In 2005 Pharrell Williams, one half of the Grammy winning production team The Neptunes, along with his manager Robert Walker, partnered with Japanese fashion icon Nigo (founder of the highly successful A Bathing Ape / BAPE brand) to launch two lines of luxury clothing, Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream.

Pharrell is one of the most successful and prolific music producers of his time, producing and appearing as a vocalist on hits for artists such as: Madonna, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani, Jay Z, Usher, Janet Jackson, Nelly and Snoop Dogg. Pharrell has also become a fashion icon in his own right, named Best Dressed Man of 2005 by Esquire magazine, he was the face of a 2006 advertising campaign for Louis Vuitton and collaborated with his partner nigo to design a line of sunglasses for Louis Vuitton. In 2007, Pharrell, along with camille miceli to design a highly regarded line of jewelry for louis vuitton. Pharrell is considered to be an influential part of A Bathing Ape’s enormous success in the United States.

The Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream brands are focused on high-end luxury sportswear. The lines consist of T- shirts, polos, sweatshirts, knits, denim, suits and shirts; outerwear in leather, down, cotton, and technical fabrics; hats, sneakers, underwear, socks and accessories. All of the items are produced in very limited quantities, using only the highest quality materials and are manufactured in Japan. Our smaller sizes are cut with our female customers in mind, and there are plans to launch a women’s line in the near future. The brands are known for their unique style, incorporating bright colors and innovative patterns, influenced by classic design and vintage style. The brands are credited for the introduction of the “all over print” sweatshirts, however they have moved away from that early look, forging ahead to set new trends.

BBC opened its first Flagship store in Tokyo, Japan in 2005 and opened two more stores (New York and Hong Kong) in the fall of 2007. The brands are very exclusive and are only available in approximately forty stores worldwide including Barney’s New York flagship and Co-Op stores, Fred Segal in Santa Monica, Colette in Paris, and other high end boutiques around the world.

Billionaire Boys Club is on its 11th season of defining hip-hop fashions. Learn more about the label and shop online HERE.

]]> http://respect-mag.com/billionaire-boys-club/feed/ 1 http://respect-mag.com/bill-adler-on-cey-adams-album-covers/ http://respect-mag.com/bill-adler-on-cey-adams-album-covers/#comments Sat, 01 May 2010 12:54:39 +0000 exo http://respect-mag.com/?p=826

This video has been up for about a year, but we’ve noticed that everyone has been posting it lately as if it we new. So we’re doing the same. Not only because we love Cey Adams and Bill Adler, but because, yes, we would jump off a bridge, too, were all our friends.

RELATED:  We recently came across this Black Photographers Book Reviews item on growing number of black photographers on Blurb. The post mentions Cey’s Unititled, which was published the same date as the Youtube video above. (Yes, discovering such trivia does bring us endless self-satsifacstion.)

Legendary art director George Lois talks about his famous Esquire Magazine covers with the creative director of Wired Scott Dadich

From 1962 to 1972, George Lois changed the face of magazine design with his ninety-two covers for Esquire magazine. He stripped the cover down to a graphically concise yet conceptually potent image that ventured beyond the mere illustration of a feature article. Lois exploited the communicative power of the mass-circulated front page to stimulate and provoke the public into debate, pressing Americans to confront controversial issues like racism, feminism, and the Vietnam War. Viewed as a collection, the covers serve as a visual timeline and a window onto the turbulent events of the 1960s. Initially received as jarring and prescient statements of their time, the covers have since become essential to the iconography of American culture.

Tonight, Lois speaks with Wired Creative Director, Scott Dadich at the closing of the exhibition, which has been running since last April.

(vi@ SPD)

After the jump, Lois cusses like a Yahoo CEO while sharing the stories of his seminal covers, like the above of Muhammad Ali, Ali’s nemesis Sonny Liston dressed as Santa Claus, Andy Warhol drowning in can of Campbell’s tomato soup and more.

RELATED: Breakfast with Mr. Lois:  Part 1 | Part 2 |Part 3

When the covers for Method Man, Ghostface and Raekwon’s Wu Massacre project began leaking online, bloggers and fans alike were just as open about the artwork as the idea of collaborative album. The illustrated cover—as well as the three collector’s edition variants and single art—are the handy work of comic book kingpin Chris Bachalo, whose drawings have been seen on the pages of Captain America, Incredible Hulk and Uncanny X-Men, and on the hit TV series, Heroes.

Coming from the fantasy world of comic books, Bachalo was initially nervous about tackling a hip-hop project, but under the art direction of Alex Haldi, he drew up some marvelous shit. Now, appreciated by the wider rap community, the talented artist is on his way to becoming the go-to guy for some of your favorite rappers’ album packaging. XXLMag.com caught up with Bachalo to break down his artistic process and to see if his pen is mightier than a Shaolin sword.

Read the interview here.

Known for pioneering a more abstract style of graffiti writing, Futura played a major role in the NYC’s graffiti scene of the ’70’s. As the popularity of graffiti art flared in the 70’s and 80’s, Futura’s work was shown alongside artists such as Basquiat and Keith Haring. As his style developed, he began designing, and has collaborated with numerous artists and companies, including The Clash, Supreme, A Bathing Ape and Nike.

(vi@ AJANAKU)

Def Jam’s Cey Adams and Bill Adler will present a video/slide show, book talk and book signing about their new book, DEFinition: The Art and Design of Hip Hop, at Young Blood Gallery and Boutique. The book shows how the art from this once underground culture has changed the way everything around us looks from fine art to the label on a bottle of Hawaiian Punch, including fashion, automobiles, movies, television, advertising, and sneakers.

Location: Young Blood Gallery and Boutique, 636 N Highland Ave NE, 30306

more info

(vi@ Young Blood Gallery & Boutique)

The Rap-Up conducted an informative interview with Brent Rollins, best known as the visual genius behind ego trip magazine. He talks about his design aesthetic being in the spirit of hip-hop beyond signifiers like graffiti arrows, working with photography, biters, the changes in album packaging and how advances in technology are creating less canvasses for artists.

Some excerpts:

You know what, doing some kind of public space would be really fun. Like a nightclub, doing something where people can walk in and get taken to somplece else. That’s an exciting idea, something physical, especially now man, everything’s digital man, it’s wack, no one has stuff anymore. No one touches things, experiences things, you know? I think it’s about giving people a real experience.

:::::

For me, it starts with the idea, the photography and the collaging and stuff, that’s what it’s made of but it has to start with an idea first. A lot of people, when they see something, they look at the surface and don’t see the thought process behind it. For instance, people that diss Apple computers, they say “Oh it’s just about the design, they want it to be cool” and yeah, maybe it looks nice, but the design is really well thought out. It’s not just that it looks great, but it works great. The design helps you work with it, interact with it. People look at the surface without thinking about the function. So with album covers, the function of the design is that it has to communicate an idea. it’s not just about the style, or the collage, or I’ma take a photograph and put this color on top of it, it’s about what’s my idea behind it first. I think people who bite, they just look at what’s on the surface.

He also shares that his orange socks and Air Jordans appear in the movie poster for Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, which is the type of trivia which we hope will come in handy some day.

(vi@ NahRight)