Monday, October 26, 2009

Flavor for Fashion


Once upon a time there lived a small time designer who cut expensive bags up for a living and revamped the fabric to create extremely stylish clothes for extremely eccentric artists.  Everyone stood in line and paid big bucks to have their wardrobe sewn before their very eyes. If the outfit called for extravagant measure it could take a while before you could pick your items up. I'm sure if you look back in the hip hop history books you will find many of mcs and djs dressed in this type of gear.  Eric B and Rakim for instance wore suits made of black velour, leather and Gucci emblems. 



Meet Karl Kani who once played assistant to Harlem's own designer Dapper Dan.  Since starting out in the mid 80s Karl has gone on to have many internationally known clothing lines.  Most recently he created a line that was disappointingly short lived called LIVE.  I was fortunate enough to visit him at his showroom and studio in Los Angeles, CA. I was given a couple of pairs of jeans and about half a dozen t shirts.  I love the feel and look of both the jeans and the tshirts however most will never experience the touch of LIVE.  I'm not sure what became of LIVE but Karl Kani undoubtedly moved on and is currently working on yet another unforgettable line.  When one exude talent and style the way Karl does there's never too much time to sit idle. Kudos to Karl and much success always.

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