I was up late last night and got woken up this morning by over 10 phone calls telling me to go get the New York Times. As I tried to dodge all the calls and only answering half of them half asleep, I was able to make out that we received a big plug by Dean Factor from "Smashbox Cosmetics": http://www.smashbox.com/ and "Smashbox Studios": http://www.smashboxstudios.com/smashbox1t.php in the NY Times today.
Check out below, read the blurb...
Also went to Marc Jacobs again yesterday, bought some more damn cashmere socks, they are the shit. Got a belt and a jacket too.
Peace. Happy New Years. Go USC.
Everyone was ready to snap this evening...
Jon stands in front of the polaroid wall...
I don't know who brought these party hats, but they were kind of funny. Here we have Richard, KB, Davey, Fred, myself and Eman striking a pose for the camera.
This year at Five Four we decided to do a secret santa gift exhange. Branden happened to pick Dee. About 2 years ago Dee went to India to visit some family and brought us back these sandals as presents. They were kind of ugly but Branden and I didn't really say anything to Dee, it was the thought that counts. So Branden decided to package the Air Jersusalems sandals and gave them back to Dee, he was in hysteria.
Max Van Ville stopped by, you may have remembered him from the Fall '07 campaign.
Here we have Jon Alagem aka Teddy Hyde modeling the Five Four x New Era hat.
We then took the party to Element where it got crazy. Steve aka Prince and Davey greet us all for the evening.
Sameer from Five Four thinks he's a pimp. So our intern Little Chris who picked him for secret santa got him a pimp cup to let him feel like he truly is one...or not.
I think he was so enthused the whole evening, he told me the next day he had 15 drinks out of his "pimp" cup.
Richard, Amanda and I strike a pose, pret a porter.
Ray Ray was in town from Detroit, he joined sweaty Branden and dirty Brian for this photo op.
Rachel and Amanda made me the dog in their bun below...that sounds kinda dirty, love it!
Even Lugo was getting down and dirty with Christine.
Oh God, here we go AGAIN, J Dubb out of control, as usual...this guy NEVER stops...EVERYDAYYYYYY!!!
J Dubb and Amanda were getting down to some Bob Sinclair...
After this wild night of debauchery, I had a photo shoot at 7am the next morning for our Spring 2007 campaign. The shoot was shot by photographer Eric Williams and art director Will Ragland. 7am is hard for me on any day, let alone after a night of complete madness. Let's just say I didn't make it to the shoot until 10am, luckily they were still setting up at that time.
Will Ragland gets ready for the big day of shooting.
Set up for one of the shots...
The shoot was styled by Renee Ben-Shmuel and her assistant Amanda...
KB and J Dubb look on from behind the scenes...
Dee, Eric Williams and J Dubb take a time out from the shoot for a heterosexual triple hug..
Oli Trevena and I in between shots.
Day 2 of the shoot was another hectic day. It took longer than expected, but we got what we want. Look out for the new Spring 2007 campaign hitting in the New Year.
The day after this, we had planned a trip to go out to Vegas for our friend Gloria's birthday. Our posse of 9 people first headed to Tao for dinner where we celebrated her birfffffday.
Birthday girl blowing out her cake, she gave the candle a nice blow.
Rachel and I were raised on the mean streets of Hancock Park in L.A. Here we are giving up our gangsta pose...young.
Dee, Ali, J Dubb and I at dinner looking real sophisticated...for once.
In an unlikely move, on our walk to Tryst at the Wynn, I did a gentlemanly move. I gave my jacket to Gloria since she was cold...what's wrong w/me?
As soon as we got to the club, Dee and I got a little excited and started doing these ridiculous bottle dances that made us look like fools...
Dee and I both started the night's festivities taking a little taste of the vodka, making sure it was good for all of us...we're always looking out for others.
The night was getting a little rowdy after awhile, 5 bottles in 1 hour can do that to you.
Gloria was so enamored with J Dubb's ass in his Five Four jeans, she decided to take a flick.
When we popped the champagne, Christine started getting down.
So did this guy, J DUBB. Ya, here we go again, party animal.
After awhile, J Dubb was sitting on the couch and it kinda tipped over...his facial expression is classic.
This shot is even better, here he goes flying off the couch like Superman...he was so proud of himself that his drink didn't spill...what a champ!
By 3am the party was getting out of control, here's Gloria, Rachel and I on the dance floor making faces...the evening only gets younger after this point. We partied until 6am in true Vegas fashion!
The next day was real funny. I got a call from Rachel and Gloria in the evening saying that they were driving home, however they took a wrong turn. They were in UTAH! I mean, who the f**k does that? Utah? I still don't get it.
We finally got back to L.A. on Sunday night and got some much needed rest. The next week would be a busy one.
Got paid a visit by my friends Hollywood club promoters Michael Bellisario and Steve Harlow.
One of our sales reps Alan was in town for the week as well, he always has VERY interesting things to say.
My friends from high school Chris and Dave also stopped by the Five Four office. One is in law school and the other in biz school now, good to see everyone doing well.
Our West Coast sales rep Chris decided to get a haircut for the holidays, he did something very unique to it...see for yourself.
Stopped by Element, saw our friend Eric Dlux spinning.
Jamie from Red Bull thought he was in the North Pole up in the club.
The next night I stopped by my friend Lauren's birthday to wish her a happy one.
Went to meet up for lunch with our friend designer David Appel from Blue Tattoo. One of the funniest dudes I know.
Dee and I went to Nike to check out the 25th year anniversary presentation for the Air Force sneakers. The full Nike experience was truly incredible, they are defnitely the most admirable apparel brand out there overall from a product and branding perspective. Got hooked up with four pair of shoes, all super super dope. Also, got a book about the whole 25 year overview and what's coming out in 2007. Some incredible things coming your way...
Got these new shades from "Dita":http://www.dita.com/. The white Decades, they are FIERCE.
Since I got these shades, I decided I needed some matching kicks to go with it. Dee got me these hot kicks from Dior for Christmas, however they didn't fit so I went to go for an exchange and walked out with 2 more pairs. Peep below, they are fire!
Last Saturday was Brian's birthday, so we did a big dinner then party party.
Here's the birthday boy at dinner.
We sure know how to party.
Brian gets ready for some bubbly.
Downing magnum bottles is not a good look...
But champagne bottles is...
Brian, quite the host, was trying to hook up Gloria with Ali...what a great guy.
J Dubb wasn't getting that rowdy, well not THAT rowdy, but a bit rowdy.
Five Four posse in effect
Steve blessed us with his presence, this guy spends about 3 hours doing his hair before he goes out...
Brian is quite the ladies man. Here he is with Kim, Gloria and Rachel balllllinnnnn. Rachel is yelling out, "utah what what". And what's up with her gloves...young.
Next night was Christmas Eve. Hung out with my friends Mikey, Sammy and Perry. Played some Madden on 360, pretty off the hook.
Next day was Christmas. Celebrated it with my family. Got some nice gifts for my fam, all the guys got Five Four. Food as always was incredible.
My uncle's dog Keegan is off the hook.
I took a photo op with my uncle Carlos and cousin Marcel. Since I had some shades in the car I thought it would be a little more Tony Montana if we did it with shades...my mother thought it was a little bit childish, but then again, who cares.
The day after Christmas we decided to go get our party on. Another fun time.
Ali and I were partying like we were still USC college students.
I guess Santa brought me a gift this year of 3 chicks to dance at our table.
This dude straight up bit this girl's big booty, R Kelly would've been proud.
J Dubb and Glotown show off some tongue action.
There's nothing like a girl with a bottle between her legs.
Gomez gets his angry on.
Saw my main man Michael Bellisario out, always a laugh w/this guy.
We also ran into super producer JR Rotem, who was featured in a past Five Four campaign in 2005. My my, we've both come a VERY long way. Much props to JR for all of his success, if you don't know, you should know who this guy is...one of the hottest producers in hip hop, r&b and pop.
As we were leaving the club we noticed our friends club promoters Nick Montealegre and Frankie Delgado performing a concert outside the club with that big dude that's always outside of the clubs trying to get the drunk white girls to rap with him.
Lastly, it was KB's birthday yesterday. So we got him a nice big cake. KB only announced that it was his birthday about 50 times this past week. In typical Five Four tradition, we got him a cake. But we waited until the end of the day to give it to him so he could sweat a little bit about it. He was starting to get nervous that we forgot about him, when he finally saw the cake he had tears of joy...haha.
And obviously this guy's cake had a trick candle.
Those of you that know KB, when he started at Five Four he was a size large. Now he got a belly and is "between a size l and xl"...that really means he used to be a large but now is an x-large and is in denial that he's a xl. Anyways, here he is enjoying his birthday cake.
And he keeps going on...
And going...
And going...
Wait, now second slice...
Rob Nicholson from Ozzy Osbourne stopped by to get some gear.
So did "Jason Kyson Lee":http://www.jameskysonlee.com/ from Heroes.
Some of our local L.A. accounts have been selling out so fast of the new Five Four jeans, tees, hoodies and jackets, that they had to come and re-stock directly to the warehouse. This one account below filled up his car, gotta keep on the hustle!
Here's an upclose shot of the almight Chairman Mao.
Is it me, or does he have a wart on his chin area???
Soldiers march...
Entrance to Forbidden City
Brian was trying to hook up with one of the street peddlers in front of Forbidden City.
It was freezing cold this night...we got back in the car and headed to dinner.
Dinner was quite interesting, we went for peking duck.
Ryan decided to get a little risky with his food and went straight for the game. Straight for the head. He dipped the chicken head in sauce and ate it...I'll never forget this ever again.
Doesn't he look like a drunken idiot below...
After that, he proceeded to eat also the duck head. He truly now had a cock fight in his stomach. He then said, "the loser of the cock fight will come out of my asshole in the morning." YOUNG!
The next morning we went to check out the Temple of Heaven before our flight to Guangzhou.
Vavoom...here we are...Charlie, myself and Brian
The FF Power Rangers were back into play again
While we were walking through the temple, we saw a big group of children singing. It was kind of moving...
We ran into some people throwing rings at each other and catching them with their neck...Brian got in on the action
Next we hit up the temple of sound. This place is trippy. You can basically stand at one point in this place and talk into the wall and another person on the complete opposite side can hear you and vice versa. Nuts!
After all of this, we rushed to the airport to go to South China, Guangzhou specifically. Just went there for a few hours and then headed to Hong Kong. Had a great dinner there with jeanman.
It was damn hot in Hong Kong, unlike North China where it was freezing cold.
First stop was to local fabric market, where we were selecting some fabrics for next year's development.
While we were on the search, we saw this lady pulling a bag that was bigger than her...kinda funny.
Headed to the womens market, this place was hysteria. Had to get out of there after an hour, too many crowds too many people.
After all that walking, went to grub the best burger, maybe ever.
Hong Kong at night is real dope...
The Christmas lights in HK were pretty crazy.
The next night, we went to party at Dragon I and Volar. It was a wild night had by all, as usual.
Why is it that every damn city I'm in the nightlife photo always starts off like this. Damn Five Four guys are always partying and toasting to the good life.
Starting off the night with a champagne toast always puts everyone in good spirits.
However, following it up with shots of Jagermeister always leads to good stories...
Three stooges...Ryan, Andres and Brian
Stacey had some tension after hanging out one week in China with four animals..
We then went to Volar where the night didn't stop...Ryan here tries to show his skill with straws and the ladies.
International Ballllllinnnnnnnn! 2006 was a worldwide year for Brian and I, all over the map. Our last city of the year, Hong Kong was a freakin' blast as usual.
After waking up in a daze, we headed over to Macau via ferry. First we stopped at McDonalds for some much needed grease after that crazy night of partying. As I was eating I noticed a fat cockroach chilling on the wall right behind Ryan. He proceeded to flick it, I think it ricochet into someone's big mac.
One funny name we saw in Hong Kong, was this one below. If you read it like a "Western" man, it sounds pretty funny.
We finally got to Macau and headed to our destination, the Wynn hotel.
The check-in area had these sick gold painted leaves all over the wall, pretty dope.
The view from the room was real nice, unfortunately most of it was filled with tractors and dirt...young!
That night we went over to Fernando's Restaurant, a famous eatery in Macau known for its Portuguese food. What a meal, fit for 3 kings
The next morning, we did it all over again. Had lunch poolside and enjoyed the buffet. The dessert bar was ridiculous...
Got back to Hong Kong. Went to meet with one of our manufacturers, Ian and Pokey. Had a quick bite to eat and a drink with them. Always a pleasure seeing these guys, always on the grind. Chopped it up then had to get to the airport, almost missed our flight, luckily just made it. Good to be back in L.A.
The rest of the day was filled with mumbo jumbo.
We headed over to dinner to show Brian what a real Shanghai meal consists of. This one in particular was pretty spicy, but damn good. The kitchen is all exposed, so you can see the chefs grinding away.
Our gracious hosts for our Shanghai and Beijing wing of our trip; Major and Charlie. These guys rock!
After dinner we went to our hotel to crash. On Sunday, a spontaneous idea came to my head. Why not go to Beijing to check out some of the sites? I realized that my Tuesday meetings could be shifted to late Monday afternoon and we can head over to the capital city. After some phone calls and maneuvering around, we had our agenda. So Tuesday morning our flight left out at 8am for Beijing. I haven’t been this excited about a trip in a long time. I’d heard that Beijing was an amazing city with much history and culture. So here we come, invading the city.
Of course, another funny Chinese sign at the airport. This one was in the security line. There was a special line that you could cut if you were one of the following:
FOR STAFF, VIP (something else, I forgot what it read), THE OLD, WEAK AND PREGNANT
Who says old, weak and pregnant?????
Anyways, we landed into Beijing around 10am and it was freezing cold. I’ve never been in this kind of cold weather. Our driver was taking us to our hotel and he randomly put in a CD in the changer. What was it? Eminem…it was so random, every time I’d been in a car in China they are either play Chinese music or American love songs…not this dude, he was a hip hop head.
After dropping our luggage at the hotel, we went straight to the Great Wall. It was damn cold up there. Really cold. So cold, that Brian had to add some accessories to his outfit.
Ryan, on the other hand, looked like a Japanese female swimmer w/his look.
The Great Wall is probably the most amazing site I’ve ever seen in the world. Something about its power and grandeur that is unbelievable. And again, it was damn cold up there so my thoughts were kind of frozen.
Our outfits were pretty funny. Brian, Eman and I had a five four down jacket on, the same style! We looked like the Five Four Power Rangers.
We took a lift up to the top, I’m pretty afraid of heights…not a good look.
Once we got there, there was a lot of walking and climbing to do. We didn’t anticipate it to be a workout. Climbing up this one part below, was real grueling. I felt like I was on that TV show American Gladiators.
Definitely an amazing site.
This angle below, is where the soldiers would hide and shoot at the enemy.
Chairman Mao said, “not a lucky here until one reaches the great wall.” I guess I’m a hero now.
Power Rangers on top of the wall.
Power Rangers striking a pose.
Eman and Ryan decided to have a young game of racing down the steps, we caught it from our position. A position from the top, because we were so tired to start the climb down unlike these two orangutans.
Brian was pondering about doing the same, but he decided he'd probably fall off the wall if he did.
Ryan decided to mimic this beggar we saw earlier singing and begging on the steps. We thought it was quite odd that a beggar was on top of the great wall and he also pretended he was missing a leg. Now how does a beggar with no leg get to the top of the great wall? The lift alone costs a couple of bucks.
So its funny that 10 minutes later we see this so called beggar walking down one of the passages on the wall laughing and strolling just fine. This guy was as fake as the Louis Vuitton luggage in Shanghai.
This sign was pretty interesting.
Everyone’s gotta get their hustle on…here we have some people who print out photos on many things such as cups, posters, etc. for tourists. Hustle hustle.
Power and Grandeur: Part 2 coming tomorrow.
This sculpture in particular reminded me of KB...
This little guy was pretty cool
Paintings...
Doesn't this kind of look like a Chinese belt buckle?
This looks like a comb that a luxury brand would make...China Comb Homme
This outfit here was pretty dope. It was made of salmon skin. How baller is that??? Brian is thinking about making himself a salmon skin jacket to rock out in L.A.
Next we headed down to check out some gardens in the middle of the city. After that we shopped around the local markets.
We got our Chinese names and put on a stamp.
The Pepsi cans were a little too sexy for me
Corporate America invading China; Starbucks and Dairy Queen (how random is Dairy Queen) in the mix here in this Chinese courtyard
Cops here rock sneakers...pretty gangster
Shanghai as a city has just recently developed in the last 20 years into a very metropolitan city. The archictecture in the city is very modern, as you can see depicted here in these 2 buildings.
This dude was rocking this hoody with this graphic on it. At first we thought it was a Missy Elliott promo hoody, apparently that wasn't the case.
We were starving by this point. Stopped by some local restaurant and chowed down hard core on ramen, rice, and a bunch of other stuff...
When we finally got dressed to go to the club, we had a crazy cab driver who kept yelling American words at us. He knew "YES", "NO" and "F*CK YOU". As I was seated in the front seat, there's a big sign there with his taxi license photo. I noticed it wasn't the same guy. Only in China...see for yourself.
We finally arrived to the club. Shanghai is always rocking on the Bund...
Always doing it big at Five Four
Brian and I have been partying all over the world in the last 6 months...life is a great look. This week we're hitting up Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau to add to the roster.
Ryan was trying to get a little frisky with some of ladies in the club.
Even Stacey was getting in on the action.
Ryan was trying to get everyone drunk on this particular evening. He's been in Hong Kong for 3 months now and won't be coming back home to L.A. for another 2 months. He was quite excited to see us...
Stacey and Ryan..
Ryan and Eman...
The Red Bull cans in China are pretty interesting.
We’ve been having a lot of guests lately at the Five Four office.
Sebastian Mago, new R & B artist on Columbia Records, stopped by to get geared up. Look out for him in 2007, this guy has amazing talent
Here we have our main man Tadao, this guy runs the streets of Hollywood. However, he should be really running in the streets of Hollywood.
Next we had super L.A. club promoter, Frankie Delgado, stop by our office along with friends James and Audra. Frankie and I were talking about the Jay-Z concert here a few weeks past, he decides to relive the moment and flash the ROC sign.
Miami man of the night James strikes a pose.
Audra was trying to stay away from all the flash.
Oli also stopped by with his friend Sean Maguire.
You may know Sean from The Class, and many many films and shows.
Richard (FF Assistant Designer) was up in Seattle for the weekend and took a picture of our new gear in "Zebra Club":http://www.zebraclub.com/. Check it out if you’re in the area.
Dee, J Dubb and I attended Gomez’ radio show this past Sunday night. He just started an Internet radio show, it’s pretty interesting…if you know Gomez it all makes sense.
He gave us a gracious tour of his house, first he had to come protected.
Next he took us to his shoe room. This guy is obsessed.
Even J Dubb was in mortified shock.
His closet was big, it even had its own Five Four section. Ballllinnnnnn!
Next we took us into the home studio where all the magic happens. We had Jamie and James on the mic as well. Jaime is like Robin, James is like Artie and Gomez, well you know…
Gomez beautiful daughter Galia also made an appearance.
I can go and on about the show, but you guys will have to listen to it for yourself. It'll be coming very soon on the web.
Gomez asked us for a rider for us, Dee requested M & M’s and J Dubb requested Grey Goose. YOUNG.
This week I also stopped by this ridiculous sandwich spot called Victor’s off of Franklin. This place is a wine shop / deli / liquor store. Turkey sandwich is the shit!
Speaking of Turkey, what a great holiday Thanksgiving is. You’re able to spend quality time with your family and friends. I haven’t seen part of my family for a few months now since I’ve been so busy, it’s always quite a treat to see them. Even though my whole family is in L.A., sometimes we get too caught up with our own lives and work too hard to make some quality time for the people we care about most. On a better note, the food at my family Thanksgiving meal was amazing.
