(Ronnie Comia of Cabana Group, Yuichi Ishii of Connected Showroom LA, Marck Marcellus the creative director of Goldspun, Me, and the rest of Goldspun crew.)

Made a quick 2 day trip to New York City for the Project Show which took place at the Javits Center. There was a bunch of shows going on including the super exclusive Capsule and some others like Blue and Collective.

Pretty fun, met up with a lot of friends and met a lot new ones. I squeezed quite a bit into those two days. Started off at the Project Show, streetwear clothing. When I got there saw my good friend from LA Yuichi Ishii. Last time I saw him in Las Vegas he was living in Japan and working as a buyer for his friend’s Tokyo store Panty. He’s back in LA and working for his buddy at Connected showroom. Here he’s repping a NYC brand, Goldspun.

Saw the Dom Rebel boys Justin Svatina and Don Nguyen, repping Canada. They won’t be joining me at the clubs tonight, Justin got to go back the hotel to finish some designs and send it back to Montreal for production.

Got this stylish fodora from Erwin of Goorin. A line that dates back to 1895 and now made by four designers in the Bay area. Available at Holt Renfrew. Also checked out the latest collection from Greedy Genius. Met Derek Levy and Mr. TranSITO. Pretty cool guys. Now I’m off to the Capsule Show in the historic Angel Orensanz Catherial.

Pretty exclusive, this tiny location (tiny compared to the convention centre of the Javits Center) on the south east part of Manhattan just east of SOHO houses only 50 brands. Difficult to get in and spots only open when a brand leaves. Met with Nicole to show her JUZD. Maybe I have a chance to get in.

Check out this cool necklace sonvenir they gave out.

This place was steaming! No AC small location tight spots and lots and lots of people. I was sweating just standing in there. Checked out this cool brand Alexander Olch. Make ties and suspenders. Before I can check out more got a Blackberry message from my friend to go to the Universial Gear, they want to “take a look at JUZD” and “speak to JD, go back he leaves at 6pm.”

Took a quite look and I jetted.

On my second day met with Darrly Calmese the photographer and Stefanos Chen for an upstar NYC magazine called Alex the Magazine. I was there and posted for some pics and finally met Darryl and Stephanos in person. They wanted to do a piece on JUZD bamboo clothing.

Spent rest of the days checking SOHO area. Man, I love this city. I feel more at home here than I do in Toronto. Finish the night by partying it up at Manison Nightclub. Lots of people on a Tuesday night. Met up with all guys again at the club.

Can’t for for MAGIC week in Las Vegas! Doing all this over again!

(And I got a custom made JUZD hat off the streets of SOHO in New York City. Didn’t turn out too good as I ask him to do the logo and not his usually stuff. Note to self, let others do what they do best.)

Project show is the clothing show for small to medium sized lines. For this year like the others is held at the Javits Center. Check out the impressive architectural accomplishment at the entrance.

Pretty impressive!

According to my Dom Rebel boys, there’s 10 times more traffic at the Las Vegas Project Show. But you got to stay true to your roots (Project started in NYC) plus for Dom Rebel they signed a couple of big accounts. Some buyers don’t head to the Las Vegas show. For my boy Yuichi who’s the west coast rep for Goldspun it was a quiet day, for him not his brand.

Here are two hot brands I like. These are classic cut and sew. Being in the graphic tee business graphics printing don’t really awe me. It’s like a magician watching another magician. But cut and sew to me is like a magician watching a scientist. It’s totally magical to me.

“Verum strives to be an honest expression, and all the while maintaining an accurate representation.” A mens and womens line started by Johnny Quach and Khue Trinh met while working for other streetwear brands. They have worked at such brands as Roxy, Quick Silver, and Tarina Tarantino.

This simplicity and honesty really shows through in their designs. Their style is contemporary, timeless, clean, and hidden. Hidden in the sense that you will find small details and craftsmanship you only find when masters really pay attention to their art.

What I like is the simplicity of the pieces with the strong geometric shapes. As you can see from this mens sweater the simple shape that crosses the chest and goes deep.

For the women this wraps all the way around nicely slim fitting and shimmers with a nice deep blue satin.

Their influences are Marc Jacobs and Yohji Yamamoto. The high end runway stuff.

As for the future they want to stay simple and true trying to not overexpand. Focus on only boutiques and maybe Barneys.

Another brand I found is from a guy who was inspired by his dad who was an architecture and mom who was a model. To be posted soon.