While the global recession has affected countries around the world, it’s interesting to see how these tumultuous times has affected everyone else. The Japanese has always been one of the world’s biggest spenders in the luxury goods market, however that’s all about to change.

In the past, Japanese resorted to conformity rather than individualism in order to fit in with the rest of the hip crowd. They would save every penny in order to purchase that one big ticket item: a pair of rare sneakers or designer handbag. Sacrifices were made to luxury experiences such as a fine meal at a restaurant, a day at the spa, or even a vacation away from home. The Japanese are now as likely to spend their hard earned money on luxury experiences than on luxury goods.

International luxury brands like Versace, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Hugo Boss have either closed stores in Japan or made cancellations to store openings. Their survival in Japan were maintained by their strong brand image alone and the necessity to conform with everyone else rocking these luxury items. Now the Japanese are resorting to thrift stores to get their hands at a piece of vintage clothing in order to express individualism. Rather than owning the same luxury brand items in order to fit in, being able to own a piece of vintage clothing that no one else has seems to be a more attractive option. This trend is further described by Jing in The Old New Trend: Vintage. Despite the cultural differences we may have, it’s always interesting to see the same trends occurring. Looking broke is the new cool.

(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.)