Monoqi is a new venture based in Berlin providing a flash sale platform for design products. Monoqi is all about passion for design, and bringing amazing products from great international designers to their exclusive members at the best prices.
I am helping Monoqi create content for their blog. I am working closely with Freunde von Freunden, Kai Müller and Sugarhigh to develop design-centric features. Check them out at monoqi.com/blog.
Stop The Water While Using Me is a young brand based in Hamburg. The idea is simple: water is a valuable resource and we should treat it with respect.
I am helping build this brand. We already made it into Colette and some other concept stores around the world.
For more information on Stop The Water While Using Me, visit their site.
This is the third video of the alkr® work sessions series; this time, we visited Elephino in East London.
Eliphino is an East London based producer and DJ specialising in the post-dubstep sound that is shaking the UK music underground. Cutting edge and contemporary, ‘Taking the DNA of jungle, soul and jazz, Eliphino has a timeless production style that balances emotional electronica with an innovative approach to production.’
Eliphino makes music “for your mind, your body and your soul” and we simply can’t get enough of it.
In the alkr® work session series, we feature remarkable and passionate people who tell us about their work and what they love to do. In this video, we talked to Shawn McKinney in LA.
Shawn McKinney is a street artist living in Los Angeles, California. He specializes in fabrication and sign painting, but also rebuilds motorcycles and works as an art director. Currently, he is an artist in residence at the Nomad Collective Art Compound.
The Nomad Collective Art Compound is a 6,000 square foot art lab in Los Angeles. Shawn shows us the Nomad Art Compound and talks about his work and his art. Take a look at the video!
There are so many passionate people who do what they love and love what they do. I designed a series for alkr®, called “Passionate People”. We will randomly portrait interesting people such as musicians, painters, screen printers, illustrators, photographers and designers and shoot them in their personal spaces. The first person featured is Giorgio Oehlers from Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Please introduce yourself.
My name is Giorgio Oehlers. I’m a 20 year old inline skater/producer/filmmaker from Rotterdam, Netherlands.
What is your passion?
I have a passion for three things: skating, making beats, and film/video editing.
How did this passion of yours start to develop/grow?
I started skating when I was 8 or 9, and I fell in love the first time. I was very young, so you could say that skating contributed to the development of the person I am today. Then, one day I was relaxing at a friend’s place, and his brother was making a beat. I was completely mesmerized. It was so cool, so I got my hands on FL Studio (formerly Fruityloops) and started making beats.
This is the first issue of the alkr® work sessions series, which features remarkable, passionate people who tell us about their work and what they love to do. The first interview is with Andy Ellis of Fixed Gear London, a group of riders who are enthusiastic about their bikes and the way they ride them.
Andy Ellis is one of the original founders of the Fixed Gear London collective, and he is also the editor of Fixed Magazine.
When Andy isn’t riding the streets of London, taking photographs or writing and editing Fixed Magazine, you can find him designing and developing interesting new products.
We asked him how it all started, what he’s doing now, and what he’s passionate about. Check out the video!
More about Fixed Gear London here:
On December 31st, 2010, selectism.com published a feature about me and my work; the interview can be found below or on selectism.com
We recently caught up with the head of European Dickies, Juergen Alker, at Dickies Hamburg HQ for an interview about the brands heritage, their collaborations, projects and why they didn’t have an archive until two years ago.
So what happens to heritage now? It’s been a busy year for the word, nearly every blog post, magazine article and press release mentions the H word at least once. The New York Times put it into it’s most overused fashion words list which, seeing as NYT aren’t usually first on the fashion pulse, is really saying something. So, the question remains, where do we go from here? That’s not a question Dickies ask themselves.
They see themselves as a workwear brand and always have. And, more importantly, they see workwear as it is – light years away from fashion or lifestyle brands. Up until a few years ago, they didn’t even have an archive. “Their archive was a cellar in a school building they owned” says Juergen Alker, who runs the streetwear wing of Dickies. “Down there was almost nothing, just a few items. It was just like a normal old cellar – pretty spooky actually.
While I was working with Udox on the Love Your Work book, we realized it needed something special for the launch. We rented Maverick Gallery in East London and invited everyone who participated in the project. The venue was crowded, the mood was positive and we got a lot of good feedback.
For the launch of the Dickies X Hideout line, I asked hypebeast.com to do an interview with the two guys behind the project, Michael Kopelman and Andrew Bunney. The full interview can be read here.
Interview by Edward Chiu:
Without any conscious effort, Dickies has made itself a mainstay of streetwear for many generations. Given its rugged construction and timeless aesthetics, its popularity doesn’t come as much of a surprise. However, without a directed effort until recently, the Dickies brand has seen itself ripe for a new angle from a contemporary fashion standpoint. Two of Britain’s most formidable members of the so-called streetwear community, The Hideout’s Michael Kopelman and current Dr. Martens creative director Andrew Bunney undertook the task of creating a new capsule for Dickies with the goal of re-inventing classic Dickies-wear from a modern angle while maintaining the essence of Dickies. We took the opportunity to delve deeper and touch upon what exactly has become of the collaboration, what The Hideout for Dickies collection entails and the importance of Dickies’ Americana roots.
Hello Michael and Andrew, nice meeting you guys. First off, how did you end up in your respective professions and how long have you been in this industry?
Michael: Before The Hideout, I was really into DJing with a fond love for Stussy. Eventually through Shawn Stussy I got involved in the industry. It was amazing when I met Andrew because I would see him in different cities around the world… Tokyo and in New York just by coincidence. Also, the staff at my shop would groan about him as he would ask about products that weren’t out and had more knowledge regarding them as well. So that’s when I asked Andrew to consider working for me. I couldn’t believe that someone could be so well informed without working in the industry.
Andrew: I started as a buyer for skateboard shops, which is how I met Michael. Then I moved into vintage clothing and went on to study fashion and production. After that, I started working with Michael again and that’s how it got started.