Pete Wentz, Bassist and Lyricist for the band Fall Out Boy, and all around reneaisannce man, has agreed to partner his clothing company with Nordstrom. According to an article in the Portland Business Journal, Wentz’s company, Clandestine Industries, will make and design the clothes, which will be sold in the juniors department at Nordstrom’s. When asked what he thought about the partnership, Wentz replied, “I am stoked to collaborate with Nordstrom.”

After reading this article, I did a little more research (i.e. went to wikipedia) and read up on Pete Wentz. In addition to being a bassist, lyricist, backup singer, clothing designer, clothing company owner, he is also a children’s book author, an owner of a record company, and the owner of a film company.

Pete Wentz Looking Fly (photo by GBDAM)

Some might critisize Wentz for “selling out,” as he is clearly not just about The Music. But I don’t feel that way. The only way to do that would be to associate any use of business savvy with selling out, which I don’t do. But then maybe I just don’t believe in the concept of “selling out” any more. I think that a person has a right to try to make something of him or herself, and a right to try to make money. Especially here in America.

Furthermore, I’d like make a general point about small businesses by talking about the world of journalism. On one hand, the media is completely built up and systemized to the point where news companies are owned by weapons manufacturers and the word of main stream journalists is almost impossible to take without a grain of salt. On the other hand, the voice of the individual is louder than ever through blogs, message boards and podcasts. But a blogger must take responsibility for his or her own income, thus benefitting from the financial structures in existance: sole prop, LLC, C Corp. This is the way that a individual can protect him or herself from being sucked into the other side.

Drawing this back to Pete Wentz, man of the world, I think that he is doing the right thing - recognizing that music, fashion, media is all connected on a financial level in a very smooth and flowing way, and that anyone who wants to position him or herself to take advantage of this connection, can do so. Pete, I’m stoked for you.

diesel store window, soho nyc, originally uploaded by ernest.borg9.

Paul Pope, an artist known his “slopily brilliant” style in comics and graphic novels, is emerging in the fashion design world. Last year, he did the store art for the SoHo (NY) Diesel store. (Pictured). Recently, he was hired by DKNY to design a line of jeans.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Mr. Pope and the charming urban stalwart of a label met to discuss the possibility of working together, and within 6 weeks, the project was underway.

Mr. Nipon was impressed by Mr. Pope’s wide-ranging creative interests and his pointed technical questions about the line.

Some tasks Mr. Pope worked on are tee shirt designs and patterns for hoodies.

Agyness Deyn - she is the one with the short blond cut, known for her associations with Henry Holland of House of Holland Tee Shirts, and for her independent, punky style. She’s been on the cover of UK Vogue and a group cover for USA Vogue.

Her picture will be in another post.

Today I found out that Agyness has received the “Best Dressed Woman in Britain” award according to Tatler Magazine, bumping Kate Moss after Ms. Moss ruled the list for 2 years.

The entire list, courtesy of http://lucire.com:

1. Agyness Deyn - short haired punky model
2. Kate Moss - Former Best Dressed of Britain, Iconic English Model, Mother of Lily Grace Moss
3. Natalia ‘SuperNova’ Vodianova - Russian model
4. Keira Knightley - Pirate Queen
5. Stella Tennant - Scottish model
6. Anouck Lepère - Curly Haired Belgian model and Lily Grace Moss’s stepmom (see #2)
7. Lynn de Rothschild - Global Entrepreneur
8. Kirsty Bertarelli - Wife of Sailing Expert
9. Samantha Cameron - Wife of British Leader of the Opposition
10. Alexa Chung - Television News Host

Uliana Tikhova, a tall, thin Russian model with auburn hair who has worked for Nina Ricci and Jason Wu, skipped the Paris Fashion Week this year so that she could take her exams. She plans to be a surgeon. A surgeon. You go girl.

Read more…

Women’s Wear Daily reports that the New York City Police have shut down the “counterfeit triangle” down around Canal Street in New York City. I guess I’m glad I’m not there to witness this. I know it is a big problem for designers but I feel sad about this.

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, Canal Street is one of the southern most cross streets in New York City. From the west, it is where you end up coming off of the Holland Tunnel from New Jersey. It marks the bottom of Soho in the center of the island, and then to the East it cuts through Chinatown, and then becomes the Manhattan Bridge, leading one over to Brooklyn, around near Fort Greene where I used to live. *Sigh*

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Right around the transition from Soho to Chinatown, there were tons and tons of little shops and tables and stands selling knock offs of bags, watches, and whatever else they could get knock offs of. Seriously, it was crazy - it was obviously knock offs - no one was fooling anybody. But honestly, if you aren’t a person who is a slave to brands, does it really matter that much? Well some would say yes it does, in the same way that it matters if you “acquire” music without buying it.

Well, today, the NYPD, lead by the City’s Commander-in-Chief, Michael Bloomberg, took decisive action, running a raid that seized more that $1M dollars worth of goods. Considering items generally cost between $5 and $40, that is a lotta goods.

I always liked the rough insanity of Canal Street. There were tons of people there, and a lot of stuff going on. It seemed like the knock offs were mostly sold to tourists, and maybe young stylish folks without the cash to actually buy a Gucci bag. Will that young person be able to now afford a real Gucci Bag, now that the knock offs are knocked off? I highly doubt it. Was it the knock offs that were driving up the prices? Not likely. No one who can actually afford designer stuff is going to buy the knock offs. It just isn’t really that believable a copy. I can’t tell you how many times I sat on the subway looking at people and being like, “that’s fake, that’s fake, that’s fake, that’s fake.” Seriously. No one is fooled. But I kind of feel, if you want to front like that, well, that’s your right as an American. Fake it ’til you make it, right?

Further south of Canal Street, you can take the Ferry to Ellis Island, and in the Ellis Island museum you can look at a display of political cartoons from the early 1900’s when Immigration was on everyone’s mind. There is a cartoon of the Fat Cats, Fathers of Industry, stopping the young immigrant from getting off the boat. And then for each fat cat, it shows his gnarly former self. Do you get it?