By Natalie Harewood

I remember seeing my first Alexander McQueen show back in 2002. It opened with a model wearing a lilac hooded cape and thigh high lace-up leather boots, escorted by none other than a pack of wolves. Yes, you read that correctly…wolves. At a fashion show. I instantly fell in love. Not because I wanted to run out and cop a pair of purple shoes, but because I knew I was witnessing someone with the audacity to push the proverbial envelope in a way that could shake up the world of fashion like that no one else could.

My love affair with Alexander McQueen continued for many more seasons. There were models walking the runway encased in glass, with live butterflies fluttering about. And human scale chess boards. And mirrored cubes designed to look like a hospital psych ward. Oh, and I can’t forget the red and black, Pagan-themed show in Paris. It is impossible to have just one favorite McQueen moment.

But for a man with so much innovation, Alexander McQueen was a rude and tortured soul; the designer that people loved to hate. McQueen’s work extended beyond the conventional realm of fashion. It was psychological, offensive, and intriguing. McQueen managed to both embrace and shun popular culture simultaneously; a feat many have attempted, but have been unable to execute.

We can also blame/praise McQueen for ushering in the gothic-chic look to the masses. Remember all of those skulls and crossbones that were everywhere a few seasons ago? Yea, that was McQueen. Irony at its finest, for in recent years, he was growing increasingly more frustrated with the state of commercial fashion, which caused him to skew towards the darker side of the industry.

Of course, the more he shifted away from the mainstream, the more mainstream embraced him. Worn by a who’s who of Hollywood – Rihanna, Gwen Stefani and Lady Gaga are a short list of his devoted fans – McQueen’s popularity skyrocketed, thrusting him into the limelight of the Parisian couture fashion scene. Wearing Alexander McQueen became a badge of honor, and the Hollywood elite couldn’t get enough of him. McQueen was the great genius of his generation in British fashion. He was, like most compelling and intriguing people, a complex and contradictory character.

The Lewis Carroll of fashion, McQueen constructed a wonderland of garments with flawless tailoring and unconventional silhouettes that enchanted, haunted, and captivated his audience; all while never forgetting what his purpose was: to create impeccable works of art. 

Sometimes when you’re faster than the world, it’s a lonely place. Being so far ahead of the curve leaves you peerless. You desperately depend on the people behind your walls. The ones you trust as your tether to the “real world.” When he lost his mother recently, perhaps he also lost his grip on this reality and felt truly alone. It’s a cruel and brutal irony that McQueen’s bleeding edge genius, so often used to keep people at bay drew so many people to take a look at the wall, but never accounted for letting them in to his world. In the world of image we take what you give us and  McQueen gave a reality that was far-reaching, deliciously ambitious, and maddeningly riveting. Even when you were put off you had no choice but to sit and be mesmerized. Let that stand as his epitaph. May he find the peace that eluded him on Earth.

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By Erica Abrams

(1/19/2010-NYC) Supima is a collect of cotton growers who wish to market their product in the best light. Last week they hosted their 3^rd annual fashion show to showcase burgeoning young designers, seeking to create using their cotton as the common denominator.

While surprisingly fast for a runway show, there were some very solid designs and talent. Also amazing was that this talent was amassed using an open casting call at Bloomingdale’s for the competition, and little more than three years of history to attract such skilled, if amateur designers. Surely it illustrates of New York’s depth of artists in the fashion industry.

One major flaw for this show was it’s rhythm. Because these are fairly unknown artists , with no established signature to their work, there was little to no way for a casual viewer to distinguish when models were coming to the runway and whose clothing they were wearing because there were no announcers or even a change of music to separate designers. After a while it became difficult to keep track of four designs per person and switch names of designers in my head.

The winner, Gina Desilva had extremely good detailing that my camera did no justice to, but her items had a complete couture look. Each piece spoke slightly differently, but with a contest like this, showing more use of materials took precedence over cohesiveness. Each model she picked wore her dress designs very well, which can be a challenge for a designer. Gina clearly nailed this.

The tee shirt winner, Robin Thomas went for design simplicity. His triple layer shirt fit beautifully. That his shirt will be at Bloomingdale’s may be a bit of luck on his part.The reality is, men will not want to wear any of yhe other men’s designs that were showcased; too much finesse. In this case, men dress men better because simple always works.

One thing that stood out tonight was distressed cotton. We have seen it done often with denim, which is of course also cotton, but many of these designers are doing it with a thin jersey knit and in a more decorative way, to go along with the insane necklaces and jewelry we are seeing imbedded into our clothing lately.

For this particular event, the focus was more on materials then colors or patterns, I noticed very muted colors with attention paid to detailing and showcasing the various cotton pieces. Muted colors always show off details and when using cotton, detail is king.

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By Odeisel

When two sides are at war, the balance of power is carefully maintained. An uneasy peace can generally be affected through the retention of similar power levels. But behind the scenes there are Manhattan Project machinations, with each side attempting to find that weapon to break that stalemate.  In the post Jordan sneaker landscape, with the broken bodies of Pony, Converse, and Etonics laid by the wayside, only one serious challenger remained in Nike’s path to total domination: Reebok.

But while Nike had set the Jordan line of demarcation above the rim with the right person at the right time, Reebok chose to go back to basics and lean on superior engineering for their brand of oneupsmanship.  The result in 1989 was the creation of the Reebok pump and the first real evolutionary leap in the sneaker wars. For this monumental task, Reebok drafted Paul “Litch” Litchfield. Armed with a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire and an M.S. in Exercise Science from UMass, as well as international post graduate research in Human performance, Litchfield was perhaps uniquely qualified to level the playing field. Planet Ill was lucky enough to catch up with Litch and get his take on being a part of pop history.

Once the technology was in place, there was a need to test it in battlefield conditions. Fortunately for Reebok there was one who could match the Jordan above the rim with similar flair. Atlanta Hawks small forward Dominique Wilkins was christened the “Human Highlight Film” and with good reason. His two-handed windmill dunks were just the match for Jordan’s high-wire act and his charisma was just strong enough to push the pump into the forefront. We spoke to Dominique as well concerning his participation in this epic confrontation.

While Wilkins’ stardom was already established, perhaps the hallmark moment of the Pump’s rise to eminence belonged to the most unlikely of heroes, Boston Celtic’s rookie, Dee Brown. Diminutive by NBA standards, Brown stood a paltry 6’2” in height. Add to that his Boston Celtics blue collar pedigree (certainly antithetical to a flashy Slam Dunk contest at that point in their history) and you had a particularly implausible representative.  But Brown’s incredible hops got him into the final round of the 1991 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, and his “blind dunk,” preceded by his very conspicuous pre-flight pumping, wowed the crowd in attendance and the millions of viewers across the country, cementing the Pump as the “it” sneaker and without a doubt the next big thing. (See Above)

In celebration of The Pump’s 20^th anniversary, Reebok brought together 20 retailers from across the globe for an exclusive Pump collaboration.  Each retailer designed a limited edition of The Pump which will be released alongside the two original colors on November 20, 2009.  US retailers include Undefeated, Saint Alfred, Packer, Bodega, HUF, Commonwealth, and Kicks/HI. Global retailers include 24 Kilates, atmos, Colette, Espionage, Hanon Shop, Juice, Patta, Premium, Size?, Stolen Riches, SNS, and Solebox

Below are the designed, finished Pumps from each.

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By Odeisel

A classic is timeless.  A staple in our collective consciousness that connects us to an era.  The remix goes in the opposite direction. The remix is now.  It’s current and funky and everything else designed to refresh reboot and retool. When Reebok decided to remix it’s “Classic” style, affectionately known in the hood as 54.11s ($49.99 plus NY sales tax from the 90s), they turned to the continuously cool emcee Fabolous to help them spin it right.

In an ongoing promotion, the rapper is performing the Classic Remix Concert Series across the country with Reebok giving a pair of free tickets to the show for the first 100 consumers of the Reebok Classic Remix  footware collection, available exclusively at select Footlocker locations. Participating cities include  New York City, New York (August 24, 2009), New Orleans, Louisiana (August 26, 2009), Miami, Florida (August 28, 2009), Houston, Texas (September 1, 2009), and Atlanta, Georgia (September 3, 2009).

The collection includes mid styles such as SL 7010 (cobalt blue/white/black, black/silver/red, and white/black/blue), Workout Hi (white/black, black/red, white/navy, grey/black), Tejara (black/white, white/black and navy/white) and low styles such as the Classic Leather (black/red, white/royal, grey/black and white/black). **ALL PICTURED BELOW**

The performance went down last night at Santos Party house and was wall to wall heat.

Fabolous LIVE @ Santo’s Party House, NYC from reebokclassicremix on Vimeo.

We had a chance to catch up with F-A-B-O at the New York leg last night and asked him a few questions.

Planet Ill: If you had the chance to remix any Hip-Hop classic, which ones would you choose?

Fabolous: That’s a tough question because obviously… it’s a classic and you don’t want to change it, but let me see.  Obviously I’d want me on it, but I’d probably take Life After Death, the B.I.G. joint and All Eyes On Me, the ‘Pac joint.  Just leave the beats and put me on it.

Planet Ill: There’s a bit of classic remixing going on now or at least revisiting.  What do you think about Raekwon going back for Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2?

Fabolous: I don’t really think he’s remixing the old joint, just keeping it in the spirit of the original.  The original was classic and I don’t think he’s trying to redo it, just take it back to that era and that time.

Planet Ill: You recently dropped your own clothing line, correct?

Fabolous: Nah, I didn’t drop my clothing like, we still got Rich Yung.  What we did change was change our distribution.  We got with this new dude that understands our movement and our mentality better. We [Rich Yung] is still rocking.

Planet Ill: In these tough times, with album sales declining, how important is it for artists to establish these relationships and how did you hook up with Reebok for this?

Fabolous: Like you said, it’s a recession and it’s important to keep these things open as an artist.  This promotion extends from our previous relationship with Reebok.  We been together for a while and this is just another collabo.