Photography. Larry Clark for Supreme

With his movie "Kids" Larry Clark captured an atmosphere of NYC that has since then been almost completely eradicated by the authorities' urge to convert a once lively urban culture into a now sterile amusement park/mall. At the time, kids were not monitoring the internet but entertained themselves in the parks during the day and in the clubs at night.

The movie was very much a family affair with the cast and team taken from the Supreme & Zoo York crews and their surrounding circles: Harold Hunter, Jeff Pang, Peter Bici, Giovanni Estevez as well as Chloë Sevigny, Harmony Korine, and Rosario Dawson to name some of the most well-known today. Quite a successful round, considering the 'malevolent' neighbourhood of their youth.

So much about the 'good old times' - what's new? Larry Clark has just delivered his new calendar for Supreme. We have a few images to show you here - of the sheets and two of the accompanying T-shirt designs. So that the prudish have been warned: these girls are not wearing box-logo tees.

By the way - would anyone back in '95 have spent the night on Lafayette Street loaded with cash or dressed up in $$$-clothing to buy shoes?

Event. Franklin & MarsHall of Fame

Rule of thumb: when Italians are staging a party - you go. No questions asked. Why? - Because they know what to do, how to do it, and who to get to do it for them - meaning get the atmosphere boiling and a couple hundred people to actually dance...

Franklin & Marshall, an Italian sportswear company with a love for College aesthetics, staged an event to celebrate an era whose influence has been steadily growing over the past decades - the B-Boy/Graf culture of the 1970s and '80s. As the 'market' is flooded these days with events that draw inspiration from this culture but merely scratch the surface, F & M went all the way to make sure their party would provide for the authentic stimuli, the right props, and the right people to entertain the crowds.

The visuals were a careful mix of oldschool footage from classics such as Style Wars and Wildstyle, while the soundtrack was provided by DJs Volcov and the special guest of the night - SHARP. How 'real' can you get? SHARP - if you haven't heard the name before - was one of the kids who painted the legendary, iconic "Wild Style" piece... F & M set a pretty high standard for all old-school parties - try to beat this and try to find that Panasonic boom box in this condition...

Foot-Equipment. Nike Zvezdochka by Mark Newson

Huge magazine had the first picture of this new shoe (?) and it blew us from our chairs, through the wall, and into the next building. A very appropriate reaction we came to realize when we found out more about the inspiration for this shoe... Mark will give the explanation himself:

"From a functional point of view, my experience at the Russian Space agency intrigued and inspired me to develop a multi-purpose shoe for Cosmonauts. Nike is a high performance sports company, and I couldn't think of a more challenging environment than Zero-G in which to push these limits." He surely pushed our limits.

The Nike Zvezdochka - named after the Russian Space dog launched into orbit on March 25, 1961 aboard Sputnik 10 - is the future of footwear. Even though the design might appear to be very simple, the technology behind it is groundbreaking and will see a number of adaptations for future models.

In 20 years our kids will post these in the retro forums, praying for a re-release. "Mom, I don't want to float... I want those... I want to walk myself! Please...!" So, better buy an extra pair for your kids!

Exhibition. Elms Lesters - Icy Grape No.1924

This is by no means a review, it's a taster so all you people out there can turn off your TVs, PS2s, Xboxes and get moving to see Icy Grape No.1924.

What made this excellent exhibition even more special was to actually meet the personnel behind it all. They are Fiona McKinnon and Paul Jones of the Elms Lesters Gallery – responsible for many of the great shows in London including the now legendary Charles Bukowski exhibition eight years ago.

"We'd like to think we've been instrumental in promoting the genre", Fiona states, when asked about the popularity of Graf artists holding shows.
For this one they are: Snug, Delta, Stash, Stet, Futura, and Slater – all of them worth seeing as they express themselves in entirely different ways. Paul gave the details on the rugs the artists were commissioned to design for their offshoot company 'Toy Culture'. The quality is amazing, and they're for sale if you have a healthy bank balance.

One of the pieces by Snug called 'Brothers in Arms' is a work in progress, Paul said: "He came in with it under his arms just before the show started and said that if it sold he would need it back to finish it off!" Time is limited so go down and experience it for yourselves; it's well worth the journey.

Until next time... Adrian J W Darby

Printed Matter. Various

You might have noticed our absence... we've been covering a lot of miles during the past 10-12 days - and on our travels we had some time to look at this month's (this season's) new magazines. Let's start with Intersection. This car magazine could get you interested in the subject with the high-class photography and well-written pieces. Great design, too. This month's Relax magazine has undergone a number of changes - new numbering, glossy cover, and it's almost twice as thick. Not sure about this 'new look'... Huge is full of jackets. Lots of them. As always - the best product shots on the market and they are the first to show us new gear by Visvim, Nr(9), and adidas. We had a quick bit about the Frank151/alife/Wu joint venture - now pick up the special kit with some extra goodies. Good package.

From portait we switch over to landscape format. Monster Children reached us a few weeks ago. These guys did a superb job with their piece on the Beautiful Losers show. The cover is truely amazing - see for yourself. The godfather of the 'horizontal mag'-format is Lodown: great pieces on obscure bands, ace photoshoots, but a bit weak on the sneaker front and 'must-have-stuff'. By the way - did anyone truely miss Abuse Industries?

Retail & Event. Slam Jam hosts Futura

Slam Jam has been a well-known and respected name in the streetwear business for over a decade now. While before 2004, one would occasionally hear from those guys in the context of skateboard contests, Stüssy-related issues, or the DEFUMO events - organized and staged by Sartoria (we'll have to catch up with them sometime very soon, too), they have surely put their name on the map this year.

Back in March, Slam Jam followed up on the launch of their online store with the opening of a physical shop in their hometown of Ferrara, Italy. For this special event an exhibition was put together by Boris Tellegen, aka Delta. For the first time, this show gave an overview of Delta's work from different periods with pieces from his own collection. To make the set complete, the "FU" and "MO" in "DEFUMO" had also arrived as special guests.

Last weekend, Delta's pieces were exchanged for a new artshow. This time, Futura answered the call by providing a set of canvasses that clearly demonstrate that he still got plenty of styles up his sleeve that will take us beyond the borders guarded by his pointmen.

Slam Jam Store, Ferrara (Emilia Romagna), Via Canonica, 12 int. 3-5.