Needles and Thread and The Whole Damn Thing

Well, Autumn's here and a young man's fancy turns to tops, warmer, stretchy tops. Pictured above is a quick black and blue top I made with a low scoop neck and chunky cuffs, just the way I like it. The quasi-femininity of the pattern is offset by a more masculine color palette. The end result is a top that surfs between both genders but in the long run exudes a mod look that's appealing for both boys and girls alike.
Another project that's been floating my boat are shoe bags, and lots of them. Disgusted with clunky shoe boxes that allow cockroaches to move into and better than those shoe trees with their tiny pockets that won't accommodate your chunkier boots, your best bet is to simply sew a few awesome shoe bags. I like really radiant material that gleams as much as the boots inside.

Pictured are three bags in particular: the glam bag with black stars is the bag I keep my Fluevog Prince George high heels in; the blue op art bag keeps my Doc Martens Langston petrol patent boots, and the gold paisley bag holds my gorgeous H by Hudson Alaska boots. Let them wear boots, but cover them in fabrics as exciting as the kinky kicks themselves!
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One of the more peculiar pleasures to be had driving around West Los Angeles is the bizarre double-billboard spectacle on the corner of Santa Monica and Sepulveda Blvds. monopolized by the now deceased clothes designer Bijan Pakzad, known more commonly as simply "Bijan". A Persian emigre who became the toast of Eighties Beverly Hills, his entire style was one of obscene opulence - my first exposure to him was three-page ads in Vanity Fair every month (!) espousing The Bijan Philosophy. Some of his remarks were lame ("There's no sight more beautiful than a pregnant woman") while others were kind of funny ("Wisdom's a gift but you'd trade it for youth").

He drove around in a bright yellow Rolls Royce, yes the big vintage ones and even designed a Limited Edition Bugatti, also bright yellow. Yes, Bijan had made it into fashion history, even garnering a mention in none other than the movie American Psycho - "Not the Bijan!" Patrick Bateman firmly commands Sabrina the hooker.
Bijan was the ultimate Beverly Hills Persian made good and lived large, well, up until 2011, when he suffered a fatal stroke. But even his tragic passing could not forestall the continuous flow of billboards showing his deliriously happy smiling face. After his passing the billboard on the western side of SM and Sepulveda announced "The Legend...BIJAN!" with Mr. Pakzad smiling from the beyond, letting us know he's still keeping tabs on things in West LA. Now the billboard on the eastern side announced, "The Legacy...BIJAN!" with his young heir Nicolas cracking a similar goofy smile.

Several months passed by and Nicolas seemed rather shy by posting new billboards that displayed the luxe line that captivated Beverly Hills. No pictures of Dad or himself, at all. Will this be the new standard? No more smiley faces? Could this be the future of Bijan???
Hell, no! Two months passed by and the new billboards are out with the newer, au courant Bijan smiling reassuringly at us from both billboards, proclaiming, "BIJAN...Designer For Men!" Hope has returned to the Westside. Take that, Ralph Lauren!

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If there's anything more exciting than fashion magazines it's stumbling upon some great books about fashion, and I've recently had the pleasure of enjoying two great ones.
The first book is "Bespoke: Savile Row Ripped And Smoothed" by tailor extraordinaire Richard Anderson. Bespoke is one of the best books written about menswear and is absolutely mandatory reading for anyone involved in the craft of tailoring at all.
Anderson goes into great instructional detail all through the book on how to best fit a suit or pants on someone with an uneven body - like 99% of us out there. He explains how to even out a higher shoulder or a lower leg and make everything perfectly fitted. There's a wealth of information in his book that you'll find indispensable, complete with an excellent glossary of tailoring terms. There's also a fairly amusing back story on Abercrombie & Fitch that has to be read to be believed!
The other gem is "Couture Hats" by Louis Bou. Couture Hats has page after page of avant garde hats that stand somewhere between the corner of Alexander McQueen and Paco Rabanne. Even if you're not crazy about hats in general this is still an excellent standalone fashion photography book.
Part of the enjoyment of Couture Hats is picking your favorite designer. My favorite milliner is Stephen Jones for his broad scope of versatility. His designs run the gamut from classic Forties Black Widow noir chapeaux to demented Mardi Gras nightmare chapeaus and beyond.
Both books are available wherever good books are sold and Couture Hats is available on Kindle, too. Both books are highly recommended by me, the man in the polka dot top and silver biker jeans. Aloha.

No Excess Baggage

One of the cool benefits of working with Rebecca is the opportunity to create new things on the side. The focus this past month was on bags, different variations on them. This month alone we made four bags, and shown here are three of them.

Pictured above is a cargo bag, based on the All-Saints bag only enlarged and expanded for more items for loading. Actually, this bag is big enough to bear a load for a weekend’s trip anywhere. It’s made of crocodile-embossed cowhide leather, shown here dyed red. The same bag was made with dark blue dyed leather. Two interior pockets were sewn in for easy access to wallets, passports and cell phones.

Pictured above is a small accessories pouch for my iPhone. I use it to keep my phone charger, iHome music speaker and other things phone-related. It’s made of pleather (leatherette) from a pair of pants that a client left at our studio. The letters on the material was some sort of word jumble that looks like “SEX”.

Pictured below is a tote bag made of a fake reptile-textured cowhide with leopard spots. Again, two interior pockets were installed for easy access to the usual necessities of life. It’s based on a leather tote bag made by Ralph Lauren. This one really turns heads!

After a background of making wallets, purses and bags for Retail Slut, Tasty and Patricia Fields it’s cool to move up to fabricating large bags, almost suitcase-size and working on a larger scale. I’ve always enjoyed creating new things I can wear or use and fabricating these items and watching Rebecca and I use them has been pretty damn exciting.

Slacks For Slackers

Unfortunately there won't be a big blog this week because I sliced my thumb open last Sunday. It's amazing how much power your thumb wields over the rest of your hand, especially your right one. The thumb is basically the boss of your fist, and the boss is severly injured, so once my six stitches have been removed and I'm back to normal I'll be back to type in more cool stuff. In the meantime here's a picture of a great new belt I created before the accident. The cool Frankenstein buckle was made by Lucky 13 Belt Buckles.

One thing I haven't exhibited much of are the dress slacks I've created. Dress slacks aren't terribly sexy, but pretty crucial. You need to wear them to work or the worshiping place of your choice. I tend to lean towards striped material myself because it means you mean business. A good, lean pinstripe should do the job, preferably with a black or dark brown background. In the pair shown below we have a dark brown pair with gold pinstripes in narrow, fine lines. Fat lines would look too comical, like a bad Ralph Bakshi cartoon.

In order to break the monotony of wearing something traditional like striped pants throw a few kinks here and there, so I designed a leather waistband with belt loops to this particular pair. It makes the slacks stand out a bit from the pack. The leather shouldn't be too tough or it'll fight the rest of the material, so a soft leather like lamb or suede will work best. By the way, I don't like to discuss politics, but I don't think West Hollywood's proposed ban on fur vending will succeed, given the poor economic situation in the country. Now isn't the time to place restrictions on what vendors can sell to improve the city's economy and raise sales tax revenue that can only benefit the idiots that run the City of West Hollywood.

The next pair is a cool black cotton material with solid purple stripes running through it. This material was so flash that even the cutter at Mood drooled over it. "Where did you find this???" His eyes were greener than the money I pulled out to pay for them. Needless to say, he's probably making a pair of his own slacks out of this awesome fabric. Now, normally, I would model these great pants as I always do, but I was a little torn about posing in them with my stitched up Frankenstein thumb. Then again, what could be more in the Halloween spirit?

BY THE WAY....that cool steak bag I posted pics of in my blog "Accessories Bought And Made" is now available at Etsy. Click here to buy if you're interested: http://www.etsy.com/listing/84890911/meaty-steak-bag

Accessories Bought and Made

Last week I completed the design and sewing of a steak bag, which was a conglomeration of different oxblood leather hides. I wanted the bag to be a nice circular shape with a slight oval curve. The banding around the bag was a textured harder leather to keep the bag framed when placed on a tabled surface. The inside of the bag is lined with a cell phone pocket, a wallet and/or small purse pocket and another pocket (maybe for the mp3 player of your choice). I wanted the handles of the bag to be special so we decided on two cartoony frankfurters to be hot linked to your arm. I think the end result was pretty special and I'm making another one that I plan on selling.

Pictured below are three accessories for your review, two made and one bought. The two made is the: 1) bad penny belt with a nice gray leather hide used. Although you can't see it in the photo I punched a lot of cool moon craters of varying sizes. What you can see, however is: 2) My moon crater leather bracelet, a small black leather band with moon craters of various sizes. I made it small and tight for best effect; a large and loose bracelet would simply look damaged. The bought piece is the other bracelet with metal coils with leather links aligning them quite nicely. This great bracelet is available from Topman (http://www.topmanusa.com/) . They have a very eclectic selection of men's bracelets which can't be, pun alert, topped anywhere else.

Items that I bought recently include Oliver Peoples sunglasses - the Sheldrake series is a favorite, but they're all cool and stylish. The accessories you wear can be every bit as crucial as the major articles of clothing you wear every day. An outift can look incomplete until a necklace or bracelet is added into the equation, so don't scrimp on getting the little touches that complete your look. It's the little things that count.

I'll leave you with this awesome cooking apron made with red leather and festooned with black stitches embroidered all over. If meat is murder than let's put all our cards on the table, I say.

Belts, Boots, Gloves Love

One of the most overlooked yet crucial parts of a wardrobe are the accessories…belts, boots, gloves, etc. I actually learned to love my accessories and buy them regularly. In fact, I bought a cool glam rock scarf today. Here’s a few stores I recommend for your major men’s accessory purchases:

Silver Connection (8308 Wilshire Blvd): Stuff I bought at Silver Connection: a styley King’s crown ring, a bear trap ring (good for weddings), and a cool Batman belt buckle, all in silver. And that’s just for the guys. There’s tons of items for girls, some of it’s goth, some of it’s hippie, some emo, even Southwest cowgirl stuff. Go and see Randy – he’ll hook you up and a great guy to do business with. At the Wilshire & San Vicente strip mall. He gives strip malls a touch of class.

Cools Clothing Store (110 Japanese Village Mall): I hope I’m not being racist when I say that any t-shirt store in Little Tokyo would automatically have anime graphics all over them, so imagine the double-take I made when I saw Rat Fink and Lucky 13 images instead blazing through the shop window. Here in the heart of Little Tokyo is a rockin’ little Lowbrow art shop, mostly girly clothes but sulky-pout emo boys might find skinny-minnie wearables here, too.
Cools is run by Masato Miura, who doesn’t bill himself on his business card as Store Manager but as “Mechanic”. Wotta card. He sells Tattoo art t-shirts, nutty beanies, cigarette cases, cute earrings all dragged out in the Kustom Kar Kommando style. I wish he didn’t play reggae music – how about some Guitar Wolf, bro?
With Christmas around the corner hit up Masato’s wicked garagey gift shop. I’ll be there buying the t-shirt that says “My Girlfriend Can Totally Beat Up Your Girlfriend”.

Zappos (Henderson, Nevada): For the first time ever I got a boner just by reading a packing slip…it was from Zappos. The slip said, “Your order was picked, packed and shipped by Cheryl and Amber”. Oooh Baby! Tell Daddy all about it! I ordered a gorgeous pair of brown leather boots with a side zipper (Brutini). The boots were so fresh they smelled like steak! Either the boot maker cooked the leather (medium well-done) before he sewed them or Cheryl and Amber tore into some prime rib before they picked, packed and shipped my boots.
Zappos, keep selling those kool, kewl, kool boots at great prices and send more sexy packing slips, please!

Ross Dress For Less (7060 W. Sunset Blvd): Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste. But when I run out of wealth and I run out of taste I go to Ross Dress For Less. There are some genuine finds here, you can get closeouts on designer stuff like DKNY boy panties and Calvin Klein belts. My wife bought those great Andy Warhol canvas tote bags (Campbell Soup Can and the Banana Velvet Underground LP cover) that came out a few years ago to cash in on the Edie Sedgwick flop movie (“Factory Girl”). They also have the Elvis, Jackie O and wild sunflower Warhol designs.
You can also get great markdowns on picture frames and kitchenware. Just make sure you stay away from the shirts and pants, guys, because they’re as irregular as a 90-year old man.

Leatherup.com (955 Venice Blvd): I love leather! Leather looks better on me than it does on a cow! And what better place to order your leather needs than through one of my favorite mail-order places, but Leatherup.com?
They sell biker vests, sexy leather chaps, biker caps, kid gloves, and best of all, leather boots. I ordered a killer pair of engineer boots for under $75 and got it within three working days with a 10% discount coupon included for my next order. Leatherup.com is like the hottest party girl: cheap, fast and eager to accommodate.

Maya Jewelry (7452 Melrose Ave): One of the oldest O.G. Melrose stores, Maya has a tasty assortment of tribal items from Africa, India, Central America, Peru, China, Japan, Thailand (i.e. if you saw Steve-O and Chris Party Boy from “Wildboyz” rompin’ around naked in that country it’s here) sexy jewelry like hoop earrings, toe rings and more for the ladies, studly sunglasses of every style imaginable for the studly guys out there, and some of the most colorful tribal masks, bracelets, rings and necklaces. I love Maya. My one-stop sun virgin sacrificial shop.