S***R Footwear A/W 2009

A feature on the up and coming AW collection from S***R Footwear came up on Selectism about 2 weeks ago. Some interesting styles coming up.

Click the shoe to view more photos.

A Flashback Production Post, Shenzhen – Guangzhou: Part 1

About to take the Guangzhou airport shuttle

The following paragraphs are being written from memory, pre active blog, before we decided it would be wise to document and share our journey of many paths.

Cross walk by the place we stayed at, Tianhe Bei Lu

The basic itinerary of the trip went like this:
Day 1: Arrive in Guangzhou, rest up and caught up with our friends in the city.
Day 2: Travel to Shenzhen by train early in the morning, we visited several fabric companies in the morning then had some great lunch. The remainder of the day was spent viewing our main production factory and then late afternoon to late at night was spent editing garments in the meeting room.
Day3: Back in Guangzhou, visited several fabric store/market areas.
Day4: Checked out some of the regular garment markets to see if there were any B-Grades around, suss out the production scope around there.
Day5: Guangzhou textile center, too big to describe, just huge, overwhelming.
Day6: Relaxing before we leave back to Singapore.

Throw some drinking and crazy cab rides in there as well then sprinkle some good eating and parties around too.

Train station at Guangzhou

Our production centers are in Shenzhen and Bangkok; Shenzhen is where our wovens get made and Bangkok is where our jersey pieces get made. Shenzhen plays a very important role with sifr since the majority of our first collection is wovens. I know a lot of people mention about the stigma that goes hand in hand with production in China but believe us we tried to find the best possible production for our garments without compromising one of our core values, accessibility. We’ve done our research on production in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, and Indonesia so far. If we went with production out of Japan or Korea we’d have to move our price points up 150 –200% at the least. With currency exchange rates and cost of labor there is a reason why companies end up charging the consumer $250 onwards for a garment that is made in Japan. Southeast Asian textile and production industry exists very much so but in terms of quality control, communication and finding solid production centers we were out of luck. We’ll continue to keep searching the region as we delve deeper into our sourcing investigation leads. As our never ending sourcing quest leads us to the production center of the world at the moment, China.

Street busker with child

To be continued in Part 2.

Slipmat Contest!

We had blogged about our man Daryl joining in on a slipmat contest called, "A Nice Set" several weeks back. A project between Plus et Plus, reed space, and idN magazine. Thanks to our combined support and his own skill and hard work Daryl has come out as the contest winner in Singapore and will have his work on tour with the other 30 or so slipmats. Daryl's work will also get published in an art book in conjunction with the contest.

Thank you for spreading the love.

Drops from S***R Footwear

Dylan 10 and 11. Black and White. Tumbled synthetic leather footwear from Swear now in store.

Twitter!

We're not trying to flood you. It just seems everyone nowadays has a twitter, we're riding the wave of change. An article in Time magazine recently cited twitter had a growth of over 1200% in monthly visits during the past year.

However the bottom line is that Oprah has a twitter, we're interested in following her. We'd like to use the term ambient awareness with our new move towards twitter, we'll know what you guys are up to and you'll know what we're up to. We've decided to take a more personal route and give our updates alongside store updates because we're just that interesting(6) (Sarcasm meter).

Here it is, the KIN Twitter!

and here is the Time article: "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live"

Pretty heavy duty if you ask us, but hey, there was friendster, myspace, facebook and I guess twitter is the next wave.

(On a personal note I was asking myself the question, "Why would anyone want another stream of information on top of facebook, email, tv, magazines, ads, ect?" I guess my question is semi-answered by the above Time article. All I'm going to say is that there's only 24 hours in a day.)

Stay tuned for some flashback production trips!

Non-no and Popeye

Here's an older issue from November 2008 of Non-no and here is a current version of Popeye from this month, June 2009. I hope you enjoy viewing the photos or reading if you can read Kanji.

The Next Best Thing To Being Naked Is. . .

sifr essentials

sifr essentials are made from premium grade pima cotton.
As light as a feather to fight the heat and ensure extraordinary comfort.

MHI by Maharishi: "New World Order" SS09

MHI by Maharishi: “New World Order” SS09
Have a look at MHI by Maharishi. Maharishi was the originator of the military surplus look with their main collection Maharishi started in 1994. They added the second collection MHI by Maharishi in 2000 which had a more street denim look and feel to it. The Spring 2009 collection titled “New World Order” has a Greco Roman theme with MHI’s infamous attention to detail.

Rolled Cargo Shirt

Details: 100% 50s Cotton Poplin. MHI embroidery on front pocket. Custom MHI Trims and finishing. Epaulet details, deconstructed breast pockets with button snaps. Button the sleeve coupled with a button placket on the inside to help secure sleeve roll.
Sizes: xs s m l
Made in India at Maharishi Factories

Seersucker Shirt

Details: 100% Cotton Seersucker. MHI embroidery on front pocket. Custom MHI Trims and finishing. Double ply breast pocket. Deconstruction detail on elbow patch.
Sizes: xs s m l
Made in India at Maharishi Factories

MH Eye Tee

Details: 170s 100% Premium Cotton Jersey. Digital screen print. MHI piping on the inside of the shirt. No label, product label and size is screen printed along with seasonal MHI graphics for extra comfort.
Sizes: xs s m l
Made in India at Maharishi Factories

Reverso Tee

Details: 170s 100% Premium Cotton Jersey. Digital screen print. MHI piping on the inside of the shirt. No label, product label and size is screen printed along with seasonal MHI graphics for extra comfort.
Sizes: xs s m l
Made in India at Maharishi Factories

Snocord Helipants

Details: 100% Coated Italian Joy Cotton. Mahasystems snocord tech, effective for tightening and loosening waist and pegging pant legs. 6 pockets including 2 front cargo pockets and one stash pocket on the ankle. MHI embroidery on back pocket. Custom MHI Trims and finishing. Crotch reinforcement with triple needle stitch.
Sizes: xs s m l
Made in India at Maharishi Factories

Web Sweat Sno Shorts

Details: 100% 360 Sweat Cotton. MHI embroidery on back pocket. Custom MHI Trims and finishing. Snaps on the side of the short to assist with pegging.
Sizes: xs s m l
Made in India at Maharishi Factories

Monocle Popup Store

A new Monocle pop up store following LA and Paris has hit Spain. The shop stocks a range of Monocle design collaborations with the likes of Porter, Comme des Garçons, Orlebar Brown and Valextra - plus a handful of exclusive products for the LA store, including a limited-edition Monocle candle from Le Labo.

Also do pick up the new issue of Monocle(#24) that has just dropped. You can find them at your nearest good bookstore. We recommend Basheer books in Bras Basah or you can stop by your friendly Kinokuniya.

Maiden Noir: Website Launch

Maiden Noir recently launched their new website about a week ago (Been so busy, haven't been able to update blog much lately). Website includes a nice simple layout with signature Maiden graphics. Content also includes info on their background story and a lookbook for their Spring 09 collection.

Just a reminder we do have Maiden products. We still have some nice pieces from the AW/SS08 collection as well as new pieces from their SS09.

Cheers!