unframed. In addition, the collaboration includes a small co-branded capsule collection of our graphic tees, some never before available. The space is rounded out with our favorite design objects, selected with a mind for holiday gifting.

Ghostly at Odin
330 East 11th Street
(between 1st and 2nd Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Now through January 6th
Hours of operation:
Monday-Friday 12 PM – 8 PM
Sunday 12 PM – 7 PM

When I’m not injured or stuck in a moving vehicle on tour, my favorite thing in the world is cycling. Unfortunately the equipment and attire associated with the sport often run counter to my taste as a designer. So I was pretty excited to see this set by Bernard; definitely the first time I’ve ever been truly impressed by the design of a jersey / shorts (of course, BMC make some very nice looking frames, but they can be very hit and miss). But, as is always the case with anything designed well, it’s sold out and you can’t have it. Hopefully Bernard gets off his ass and prints some more because summer is almost over and my knee is feeling pretty good.

Bernard Cycling Kit Via AisleOne

Since I was a teenager i’ve wanted to do custom hats, mostly just a cap, i’ve always been fascinated by the choosing color combinations to the quality of the sewing of the patches, embroidery, and all over printing. After digging around I have to say there is an amazing culture set in place of people making high end hats beyond New Era. I hope to do a custom ISO50 one someday soon because i’m itching to do one like the beautiful Oxford one by Quiet Life, here’s a few companies that do it properly:

Quiet Life
Brixton
Obey

Just so you guys know Scott put an attractive line of shirts together this week under the name 45. I actually asked him recently about the approach of these and he told me that he only makes shirts that he would want to wear and not just some tee that are branded, made a lot of sense, its funny when a designer can’t or won’t wear their own shirts but still offers them for sale, would love your thoughts on the design.

Here are links to the store so you can grab your favorite one:

45 Black on White

45 White on Grey

45 Black/White on Coffee

Hi guys, I didn’t want to spread all this info over time so I just made it one compact post for you. Today, we put a limited run(no repressings) of 40x Echo Circle shirts in the ISO50 shop designed by Heathered Pearls. They have a enzyme wash treatment that simulates 40 typical laundry cycles gives this shirt a unique super-soft feel. The print on it is a mini halftone effect, pretty detailed for shirt, pick one up at the ISO50 shop.

This marks the start of Scott and I selecting a few new designers to do a shirt for ISO50, hope you enjoy.

Heathered Pearls – Hints of Musk by ghostly

Above is a day time disco mix I did for Ghostly International, feel free to download it within the Soundcloud player, it starts off with a snippet of a rare Boards of Canada track.

Thanks as always for stopping by and reading and more importantly listening to the music from up and coming musicians here on ISO50.

Tracklist

Boards Of Canada – Ithcus Sound
Ikons – Honey (Coyote rmx)
Woolfy vs. Projections – Isabella
Tornado Wallace – Swimmin’
Worst Friends – Ski Hive
Clashing Egos – Aminjig Nebere (Joakim’s afrobot mix)
Motor City Drum Ensemble – Raw Cuts #6
Studio – Life’s A Beach (Todd Terje beach house mix)
Sourya – Anatomy Domine (Prince Language mix)
Blackjoy – Moustache (Prins Thomas diskomiks)
Tiger & Woods – Deflowered
Spoon – Don’t You Evah (Matthew Dear mix)
Seth Troxler – Aphrika
John Selway – Shake The Snow
18 Carat Affair – I Wanna Love You

It’s hard to pin down what Apolis Global actually is. One part clothing shop, one part advocacy group, they guys at Apolis are certainly a versatile bunch. I’m writing about them mainly because of how impressed I was with their overall branding. They’ve got their visual message down. I placed an order through their shop and received the awesome artifacts above. It took me a moment to open the box because I didn’t want to destroy it.

I actually found Apolis by way of their logo, which I absolutely love. You can find out a little more about it here.

Every guy has their way of shopping, some do a quick grab and go without trying anything on from J Crew, some shop only on the internet, and some just let their girlfriend or mom do it all for them. I personally like clothing shopping, I use to be a buyer for a few vintage shops and do plenty of looking around in shops every week. I came across NerdBoyfriend awhile back and I keep coming back, the name is a bit misleading but the whole idea of finding old photos of people that we love like Martin Short or Chevy Chase and helping you put together that outfit by linking to clothes that look like whats in the picture is a pretty clever idea for a site in my opinion.

A new shirt design is now available at the shop. Five’s is printed on American Apparel Coffee Tri-blend and available in Men’s and Women’s sizes.

Purchase / Info

In my new, and sure to be infrequent column, I’m discussing brands of note, some old, others new, and those long gone. As someone interested in the development of brands, these posts are less about business, and instead about where art and industry marry in historic form.

An unexpected brand making well-deserved headlines is J. Crew. Yes, that one. I had the same reaction when a few of my trusted friends made me aware of the brand and it’s current status. My memories of the brand were from the mid-90’s, of $98 Rollneck sweaters and greater misdeeds. Now I count myself amongst the fans for this most seemingly common of brands.

In it’s current moment, J. Crew has become less of a product line and more of a sensibility. The best example of J. Crew as a ‘perspective’ is their ‘In Good Company’ collection, which combines the 2000’s obsession with brand collaboration and good old fashioned curation, pairing the company up with well-worn heritage brands like Sebago and England’s 86 year-old outerwear brand, Belstaff. This is what is affectionately call an “ethos grab” or the adoption of the traits from greater brands via their inclusion in your own.

Riding on a wave of preppy fascination ushered in by a few East Coast indie bands, men’s clothing saw a sea change in recent years towards a more subtle look, taking over for a trend of logos and bright colors. J. Crew also wisely eschewed an overt prep direction, Instead opting for classic American and work-inspired clothing.

Like any brand resurgence (Apple, being one), it starts at the top and it infects the whole company. Mickey Drexler is the patriarch of this evolution, and his attitudes towards hiring and culture have informed the brand’s ascendency since he joined in 2003. Creative director Jenna Lyons has become a celebrity in her own right.

The inclusion of Andy Spade, co-founder (with his wife) of Kate Spade and his own confusingly named Jack Spade brand, was another brilliant hire, whose sly blend of Midwestern charm and a hint of old school smarm (David Spade is his brother) created the best asset perhaps of J. Crew-dom, the Liquor Store shop in Tribeca. A barely refurbished bar as men’s shop, and a signless work of retail genius.

Mr. Spade on the relative anonymity and modest scale of Liquor Store:

“It’s odd that people think they have to brand everything with their own name to be successful. Certain companies are experts at certain things. I love brands that show humility and don’t try to be all things to all people. How many brands that got bigger got better?”

J. Crew
Founded: 1983
Golden Age: 2008- ?
Typeface: Goudy Old Style

Well this wasn’t a hard decision: Undercover is officially my favorite clothing store in Tokyo. The SS/10 collection is based on the work of Dieter Rams, using the motto “Less but Better” to guide the design. Need I say more? I walked in and saw rows of Vitsoe shelving and was sold immediately. Then I saw Snow White’s coffin, an old Braun catalog, and basically every object Dieter Rams had ever designed. Eventually I realized there were also clothes for sale and I had to take a seat to collect myself. Of course I found myself sitting on the 620 Chair.

We make noise, not clothes. – Jun Takahashi and Undercover.

So obviously I’m a fan of the overall aesthetic and ethos of the store. My one complaint was, as much as I loved the clothes (and I did), absolutely nothing fit me. Of course I became frustratingly used to this in Tokyo. Would have loved to pick something up; though I did search long and far to find their 2010 lookbook as a consolation prize. They had a display copy in-store, which I pleaded for in broken Japanese, but they wouldn’t part with it. Every book store in Tokyo was the same — it wasn’t until the last place I tried where the guy told me I could just grab one on Amazon.jp. This is true, but you need to create a new account and shipping ends up costing about double the book itself. I have one on the way and will let you know if it’s worth it. From what I remember, it is.

Cheers to the sales guys there for letting me take so many pictures. Pretty tough thing to do in Tokyo; most places will freak out and lock you down if you pull out a camera. Not sure why, free publicity as far as I’m concerned. Anyway these guys were really nice and made a special “exception” for me — I think because they felt bad that literally the entire line didn’t fit me.

– A nice write up on the collection can be found here.
– Jun Takahashi’s blog on Honeyee
– A Blog, curated by Jun Takahashi

Check out more pictures after the jump!

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