Carlos Campos Spring/Summer 2015 Collection

The spring 2015 collection presents Carlos Campos' tailoring with the addition of modern sportswear.  We had a moment to chat about his collection before the presentation got underway. His inspiration came from a Spanish "public space artist" called El Tono (The Tone). Campos applied the artist's technique of overlaying geometric shapes as seen on his shirting and throughout the collection. Also, he continued working with neoprene by bringing more intricate stitching and mesh layering details to the sweatshirts and shorts. I noticed the models were very diverse and asked him about his selection process. He said he looks for guys that compliment his clothes with their personality. Below are a few of my favorite looks with notes about the collection.

Guerino/ Travis
Love the the frame trim on the Pima cotton shirts.

Frenando
Neoprene is found throughout the collection like on this sweatshirt.

Will
Keeping true to his tailoring roots the collection includes amazing blazers and trousers.

Alessio
You'll find great quilting details on sweatshirts.

Alex/ Chris
Neoprene bomber jackets with double-layer mesh, color-blocking to the next level.

Project Paz And #GivingTuesday

Thanksgiving is just a day way which means a time for family, friends, food and hopefully some rest too. Once that's over two of the biggest shopping holidays will be upon us- Black Friday and then Cyber Monday. But have you heard of #GivingTuesday? On December 3rd it will be #GivingTuesday, which is a platform designed to show you organizations that need your help and how to help them. As I've mentioned before I volunteer at Project Paz and they have joined #GivingTuesday this year. For their first campaign with #GivingTuesday Project Paz will be selling T-shirts designed by HONOR. 100% of the proceeds will go to Project Paz and help fund future after school and summer programs for victimized children in Juarez, Mexico.

Get excited and help spread the word about #GivingTuesday, its a celebration of selflessness!

An Insider's Perspective On How Clothes Gets Priced

I've always wondered about the process of pricing clothes. I invited Sim Gulati from Barley & Britches

to tell us about some of the factors that going in to pricing a garment and how that makes Barley & Britches even that more special.

Why Does Premium Quality Come At A Premium Price?

-Sim Gulati

Did you know that, at $130, the average pair of premium Chinos are marked up by nearly 300% because each middleman nearly doubles the price from production to the rack?

Why are chinos so costly? It basically boils down to unnecessary middlemen that your favorite fashion brand add on to the price of what you're paying for.

Middlemen begin to pile up starting from the very top of the production chain, the manufacturers have their fixed sale price, followed by the agents (who connect manufacturers to wholesalers) and then the wholesalers. Followed by the retailers, who can even add an almost full $100 to the entire cost of the garment. So something that may have cost just a considerably less to create, ends up at your nearest mall at almost a fourfold increase in price. This is simply not right.

As a result, I have made it my mission to disrupt the traditional supply chain in the men's fashion industry by trimming the fat out of bloated prices and a padded manufacturing processes. How? I have simply figured out how to remove the unnecessary costs that arbitrarily inflate prices.  I am able to do this because I founded an international manufacturing company, The Gulati Group, and have produced apparel for retailers and brands such as  Macy's, Nautica and Under Armour.

By removing the wholesaler and unnecessary middlemen, my new company Barley & Britches can bring consumers premium clothing at its original manufacturing sale price, no additional markups. The Everyday Chino only costs $38 because it comes straight from the source. There are no middlemen, retailers or wholesalers along the way. This is really the way all fashion brands should function, because there's no excuse to get stuck paying so much more for just a simple, comfortable pair of high quality chinos.

So the next time you think about buying a pair of great pants, instead of turning to the heavily marked-up Chinos at the mall, try something new - go shopping at that mom and pop shop down the street, or peruse the internet for a local, small retailer. What's crucial is to make sure your retailer of choice avoids agents, wholesalers and the like.

This can mean the difference between paying $130 and $30.

Or even better, check out my Kickstarter campaign for The Everyday Chinos, available online for only $38.

A Pop-Up Shop Like No Other

Boffo, an organization dedicated to promoting collaborations with designers, artists, and communities to create free public art has partnered with menswear designer Michael Bastian and artist Bittertang to create a pop-up shop in NYC. Bittertangs winning design proposal will be located in a pier. Once inside the warehouse you'll see a 20' tall pile of hay. It's going to look surreal. The pop-up shop will be quite a sight as you enter through a tunnel and come in to the first space, the waxed room. The room will be completely covered in wax and objects will be encased therein. If that wasn't enough, after the waxed room there will be a second room where you'll find most of the Michael Bastian FW13 collection. This space will be draped in ticking fabric to counterpoint the waxed room. Come November, you'll just have to go and discover the space for yourself.

Below are some pictures I took and floor plan of the design.

These pictures were taken by me at a special preview of the pop-up shop at the Hotel Americano.

floor plan courtesy of Bitterangs.