My favorite new designer

Damir Doma, our new obsession at Houndstooth:

Just purchased a scarf similar to this one at Woodley and Bunny across the street from us today that can be worn in so many ways. THe shape is similar to a live organism and the fabric is soft and exquisite. Michael bought a pair of boots of his. Will take some photos of them in a few days. They are seriously some of the best boots that Michael has ever gotten. Hotness....

We've been trying to think about a new set up for our store. We've been going back and forth with some ideas, video installations instead of clothes, now we see this from Tokyo based designer Tomoaki Okaniwa who presented his lastest collection for his label The Viridi-Anne titled "The Chrysalis", in Paris during fashion week last week: 

Our store is a bit too bright for this idea, but I do love the ethereal feel it gives the clothes and the attention that it will give to each piece. That has been my biggest problem with my store as of late. I feel like so many pieces get ignored that are so beautiful because there is so much to look at and I feel that racks are so 20th century. There must be another way to show the pieces without being to cute or to arty for the consumer. Some guys get scared if that space is to bare. I don't want to alienate anyone. I can't seem to find a happy medium but at least I feel like I'm on my way.

On another note, I'm going to the Margiela store this week to inquire about renting this piece:

I just realized I don't have a single full body photo of myself, but this was the best one I could find. I hope to wear for the final performance in Vienna. It's stunning...

Lights and Machines

So to kick off this post I want to quickly introduce you guys to the man and machine I will be performing with this April in Vienna that was made by Alex Chechile.  There will be a more in depth post about his machine and how it works and exactly what everything does. He took me for a quick tour of it on Sautrday evening when I went to watch him perform for the first time.

I can't even begin to tell you everything. It's a lot, it will be better when we get together and take up close pics and explanations. Stay tuned for that. It's a really mind blowing situation.

So I went to see Alex at a new space is Bushwick called "Jungle" I think. The art was meh but Alex's performance was pretty bad ass, even though the sound guy was being a jerk and kept messing with his levels.  Band sound guys have no class.

Went to a super secret location a couple days later to look at some splatters and scatters from some abandoned spaces.  Thanks to the recessions rents in NYC are starting to plummet and spaces around the city are becoming abandoned.  I went around with a friend to a building somewhere fantastic and searched for good splatters to embroider for the upcoming PHONOFEMME festival in Vienna:

paint on a wall
abandoned tape

abandoned rug

abandoned sprays
mas paint
abandoned holes
not random but similar to the abandoned holes, trying to think of an interesting way to incorporate the two with out being to kitchy, but may abandon the whole idea all together. 

this wall must have been near the back of a chair or a desk that made this marks on the wall.

MonkeyTown on Wednesday night with Thomas Dexter:

Earlier last week (or was it the week before? they're all blurring together) I worked with Thomas on recording some words on film that he could then work into video format and then create a score for me to improvise to for this performance....

set up with the other groups. we were last...
first was a quartet:

second was a duo:

then us. I will post the video that was used for the performance shortly, without my sounds, Thomas is getting it compressed so it own't take up so much space.....

first words---birds---


second word--

third---water

fourth--
I'm really not into Monkeytowns set up. They eat and drink while the performance is happening. Just not my thing...

fifth--sixth---last---

giving props to Thomas when it was all finished. Was only 15 minutes long, shorter than the rest of the sets. Just like I likes it...

Thursday I had a few meetings, the most important meeting was with Dawn of Aurora Lampworks: http://www.auroralampworks.com

She's quite talented. I recommend taking a look at her website for her case studies, she's worked with so many prestigious organizations. I'm honored that she was willing to work with a little shop like ours.

We want to re-do the lighting situation in our store, so she took us for a tour of her shop to show us what she was working on for other people then we went to our store to talk about motifs, size, where the power was etc...

some vintage restored lamps

An AMAZING 17th century candle lamp that she resotred to work with eletricity. The flowers are ceramic. This photo gives it no justice...

The first idea she had, a disk lamp (oversized) to bring some warmth into the store:

The second option, a sputnik type lamp possibly made of copper to be the center piece of the store with smaller sputniks floating around as if you're looking at the constellations....

some lightbulb displays..

up in her runway area, taking a look at more vintage restored pieces:

loved this one but is too smal for our high ceilings:

Dawn showing us another disk lamp, a possibility for the outside to show off our trunk and our sign:

loved these green light fixtures for the outside....

a copper disk, delish...

And lastly we have re-arranged the store (AGAIN!). I get tired of the set up easily. We replaced the dark wood shelves for a light colored door that we placed on crates to become a table to display our shoes. Really brightens up the store but now I need to paint the walls, get new light fixtures, make our poncho, make the back room into a suit area and move to a new apartment by the end of March! Ack!!!

now I'm sleepy...thank god....

xo

Performed at the Isue Project Room last week. Had some technical diifculties:

The lighting was nice...
a bit frustrated, but then again I always look this way when performing...
Had to have one of the sound guys hold my groud for me while I was performing, I eventually involved in one of pieces which turned out ot be my favorite one. Tried to make light out of a situation "muy dificil"....
Had to stretch......
Had a huge mixer to work with, it was a bit disconserting....

color...
At the New Museum opening for the 3 new commisions...
a video piece...was slow and had an old man being sexual...the last taboo?
up the stairs for the next show:
Another video piece, was interesting but we had to to go to catch our friend Dennis's new restaurant opening a few streets away...

When we got there they forgot to put our name on the list then they said they ran out of food...
But we're still proud of them. Maybe we'll eat there some time soon.

Our most historical outfit at Houndstooth since our opening....

this shirt is from a manufacutere from the 1920's called Budd that was later bought out by another company that I can't remember, but they have a shirt similar to this at the Costume Institute here in NYC:

We recieved these "mother of pearl" buttons and cufflink set on the same day and both shirt and accessories sold to the same man. Good taste.

a close up. So beautiful. My favorite by far...
THe shirst was beautifully deconstructing. There were tears and repairs everywhere and the cotton was so fragile, this is what i love about clothing. It has this ability to never look the same or to fall apart and one has no control over it. The present is your only friend....
This 3-piece suit that we put with the shirt was once owned by author Charles Nordhoff that wrote "Mutiny on the Bounty" in 1932 and was made into a movie starring Clark Gable in 1935 and was one of the first movie trilogies (The Bounty Trilogy) made in Hollywood. It's based on an American Revolutionary war story in which Lieutenant William Bligh had to deal with a mutiny on his ship that involved Fletcher Christian who wanted to take over. Christian and his supporters were then cast away on a small boat.  The movie was remade in 1962 and directed by Lewis Mileston and starred Marlon Brando. The suit has Charles Nordhoffs signature and date that it was made and we are selling it for $2,500. It belongs in a museum, period.

Button details.
The pants are a testament to classic men's tailoring. It is by far the most intricatley tailored suit that we have ever had in the store. 
The buttons are made of metal. Enough said....

A cuff link display that I mad eof our new accessories for the Spring.

My favorite are the multi-colored ones...

These sold so fast:

So this evening I was late on my way to a dance performance when I ran into my favorite subway artisan who cuts your face out of paper in 5 minutes:

He is a very talented man from China. He's at the Union Square "L" train stop. Each face costs $10 and if you don't the money then he'll just ask you to model for him so he can get some practice in. 

He's very fast...
IT'S ME! I want ot host a show of his at a friends gallery later this year. We'll see what happens.
Goooooood Night-morning-afternoon.