WESC Soho

by Ted Cahill

One of the hottest new arrivals topping the list of Manhattan shopping destinations is the WESC Store in SoHo. The Swedish-based WESC (aka WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracy) creates a line of street clothes with its roots in skateboard culture but also delivers "after the skate," a highly-developed line of apparel that targets people outside of the boarding community. Like true street subculture, they embrace the concept of unpredictability so you won't find their clothes in any ordinary sports retail stores and, instead of using models, they enlist a crew of "WE activists" who include DJs and actors. The store itself is a hyper-modern interactive space with lights that change color according to the vibrations of subway trains as they pass by underneath the floor. In addition to fashions and accessories, WESC also recently teamed up with Nokia to create the WESC Nokia 3250, a limited edition travel/music phone kit, and has more collaborations in the works.

Bike Month NYC

by Wendy Dembo

Biking is always in style. As many of you may know, May is Bike Month NYC. Transportation Alternatives has organized tons of fun rides (Coney Island, Manhattan Evening, Bridge Battle 2, etc.) and biking events (Queens Borough President’s after-work snack, bike repair workshops, drawing the bicycle with Taliah Lempert, etc.). There is still time to get out your fixed gear bike and partake in the fun. If you don’t have a bike you can still join in the fun by checking out the Bicycle Film Festival. This year’s standouts are: Mash a film about fixed gear riding in San Francisco done in a board sports video kind of way; B.I.K.E., which focuses on Brooklyn’s own Black Label Bike Club that designs and fabricates their own stacked bikes; and Claude Lelouch's 1965 For A Yellow Jersey, a lyrical documentary about that year's Tour de France set entirely to a jazz soundtrack.

Also on Cool Hunting: Pedal, Peter Sutherland: Coming Home, The Bicycle Film Festival, On the Graffitti Tip

Scion Installation 3

by Ami Kealoha

The third annual Scion Installation opens tomorrow, 11 May 2006, in New York's East Village featuring an impressive list of legendary urban artists including Stay High 149, Crash, and Dr. Revolt. This year's edition of Installation highlights the work of graffiti art legends who have applied their individual style, color, and design aesthetics to three-foot long polyurethane sculptures of Scion's sleek and sporty tC, like in Blaine Fontana's riff on the hunting lodge trend (pictured above). At a time when a group of young artists (backed by streetwear maker Marc Ecko) are suing the city of New York over its new, strict anti-graffiti law, the 2006 Scion Installation will allow for a timely exploration of street art and the nature of its role as a vehicle for free speech. The show runs through 18 May 2006, traveling to Atlanta and Los Angeles next. Check details of the opening and more images after the jump.

Joshua Ellingson at Super7

by Carol T Chung

This Friday in San Francisco, the Super7 store will have the opening reception of their upcoming art show featuring the work of SF local, Joshua Ellingson. According to Super7's PR blurb, "Joshua is a talented artist/illustrator who began making art regularly with self published comic books and gradually moved on to design work, including animation and toy design." After having looked at his website, I couldn't be more excited for this event. His work is vivid and humorous. Some of which touch upon machinery, technology and visions of the future. (Mmm... robots...) Although I'm away down in L.A. this week, I'll be sure to check it out later. But if you find yourself in SF this weekend, you can check it out at the opening reception on Friday.

Super 7
1630 Post St.
San Francisco, CA 94101

Opening reception Friday, May 12th at 7pm

Beautiful/Decay Tees

by Ami Kealoha

For the last decade, Beautiful/Decay magazine has been a platform for new and established underground artists from the graffiti world and beyond. As the brand has increased in popularity, the editors decided to create a T-shirt line devoted uniquely to the artists who are featured in the magazine. By using 100% cotton, 36 Needle Knit, and custom-cut bodies, Beautiful/Decay T-shirts provide an ultra-soft, torso-pleasing canvass for some of the most dynamic wearable images out there. Saiman Chow, the same artist responsible for the adicolor Black video, incorporates a characteristic mix of cute and creepy in his tee (pictured middle), in the same vein as Skwak's mélange of monsters (pictured right). Others, like Aya Kato's swirling geisha (pictured left), while more classically romantic, still create a unique graphic pattern that looks fresh layered or on its own.

$30 from the Beautiful/Decay shop.

Timbuk2 Store

by Josh Rubin

After making messenger bags for 17 years, the folks at Timbuk2 decided it was time to open a store. Their warm but minimal Hayes Valley space is more about brand building than volume sales as it features one-of-kind and limited edition messenger bags as well as a make-your-own bag option. All of these are available in three sizes and can be made from premium fabrics supplied by Maharam.

As a testament to their continued commitment to their home-base in San Francisco (all their bags are manufactured at their own factory) there's an ongoing rotation of artist customized canvas bags, often from local street art stars. The space was conceived by Avantgarde, designed by William Duff, Architects and includes fabrications by Linden (the dudes who's workshop is behind the Blue Bottle Coffee kiosk). All locals.

I ordered an extra small all green wool bag with a white vinyl lining when I was there a couple weeks ago—I look forward to seeing how it turns out.