The Clothes Shrink, the Plans Grow
How the cultural pendulum loves to swing. Back in ’91 when X-Large was just a streetwear shop on Vermont Avenue and not a brand, young skateboarders, hip-hoppers and kids believed that the more X’s a size tag had, the better the product.
Today, slim is in.
Well, make that Mini, as in the new collection from X-Large, the Burgeoning Retail and Wholesale Empire. That’s not the official corporate banner, of course, and it’s more than a little optimistic. But understand, this progenitor of street style has extra-large plans that go beyond streetwear.
Besides Mini, a sharper, more grown-up collection for men and women, there is a nail polish line--Moods by Mini. It distinguishes itself in the saturated nail product market by its temperature sensitivity to change color like a mood ring.
Development is also underway for an X-Large shoe line, manufactured by Santa Fe Springs sneaker-maker Vans.
Expect more accessories, from handbags to Zippo lighters. Forty signature stores will be added worldwide to the current 16 in the next five years. For kicks, there’s a gallery set to open next month near the Vermont store showcasing art at an accessible $500 or less. And there’s the requisite World Wide Web site (https://www.cinenet.net/XLARGE) taking in orders around the clock.
No wonder Forbes magazine crowned owners Adam Silverman, 33, and Eli Bonerz, 30, among leaders of the entrepreneurial generation. Certainly, it’s a better label than the more common appellation with an X that makes the partners cringe--they’re no slackers. Consider that debunked myth No. 1 about X-Large.
Myth No. 2 involves a connection between the company and rock music. Sure, partner Mike Diamond, 30, of the rock ‘n’ rap group, the Beastie Boys has a stake, but purely as an investor and occasional creative advisor.
“The fact that X-Large went beyond our first store, beyond the first couple of years, is largely attributed to Adam and Eli’s talents,” Diamond said by telephone last week from New York City.
The band connection, however, tightened last year when manufacturing and distribution of the Beastie Boys’ own line, Grand Royal, was licensed to X-Large. And because of Diamond’s investment, which generated some unintended hype about the company, notice has escalated to near-cult status as a result of other rock contributors.
Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon and rock video stylist Daisy von Furth design X-Girl, the 3-year-old junior division based in New York and produced in L.A. There’s the catalog photography by Sofia Coppola, video direction by Spike Jonze and graphic art from Mike Mills, among others. Together, under Bonerz’s supervision, they have created an iconic aesthetic that is as instantly recognizable as it is desperately imitated. The mail-order catalogs are so coveted that requests for them outrank purchases.
The highly regarded International Design magazine featured X-Large early this year among the current top 40 design innovators. For Silverman and Bonerz, it has to be a highlight for architecture graduates who ended up in fashion not long after leaving the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design.
Their refusal to adhere to one form of art has also led to their participation at the Zero 1 Gallery on Melrose Avenue. A show surveying the commercial and fine art by street and skate culture heroes such as Ed Tempelton, Haze and John A. Grigley is on display until Aug. 20.
Curator Carlo McCormick says X-Large has its own cultural role despite the association with rock musicians. “The association with the Beastie Boys, Kim [Gordon] and the rest has been both a blessing and a curse for them,” said McCormick, who also covers pop culture as senior editor of Paper magazine.
“Streetwear employs the semiotics of brand names as membership while subverting it for its own purposes. This pseudo-construct of band association makes it more potent for X-Large. Their customers then not only can claim brand allegiance but band allegiance. Kids can be down two ways.”
Diamond believes “that’s conversely true for the [Beastie Boys]. The last thing we want is for anyone to perceive us as using X-Large or Grand Royal and our celebrity to extract money from people. If it were the case, business would be run in a completely different way. . . . This is not Kenny Rogers Chicken.”
Three years ago, X-Large declined corporate assistance from Adidas. This, even though X-Large had been responsible for the “old school” sneaker craze by selling outdated stock, prompting the athletic gear giant to reissue them en masse.
That actually left them with a void in footwear, said Silverman, explaining why there is now a deal with Vans.
X-Large has practiced a concerted, disciplined approach to wholesaling, earning a reputation of exclusivity that includes only 100 member specialty stores.
That cachet has fueled interest. Bonerz contends they wouldn’t be so protective “if it meant we wouldn’t see our clothes on a fat, old guy at Disneyland, and we wouldn’t see our clothes in the mall. You don’t by accident wind up in X-Large.”
“We want to keep it special,” continued Silverman, “But we recognize Mini will appeal to a different market, people in their 20s and 30s who maybe once wore X-Large, or still do, but now need more than T-shirts.”
Mini, designed in-house by longtime collaborator Andrew Hinkley, is a refined, tailored collection big on quality and details, a kind of Audrey Hepburn on some beatnik trip.
So what’s next? Anything, apparently. Says Silverman, “I don’t think for either one of us that clothing is the great motivator in our lives. It’s simply a piece of a puzzle that allows us to finance other things we’re interested in.”
