Today I checked out all the shows that was happening in New York city this week, Project Show, Blue Collective, and Capsule Show. The Project show is the denim and streetwear show, started out in New York but now it happens in New York and Las Vegas and now is owned by Magic. Blue and Collective show is operated by ENK which is the closest competitor to Magic. Blue is their denim and casual wear section and Collective are the more formal lines are. Capsule is the new cool kid on the block. More hipster and underground lines, it’s all the new stuff the cool kids are wearing. Don’t get it mistaken, it’s not as underground as you might think, these are top lines in all the big important retailers, they are just less commercial than the competitors at the other shows.

The economy sucks. As I was talking to a close friend in the industry who’s ear is on the street all times tells me that everyone is having trouble paying. Even the big shops are asking for extensions and will only take consignments from any new designers. All the shops in LA are doing horrible. New York is not that great either. One of the top shops here in New York, Lounge has closed down. But they opened a new store but it’s a discount place now. He tells me this new game the retailers are playing. Changing company names but keeping their shop and ignoring the accounts payable. It’s a difficult time for all. But he’s optimistic about the international market, for extending his line anyways.

He’s in the premium streetwear market and he tells me the spending of $100+ on tees are long gone. Everyone is lowering their price points.

What does this mean for brands and buyers. They are cutting back on their trips and tradeshows. As everyone know the Vegas shows are the essential shows many brands have elected not to do New York shows. As this have been happening for a while now even before the meltdown. And the buyers are cutting back and not attending New York shows either since they have go to Las Vegas to see all the lines.

It was my first time at the ENK Blue Collective show. It has a nice set up, at Pier 94, quite a distance away from the subway so it was hard to get to. It was very small and traffic wasn’t that good. A rep I spoke to told me that by far Project is much better. Saw a couple of interesting lines, it was my first time seeing Desigual from Spain. A very colourful line that just entered the US market for a couple of seasons and have been in Canada for a few seasons now. However it’s quite big in Europe and opened a store on Broadway downtown Manhatten this past April.

Project New York was next. They moved from the Javitz convention centre to the Lexington Armory, which was really not close to anything. I went in and after a little while I figured it out. It’s about half the size of last year which was already very small. People just wasn’t getting the value in paying for a booth and not enough buyer’s were coming to the event. Saw a couple of cool lines of jeans which has crazy washes and detailing, Red Pepper and Vintage Laundry. Check them out. They are kind of unknown so it’s going to be hard to find them.
Jumped in the shuttle taxi which Project New York offers and headed to Capsule down at the church. It was pretty packed last year, see photos and blog. It was still pretty packed this year. Looks like things are getting better for this show. This is a show that everyone talks about. Very hipster underground New York kind of things. Met the guys behind Naked and Famous which is my favourite line of denim. Also saw this pretty cool line right before I left down in the basement, Shades of Greige.

I know last year they had a waiting list for Capsule and that’s why this show is packed. This year Capsule is going to Vegas, interesting to see how they will compete there. I see Capsule as a New York style kind of show, it definitely has it’s own niche.

You might think that with the bad economy there will be less lines and stores attending Las Vegas but I predict otherwise, it will be just as big as all the previous seasons. There’s a new show called Premium at Magic. The popular Project Las Vegas will be cut in half and the half it cut will be at Premium. Heard that the buyers are more diverse and have higher price points at this show. I think that’s where JUZD will end up being. But even with the bad economy it won’t slow down the show, this is once in the year where the lines meet to get orders from their buyers, no way they will miss out on that.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

I’m often asked what designers I look up to. This is one of the questions that stump me. The reason is that most of the brands that do graphic on shirts I don’t like. There is lack of design integrity as each season and within the same season. That is why I started JUZD. However there is one brand I used to respect a lot.

Artful Dodgers. I don’t wear their stuff, not my style. But as a designer specializing on graphics on clothing, they really impressed me with their attention to detailed and the intrinsic designs.

When the news of Jay-Z was buying the Artful Dodgers spread, there was much uproar about it losing it’s authenticity. I didn’t it would. Why would such a smart businessmen kill a legendary brand? With his business sense he would help grow it and make it more popular. Kudos to him.

To my disgust when I saw the new Artful Dodger’s collection at Project NYC. Not only did the line looked plain and boring the prices had dropped too. The sales rep told me that they were planning to lower the prices before Jay-Z bought it out. Artful Dodgers are ARtful Dodgers no more. It’s just another Roca Wear design spin off.

(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.