We’re back from Vegas, did you miss us? We’ve got lots of goodies to share with you… Let’s start with an exciting, colorful line from Kansas City designed by Peggy Noland!

Call it America’s take on NuRave? Alphabet print bodysuits and retro graphic high-waisted short overalls in eye-popping colors- all made from spandex! We fell in love with her latest collection we saw hanging at the UNITED show which included nylon shorts with contrast colored quilted heart at the waistband and more variations of one-piece shorts and bodysuits. The 25-year-old designer handmakes everything herself which adds that unique touch to each piece.

Miss Noland has already opened her first shop located in her hometown of Kansas City. The interior walls are painted as a big, giant cheeseburger! Hang out between the layers of lettuce and all-beef patty while squeezing into the figure conscious club gear, oh the irony… Fans of her line already include Lovefoxxx from CSS and Kianna from Tilly and the Wall.

View some pieces of the collection and shop online: www.peggynoland.com. More goods to be online soon!

Or if you’re making your way on a cross country road trip… visit the brick and mortar! 124 West 18th Street. Kansas City, Missouri. 816-221-PNKC

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In September, designer Brendon Babenzien and director Michael Power will launch their boat shoe collection, Aprix. We’ve known Brendon for a while working for Supreme, An Earnest Cut and Sew, and his own line, Noah, so we decided to find out more about his first endeavor into footwear.

Name and age:
Brendon Babenzien/35 Michael Power/36

Where are you from?
Long Island, NY, South Shore

How long have you lived in New york?
My whole life basically with a couple of years back and forth between Miami Beach and NY.

Tell us about your beginnings in designing menswear.
I started working at a surf/skate shop when I was 13. I became one of the buyers there and basically became a young Stussy kid. My friend Don Busweiller started a company called Pervert and I eventually started working with him and got my first attempt at design.
After that, I moved on to Supreme, and eventually began my own line called Noah.

You have designed for Supreme, An Earnest Cut and Sew and as you mentioned, your own line, Noah, each varying slightly in aesthetic and market. How have your experiences at each of these brands differed?
I’m pleading the 5th on this one.

For which brands are your current focus?
I am currently the designer at Supreme and I still do Noah in a very small way each season. Aprix is a design partnership with Michael Power. We collaborate on all of our designs.
 
Congrats on Aprix, is it exclusively footwear or will there also be clothing?  
It wil begin as just shoes but we have plans in the future to go into accessores like bags and eyewear. We do not have any plans to do clothing. There is pleny of good things out there already.

Is Aprix you first foray in designing shoes?
More or less, yes.
 
On the Aprix website, “Comfort, Style and Tradition” are named as paramount to the brand and you’ve mentioned being inspired by the outdoors for past collections.   What’s the thought process behind recreating such a classic style of footwear?
Its pretty simple, really. Neither Michael or myself are very interested in trends. We always gravitate toward classic things. Often we cannot find what we want though, so we just decided to do it oursleves. It is very important to us though, that the shoes we make stand the test of time. I want people to be wearing these years after they get them.

As a menswear designer, what kind of challenges have you faced while trying to define your classic, yet subtle indie branding to buyers and shops?
I think a couple of years ago it was something that was hard to sell but it seems now, more and more people undeerstand it. Lately, I have been trying to stay out of my own way when talking about the brands and just let the stuff speak for itself and hope people like it.

What’s your experience designing for women been like so far?
I don’t really have any. I made a dress for my wife that I was pretty proud of but thats where it stopped.

What are your plans for Aprix?
We want to grow the line at a natural pace. Basically only introducing new styles as they seem necessary. That’s the short term. For the long term, we want to have our own Americas Cup team one day. A tad ambitious maybe but you have to have goals.

Which retailers will be carrying Aprix boat shoes and when will they be in stores?
Nom de Guerre in NY and they will be available in September.

How many styles and colorways will be available?
One style in three colorways for now and then 3 more styles in ‘08.

Visit them online for more info: www.aprixsport.com

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Christiania Vodka has launched their search for the nude subject of its new Soho billboard.

As part of its commitment to the arts, Norway’s Christiania Vodka has launched Christi Naked’s NEW NUDE, a far-reaching, high-profile art competition search for the most compelling modern vision of the human form. Inspired by Richard Avedon’s 1981 photo of Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent (above), an image which crystallized the excesses of a decade, Christiania is seeking a wholly modern interpretation of the nude for 2007. Participants have been asked to upload submissions of all art mediums- painting, photography, animation, and film- via the internet where all artworks are currently on view in the gallery until a winner is announced Tuesday, August 28th.

The project will be overseen and critiqued by a panel of art-world luminaries and collectors, including collector and innovative designers Joyce and John Varvatos, Lydia Fenet of Christie’s Auction House, Stephen Frailey, Chair of the School of Visual Arts (SVA) Photography Department, Michael Halsband, esteemed photographer, Kate Sennert, Editor-In-Chief of Tokion Magazine, longtime emerging art patron and benefactor Alex Vik, and Ramis Barquet of the Sebastian + Barquet Gallery in New York.

On September 4th, the search will culminate with a celebration of the winning submission (along with additional notable works) at a gala event held in New York City as the winning work becomes the subject of a major billboard in SoHo.

View the gallery of submissions at: www.christinaked.com

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Danish born designer, Henrik Vibskov, showed his latest Spring 2008 collection in Copenhagen on August 11th, The Fantabulous Bicycle Music Factory.

Known for his youthful use of color, bold patterns and sense of humor, Vibskov’s Spring collection was a crowd pleaser. In the designer’s true style, clothes were a meeting of pattern and color- bold graphic knits layered under multi-colored sweaters and loose fitting graphic dresses for women. More of his signature tasseled scarves were present in traditional and brightly colored plaids. Models took seats on bicycles on a long narrow carousel, peddling to activate the musical instruments tied next to them, creating an intense meeting of sight and sound in the designer’s Music Factory.

A graduate from Central Saint Martins College, Henrik Vibskov has courted acclaim by a host of style and modern culture magazines including The Face, Brutus (Japan), Dazed and Confused, I-D, Wallpaper, Purple, Selfservice, Numero, and Vogue. The brand is sold in selected stores around the globe- Colette (Paris), Pineal Eye (London), Midwest (Tokyo), Aloha Rag (Hawaii), and can be found at Seven and Oak in New York.

Visit the designer’s website at: www.henrikvibskov.com

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SALES IN BABYLON

This Saturday, August 25th, Hoboken & Haberdashery and Coat of Arms present the Hood Vintage Show. Score on goods from Carrera, Starter, Cazal, Nike, Troop, Adidas, MCM, and more! At Coat of Arms from noon-8pm. 43 Clinton between Stanton and Rivington.

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We’re by no means experts in the sci-fi or toy worlds, but we know a good thing when we see one! With a line of shoddy NYC sweatshop labor made action figures, Suckadelic is easily the sleaziest toy brand around.

New York Chinatown based, Suckadelic is a fly by night company that has made a name for itself through creative toy bootlegging and illicit remix records. Most noted for 1998’s unlicensed Star Wars Breakbeats album, Suckadelic revels in the spotlight of hip, nerdy obsessions. Cult fave toys such as the bootleg Gay Empire Homotrooper, Mary Paper$ (inspired by the real life downtown sneaker honey), and Another Bitch action figures are not your ordinary super villains. Each comes in their own unconventional colorway- pink, bronze, and orange- sealed in wonderfully generic-looking graphic packaging, highly coveted by cool kitsch collectors worldwide!

If you can bear it, check out their new internet movie channel, The Original Villain Network, produced by and starring “the Sucklord”, leader and founder of Suckadelic, and friends. This ongoing “Supervillain Soap opera” depicts the lies, loves, dreams and schemes of New York City’s most hopeless evil doers in short “webisode” size clips.

We did say “sleazy”, didn’t we?

Suckadelic merchandise is available at Kid Robot, Toy Tokyo, and Colette (Paris).
Visit their bestsellers online: www.suckadelic.com

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BLOWOUTS IN BABYLON

Tomorrow- Thursday August 23rd- Coochifrito is back in session for their monthly salsa and freestyle night with your hosts Gaby and Angelo. M Bar- 349 Broome between Bowery & Elizabeth.

Friday- Worship Worthy has teamed up with Newyorkfuckincity and Mighty Healthy to bring you “To All The Ladies In The Place With Style & Grace”. Music by DJ Elle, special guest from San Francisco DJ Zita, plus DJ Miranda and Ill P. At Williamsburg’s Hope Lounge. Come hang out with us! Click flyer for more details.

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New York’s getting a new live music venue. And it sounds like it’s gonna kick ass.

Bowery Presents, the folks that bring us Mercury Lounge, Bowery Ballroom, Webster Hall, and the Music Hall of Williamsburg (opening in September) is adding yet another new space to their roster, Terminal 5. Located on West 56th in midtown (err), this venue will be the largest of the five (hence the name?) in capacity, holding 3000 music go-ers.

“Architect Brian Swier designed the multi-million dollar renovation of Terminal 5, creating a clean, open layout for the 40,000-square-foot multilevel venue. A main floor with the performance space will feature 40′ ceilings, unobstructed sightlines, and state-of-the-art sound and lighting, and a first and second wrap-around mezzanine will provide excellent views to the stage from all areas of the venue. Three bars -one on each level - will provide easy access to refreshments.”

The new space welcomes a couple of our favorite performers. Grab your tickets to see JUSTICE on October 20th, and M.I.A. on October 19th. We already did!

Visit them online: www.terminal5nyc.com

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New York native, Minya Quirk, steps into our Confessional this week. Her beginnings as a nanny, working at the now defunct girlshop.com, set desiging music videos, and freelance journalism have led her to now being part of a trio in one of the most important public relations and wholesale sales agencies in today’s lifestyle market.

Last month, this self-proclaimed “jive talker, poet, spin master” and her partners launched a highly anticipated and successful fashion tradeshow, Capsule. Some of our favorite international labels were present, such as Wood Wood and Henrik Vibskov, and we became instant fans.

Minya Quirk’s got the drive and knows exactly what it takes!

Name and Age, please:
Minya Quirk, 33

Marital status:
Married (spiritually, not legally)

Where are you originally from?
New York

How long have you lived in New York?
My family and I lived on the Upper West Side until we moved permanently to our country house in Westchester when I was 11. I went to college in Massachusetts, finished and moved as fast as I could to Williamsburg, then to the LES then to…

What neighborhood in NY do you live in?
Harlem!

What are your favorite memories of New York since living here?
Saturdays at the old Central Park zoo (before it was snazzy), sledding in Riverside Park, adventures on the M104 bus. The whole vibe of Manhattan in the late 70s and 80s – the proverbial old New York. Drinking in the streets, the old mega clubs, dusty summers in an uncharted Williamsburg (chilling at McCarren pool before it was a concert venue (!), napping on rooftops, eating beans every night for dinner because we were broke), the sound of roosters in the garden next to my building on 11th Street, War at Summerstage, Biggie at the Harlem State Building, drives down the West Side Highway almost anytime, a particularly lovely Sunday sunset viewed from my living room a few weeks ago.

Give us a brief rundown of your past work experience.
It wasn’t run of the mill. I checked union workers in at the Javits center every morning with my best friend Tim for a month. We had to be there at 5am. I’ve been a personal assistant for rich old guys. I was a nanny on the Upper East Side. I went with an ex to Australia and Singapore and did set dressing for music television stations and then spent all the money traveling (Fiji, New Zealand, Indonesia). I was an executive secretary at a magazine publishing company, I worked at girlshop.com – a now defunct but very pace-setting upstart fashion ecommerce site, then I was a freelance fashion journo and copywriter for about five years.

We know you used to work at Sportswear International. What role did you play there?
In 2000, Sportswear was working on its annual Who’s Who issue (which requires retardedly painstaking work) and I got a gig helping out with that. From there I started writing items, then features. I was the footwear and streetwear girl. They’d send me to the South Hall at MAGIC, I think because no one else wanted to go. I loved writing for that magazine; I respected its intelligence (still do) and had an awesome rapport with my then editor, now partner Edina Sultanik Silver!

How has that experience helped you get where you are today?
I met Edina at Sportswear and it was while writing for them that we devised our master business plan! We actually didn’t know exactly where we were heading, we just wanted to help young indie fashion brands and share our expertise. We both had great contacts. Well, Edina more than me, she’s a serious OG in the industry.

Tell us little about Brand Pimps & Media Whores (BPMW).
After a moving offices four times, about fifty interns and some trial and error, we’ve built the company into a full service public relations and wholesale sales agency in three and a half years. We also have a solid consulting business (retail strategy, planning, merchandising etc) and a buying office plus run a new-sy and trend-centric blog called www.wearethemarket.com. And we just started a trade show. Phewwww. It’s a lot. But we are ferocious and we always, always think we can do more!

What was your first year in business like?
Someone told us then “the first year is easy, it’s all accolades and attention - it’s the second and third years that are harder.” I think they were right – now’s not the wide-eyed wonder of year one, now we’re building a real business, dealing with growing pains, doing a lot of strategizing and bill paying! Year one was the craziest, but also the most fun.

Tell us about how you and your 2 other partners fit together. Do each of you have your own “expertise”?
Edina: full of great ideas, the little Capricorn goat that hauls ass up the mountain (even while giving birth to her children) for the sake of our company, gets things started in the blink of an eye. Ridiculously large global network, sleeps four hours a night.
Deirdre: reads books like “Millionaire Women Next Door” and keeps her eye on the prize, a numbers (and sports) nerd, might be a pro golfer when we retire, rocks Excel like nobody’s business, also works at lightning speed, called “Ice Queen” for her conference room poker face.
Me: jive talker, poet, spin master, puppeteer, diplomat, good time girl, nitpicker and last word on aesthetics. (Also, people come to me when they want to complain or request an extra day off).

We’re three hard working New York native feminist lunatics – like peas in a pod.

Congratulations on your recent success of the Capsule tradeshow. Was it a long time in the making for you?
Between all of us at bpmw, we’ve attended a lot of trade shows all over the world. We thought the time was right for a new one in NYC, and we had the “tools,” let’s say, to make it happen. Sam Ben-Avraham, founder of the Project show, was one of our very first clients. He really mentored us, and we learned two important things from him – 1) how to take big risks 2) how to value community. It wasn’t too long in the making but for us as an agency, I think it was a really good evolutionary step. I didn’t want it to end, we had a great time!

What’s the philosophy behind the show?
The philosophy of the show is simple – it’s a intimate assortment of highly curated, best-of-the-best, high end contemporary and premium streetwear brands. All of which are exciting in their own way, edgy, new and frrrrrrrrrresh. We wanted market week to be fun, as it should be. A really good trade show should feel like a productive and happy meeting of the minds! It’s pretty much an extension of who we are and what we try to be as an agency.

Any other things on your horizon?
Babies! Growing our company even more. A published novel or epic poem. A used bookstore and Japanese gift shop. More travel and adventure. Who knows? Every day is a great one; I try to live life in the present…but also dream big.

Got any favorite clothing brands? Stores?
I’m not particularly brand loyal, I just wear whatever I like. My grandmother was a seamstress who passed her knowledge of garments down to my mom who’s a taste-nazi chic freak, so I love clothes across the board, but I don’t care who made them. My only rule - never buy anything at full price. I love Loehmann’s and vintage, Bendel’s and the bins at Good Will. I don’t discriminate. Ooh, but I do love Marc Jacobs.

Do you have much free time? And what do you do when you’re not working?
I try to make free time, sure! My boyfriend and I BOTH like to shop, a lot. I go to the country almost every weekend to see my parents and the trees. I’m also a hyper nerdy bookworm; I’ve always got two or three going at the same time (mostly women writers – of course – from any era or genre).

How would you describe your personal style?
In general, I’m more comfortable in a dress than in sneakers. My personal style depending on the day can be – bohemian love child, dance teacher, sexy secretary, eccentric old poetess, Reality Bites-era grunge, ’round the way girl, downtownmiss, Hawaiian princess, Mariah Carey post-Tommy Mottola or Ralph Lauren renegade. Schizo yes, but somehow always me. I love getting dressed.

What’s your prized possession?
My books and my gazillions of cute dolls, toys, animals, cell phone charms and on and on and on. They’re all equally prized in my mind. Needless to say I have a hard time throwing things out.

Do you go out much? Got any favorite bars, lounges, clubs?
I spent a lot of years as Party Girl and now I’m pretty much retired! I love going home to my sweetheart at the end of the day.

What music have you been listening to lately?
This summer’s been about early ‘90s college radio (Throwing Muses, 10,000 Maniacs, The Sundays, R.E.M.) plus T-pain, Cole Porter and jazz standards and plenty of reggae. Schizo again. Let’s call it complicated. Ha. I love music, it’s a big part of everything for me.

Do you plan on living in NY forever?
Probably yes. But like any ambitious lady I’d like homes in other places too - Westchester, Hawaii and the Costa Brava!

If you smoke, tell us your favorite rolling paper. If you drink, tell us your cocktail/drink of choice.
Coconut flavored or Bambu.
I drink tequila and wine. Like my dad.

Name one New York woman that you would nominate to our Hail Mary list.
CLAW, my sister from another mister – but she’s already topped the list. Other than that,
I have to make it two – my partners Edina and Deirdre…both are Worship Worthy for sure.

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