LOOP SUMMER BLING 8-7-03
Hanging out with INK down in the Village, we cabbed it uptown and dropped into Maxim Magazine's office
so I could pick up a few copies of the new issue, then we walked the few
blocks over to Loop NYC where their annual summer party was about to kick off.
This is a party where they debut their new lines. I created their "Audio Couture" line, so it was almost like a mini gallery show of my new works.
JEN met up with us and we headed in. The theme this year was BLING. The
object was to look pimp-like with as much bling as we could come up with. I
bought some fake bling for the party and wore my shades, but when we got
there we realized that bringing bling was unnecessary. In the center of the
studio there is a bank of light tables that run the length of the room. The
light tables were completely covered with all the fake bling you could
imagine. Loop had gone down to Chinatown and bought a few thousand dollars
worth of fake bling and stocked the studio with it free for the taking.
We loaded up on the bling and became super pimps. Tony Brown from Elevation Suite, SAVARK and a few other people I had invited showed up fashionably late-as-per-NY-usual.
On a side note, and just to point out how small a world the art / fashion /
entertainment biz really is, a few weeks prior to this party I was hanging
out at Loop and China Young and I were going over the designs for the next
year's line. When we wrapped it up and I was leaving he asked me if I had
heard of a band called FANNYPACK. It didn't ring a bell. He said that they
have a song called "Camel toe" that's getting pretty popular. Now I
remembered I had heard it. It was a total nonsequitar, so it stuck out in
my mind that I should go online and listen to their song when I got home.
Coincidentally enough, on the train ride home that night I was reading the
newest issue of THE VILLAGE VOICE and stumbled upon an entire article on the
group Fannypack, and there in the photo in black and white was a shot of the
group posed in front of a brick wall, and one of the members of the group was
wearing one of the Loop bags I had designed last season!
I called China Young and left a message on his machine about the odd
coincidence, that not only does he like the band, and the band is named
after a style of bag, but they wear our bags in their publicity photos! I
scanned and e-mailed him the page from the paper.
Fast-forward two weeks, at the Bling Extravaganza, China Young came up to me
and said. "You remember that whole thing about that group Fannypack?"
"Yeah?" I said. "Well, they love our bags, I talked to their publicity
people and a few of the band members are going to be here tonight to check out
the new lines!" "Cool." I replied.
I didn't think much of it, but later, when the band members showed up I was
blown away. To make this story even more of a coincidence, it seems, of the
three female vocalists in Fannypack, the white chick "Cat" is actually the
same Cat who used to be my art director at YRB NYC (Yellow Rat Bastard) when
I did some art for them the year prior to this party. It's so crazy,
because it all came back to me. I remember she had told me that she was in
a band. I hadn't spoken to her in some months and I remember I called their
office and her boss told me that her band had started getting big and she
had quit to record and tour and whatnot.
Well, I never put the two together, and now that I looked closer at the
photo from the Voice, damn, that really was her. Small, small world.
Aside from that, as usual the event was phenomenal. Tuxedoed servers
pouring all the free screwdrivers and cape coders you could drink, hoity
toady h¬¼ordervoirs being carted around on silver serving trays. Totally
high classed affair with everyone in Ultra Bling attire. It was a great
time. I met a shitload of people- as evidenced in the photos I took of this
event.
Afterwards, Ink, Jen and myself left with a group and we all cabbed it down
to a bar just off of Houston for an impromptu after party.
Just another day in the life of an Art Juggernaut.
-Cojo