Fatigues to Fabulous wonderfully kicked off this 2014 New York Fashion Week season with “Salute the Runway” on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014, with many thanks to sponsors Little Black Dress Wines and Shout, where some very special women graced the fashion stage.
Paul Rodriguez
After partnering up with men’s lifestyle brand AXE, professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez, also known as P-Rod was in New York Wednesday, April 30, 2014 for a special launch event in honor of his new signature collection AXE Kilo. The six- time X Games medal winner captivated onlookers at Bathhouse Studios in Alphabet City with his “street” skateboarding skills, as he is famously known for.
With a steadily growing brand, P-Rod explained how his innate attraction to the sport as a young kid ultimately became after purchasing his first board, daily visits to his neighborhood skateboard shop, networking with other skaters, and watching skate videos helped to cultivate his now empire. The nonstop wet weather outside could not avert the skateboard junkies from lurking.
After a quick shake off, all was swell and in motion on the inside. Music, food,
beverages and goody bags were rendered while bystanders circulated the multi-level event space. After working up a sweat taking on the purpose-built skatepark with street skateboarding elements, Knockturnal.com had the chance to sit down with P- Rod himself for a quick Q&A.
Paul: Through my Target endorsement, I don’t know who approached who about it, but I was contacted about doing a brand take-over with AXE within Target. It sounded cool to me, so I was like sure. And after deciding to go forward with the collaboration, I asked if I could collab with one of my favorite artists Mister Cartoon, because I don’t really fancy myself as a creative, kind of branding-marketing-packaging kind of guy, so I figured I knew the right person for that. I was thankful that he accepted it; he did some of his classic pieces, murals and stuff, which put a little flavor of both him and I into it. And that was really it.
Paul: I got to a point in my career where I just wanted to take ownership of myself, I wanted to have a piece of me. So this was a great place to begin. Owning my own boards, after all, this is what I’m known for. Although I loved my sponsors, I am still in the prime stages of my career, been in the game for a while, I just felt that it was time to step away so that I could figure out my next move.
And since I had already been with Primitive, the store was already making a name for itself, it just made sense, why not make Primitive Skateboards and just grow that brand. There was already a great infrastructure there, so all the pieces seemed to come together. My partners do a great job so I can still focus on skateboarding, I don’t have to be in the office all the time. Now I have a chance to also find new talent, grow them, and help make their dream come true like my dream was able to.
Paul: Well I picked street skating because it was initially the type of skating that I was drawn to. Street skaters are the guys jumping down the stairs, gliding on the handrails, and you know just out on the streets skating on raw city terrain. And then you have the half pipe skaters, vert-ramp skaters, transition skaters, and then there are people who can just do it all. I wish I did it all, but I just kind of grew up skating street, it was more my passion, more appealing to me, and I think it has more swag to it.
La La presented her 5th & Mercer brand Pop-Up Shop at 267 5th Ave in Manhattan March 14.
La La Anthony makes hard work seem effortless as she juggles a manifold of operations at one time, not to mention, her never-ending duties as the wife of New York Knicks player, Carmelo Anthony and mother of their adorable 7-year old son, Kiyan. With husband, son and all her family by her side, La La presented her 5th & Mercer brand Pop-Up Shop at 267 5th Ave in Manhattan on Friday, March 14. Camera crews captured every moment of the occasion, we suppose as footage for her VH1 hit series “La La’s Full Court Life.” It was a night of fashion, fun and cocktails where guests were welcomed to shop as a broad spectrum of pieces swayed from clothing displays ready for purchase.
A line of people trailed the downstairs lobby waiting to gain entrance up to 11th floor of the 5th Avenue loft location. Coat check so that your arms were free, and hors d’oeuvres to lighten all the alcohol consumption were just what the doctor ordered at the end of a tiresome work week. And, with the resonances of New York Fashion Week still cooling down, a small fashion show presentation was given to allure shoppers.
Extremely humbled by her fans, 5th & Mercer was devised with them in mind. The embodiment of a classiness that exemplifies 5th Avenue fused with the cool and edgy Mercer Street, La La dubbed it “cledgy” when illustrating her conception of the brand. Bold colors, stripes, casual sexy, dressy, however you might want to spin it, there was something for all. She looked exceptionally lush in a grasping black dress with tasseled arms as she posed for photos alongside the seven models who walked the runway, 3 of which were specially selected followers from her Twitter account.
Currently holding a number of different titles within the entertainment, fashion, publishing realms, she is unpretentious even with all of her accolades. Knockturnal.com spoke with La La exclusively at the event. Check out our interview below:
La La: I’m open to people telling me we love this, or we didn’t like that so much, and really getting feedback from individuals out there. And also, since I know what is on trend, I pull from that as well and just try to continue to create. I look at what other people are wearing, and tell myself, “I like that. How can I put a La La twist on this?” The sky’s the limit. I wanted to test the waters with a small collection, which seems to be going pretty well, so hopefully we can keep going from here.
La La: There is no one that dresses better than Jennifer Lopez, I mean, she is to die for. Someone like that is just incredible with for style. My friend Kim Kardashian dresses amazing. Kelly Rowland, Ciara, all of them you know, my group of friends are all great dressers, so I look to them for inspiration.
La La: You have to prioritize. You have to figure out what is important, and also as women we have to understand that we can’t get it all done in one day, and be okay with that. So that’s what I do. I love that I have events like this where I bring my whole family with me and everybody is over there having a good time. I try to bring it all together at things like this.
You can find 5th & Mercer pieces at retail stores and on websites like Shopbop.com, Sak’s Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales and others. Prices range from the mid $30 range to $300 and above.