Starts 8am - June 4 
Paul Smith Project 10: Bag exclusively showcased at the Design MuseumPaul Smith has taken one bag shape, the ‘Flight Bag’ and created 138 individual designs for it - 138 in total, for every Paul Smith shop in Japan. Each shop will stock just one design inviting customers to get something very rare and special.
Designs include everything from vibrant graphic prints to more muted colours and new takes on the signature multi-stripe.
Re-evaluating large-scale manufacture, each design is limited to an edition of 10 – the result is a unique, inspiring and entirely individual collection of bags.
‘Project 10: Bag’ launched exclusively in stores in Japan on 10th April and will be exhibited at The Design Museum from 18th May until 2nd June.
“I wanted to show that creativity is not just driven by money or commerciality and that it can be about a simple idea and effort. Designing 138 prints at the same time for one project was both extremely challenging and rewarding at the same time. I wanted to give and show something interesting and unique to the customer, and hopefully we have achieved that” Paul Smith
“The Project 10: Bag designs are a breath of fresh air. They’re like an encyclopedia of design thinking” Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum
via New Dandyisim 
Their loyalty wasn't just because Nancy and Walter made great surf trunks - the Katins loved the surfers who came into their shop, and the surfers loved them. Walter Katin passed on in 1967, and Nancy continued to run the shop and the business in the same manner as before.
In 1976, just as professional surfing was starting to take off, Nancy initiated an annual Pro/Am Team Challenge at the Huntington Beach Pier as a way to let the surfers show their stuff. All the world's best surfers came to compete, but so did all the hot young kids from Any Beach, USA, who were given the chance to surf side-by-side with their heroes. Winning the Katin Team Challenge instantly became one of the surfing world's most prestigious accomplishments.
By the late seventies, the surf industry had begun a decade of explosive growth, but that wasn't important to Nancy. Her involvement with surfing had nothing to do with cashing in on the sport, it was based on her love of "her boys".
In the early eighties, Nancy's health began to decline and expansion of the company was the last thing on anyone's mind. Yet at this time, the popularity of surf wear began to skyrocket, and many other manufacturers were quick to take advantage of the trend, aggressively attacking the market with slick advertising and worldwide promotional blitzes. Katin, however, was content to keep things low-key, continuing to sew up the best surf trunks you could buy in the back room of the Surfside store, selling them up front and through the same loyal network of surf shops.
In 1986 Nancy Katin passed on. Although they were like parents to a generation of surfers, the Katins never had any children of their own, and Nancy left the business to her loyal friend and seamstress, Sato Hughes, who had begun sewing trunks for the Katins back in 1961.
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If J.Crew is gunning to become an old boys' club, it's on the right track. The brand is set to open its second NYC men's-only outpost, The Men's Shop, this week, just a stone's throw from its existing Liquor Store shop and with a similar retro, sepia-toned style. The space, formerly a newsstand, doesn't have the broken-in aesthetic of the Liquor Store—yet. The reclaimed knotty-pine fixtures are untreated, encouraging them to weather quickly; in the meantime, the mood is set with vintage decor, from magazines and books (for sale) to pencil sharpeners and staplers (not so much). But atmosphere aside, the clothes are the highlight. The front of the Men's Shop will stock what menswear director Frank Muytjens calls "the always list." In practice? A mix of the Crew menswear, third-party apparel, and exclusive merch from trad-friendly lines. Think outerwear from Mackintosh and Barracuta; footwear from Red Wing, Sperry, Alden, and Colchester, a revived brand of deadstock canvas sneakers. The back is devoted to J.Crew's first-ever Suit Shop. All of the suiting options—many of them previously catalogue-only—are here, with a new, high-end Italian fabric line set to debut later this year. While there won't be a tailor on the premises, we were assured that one would be on call—not on one of the red phones ubiquitous in all of J.Crew's other stores, but, in keeping with the theme, on an antique rotary.I don't believe that's your best attempt at drawing a cat. (to see the cat click the Fashionista link)
This is real. This is not me because I hurt my arm. I have something wrong with me in terms of my ability - like my son is seven and he can draw a better cat. So me trying to do this stuff was weird but you find a way to overcome these things. So yeah then people started taking me seriously and then I started doing women's versions of my guy clothes. I thought that was cute. I think it's really cute when girls wear their boyfriends things. I was never really into, and definitely not for the store, those super cleavage-y tops, anything super sexy, those embellished tops. And there were time when that was a big, big thing, you know Sex and the City and times where the whole Mediterranean, super babe look was huge. But we still had a following.
By avoiding trends?
Yeah, I mean it's really easy in retail to be like these are going to be the trends. This huge celebrity is doing a line and we're going to sell it but that's just not us. Unless, of course, it's a really great line regardless of the celebrity attached and then sure.
Can you name one? One that you thought was great enough to sell?
Milkfed was really great at first, Sofia Copolla's line. It was really cute. She was working with Mike Mills and I thought the graphics were really cute. She got it.
If you had to choose between the retail and the design
I would probably design. But I like having stores, I like that direct feedback from the customer. Like, I don't want to be the designer who just has shows and sells to the stores because I need that interaction.
You've never had a show?
I did last year, but I didn't produce it. I was nominated last year for CFDA men's designer of the year, the GQ thing, so they produced my show. And I was actually going to have a show this season, for fall, but the economy didn't seem like the right time to have a show.
So maybe in the future?
A presentation maybe, probably not a proper show. There's something about male models that's weird. About "perfect men" on a runway is weird. Is that sexist maybe?
Yeah last week's Jeffrey Cares was the first time I really saw a bunch of male models on a runway and it was really different.
There's just something stiff and contrived about them. When I was younger I had really curly hair but I never combed it. There are those guys who are really perfect but you can see it in my clothes, I'm just messy.
What were you like in high school?
I went to private, public and art high school. We transferred out of the public into Browning because my brother was dyslexic and I wanted to go to school with him. But htat was an all boys school and it was really intense, I just didn't like it, it was too strict. So then I went to this super liberal high school, co-ed, no uniforms and there was this amazing city kid messiness that's always resonated.
So that influenced the things you like now?
Definitely. The art school was un-zoned so you had people from all over the place and you have to apply.
Ok so let's get back to your day. Breakfast, showroom, then what?
So after the showroom I go over to the store. I check in with the bookkeeper, the planner, the buyer, production, the girl who runs the website. Usually I have ideas of things I want to find for the store so I'll go over my plans with everyone. Then I head over to the design studio, where the corporate offices are and find out what they're going, play with swatches, fabrics, stuff like that.
So that's what you do all day.
I'll have appointments, go to other showrooms. I have to wear all these different hats - figure out what I want to buy for my store each season, what to put in the showroom, what I want to design differently.
And you're also working to sell this stuff to other stores right?
Exactly.
So how big of a role do you play in determining which designers get to be in your showroom?
Big. I'm totally involved in all of it. We had two meetings before this with designers who wanted us to rep them.
How do you decide who's in?
We take on the designers we think will do well. And we try to keep them consistent. We can't carry each and every one in all of our stores all of the time. I mean our stores are pretty small and we represent over twenty designers but we would. Like an artist who has a gallery, to me, if I had a gallery, I'd want to have an artist that if you looked at that painting or sculpture you go, "Oh! Is that so and so?" You just get it because it's personal, without even seeing the signature. And that is really hard, but it's one of the things that we really look for. And you don't see that on Seventh Avenue. Even if lines are very successful, they're geared toward trends and you see the collections every season and you're like, "Is that the same designer?" It's like the wind. So we pick people who we feel change, but change within the context of who they are. And of course they need the ability to produce, ship, they should probably be financed.
We don't finance them and we don't introduce them to money people. We will introduce, or we have a good relationship with factors which are like banks, they loan money. I think that if we recommend someone, even if they're not meeting minimums, they'll make an exception if they believe that we believe in the designer. And we'll do press to an extent. Internally, we have a lot of editors coming to us, but we don't really pitch stories. We recommend our designers hire someone else for that.
OK what about in your store. What does it take to hang on Steven Alan racks?
A lot of the same things. And quality. That's a big thing for me. I don't like cheap disposable clothing, you can get that anywhere and it's pretty stylish. But that's not what we're doing. And what we're selling, it's all really different but it's within the same - I mean you might like this but you're friend will like this. You know? There's a group of five girls and they'll all like something but the next group of five girls won't be into it at all.
There is an incredibly cohesive feel. It's one kind of girl who wears everything in here, the showroom, and out there, in the store.
Yeah and her boyfriend.
Let's talk about the mass clothing thing. You're doing lines for both Urban Outfitters and Uniqlo now.
Yeah. I mean we have designers who've done it for Target - Gryson, Loeffler Randall - and Urban Outfitters was someone who I thought, if I was going to do a younger line, they'd get it. And I didn't want to do a seasonal thing. If I'm going to go in and work with the design team and cultivate it to a point where the customer really gets it, I'm really going to do it. And the experience has been great.
How does the design process work? Do you work with them? Do you do your own thing and they approve?
We do all of the designing in house. And then another company does production. We do talk to Urban, it's a collaborative process. We're in touch with the buying team to see what they want, what they need.
And Uniqlo?
They actually approached me a long time ago, when they were just talking about starting collaborations but I was kind of unsure and wanted to feel it out. But ti's been a great experience. I went to Japan and worked with their technical team there and they have tremendous resources and it's such great quality - even though it's so inexpensive.
It's pretty great stuff.
It is.
Ok, let's play favorites.
Cool.
FAVORITE MAGAZINE: Monocle
FAVORITE BOOK: Catcher in the Rye or The Fountainhead
FAVORITE WORD: Max
FAVORITE FOOD: Japanese
FAVORITE SONG: Anything Dylan
FAVORITE PLACE: New York
FAVORITE DRINK: Something citrus-y
via FashionistaHe doesn’t just design men’s, women’s and children’s collections; he doesn’t just run a showroom representing over twenty of New York’s hippest designers; and he doesn’t just operate ten of his own stores - he also hangs out with his seven-year-old son.They like to eat things like seaweed with rice and salami and tuna and rank their favorite chefs.
But when he’s working, Alan works hard, scouting the best new designers to fill both his showroom and his store while maintaining one of the most cohesive design visions around.
(check back later for Part II.)
Where did you grow up?
Manhattan. Born and raised. I left to go to college at Arizona State and then USC, did entrepreunership there. Fantastic program.
I almost went there.
It’s great. And I almost stayed in California, but my parents had this jewelry store here in the city and I thought, at the time, I didn’t know if I wanted to do real estate development or retail but I’d written about this retail concept in school and thought I’d do the latter. So my parents let me manage the store and then I started doing this export business with watches in Switzerland, Japan, traveling a lot and I just thought it’d be so great to just travel and find stuff for my own store.
So what’s a day in the life of Steven Alan like?
Well, I get up early. 6:30. Really early no matter where I am, even if I’m on vacation, but I live in Chinatown. I’m not a coffee person, I’m a big breakfast person. But I don’t tend to eat a big American breakfast. If I’m home I like yogurt and granola or something but if I go out I like to have fishy stuff. Like salmon, avocado, tomato on a bagel. I did actually have coffee this morning. I have a seven-year old son named Max and when he’s there I’ll make him something but he’s not a big breakfast eater and I was number ten on his list of top ten cooks. But he likes really strange combinations of things - like the other day he wanted salami with rice, seaweed and tunafish.
For breakfast?
It doesn’t really matter. He’d eat it for lunch, dinner, snack whatever. It’s the Max special.
One of Alan’s co-workers comes over to tell us this is already the most interesting conversation she’s ever overheard.
Then I come into work.
Here? We’re in Alan’s showroom in Tribeca.
I’ll stop by the showroom and check in with Lynn, the showroom’s director and see how things are going.
So what do you do on the showroom side?
My involvement with the showroom isn’t so much about the day to day but there’s a lot of interaction with the designers. They come to me to sell things in the store and I also approach them and then they’re coming to me for the store. There’s a lot of overlap.
Is that how the showroom started, just you meeting designers who needed help?
When I first started I had a little store on Wooster Street and I wasn’t making anything, just going to trade shows and buying and there was nothing really special or amazing but then I found that what I really liked to do was finding new designers - discovering and promoting them and that became kind of all I did for awhile.
Where’d you find them?
It’d be friends of friends, “Oh my friend makes great skirts,” or, “My friend just graduated from Parsons.” And the first one I really found was Rebecca Danneberg and she was getting a lot of press because she was making this kind of low waisted pants with wide waist bands in nylons, denim, twills and it became this - well, do you remember when the hipster thing first started?
Nope. I grew up in Northern California - it was kind of like anyone who didn’t wear Abercrombie was a hipster but I don’t think that’s what you mean.
In California, there was a company called Funk Essentials and they started making these pants with a really low rise and we carried them. And then there was Daryl K. and a few others and at that point a lot of stores would come into my store to scout for theirs, because I didn’t have a showroom at that time and then Japan got huge. They’d just come here and buy so much stuff because they didn’t want anything mass and then yen was great so we sort of built up this great reputation in Japan.
Did you have a base there, or a store?
At one point we had four women’s stores and six men’s stores. But then some of the designers we were selling - Sofia Coppola had Milk Fed, Built By Wendy - wanted me to represent them because it didn’t really exist, this idea of showrooms for small designers. Not the way it is today. And I found that I really liked that though it was hard since a lot of them didn’t really know what they were doing. So that’s how we started - a 150 foot showroom on this mezzanine in my store. And eventually we moved onto Mercer Street.
So then what?
Then we opened a barbershop.
A barbershop?
Yes.
Explain, please.
It’s kind of a story.
The best things are.
Ok, well my mom was getting her haircut at this hairdresser’s in the east village and the lady told her she was interested in opening her own salon so my mom goes, “Oh you should talk to my son!” And I’m like, “Mom, I’m not opening a hair salon.” And she goes well you should meet her anyway. So I met her and i was like, “If I open anything it’s going to be a barber shop,” and she was like, “Ok, I can cut guy’s hair.” So we went and got all these old barber shop chairs and stuff.
Someone comes over to ask for the Urban Outfitter’s outlines.
I do a project for Urban Outfitters called Lark & Wolf.
Yep. I know. I have some. I like it.
Thanks.
So the barbershop?
I was selling my stuff. The stuff I made.
Wait, when did you start making your own stuff.
Well after we moved I kind of had this empty space so I just started making things for myself.
Why?
I couldn’t find anything I liked. And then it really evolved and a demand grew and I was like, “Ok, I guess I’ll take this seriously now.” But I’m not a technical designer. When I started I would just go to midtown, look around, buy a roll of fabric. Maybe ten yards and ask them where I could make it into a shirt. And it was kind of hit or miss. Sometimes they’d be great and sometimes terrible. Through that process I found the ones that were best at what they do. The best factory for pants, best for shirts - the best ones in my opinion.
Did you sketch what you wanted?
I can’t even sketch! That’s the problem. I’d ask someone who worked for me to draw a shrit. And then be like make the pocket smaller, do this, do that and then take it to the factory and they’d make a rough sample and we’d just keep going. Because I can look at it and see what I want to tweak. My dad’s a jeweler and that’s what he’d do with clay. I have that eye but…
