SOLE II SOLE: Davis by Ruthie Davis
In 2006, Long time fashion executive Ruthie Davis (helmed design reigns at Reebok, Tommy Hilfiger and Ugg Australia) introduced her own brand of handcrafted Italian-made shoes under the name Davis by Ruthie Davis. The collection is a high-style/high tech merging of the designer’s personal style - referencing architecture, modernism, and future technology with a lifelong love for 1960s Italian cinema and the larger than life heroines of childhood comic books. Her shoes are innovative in form, function and materials and always radiate a sexy elegance. —(from Designer’s Online Bio)
Styles Ahead Xtra: Susan Lee
Recent Parsons New School of Design graduate, Susan Jina Lee, is priming her place in sartorial heaven through her funtional and simple men’s knits and leathergoods. Although the 23 year old designer has yet to make a large scale impact, her attention to detail and classic color pallette will definitely speak to the man concerned with quality and transitional wares. The leather pieces (pictured after the break) made of pebbled lambskin and printed cow-hide, were inspired by the gears of a watch’s movement. Lee is on the cusp of something great…but only time will tell. —J. Dwayne Joseph
SOLE II SOLE: Reebok x Basquiat
Athletic footwear brand Reebok is paying tribute to the legacy of Jean-Michel Basquiat this fall with a capsule shoe collection. The trainers feature the prints of Basquiat’s most well known pieces—including his signature crown. Over two decades since his untimely death in 1988 (due to an accidental drug overdose) the neo-expressionist and graffiti artist has managed to remain a significant inspiration and reference in art and pop culture. Under the tutelage of the legendary Andy Warhol, Basquiat’s work found immense popularity throughout Europe and New York throughout the late 70’s and 80’s. Strong expressive lines, the black identity, skeletal figures and street life were trademark themes of his work. All of which are tastefully displayed on the shoes. This homage is nothing short of sublime. -J. Dwayne Joseph
Wale + Mark Ronson @ Hudson Hotel
Last night, Wednesday July 22, celebrities and underground music enthusiasts celebrated the first-ever SVEDKA VODKA SESSIONS, an emerging artist concert series presented by Giant Step, at Private Park at the Hudson Hotel. Hip-hop sensation and TRACE magazine favorite WALE performed in an intimate outdoor setting following a set by special guest DJ MARK RONSON. Partygoers were treated to specialty SVEDKA Vodka cocktails including the “Pink Ginger” as they enjoyed live music at sunset. TRACE was there and loved the show - Nigerian-born, DC-raised WALE’s energetic live performance rocked the crowd. His latest track, Chillin’, (a club-mix featuring Lady Gaga) is currently climbing the Billboard Top 40. Set to release his debut album “Attention:Deficit” in September, which features production from Dave Sitek, Justice, Kanye West, and Mark Ronson (he is signed to Ronson’s label, Allido Records), WALE mixes elements of hip-hop and rock with lyrical skill, fluidity and style.
Download free mixes from WALE straight off his website.
Check out the video from last night with WALE here!
-Courtesy of Morgans Hotel Group
The GOOD Music Family.
- Courtesy of Sigourney Salley
Frankie Finch: I’m Every Woman
Arranging a lunch interview with Frankie Finch on Sunset Boulevard seemed a like marvelous idea, save for one minor oversite: There’s no Sunset Boulevard in Brooklyn–at least not the sunny LA one we’re referring to! After a few minor schedule adjustments, I was able sit down and have a most pleasant, laughter filled phone interview with the one-woman empire herself–Frankie Finch.
Selah Says: Before I delve into questions about the Frankie Finch Empire: Who is Frankie Finch and where did you come from?
Frankie Finch: Frankie Finch grew up in Miami and LA. She’s an entrepreneur, a hustler, she’s a go-getter, she’s a creative queen—anything that has to do with creativity, music, and fashion, fused together—that’s what she is.
The Xylopholks go to India!
You’ve probably heard them in Union Square, or maybe on your way to grab a Hero sandwich in a bodega in Queens, or while waiting for the subway train in Brooklyn. Or maybe, if you’re not in the New York Metro area, you’ve watched their Youtube videos on repeat, caught a glimpse of them on MTV, or read the NYMag feature on their fashion sensibilities. They are The Xylopholks, a furry-costumed ragtime band who have been spotted all around town. These musicians aren’t just in it for a gag - they’re actually good. Very good. Led by virtuoso xylophonist Jon Singer, a graduate of the Berklee College of Music and Queens college, and Bridget Kearney, a graduate of the New England Conservatory, The Xylopholks are a troop of talented young musicians who Erik Bryan from The Morning News described as “an artistic assault on the sensory order of nitrous oxide… they are perfection”.
Singer, who spent time studying percussion in South India, is now headed back to India on a Fullbright Scholarship to perfect his (some would argue, already perfect) craft in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The Xylopholks will be touring Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, among other cities, in the Spring of 2010, and all of the insanity will be documented by award-winning filmmaker Martha Shane, and proudly sponsored by TRACE magazine!
In honor of their trip, our fun-loving, animal-costumed friends will be performing tomorrow, Tuesday, July 21st, at the HOUSE OF YES in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (342 Maujer St), in order to raise fun (and funds!) for their trip to India. I’ve seen them several times in concert, and the show they put on is amazing - the fact that they manage to beat out great tunes in 90 degree weather wearing thick, furry costumes is a talent alone.
The evening will feature Heather Masse, Tiger Lilies, Lady Circus, and of course, The Xylopholks. This is an event you don’t want to miss - plus, FREE BEER (sponsored by Colt 45)!
So come out to Williamsburg to support The Xylopholks and their India-bound adventuring (all in the name of good, quality, classical ragtime).
For more information on The Xylopholks, go to their website here .
French Connection
It’s Bastille Day and we’ve decided to celebrate one of France’s best and brightest. Manhattan-based Sylvie Guieysse, who has been living in the financial district with her husband Antoine Gervais, an executive at Moët Hennessy, for the past three years, launched her first Couture line in Paris, developing eight collections and crafting what she calls “a very personal style, a fusion of influences, bright colors, and geometric lines.” The buzz has been building at trade shows and at retailers like Nest Interiors in Chelsea and Home and Haven in Carroll Gardens for a couple of seasons, so we decided to sit with the self-proclaimed “happy seamstress” for a chat about inspiration and travel.
TRACE: How did you get interested in world cultures?
When I was five years-old, my parents bought me an atlas and it was a shock; a feeling that the world is a huge place, with so many places and people to discover. When you get to meet a lot of people, you realize how ancestral fabrics are part of people’s lives, and how they allow them to express their emotions. For instance, a sari will be very different if the fabric is chosen for a wedding or for everyday life. When I was eight years-old, I told my nanny, who was from Portugal, that I loved the color purple. She was surprised, and said that in Portugal, purple is the color for mourning. It was the first time I realized that colors had different meanings for different people. Also, my grandmother was a seamstress, and I learned from her how to choose a good fabric, and identify, through emotion and training, how a fabric should feel and whether it would be soft enough and so on. My grandmother is very detail-oriented, and my mother, who used to paint a lot when she was younger, would explain to me, in graphic detail, the beauty that could be extracted from the orange color in the sky. In my work now, I get attracted to colors that bring back some of these visual cues that appeal to me. I never try to create something weird, just beautiful objects that I like.
TRACE: How do you see your work evolving over the next few years?
Recently, I’ve been thinking about going back to fashion and making clothes, but pillows, and table linens and tapestries are keeping me quite busy at the moment.
For more information, go to http://www.sylvie-pillows.com
Interview Claude Grunitzky
Photography Mikaela Gauer
Jazz and the city, looking back at Montreal’s 2009 Jazz Festival
The rain didn’t stop hundreds and thousands of Montrealers and tourists flocked to the newly established Quartier des spetacles, for the opening of the International Jazz Festival.To mark the 30th anniversary of an event, that has become the landmark of the city, the organizers of the FIJM gave the city an a unmatchable thank-you gift with an opening show by none other than Stevie Wonder. The Motown legend performed
many of his hits for a mesmerized audience of over 100,000 people, which had arrived on the site, as early 1pm. The two hour set also included jazz standards and even a Beatles cover, however an emotional Wonder had made it clear from the beginning that the show was entirely dedicated to the memory of his friend the late King of Pop.
This opening event set the tone for the Festival, a joyous and grandiose celebration of 30 year of entertainment and excellence.
13 days, more than 600 shows, hundreds of artists, a brand new festival site, La Maison du Jazz, a brand space entirely dedicated to Jazz, this is what the organizers had to offer the public.
And after all these years what keeps fueling the creativity and success of the event,? Its winning formula.
An indoor line-up of Jazz virtuosos with the likes of the Marsalis brothers, Oscar Petersson, Chucho Valdes, and other big headliners, such as Tony Bennett Al Jarreau, Kool and the Gang, The Harlem Gospel Choir ….The star-studded l line-up also included a wide variety of acts from Estelle, to electro-duo Thunderheist, Melanie Fiona, The Chin Chin, and Robert Glasper (whose tag-team effort with Mos Def got canceled only a few days before the event).
The outdoor shows presented an even greater variety of musical genre; an interesting selection of up-and-coming artists but also especially, this year, 5 mega-shows that punctuated the festival. The audience traveled to Jamaica with a masterclass on Rock Steady, with none other than Marcia Griffith (…); Toots and the Maytals and Burning Spears shared the stage for another memorable reggae evening.
A plethora of west African stars also graced the festival. From Femi Kuti to the Juju master himself King Sunny Ade to Alpha Blondy’s and the ever so graceful Oumou Sangare, the continent was widely represented.
Finally, it’s Ben Harper and his new band closed the festival on high note. Harper and his Relentless7 their brand new White Lies for Dark Times with over 100000 people in attendance.
With this year’s edition, the 30th the organizers of the Festival International Jazz Festival had the ambition to offer the most exciting edition to date… and they did. With performers that could satisfy audience of , activities for the whole family, including a school of Jazz for the little one, as well as 3 day guitar fair, there is no doubt that the FIJM is the most important event of its kind.
Thunderstorm: Electro-Pop at the Jazz Fest
DJ Grahm Zilla and MC Isis aka Thunderheist, took Montreal’s Club Soda by storm this Saturday. The Toronto duo gave an electrifying performance that kept the crowd jerking for more than an hour. For this special Jazz Fest appearance Thunderheist was accompanied by a drummer that brought their live performance to another level.
PS: Watch out for Isis’ solo project coming out next year.