‘I’m wearing -- me!’
What would happen if you went to a party and everyone showed up wearing their own clothing line? That was the scene at Crooks & Castles last week, when so many fledgling streetwear designers and their peeps turned up at the new store, it felt like high noon on a Vegas trade-show floor.
Officially, the party at 8021 Melrose Ave. marked the opening of streetwear brand Crooks & Castles’ first retail store -- a narrow 1,100-square-foot faux fortress with concrete-gray walls and black marble floors -- but it also felt like playa city: part streetwear summit, part showboat convention for every kid with a flatbed scanner and a box full of blank T-shirt.
Bam Barcena and Lanie Alabanza, who recently relocated their Hellz Bellz streetwear line from the New York City area to Los Angeles, stepped out in their own wares, which borrowed stylistically from the military -- he in a green camo-print shirt, and Army field jacket, she in an olive drab jacket with gray and plaid contrast piping. Leo “LV the Stylist” Velasquez was also in military mode, in a herringbone jacket with metallic contrast piping and knit sleeves from Brooklyn-based Epic Firm, a gold metallic tie from Top Shop and Louis Vuitton glasses.
For Jamie S. Christopher, the occasion called for something dressier -- a gray pinstripe suit with contrasting lapels, pocket flaps and epaulets, which he said was from a new line called Elevee for Takeout. “It’s backed by Los Angeles Laker Lamar Odom,” he said. “And it’s about bringing a little street to the suit game, you know?” “Sneaker Steve” Patino was also rocking Elevee for Takeout -- a white jacket with pinstripe lapels and a turquoise tone-on-tone tie.
Diz Gibran of skateboard accessory and clothing line Diamond Supply Co. on Fairfax Avenue showed his support for his new neighbors, Crooks & Castles owners Dennis Calvero and Robert Panlilio, by wearing one of their “3 Crooks” knit zip-front hoodies, that could just as easily have come from an American Eagle catalog.
It was a fittingly turned-out crowd in streetwear labels borrowing heavily from preppy and luxury designer brands, especially given that Crooks & Castles takes its name from the motto “Behind every castle stands a crook.” The theme of those who get rich by appropriating the property of others is reflected throughout the store, in the display case full of Brooks Bros.-worthy polka-dot pocket squares, the racks of 1950s era Mitchell & Ness letterman jackets, even a suspiciously Versace-like, marble Medusa head with a bandanna wrapped bandit-like around the face.
It seems after five years and a wholesale business of $5 million, the crooks finally have a castle of their own.
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