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In a mansion in the hills above Glendale, a man named Mardiros...

Wed, 30 May 2012 14:24:00 -0400

In a mansion in the hills above Glendale, a man named Mardiros Iskenderian rose from his bed one morning and put on a white silk suit he hadn’t worn in 20 years. He stuffed a 9mm handgun into his waistband and a .38-caliber revolver into his coat pocket and walked step by small step down the stairs. His wife, Rita, who had fallen in love with him when she was 12, couldn’t believe the sight. For a man who was so near death, cancer everywhere, he looked beautiful. It had been months since he had ventured outside by himself, months since he had driven one of his fancy cars, and she fretted that he was too weak to go anywhere. He told her not to worry. He was feeling much better now, and besides, he was only going to Zankou Chicken to see an old friend.

He had lived his life like one of those princes of Armenian fable, maybe Ara the Beautiful or Tigran the Great. His story began in a tiny storefront in Beirut, where his mother in her apron hand spooned the fluffy white garlic paste that would become the family fortune. From Hollywood to Anaheim, he had opened a chain of fast-food rotisserie chicken restaurants that dazzled the food critics and turned customers into a cult. Poets wrote about his Zankou chicken. Musicians sang about his Zankou chicken. Now that he was dying, his dream of building an empire, 100 Zankous across the land, a Zankou in every major city, would be his four sons’ to pursue. In the days before, he had pulled them aside one by one—Dikran, Steve, Ara, Vartkes—and told them he had no regrets. He was 56 years old, that was true, but life had not cheated him. He did not tell them he had just one more piece of business left to do.

There was one son, the second son, Steve, who always seemed to know what was on his father’s mind. He was the son most like Mardiros. His smile, his temper, his heart. Had Steve been home that day, he might have sensed trouble or at least insisted that his father not go alone. But Mardiros had sent Steve off to the mall to fetch him one of those slushy lemonades, the only thing he still had a taste for. By the time Steve got home, the lemonade still icy, his father was gone. The boy would forever be tormented by the question of whether design or chance had prevailed that day. Was this errand a ruse, part of his father’s plan, or had he simply failed to hurry home fast enough?

“Steve, something bad has happened,” his mother cried at the door.

[Read more.]

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via . Jon Lee

via . Christina Chou

Tue, 29 May 2012 13:21:00 -0400

via . Christina Chou

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Tue, 29 May 2012 12:47:59 -0400

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Wed, 23 May 2012 20:57:01 -0400

Coulda been fun…

Tue, 22 May 2012 14:18:43 -0400

Coulda been fun…

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Wed, 16 May 2012 14:29:00 -0400

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Thu, 10 May 2012 18:04:59 -0400

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Wed, 09 May 2012 16:10:01 -0400

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Wed, 09 May 2012 16:09:37 -0400

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Wed, 09 May 2012 16:06:16 -0400

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Tue, 08 May 2012 15:35:24 -0400

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Fri, 04 May 2012 18:23:06 -0400

Don’t lose hope when you’re still a work in...

Tue, 01 May 2012 03:38:00 -0400

Don’t lose hope when you’re still a work in progress. If you have a vision for the end product and the diligence to see it through, more often than not, things will work out.

…if it doesn’t, develop a mobile app. That seemed to work out for the last guy.

Video

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:17:14 -0400

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Senna

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:24:09 -0400

Senna

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Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:57:29 -0400

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There will be critics, but I love how Humberto and Carol are...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:25:00 -0400

There will be critics, but I love how Humberto and Carol are never afraid to blur the lines between the sacred and the secular.

One morning Humberto was walking us through the LA store to give the staff deeper insight into the collections, future projects, and where the organization was moving. About midway through the brief, he started gushing about a pair of water shoes he adored in the past. Apparently the footwear giant who used to make them had approached them for a collaboration, so—not surprisingly—Humberto went straight to their archives. Months later the OC & Timberland water shoes released as an incredibly original take on summer footwear. But more than a good idea, the water shoes were the realization of an old love.

Most recognize that in Opening Ceremony, Carol and Humberto have cultivated a unique intersection for a diversity of fashion, but what people might not understand is that their projects aren’t an effort to prove relevance. It’s easy for them to move freely between what’s considered “street” and high fashion because, whether drawn by nostalgia or inspired to innovate, they make things they love.

And that, in my humble opinion, is how it should be.

“It’s all in the details.” Good composition...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:47:08 -0400

“It’s all in the details.”

Good composition doesn’t hurt either.