PROBLEM: WALLETS CAN BE CHEAP AND ANONYMOUS.

For me, wallets have always been about function over form. I have to take my wallet out of its resting place so many separate times in a day, that it’s got to hold everything perfectly and just plain work. Most wallets do this, to a degree—but do they do it for long?

Not really. If you’re the type that can’t buy an expensive wallet because you know you’ll be sitting on it, and moving your rear end in and out of various chairs all day, visiting god knows what sorts of stresses and strains on this little leather thing that contains much of your life—you know what a disintegrating wallet looks like. Leather that no longer seems leather, mysterious pockets that weren’t there a few weeks ago suddenly appearing as the material becomes shredded, torn; you’re likely destined to go through a ton of wallets in your lifetime.

PROBLEM: THEY CAN ALSO BE OVERPRICED AND EXCLUSIVE.

Or are you the cardinal opposite, the wallet connoisseur? Have you always splashed out for a top quality purchase, genuine, beautiful leather, something you can be proud of every time you pull it out of your pocket? If so, you’ve probably paid a damn lot for these things, and either way, used them into oblivion.

PROBLEM: WALLETS AREN’T SO INTERESTING.

While there are a ton of wallets out there, both cheap as all hell and expensive as some other, richer part of hell, most wallets follow the same form. A simple fold, wide enough that each side can hold various debit and credit cards, and the entire span will take your money and papers and put a nice crease right in the middle.

If you’re lucky—or not—your wallet might contain a little pocket for change, which, you will know if you routinely use it, changes shape depending on how many little coins you’re carrying around. Not always fun to have poking into one of your two cheeks.

PROBLEM: THE EUROPEAN-STYLE MEN’S BAG ISN’T REALLY A WALLET, EITHER.

So, is there a solution, a way out of this imaginary problem that I’ve sorta created here? Sure, there are plenty: abandon the wallet and use a sort of bag. If you’re in Europe and need to feel safe-in-numbers when it comes to fashion, you’re in luck, as plenty of people carry these around here, and there are tons of good models to choose from. If you can choose a kind of shoulder/purse/bag/pouch well and choose it with style, you’re set. This opens up a whole new world of accessorizing to you.

But what if you can’t really make that leap? What if you just want to get a damn good looking wallet, one that stands out and is strongly designed, but still functions, looks, and seems like the familiar wallet form you’ve been using your whole life? What’s out there?

PROBLEM: WALLETS DON’T LEND THEMSELVES EASILY TO FRESH, CONTEMPORARY DESIGN.

Not much. There are chain wallets, super-thick wallets, super-thin, minimalist wallets, wallets branded with various comic book characters that just don’t put in the effort, but there aren’t that many interesting wallets around. Sure, you might stumble upon a few fantastic specimens here or there, but most likely they’ll be one-offs, some kind of limited edition from a big designer that is so overpriced it’d be a shame to use it as a regular wallet.

And these are few and far between—you’re far more likely to find a $200 t-shirt done by an expensive designer’s hand, or even a designer canvas tote bag than you are to find a kick-ass wallet.

AND SO, A SOLUTION.

As a fun and exciting answer to all of these problems, I present Poketo. Their slogan: Art for your everyday. That’s exactly it, too: they make wallets that you can use as your everyday wallet, but they’re interesting enough that you can pull them out and simply admire them for their design, too.

SEE, WALLETS CAN BE AS NUMEROUS AND EXCHANGEABLE AS PURSES!

Besides just some great design work, in which Poketo have brought together a whole stable of illustrators and artists to do fantastic limited edition wallets, Poketo have also suggested a kind of revolutionary idea in their ‘surprise packs’. That’s the notion that you can have more than one wallet on the go, that the wallet should be enough of a minimalistic venture that you can switch the entire thing over to another one, just like many females cycle through various purses/handbags and their respective contents.

They do this by not giving you the option of fattening up the wallet too much—its design constricts you into eliminating every kind of card and addition you aren’t going to be using on a daily basis. And the great thing is that 10 of these wallets will only set you back $100. Ten wallets!

AND THERE ARE DOZENS OF NEW MODELS COMING OUT ALL THE TIME.

They’re also constantly producing new wallets from new designers, who are doing these designs freelance. This means the art is both recognizable if you follow illustration in any way, and wildly varied and exciting. Their site is overflowing with great designs.

The construction of the wallet itself is what allows Poketo to do this. It’s not a custom-crafted piece of leather, rather just a nice print, inserted into a piece of plastic, and molded into the form of a foldable wallet. Nothing fancy, no heavy custom printing or stitching jobs here. But it gives the company great creative license in the amount of models they can feature. It’s unlikely you’ll ever see wallets as varied as this, even if they all have the same external shell.

LIMITED EDITIONS DON’T NEED TO SIGNIFY RIDICULOUS PRICES.

Thankfully Poketo isn’t really overcharging for their product, but continues to produce limited editions, which is a concept that I absolutely cannot get enough of: the idea that limited editions don’t need to be expensive. They can be limited, sure, and once they’re off the market you can sell them for whatever the hell you want, but as these wallets keep coming out, they’re gonna keep costing $20 and nothing more.

THUS, POKETO IS GOOD.

And there you have it. Wallets that aren’t your father’s fine-crafted leather, but are instead something closer to a great stream of well-designed t-shirts: you change them up infinitely, they keep coming out, they look great, and they don’t cost that much.

Sure, they aren’t the most well-put-together things in the world, but they signify a big change. Now, pulling out your wallet isn’t just fun because you’re gonna spend some money—you get to stare at it, too.

One thing I kinda like doing is discovering an illustrator or designer after I’ve already purchased or enjoyed some bit of his/her work without knowing it, and then being taken in by the rest of their stuff. The latest candidate for this process of mine is Olly Moss, whose stuff I first saw on Threadless a long time ago. Specifically, that was this Spoilt t-shirt, which fit well with Threadless’s generally clever theme and plays on words.

Turns out this young designer (he’s 21) has also done some great re-imagingins of film posters, which for some reason is a tiny corner of the design world that I can’t help but be enthralled by every time. I have to say, if I was working in the packaging/publicity department of any major studio, I’d be out canvassing these guys and letting them do the hard work for me. Just looking back at Now Showing, any of the major studios have ready-made covers for any future blu-ray special editions, no problem.

Check out his awesome re-imagingings of the great film The Deer Hunter, plus Chaplin’s The Great Dictator. He’s also doing some good work with colour-layering, throwing a bit of typography-based information in there to boot. The “retro band/old song vs. new DJ/new beat = remix” illustration is fantastic, a nice simple encapsulation of where a remix lies, told through a design that stands out.

Then for the people who are somehow visually excited when they see mixing consoles (check), we’ve got his wonderful Mixer Shirt (called AV). Speaking of his shirts, he was also responsible for the Nintendo Family Tree shirt that I pointed out in the last month’s post on pixels. As seen below, his infographic stuff is playful without being overly coy–all fine examples of, say… the Threadless Aesthetic, if there is such a thing, only done right nearly every time.

I’ve seen his designs dozens of times and they’re still funny, which isn’t always the case with Threadless. Partially it’s the illustration, which holds up in a kind of aircraft-emergency-pamphlet way, but the typography and sense of visual timing (check out the rules of shotgun one) are spot-on. This kind of stuff is hard to do well, which is painfully evidenced by the mountain of threadless-imitation sites out there trying to turn bad puns into even crappier t-shirts. Here’s the winning formula: very, very solid joke + design that would make a good shirt even if the joke weren’t funny at all = memorable and funny shirt… maybe. Olly Moss knows how it’s done.

I’m sure most of us have heard of Threadless, but recently their Select Series has been getting a lot of notice. And with good reason. In case you haven’t heard of the line before, it’s this: originally, Threadless would put up certain t-shirts done by well known artists and designers, not using the traditional voting process but instead featuring that shirt as a kind of choice item. Eventually those speically-curated shirts were collected into the “Threadless Select” series, which has now been spun off into its own website, called www.theselectseries.com.

Releasing a new t-shirt each Monday, the series has showcased some fantastic designs over the past couple of years, all curated by Faesthetic publisher UPSO.

The recent news is: the storied Rhode Island School of Design (check out this list of alumni) will be participating in the Select process, with four new t-shirts curated by John Maeda, president of the RISD. Four different faculty members created the shirt designs, and part of the proceeds cover a $15k donation to the school’s scholarship fund.

My favourite of the four designs are Nature vs. Nurture by Nancy Skolos, and Soojng Ham’s The Journey. You might remember that The Gap tried something similar a while back, getting all the recent Whitney Biennial artists to design t-shirts, with varying degrees of success. This project, however, is the first time in which I’ve seen several faculty members from an influential design school get together and do something like a series of t-shirts. Each of these artist/professors is quite established in his/her field, and thus the translation of the design to the t-shirt medium is a big deal for those of us who pay even a casual attention to t-shirt design.

The very usage of the t-shirt as a “medium” is a movement that has finally matured enough to start seeing major artists trying their hand at it. What’s strange–and enjoyable–is that these are all artists, not fashion designers. As such they’re generally treating the shirt as just another canvas, rather than trying to make a t-shirt that will compete with others on a shelf somewhere. I like the idea quite a bit, although it’s not without its risks: it’s like asking established musicians to try and make a record that will appeal to fickle, critical youth, and seeing what happens. Often it’s a disaster, or a general confirmation of the concept that technical proficiency and even mastery in a medium doesn’t translate to youth-culture appeal.

Here though, it’s working, and the old hands are proving more than able to compete with the best of the new in giving us memorable stuff to wear. It’s also providing us with designer-quality t-shirts made outside the major fashion houses that don’t cost over $100, which is a major difference: the big names all have wonderful designers working for them, or know which ones to hire, and can crank out some absolutely killer t-shirts in a moment’s notice, but unfortunately they tend to be outside the normal price range. Here’s to fresh, contemporary design you can wear for less than $30.

Betsy Walton’s “Swim”
This shirt was inspired by Walton’s love of swimming, magical lakes and cute swimming suits. Walton creates most of her art based on daydreams and her knowledge of print-making and knitting. More of this Wisconsin native’s work can be found at poketo.com, morningcraft.com or monsieurt.net.

Pepa Prieto’s “Ice Cream”
I’m from a region of the United States called “New England.” Although we endure some of the longest and coldest winters here, we are still the number one consumer of ice cream (in the USA) all year round. It’s no wonder then why I LOVE this tee shirt! I’m against buying for myself for fear I may eat it.

Prieto is, as I mentioned, one of my favs. Born in Granada, she studied fine arts and was inspired to create this shirt because of her own love of ice cream, laughter and all things reminiscent of childhood.

“Creature Friends” by Melissa Contreras
This colorfully busy shirt was inspired of course, by nature and of her experiences of “Guatemalan Summers and California Nights.” Contreras is a Californian with big ideas and the creativity to pull them off. I just adore the bold colors combined with soft, rounded edges. You can find more of Contreras’ designs on axelhoney.com.

Maki’s “Bear Camp”
In keeping with our nature theme, Maki has created this hilarious tee-shirt inspired by the Murphy’s Law of camping; complete with rain, bears, and angry trees. Based out of the Netherlands, Maki is used to having his art described as edgy, humorous and intelligent with lots of urban-appeal. He also created another hot-ticket item on Poketo, “Goldrush Rainbow.”

Peskimo’s “I Want to Dance”
“…with my hands in the air so everyone can see my armpit hair!” You have to love a scene this funky and funny. Inspired by Mexican culture and its love of dancing and moustaches, this shirt is funky enough to get anyone in the mood to groove.

Peskimo are a UK based dynamic-duo, with a ingeniously quirky team. Together they create little monster illustrations around the world. They’ve produced art for vinyl toys, TV shows, magazines and more. You can check out more of their little monster funk-o-saurs at peskimo.com.

“Stay True” by Ashkahn
No one describes Ashkahn’s work better than he does: ““Those who stay true to themselves and are able to express themselves fully without worrying about what others might say. Those who can wear mismatching socks and laugh in its delight. Those who can embrace the free flowing foreverness of their being!!! Wake up to uncover the pink moon!”

Working out of California, Ashkahn has a few projects in the works. Be on the look out for the “Don’t Stop Studio” and his own new tee shirt line “Cryin Tiger.” You can find more on Ashkahn at DontStopStudio.com

“Deer in the City” by Pietari Posti
Straight out of Finland, Posti has been drawing and designing since he was a kid. Now working as a freelance illustrator in Barcelona, you can find most of his work on display at PPosti.com. “Deer in the City” is part of a larger project entitled “Giants.” It is essentially a “what-if” collection of gigantic animals walking around in cities. It sounds quirky because it is. What else is it? A must-see collection.

“Radiolarians” by Lisa Congdon
Lisa thinks scientific imagery is really cool because it often reflects the perfect balance and symmetry that nature has to offer. “Radiolarians” is inspired by the real life single cell organisms by the same name which dwells in the ocean.

Ms. Congdon, a natural artist, lives in San Francisco and prefers to follow her own sense of what art is rather than a so-called “refined technique.” She gets her inspiration from flea markets, natural science and life.

Want to get your hands on these? All shirts are available in women’s and unisex styles, and are just $28 online. Other fab pieces of work are available too. But you have to be on your toes, because once stuff sells out it will typically be discontinued.

All of the artist’s work can be found on Poketo’s website in various forms including wallets, prints, accessories, stuff for your house and stationary.

First on your list: School Supplies.
GreenEarthOfficeSupply.com has absolutely everything you could possibly need. They offer Recycled Denim Pencils, Biodegradable Cornstarch Pens, Remanufactured Inkjet Cartridges, and Ergonomic Computer Accessories. You can even get some free stuff from their website like soybean crayons and a banana-paper rainforest journal.

Carry it all in these eco-trendy backpacks and Satchels. Ecolution’s hip and trendy Hemp Hiking Satchel is waterproof and sturdy enough to carry your pencils, iPhone, or some small books and a journal. Comes in four fab colors.

Need to carry more than just a couple pencils? Hempys’Hemp Deluxe Backpack is made from recycled cotton and a soda bottle lining, and is completely durable so you can carry all those heavy books you’re going to get this year.

Juice Bags by Reware are a thing of the future with solar panels on the outside that can charge your laptop in between classes, or while you get your work done in the park. Juice Bags makes backpacks, messenger bags and other super sacks in a very wide variety of colors.

Are you a do-it-yourselfer? Go to Threadbanger.com to find out how you can make your own notebooks, pencil cases, and even a backpack out of Dad’s old blazer. (Just make sure it’s one that your Mom hates.)

Thirsty?
Don’t waste oil and plastic by using one of those 30 billion plastic water bottles that are consumed and thrown away every year – that is sooo 20th century! Instead get a water bottle that’s not only biodegradable, but also compostable. Belu, a socially and environmentally friendly company makes just that. Demand it on your campus and put a major dent in your college’s carbon footprint.

Dress to the nine’s (or 3R’s)
All Saints offers an environmentally conscious, high fashion clothing line for men and women. Made for the fashionably daring as well as the more conservative crowd.

Attitude Clothing offers Gothic, Punk, Sk8r and Rockabilly threads for less carbon. This is a UK site, but it offers some of our favorite USA brands like ZooYork and DC Shoes.

Secret Sales is no secret, in fact you can tell all your friends if you want to. With deep discounts on high-end fashion and design labels such as UMA, Versace, Criminal Damage, Laguana and Elvis & Jesus, this is probably one of the most fun and Earth-friendly ways to hit the campus in style.

Other hot-spots for environmentally friendly gear:

• ShotDeadInTheHead.com for tee shirts, bags and other stuff.
• ProgressiveKid.com has tons more back to school supplies, plus some other stuff too including cutesy bath time sets.
• Nickel-free, platinum and sterling silver jewelry by GabrielXXO
• Ladies can look and feel their best because Lancôme is a strong supporter of CarbonFund.org.
• GoCarbonFree.com offers everything you could possibly think of to help you reduce your carbon footprint. Whether you need to decorate your dorm, dress for the party, or type your notes down quick, GoCarbonFree has your gear. Plus, you can earn “Carbon Credits” for everything you buy to put towards more carbon friendly stuff!

I find myself wondering about contemporary art sometimes. Not so often, but every once in a while a little old-fashioned voice pops into my head–especially when I’m looking at a video installation or a conceptual piece–and suggests I could pull off something similar, bury it under enough pseudo-theory about the nature of space/blankness, and call it groundbreaking. It’s a bullshit idea, of course: just the same kind of conservative ‘verification process’ that wanted to be sure Picasso could paint detailed, measured, classical scenes before accepting the artistic merit of his more innovative work.

My silly ideas are sent even further down the river when contemporary artists are given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities in a different medium, especially a traditional one with well-established boundaries. Ubiquitous American retailer The Gap has gone and done just that, commissioning 13 former winners of the Whitney Biennial to design a range of limited edition t-shirts.

H&M has been doing a similar thing for a while now, pulling in top fashion designers and having them create low-cost/high-fashion lines for the store, but Gap’s project is different–each designer isn’t from the fashion world, but actually a contemporary artist for whom clothes aren’t the norm.

Although most of the shirts seem to be sold out by now, they offer us a great look at the kind of art world genre-hopping we don’t normally see. While some artists seem born for at least some kind of t-shirt design (think the visual blasts and surface-is-everything aesthetic of Jeff Koons), others give me pause, or set me wondering how they can possibly translate any of their major themes to a t-shirt. Rirkrit Tiravanija’s exploration of the ‘social role of the artist’ works great in a gallery, but splashed across your chest?

Flipping through the New Yorker recently and seeing the individual ads for each shirt, I was really taken aback by how successfully Gap and the artists have pulled this off. Mixing high concept art with a whitebread American clothes shop shouldn’t have worked, but it did. For a few weeks in May, it was possible to hit any big mall in any suburb in America and get a $30 t-shirt that would normally be sold in a select few Paris/NYC/London shops for ten times the price.

Share your thoughts on the shirts–have you seen better stuff on Threadless, or has each artist’s talent been successfully transposed? Leave your comments!

There are a dozen good reasons to see Matteo Garrone’s new film Gomorra, currently in competition at the Cannes film festival and just-released to Italian theatres last week. Bursting with the energy of City of God and aiming for the scope of 2002′s Traffic but within an Italian context, the film (based on Roberto Saviano’s best-selling book) is at turns frightening, thrilling, and depressing–a serious look at what appears a hopeless situation in the southern port city of Naples.

The sparkling energy on display is never too flashy or stylized–at times its documentary feel really does trick you into the feeling you’re watching something real, and with good reason–the book’s author, Roberto Saviano, had to seek police protection after the release of his book, in which he chronicled Naples’ Comorra (the Neapolitan version of the Cosa Nostra) as an insider. Filming in the authentic housing projects of Naples’ depressed periphery didn’t hurt, either.

Telling 5 interlocking stories in a Neapolitan dialect that can be difficult even for Italians (the version I saw was subtitled in ‘standard’ Italian), Gomorra does a wonderful job of showing the messy situation at the bottom end of several Italian ‘industries’–fashion, garbage disposal, and drug-dealing, to name a few. Telling a series of interlocked stories is the only way to really explain anything about the Comorra, as the globalized, back-slapping nature of all the business dealings, above-ground and otherwise, is the film’s biggest point.

The fashion angle alone makes the film relevant: arguing that we are all somehow affected by the counterfeit fashion industry, no matter where or who we are, Gomorra reveals a whole host of ills. In the world of Italian fashion, as in Italian politics, finance, and to a large degree, Italian ‘society’ itself, the line between what’s authentic and what’s not is often blurred beyond recognition. As Alexander Stille, one of the best English-language journalists writing on Italy, pointed out recently:

Despite the violation of their trademarks, the big fashion houses have been surprisingly slow to protest. Saviano suggests shrewdly that copying the brand may have actually served the interests of the big-name clothing makers. Saviano writes: “The garments they turned out were not inferior and didn’t disgrace the brands’ quality or design image. Not only did the clans not create any symbolic competition with the designer labels, they actually helped promote products whose market price made them prohibitive to the general public. In short, the clans were promoting the brand.” [...] to many, the indignities and corruption imposed by the illegal system are so widely accepted as to seem “natural.”

The film captures this divide (or lack of it) with pinpoint accuracy; although an English-subtitled version is likely some months away, Saviano’s book is widely available in translation. Anyone interested in understanding a little about the chaotic, perilous manufacturing that backs up some of the world’s top design would do well to pick it up, and to eagerly watch for the release of Garrone’s film.

Notice every time you do your dry cleaning, each piece of your clothing is returned atop a wire hanger?. Convenient, Yes – Eco-friendly, No. About 3.5 billion hangers escape from US closets each year, ending up in already overflowing landfills. Stretched out end to end, that’s roughly enough wire to travel to the Moon and back – twice. Startling, considering they take over 100 years to decompose.

We had the chance to chat with Josh Cohen (pictured, left), hailing from Melbourne, Australia – whom with his buddies Christian Ferrante and Ash Singam (pictured, right) have created a rather clever alternative. Green Hanger made from 100% recycled paper completely replaces the antiquated (and eco-ghastly) wire hanger.

In short, eco-conscious companies (and consumers) who care about what their threads are hanging on, can now make the choice to go green. A brilliant concept, in a changing world – we just had to talk to to these guys.

Tell us about Green Hanger, how did it start?

Green Hangers started by helping a few mates move and having a discussion on what to do with all the remaining wire hangers. After some research and development, we found an alternative which wasn’t eco friendly but made our version completely eco friendly by eliminating print, glue or any bonding agents as well as being environmentally led not advertising led.

Coat hangers? It’s a rather obscure product to re-invent – is there any particular affinity with the product? (Anyone in the dry cleaning business maybe?)

Traditionally coat hangers have just been a commodity and expense, now with Green Hanger we have the power to promote a cause and create awareness around a big issue. In OZ 77 million hangers end up in landfill – the Green Hanger seeks to reduce this. Also the dry cleaning industry is inherently a “dirty” industry with bad chemicals and practices. The Green Hanger goes towards promoting a greener industry and moving one step forward to becoming a better overall industry.

How important do you think “Green Marketing” is today?

I think its very important as long as the people and practices behind the organizations are true to their beliefs and don’t use the “environment” as a great way to make money while not practicing what they preach. Since everything has to be certified, accredited and assessed from all aspects of production, distribution and manufacture, it is important that companies look at the whole picture not just one component to hang their whole hat on.

What is a Green Hanger made of?

Green Hangers are made from 100% recycled and recyclable cardboard from post consumer waste.

Any plans on selling advertising on the facade?

We are against any forms of printing on our hangers as the inks and printing process ads another level of management and environmental concerns to manage. The other hanger companies promote that they have a recycled hanger but forget that most of them glue another sheet of paper to the front then print with ink all over the front. Plus who wants an add for a new Disney flick or type of new coffee by Nescafe in your wardrobe.

What type of customer buys a Green Hanger?

A customer that sees the potential in making a difference and willing to try something new and different in the market. It is hard to think that there is a cardboard alternative to the wire hanger, but it is stronger and hold more lateral force than a wire one.

How have you let your audience know about the benefits of Green Hanger thus far?

Through our website, word of mouth and face to face discussions at festivals and events.

We see you’re an Australian based company, any plans on marketing Greenhanger offshore?

Through our intensive e-marketing campaign and high google rankings for keywords, we have been able to spread our message wide and far fielding enquires from Canada, US, UK, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and France. People are very interested in the product and we are in negotiations in setting up distribution arms in the UK and US.

What is the life expectancy of a Green hanger?

We have thouroughly product tested the Green Hanger and in the home they last for along time, upto 6 -12 months, in dry cleaners they have a lower expectancy due to the high turnover.

We love the product, how do we get some for our own home?

To get some go online for the OZ home – we are shortly offering packs of 25 which will be perfect for the home.. Currently for OS clients you will soon see throughout US and UK so stay tuned.

About Green Hanger

The Green Hanger was born in response to the ever-increasing number of wire and plastic hangers ending up in landfill each year. They have produced a fashionable solution to an unfashionable problem and it’s available immediately. When you choose Green Hanger, you are using a product that is attractive, functional and most importantly environmentally sound. It’s the perfect solution for any rag-trade business that wants to operate with minimal impact on the environment.

The vision clear, and the vision strong. Green Hanger is more than just a product, it’s a vehicle with the power to make the fashion industry leaner and greener. It demonstrates a commitment to actively reducing impact on the environment, while helping to educate, promote and reinforce awareness surrounding some of the world’s greatest environmental challenges.

Green Hanger is actively leading the change, providing an alternative choice to existing outdated technology like wire and plastic. Visit Greenhanger.com.au to place an your order. We know what our threads will be hanging on.

There is nothing cooler than a company that strives to not only produce great products, but to keep things local. There is something to be said about an organization that cares enough to realize the unique proposition a locally made product has over its competitors.

Blank, a Canadian company that sells blank T-shirts and clothing made entirely in Quebec. Unbranded and sweatshop-free, just like that of American Apparel.

Founded in 2005, Blank sells a range of clothing items and accessories for men, women and children with the goal of creating Quebec jobs and promoting local talent. Everything from fabric manufacture to dyeing, cutting and sewing is performed in Quebec, and through Blank’s wholesale services retailers can even customize items with the colours, fabrics and formats of their choice. The company operates two stores in Montreal, both of which also serve as locales of production — an interior architecture that includes large windows toward the rear of the store allows for customers to see the clothes being made. Brilliant.

Whereas almost 18,000 garment jobs were lost between 2003 and 2004 in Quebec, according to the province’s Institut de la Statistique, Blank’s sales doubled in 2006, allowing it to open its second store. Which just goes to show that the opportunities still abound for locally made goods. It’s not just still made locally—it also manages to remain profitable.

A couple of weeks back we wrote about custom kicks, and the trend of sneaker customization; though it seems Robert B. Martin Jr. is taking it to another level.

Growing up he found himself delving into his motherss safe and using her jewerly and diamonds to freshen up his kicks. He would take the jewerly from her and put it around the laces of his sneakers to create a unique pair of ‘bling’ kicks.

As time passed the fashion he created became more popular. Jump down the line a few years and Robert’s design style has now turned into a full blown sneaker accessory company namely Kickbars.

Kickbars are diamond plated bars specifically designed to lace through your shoelaces to create a custom style. Though many of his customers are wearing their Kickbars around their wrist or neck. The idea is patented by Robert and Kickbars and the actual bar itself comes in opulent 24K White Gold, either in a pave or invisable setting. You can also pick from an assortment of gems or colors to match your style.

All the diamonds are round cut though with different weights. The co also offers a Jr. Kickbar at a weight of 13grams, encrusted with 38 diamonds to a total of 1.5 carats. The original Kickbar is 18grams, made with 54 diamonds and is 2.0 carats.

The bars, which he says are made with conflict-free diamonds, are easily transferred from your Air Force Ones onto bracelets and necklaces. KickBars start at $6,500, but Martin says, “They can go all the way up to $5 million a shoe.”