Donwan Harrell, founder and creative director of PRPS, recently sat down with Debonair Magazine to discuss the ins and outs of premium and luxury denim (his company produces the latter, as you’ll soon find). He offers a few tips on distressing your own jeans to emulate the premium look, and also explains some of the factors that make premium and luxury denim, well, premium and luxury denim. Not the longest interview in the world, but it’s certainly worth the read! Peep.

By now I’m pretty sure that most people are familiar with, or have at least heard of the American Express Centurion Card aka The Black Card. You’ve probably heard your “favorite rapper’s favorite rapper” dropping the card’s name on a track or two. In short, its an exclusive American Express credit card only given to those that spend a minimum of $250,000 a year, includes a complimentary concierge service, and is sure to get you plenty of attention in any retail establishment. Anyhow, if you’ve ever wondered how you too could get your hands on one of these glorious pieces of plastic, and appear all “precipi-tastic” like the big boys, Neil Patel of QuickSprout.com gives you answers in this step by step guide. Peep. It seems like a pretty straight forward process, however, a very expensive straight forward process. Don’t go hurting your pockets trying to score one of these joints…ha!

I think I must have missed the memo on fixed gear bikes being the new “It” mode of transportation for the “hypester” crowd. Seriously, they seem to be popping up everywhere these days…first this, then this, now this. Is this the next movement? We shall see.

[photo via HS]

It looks like the retail industry is paying some much needed attention to the recycling, or should I say re-bagging habits of many of its consumers these days. No, this isn’t another case of an industry/company going green, although this would fit the description in more ways than one. Instead, retailers are beginning to put a little extra effort into the design of their shopping bags, as they look to gain a bit of free advertising from consumers that have a tendency to reuse some of the more attractive, high end bags for their own daily purposes (i.e. transporting lunch, gym clothes, etc).

Once a flimsy afterthought in American retailing — used to lug a purchase home from the store, then tossed into the trash — the lowly, free store bag is undergoing a luxurious makeover.

From upscale emporiums to midprice chains, retailers are engaged in a heated competition to make the most durable, fashionable shopping bags. They are investing millions of dollars in new flourishes like plastic-coated paper (Macy’s and Juicy Couture) and heavy fabric cord handles (Abercrombie & Fitch and Scoop).

Behind the battle of the bags is a significant shift in behavior that has turned consumers into walking billboards for stores. In cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, customers have begun treating shopping bags as disposable purses that can be reused for weeks, if not months, to carry laundry to the cleaners, books to the beach or lunch to the office. Peep:

But only the best bags make the cut. So stores, sensing a marketing opportunity, are racing to transform bare-bones bags into lavish, thick ones that will become free advertising.

(via NYT)

Looks like Pharrell just raised the bar on phone modding a tad bit…or by 18 karats, at least. No cheesy, eBay, aftermarket parts for him, instead he’s had Jacob the Jeweler create a custom, 18kt gold housing for his iPhone. Crazy!

(via BGR)

Meet Alex Goldberg. He’s a full-time hustler, part-time chef, all around cool kid, and at just 14 years old, he’s a already making his way to the top of NYC’s social ladder. A true “connector” (see: The Tipping Point) if I’ve ever seen one.

…Alex isn’t like other boys his age. He’s had free rein over the streets of Nolita since before he can remember, and he quickly learned the rules of that playground, turning his relationships with the neighborhood’s shop owners into access to free gourmet meals and designer clothes and trendy sneakers, then turning those freebies into even better stuff (like courtside Knicks tickets), and leveraging those perks into even more valuable things, like connections to athletes, rappers, nightclub owners, and so on.

On any given day after school, you can find him strutting down Elizabeth or Mulberry or Mott, past the foundations of his barter operation. He’s worked at Supreme, the clothing store and skate shop on Lafayette. He’s helped the chefs at Peasant. …After school for the last couple of years, Alex clocked in at his favorite job of all: at NikeID, the design-your-own-shoe mecca. He scored this gig by accident.

(read: NYT)

Over the course of his last two albums, we’ve heard Kanye West make several references to his upcoming fashion label, Pastelle (see: “Gone”, “Stronger”). However, to many people it looked like the whole idea was shaping up to be all talk, and very little show at the end of the day. Even with all the buzz Pastelle was getting around the “hypester” circuit, no real clues about its existence or launch had ever surfaced. That is until now. There’s finally a website, a very basic one at the moment, and a logo up on the web. Peep. Still no details on an official launch, however, it looks like we may be seeing some movement with things very soon. Stay tuned.

(Good look on the link, JD!)

I must admit, I haven’t paid close attention to the sneaker game for some time now. Well, let me rephrase that, I haven’t paid much attention to the exclusive, hype driven, internet-only sneaker game for some time now. I don’t know what happened, I just sort of fell out of touch with things over the past year or so. The scene just got a little too corny, redundant, and way too pretentious for me to handle, I think. Anyhow, I figured it was time for me to catch up on things; so as any young “hypester” would do, I took to the net in search of sneaker news and goodies. In the end I discovered Gourmet|NFN, a company that’s injecting Read the rest of this entry »

The Washington Post has an interesting piece on the transformation of the Apple Store experience. With the growing popularity of Apple products, and new converts each year, some feel that the store has lost its intimate, almost club-like, “I know that you know that I know that we know and love Macs like nobody else does”, feel.

Whatever it is (Radio Shack for rich people? The Sharp -est Image?), the Apple Store isn’t what it used to be, even a year or so ago. The initial thrills, the feelings of i-comfort and i-belonging, still await you behind its translucent facade, especially now, in the gizmodic spree of the Christmas season. But somewhere along the way, the zendo quality of the Apple Store changed.

The demi-privacy of it, the clubby feeling — I know that you know that I know that we know and love Macs like nobody else does– is fading away. Too much commotion. The ethereal, tranquil, spa vibe (the bath of white light, the polished concrete floors, the glint in the happy eyes of the geniuses at the Genius Bar) has been pierced by the sheer popularity of the place. The TV commercials worked. Mac Guy, even with his non-arrogant arrogance, is your real friend, and then he gathered too many friends, and suddenly he doesn’t have time for them all.

(via Washington Post)

The NY Times takes an interesting look at the way that many female DJ’s are influencing their crowds. (clockwise from top left: Beverly Bonds, Denise Kozlowski/Cyan Bonacci, Samantha Ronson and Lindsey Caldwell)

(via NY Times)