Cool Hunting

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.