Philadelphia Fashion Week: Friday

I mentioned last week that I thought it was slightly fishy that all the out-of-town designers scheduled to show at this new Philadelphia Fashion Week thing (and more than half the designers are not from Philly) seemed to be stocked by Matthew Izzo and no other boutiques in Philly that I could find, which seems like less of a coincidence when you note that the creative director of Philly Fashion Week is also Matthew Izzo’s head buyer.

In any event, I only had time to do a rundown of the first night, so in the interest of completeness, I’ll do a brief guide to the designers showing on Friday and Saturday nights as well. Friday today, Saturday (which looks to have far more legit Philly-based designers) tomorrow…

FRIDAY

DESIGNER: Street Star Custom Clothing

BASED IN: South Philly! 12th and Snyder, specifically

DOES: Mostly men’s tattoo-inspired t-shirts with Swarkovski crystals glued on, several of which have catchy slogans like “Satisfaction guaranteed” or “Wanna take a ride on my disco stick!” …except they’re $140.

ALSO: $140 is on sale. And I’m pretty sure this is going to get me furious emails from this guy or his publicist being all “WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOU PHILISTINE” but christ, Ed Hardy.

DESIGNER: GAR-DE

BASED IN: Manhattan

DOES: Androgynous womenswear

PHILADELPHIA CONNECTION: Sold at Matthew Izzo

ALSO: I keep wanting to tag the syllable “SIL” onto the end of their name.

DESIGNER: Nine Days

BASED IN: New York, as far as I can tell (their site is one page); at least, designer Donwan Harrell’s other lines, PRPS and Akademics, are based there, and it seems that Nine Days is a less-expensive sub-line of Akademics.

DOES: Fancy denim

PHILADELPHIA CONNECTION: Sold at Matthew Izzo, cites Diplo buddies M.I.A. and Santigold as inspiration

ALSO: According to Harell, the main inspiration for Nine Days is the story of Little George:

In 1730 George Scott in the sloop, Little George, sailed from the Guinea Coast with a cargo of 96 captives, 35 of whom were men. Days later the captives slipped out of their shackles and chaines, and at 4:30 in th emorning, attacked the ship and crew, successfully overpowering and imprisoning them in the cabins below deck. The men took control of the ship and guided it back to Sierra Leone coast in NINE DAYS. Where, after exchanging the freedom of the 96 slaves for the freedom of the captain and crew, they abandoned the ship.

Those nine days were about successfully rebelling against a system intent on keeping others in a box… we will never allow ourselves to be slaves. Slaves to stereotypes, labels, and limitations… This nine days is about celebrating you and other like-minded individuals who revolt against the machine. I shout to the world, “I am ruled by no one!”

Really? Is drawing a direct line between “being a slave to fashion” and “being a literal slave on a slave ship in the 1700s” really that tasteful an idea? This goes doubly if your other denim label is marketed as luxury and ultra-exclusive and starts at $250 a pair.

DESIGNER: S.Love

BASED IN: New York

DOES: Men’s and women’s clothing, scarves

PHILADELPHIA CONNECTION: I actually can’t figure this one out; S.Love doesn’t list any stockists in Philadelphia and google’s habit of seeing “S.Love” as “S. Love” makes it very difficult to turn up much but results about LOVE Park and the With Love, Philadelphia campaign.

ALSO: Made and hand-painted in New York.

DESIGNER: Triple 5 Soul

BASED IN: Williamsburg

DOES: A LOT of neat streetwear for men and women.

PHILADELPHIA CONNECTION: This one is sold in a bunch of places, as it’s a legitimately large wholesaler (so much so that they don’t list all their stockists); their T5S footwear line is based in Philly.

ALSO: We like.