Another MAGIC Show under the belt, oh boy, it was one to remember. Where do we begin???
Well, this time around, our booth was placed right next to the Street Culture section at MAGIC, right next to other brand's such as Obey, Stussy, Artful Dodger, Upper Playground to name a few. The show was a huge success for us and allowed us to meet and greet many existing and new customers. We were able to also see the range of the Five Four customer, anywhere from premium/contemporary, to street, to skate/surf, to casual, the brand really has been able to reach different people in different markets. As we get closer to our goal of becoming a global lifestyle brand, last week was a huge stepping stone for us as we picked up many new accounts across the board in all genres. Our Fall 2007 line was received with great reviews and our denim program is exploding beyond belief.
I arrived into Vegas on Monday, show started Tuesday. Barely made my flight, had to change it twice due to last minute samples out of L.A. Then on top of that, L.A. traffic royally sucks balls.
Our booth had many visitors throughout the week. For the time that I was there, I saw many old friends and colleagues. The rest of the time, I was sleeping in from my wild nights of Vegas partying. MAGIC/Project week is a hectic time, 3-4 parties per night, gambling, dinners, etc. starts to catch up to you. Here are some shots from our booth...
Our main man Suzuki stopped by to show his support, he is a big reason why Five Four washes are so hot. This guy has been behind every, and I mean EVERY, premium brand out of L.A. and even Japan for the last 10 years. You're not a denim player unless you have this guy in your Rolodex.
His right hand man Eduardo gets a morning jolt with the Red Bull supplied at the Five Four booth.
Dale from "Up Against The Wall": http://www.upagainstthewall.com/ always has something to laugh about...
Cee Lo from Gnarls Barkley by before his show...
Evil has arrived, "Rickey Kim"http://www.mrkimsays.com/ from Evil Monito stops by to talk shop...
Mike Van came by to say WHAT UP
Tadao flicks off the finger for the kids at home
Mikey Lev and Brick Williams came ALL THE WAY from L.A. to come to MAGIC...what am I kidding, they came to party in Vegas but actually made it to the booth after a long night of partying.
Michael, our West Coast Sales rep, always looks mighty dapper dan when conducting business.
Here he is another day in the all white, taking a page out of my book.
What big Five Four event would not be complete without Brian Toll it seems like the dude's always around, haha. Unfortunately, they misspelled his name at registration, he seemed to think it suited him just fine.
Bobby Hundreds looked like he had a "Japanese military face"... (sorry, inside joke)
Nick Leo kept it gangster at The Hundreds booth.
Nick Cannon was at the PNB Nation booth djing for most of the show, much props to Nick for all of his success and best of luck on his new venture.
Sameer, aka Sammy Singh aka Sam Valazquez, held it down at the booth all 4 days.
Davey Detail, FF Art Director, made it to L.A. rocking the new Fall '07 samples, of course. PUT THOSE DAMN SAMPLES BACK IN THE SHOWROOM!!!
Stacey, FF Womens Design Director, rocked out in the booth for a bit.
Our college friend, Matt Fine, who now works at Nike, stopped by the booth. He looks real similar to our other friend, John...John looks like the roided up version of Matt.
Former Five Four class clown, KB, came by the booth to pick his nose.
Dee and I took a lap around the convention hall. We went to the campground to see what was going on. We stumbled upon our old spot, this is definitely a lucky spot. Not to be on my own tip, but my my have we come a long way. We were the first brand to upgrade from being in the campground to a bigger booth 2 years ago. Dee was ranting how this was the lucky spot to be in...
We stayed at the Palms this trip.
J Dubb's room was stupid SICK. He negotiated an upgrade, don't even ask. The suite had 2 bedrooms, a living room, 10 flat screens, 3 showers, jacuzzi, sick view, bar, and much much more. If you can't get laid in this room, then you definitely have issues.
The shower alone was ridiculous. It was definitely on some other shit. It had about 6 or 7 showerheads, I forget. Damn hottttt.
Now, it wouldn't be Five Four without a little entertainment. Five Four loves to party, and boy did we start off our first night with a bang. Tuesday night was the first official night of the show week. J Dubb and I started it all off with a denim dinner with the good folks over at DNR at the Wynn Hotel.
We were also joined by Eric Kim from Monarchy J Dubb and him look like they're sharing some broccoli together...
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Thank you Erin over at DNR for inviting us, here she is being the gracious host...
I had the pleasure of sitting next to Nic Scagnolari from Evisu. He is one of the owners of the brand and President of Evisu USA. It was really interesting speaking with him about starting a business, growing a brand and the future.
Our next stop, was back to the Palms for the LTD party. It was held in a suite, the party was rocking with a lot of people.
After this, we headed over to the Diesel party at Moon at the Palms. DJ AM was spinning, so you know it was going to be a hot party. All our L.A. friends were in attendance, so it was ensured to be a wild time.
Brian and Mikey always are up to no good, here they are in the beginning of the night.
Brian, Katie, Mikey, Corinne and Anand strike a pose.
Yours truly with Kristom to my left and some other girl, word...
Anand and Brick are trying to get saucy.
Perry looks at chicks with evil eyes...
After that, we headed to Tao for the Miss Sixty / Energie party being thrown by BPM. Stayed there for about an hour, then ended the night at Pure for the Famous party. What a wild night...
Next night was no holding back. We had plans of going to the Kanye West / Gnarls Barkley / Lupe Fiasco concert then to Tao for two parties, one being the Monarchy party in the restaurant area and the other being the Project Show party in the main club area. Damn, it really never stops.
Some of my L.A. friends had left after one night, but a new wave of friends came in. Rachel and Gloria joined me now for 2 more crazy Vegas nights...
Gloria brought Jupiter from Undefeated out with the posse for the evening, I'd never met him before, Gloria had told me much about him. It was a great time hanging with him, talking shop and partying partying and much more partying!
Lupe graced the stage first, then Gnarls and then Kanye. Here are some photos. Kanye as usual was rocking a super hot white blazer. Fortunately for everyone in attendance, we got to hear him rant about some pop culture subject. This time around, it was the Dixie Chicks winning so many awards at the Grammys. Always bringing a chuckle to the audience.
A bigger laugh came from Chris, he was in the aisle way rapping and singing out loud to his own hymn.
Next stop was Tao. We took a limo to get there...Vegas limo rides are always memorable, people are usually drunk and singing/rapping the whole time. This was no different.
Rachel and I strike a pose amongst the madness...booyashaka!
J Dubb always is having a great time, he is usually the activator of many nights.
Michael and I observe from the back all the mayhem.
Steven, our Canadian distributor, enjoys being in the middle of the mayhem. He really does look like the Jewish version of Mel Gibson, how ironic...
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Finally we arrived to Tao...Five Four invaded the table like the damn Romans did back in the day. First stop was the Monarchy party in the restaurant area.
The party never really stops.
It just keeps going and going and going.
Davey Detail looks mighty dapper this evening.
Chris, on the other hand, didn't really look that dapper. He looked like a mess.
Who says white people can't party hardy. Nice tonsils Chris.
Izzy Ezrailson from Up Against The Wall was all party and no business that night.
Another one of our L.A. girls was in town for the show, Charlene always rocks the party.
Our Midwest rep, Alan, always is looking eccentric. Here he is in his green leather jacket with his friend Frankie. He is joined by Bari who runs his showroom along with some other girl that was helping him during the week. On a funnier note, that girl (all the way on left side) whose name I don't know got her hair caught on fire from one of the candles behind her...how YOUNG is that.
We ran into our friend Mo.B from Chicago. Michael and him kind of look alike...
Rachel told me she was getting a little thirsty at Tao. She wasn't lying, I caught her hawking Andrea's drink. Mo to the dish.
After all that madness downstairs, we took the party upstairs. Enough said. Night was a rap shortly after that...not really, but that's all for the cameras.
Next night, was no stopping. Dee and I had a dinner to attend to, after that we went back to the hotel to regroup with our people and then headed to Tao again for another crazy night. This party was being hosted by Hudson Jeans and Creative Recreation
The group for this evening had been cut down since many people had either gone back home or were too tired to party because of the previous two nights of debauchery. Anand (Dee's brother), J Dubb and I made the cut.
Neyo hopped on stage and sang 2 of his hits.
Designer David Appel is always ready to party. This guy doesn't stop. Here he is w/Gloria.
Katja (Nick Cannon's stylist), Rachel and Gloria were ready for night #2 in their Vegas swing.
The guys from Hudson are always down for a crazy time. Here I am with Tony Chu, he was clowning me about my cashmere socks. I guess he reads the blog...punk
Peter Kim and J Dubb first met at Sundance and have been buddies ever since. Peter is also the first guy I ever interviewed in the clothing business over 5 years ago. He's always been a close friend to Five Four and big supporter. Did I mention wild partier too?
And that's all for Vegas February 2007. Thank God it's over. Thank you to all the Five Four staff, family and friends that helped make this trip a memorable one. Peace...back to recovery!
