Your recent purchases

[Heirloom]

actually, some of the H&M CDG items were pretty good in quality, and could've easily cost triple the price had it been another label. I'm thinking of the shirts and trench coats. my brother knows nothing of clothes and have laundraped his shirts hundreds of times. They don't loose shape or colour.

[random]

uniqlo collab quality is fine. That from H&M collabs is still shit, like other regular HM stuff. I dont get why people were paying $100 resale price for a hm x Cdg shirt. that shit was beyond me.

[dontbecruel]

I think it's pointless denigrating these kind of collaborations on principle.
I presumed that Jil Sander's contribution would simply be to come up with some drawings and leave it to the Uniqlo team to produce them on their own terms.
But the great thing about the nice bits of the +J collection (and some of it is lovely) is how they have managed to recreate that distinctive Jil Sander combination of formal fabrics with a modernist twist. For example, I bought the jacket in this photo + matching trousers.



It's a wool/polyester mix and manages to be full and smooth at the same time, with a subtle slipperiness.
I also bought a simple tracksuit top in modal/polyamide/cotton mix. It has no fancy faux-designer details. Just a novel, functional fabric of the kind that Jil Sander used to produce but I now associate with Stephan Schneider. For £25.

[Faust]

lol theres plenty of designer items with "shit" quality as well. And I don't know how you can purely comment on quality without relation to the price at all. It's GOOD quality at a LOW price
but to each their own

I was not comparing. I was giving my opinion on +J after examining it at the store.

[Faust]

You know I've always found these designer collaborations with stores like Uniqlo, H&M, TopShop, etc a bit odd. It seems like people go crazy for them, especially in New York. I really never saw the appeal. It's like that quote from Alber Elbaz where he likens diffusion lines to the stepsisters from Cinderella. No one wants to be the stepsisters. Well, I guess some people do because this stuff still sells.

I have a lot of friends here in NYC who work at low-to-mid level fashion showrooms and PR companies who call me a label whore because they know I like Rick Owens, Margiela, etc... Meanwhile these same people are the ones lining up when H&M announces another dumb collab. At least when I buy something with someone's name on it, I am (usually) buying quality materials, top notch construction, and unique design. When someone I know buys Jil Sander for Uniqlo or CDG for H&M, they are ONLY buying the name. They are getting shitty materials, lousy construction, and watered-down design still meant for mass market. I call THEM the label whores. I'll gladly save my money for the real deal.

WORD.

[mesh]

Excellent post MikeN.

Nod, I'm with you man orangina is my favorite.

[Faust]

Excellent post MikeN.

Nod, I'm with you man orangina is my favorite.

Pelegrino Aranciata > Oragina

[mesh]

Since I am in agreement with you regarding crap quality and such I will have to give your suggestion a go.

[Faust]

You won't regret it.

[dontbecruel]

Another worthwhile example of designer collaboration was the recent "Muji manufactured by Thonet" line of furniture.
Muji turned the concept on its head in a really intriguing way: the items were designed by members of Muji's in-house stable of industrial designers but produced in the workshop of the famous art nouveau furniture designer Thonet.
The finished items are fascinating hybrids between Muji's utilitarian high-street aesthetic and Thonet's historical innovations in bentwood and tubular steel.

[philip nod]

Pelegrino Aranciata > Oragina

yes but Orangina in 10 oz bulbous bottle> pelegrino aranciata in a can

[Faust]

hard to argue with glass. but, yeah, i usually break up my aranciata can between two meals.

[mesh]

The sp do come in bottles though the bulbous shape of the ginas do make for perfect grenades when you are done with them.

[mass]

i did like the unicloak collabo... it really did seem like a cloak diffusion line, and quality was actually pretty good.

[Fuuma]

i called the deli guy a label whore the other day,
but thats because he priced the oringina too high

I'm glad someone said Deli, now git tis book:

http://www.amazon.com/Save-Deli-Perfect-Pastrami-Delicatessen/dp/0151013845/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256524861&sr=8-1