Felissimo – the design house on 56th street in New York – is opening a JAPAN BRAND holiday pop up shop from Nov 23rd to Dec 24th.  Awesome stuff!

One of the items is a limited edition series of extraordinary, exceptionally expensive chess sets (up to $55K) made of lacquer, silver plating and gold leaf. The sets were designed by world renowned media artist Alexander Gelman and crafted by traditional Japanese artisans.

The other is the bicycle above which looks absolutely amazing: As part of his foray into lacquerware, Gelman also created a custom, one-of-a-kind lacquer bicycle. To build it, he hand-picked the highest grade components from Shimano, the worlds’ leading bicycle manufacturer.

The shop is here in New York city at The Felissimo Design House, 10 West 56th Street.  Swing by for a visit if you’re in the area.

Even though I’m told there isn’t a word for entrepreneur in Arabic, there is certainly a good amount of “from the ground up” spirit happening from within a new generation of people living in Dubai. I had the pleasure of visiting one such project called The Shelter, a wonderful workspace, cafe, store, screening room type place.  It’s situated in an old warehouse in an industrial part of Dubai, off the beaten path. If you’re in town and need a place to work (or just want to see something that makes you feel good), I highly encourage you to stop in and see this place.

The Shelter is a first of its kind community workspace that allows individuals from various creative disciplines to engage in an environment that nurtures entrepreneurial small businesses. The Shelter is a medium for forward thinkers, creatives and intellectuals to connect and exchange ideas; converting those interactions into commercial services and products through subsidized work spaces.

The lines are massive down the block from my office on Lafayette Street in NYC– the limited time only A Bathing Ape Pirate Store opens today. It’s full of all kinds of archived and factory second items for sale.  Should be a zoo for a long time.

Store Hours are as follows:

9/3, 9/4, 9/5 12:00pm to 7:00pm

9/6, 9/7 from 11:00pm to 6:00pm

Wanna get your Nooka on? Swing by their super-fun pop-up shop at Den in New York from July 10th through August 16th. The entire line of products is for sale– all the watches, the new wallets, belts and Nooka fragrance. It’s a great space and very well done!

330 East 11th Street
Between 1st avenue and 2nd avenue
New York, NY 10018

A pre-lunch visit to the online marketplace Foodzie is not for the faint of heart: the startup’s efforts to highlight the products of independent food producers includes images and details about cheeses, chocolates, and sauces that will make your mouth water. The artisan product provider earned recognition as one of BusinessWeek’s Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs earlier this year, and the results have been delicious.

While working for a private label market in North Carolina, Emily Olson, one of the three member Foodzie founder team (above in the middle), realized how hard it can be for small producers to get their products in front of retailers. The stories behind the foods and companies weren’t being well conveyed, and she set up shop with Rob LaFave and Nik Bauman to create a marketplace where producers could promote their products easily. “This lets them focus on chocolate or what they’re really good at,” said Olson, whose notable finds since starting the site have included truffle popcorn and almond butter crunch toffee. “We see ourselves as part of a bigger movement around more sustainable and high quality food. And even in a recession, we’ve found that people may not be going for big extravagances but are still buying small luxuries.” Sounds like it’s time for a gourmet pickle party pack.

We posted about Mishka’s website relaunch in 2007, and now we’re happy to see that the streetwear brand is opening its first store in the heart of Brooklyn, “where it all began.” Mishka’s flagship store is located at 350 Broadway and set to open its doors this Friday, March 13th at 12 p.m. In celebration they have prepared a host of exclusive releases, including New Era caps, T-shirts and “kaiju craziness,” which, for the uninitiated, translates to cool Japanese monster toys. Music and monsters have always been a running theme in Mishka’s aesthetic. There will be an in-store reception beginning at 7 p.m. featuring the debut of Nick Catchdubs & Mr. Ducker's “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter 2.” The party then moves to Trophy Bar at 10 p.m. where you'll get down with Nick Gazin & His Creepy Touch until about midnight. Finally, Trouble & Bass rings in the new day from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. at Studio B.

Yelpers are a notoriously fickle bunch, and pretty verbose when it comes to the recently opened San Francisco men and women's apparel boutique SHOTWELL. Carrying “vintage Lacoste sweaters, plaid shirts … and reconstructed dresses”, as well as lines from Cheap Monday and Alex & Chloe, one reviewer described it as having a “SF-meets-L.A.-meets-NY-hipster-meets-high-fashion yuppy threads.”

Founders Michael Weaver and Holly Kricher were previously selling vintage clothing out of their house in the Mission District before grabbing this space on Geary St. If you need an excuse to shop, Bosnian artist Jasko Begovic's colorful, haunting artwork will be on display at an in-store party tonight.

In this era of mass production, it’s pretty common to happen upon a killer tee only to find out your not the first to sport it in public. Despite the disappointment you must press on with your unique fashion sense. Muazo, the British online shop, features some of the dopest designs outside of the realm of the big brands with items ranging from hot hoodies by Tolky Monkys to ever-so slick backpacks from Built NY. And, there’s plenty more where that comes from.

The photo above is of the customizing area at Brazil’s first Nike Sportswear store, which opened on Saturday here in Sao Paulo to an excited crowd. No doubt they were there in part to see super-special guest of honor and returning soccer star Ronaldo doing the honors of opening the doors to the wood-flanked space. BMX demos, b-boys and DJs like Zegon (one-half of NASA) kept the crowd entertained in the plaza in front of the store all afternoon and into the early evening. Inside, people were getting shirts customized with heat-stamped prints. The service that also lets customers pick out other pre-designed prints — like Sao Paulo’s distinctive sidewalk pattern — to build their own unique Dunk or Cortez kicks. While it’s an opportunity for locals to get the most complete current line of Nike Sportswear, it offers travelers from outside of Brazil a chance to get their hands on limited-edition, Brazil-only releases. The shop will host free events from workshops to film showings beginning January.

When the Storefront for Art and Architecture renovated its New York City space this past summer, some things had to go. Among the items that got the ol’ heave ho were the iconic letters that adorned its facade since 1993. While the concrete creations by Steven Holl and Vito Acconci are no longer out front for visitors to admire, but that doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to the alphabetical art again. If you’ve got a few bucks you can have a historical memento. The Storefront is holding a 2008 Holiday Benefit Auction for four of these lovely letters ( T,F,G, and O). We recommend getting your bid in before the 12 p.m., December 20th deadline. No low ball offers though, as the the bidding starts at $1000 for each piece.

We’d like to think that we’ve built a little street cred for our knowledge of denim. But Tenue de Nimes is rapidly becoming the Mecca of denim — made from denim. Starting in December, not only can you buy the best jeans there, but you can also get special Japanese washing powder for your Japanese raw. The list of brands they carry is basically a who’s who in the denim world, including a few exclusive items. They’re so proud of their collection that they claim to have a pair of jeans to fit every man and woman in the world. The smartass in me wants to take the 1,000-pound man from Mexico that got married a few weeks ago to see what they do. But their point is well met. Get yourself to Amsterdam and find that perfect pair, or stay where you are and take a peak at their blog to see the progress of the store.

Need something to do tomorrow? If you live in or around Los Angeles, cruise over (there’s no walking in L.A.) to Echo Park for the opening of the new bookstore/Middle Eastern cafe Stories. Not only can you pick up some new or inexpensive used books, stocking stuffers, and a cup of Joe, but you can also marvel at the 1800 sq ft space co-owned by former Spaceland/Book Soup staffer Liz Garo and developed by Thomas Robertson’s Ripple Design. The project opened just six months after Garo and her co-owner, Claudia Colodro, came together with Robertson and his firm to discuss the project. The result is a clean, open space with an outdoor patio, exposed brick, and sparking concrete floors that doesn’t feel cluttered even though there’s plenty going on. Like reading! So if you haven’t given up on the print industry, drop by for munchies and silk screened Stories bags made on site by Hit & Run.

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Calling all fans of choice kicks, if you currently have no reason to feel “pumped” up, maybe you should revisit the classic Reebok sneakers. The brand that pitted Dan and Dave against each other in the race for Olympic glory so many years ago is finally getting around to erecting their very first pop up store. Beginning November 15th, the hot spot for Reebok apparel will be the Reebok Flash store at 169 Bowery in Manhattan. In addition to some sweet and fashionable threads, each successive week will bring the release of a new limited edition sneaker available for that week only, the first of which will be a hot pair of Insta Pump Fury. The store will be around for one month — that means four new kinds of kicks. So do yourself a favor, get down there as soon as humanly possible starting this Saturday, because the shoes you want are sure to be gone in a flash.

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My friends in Japan think I’m nuts– each time I’m in Tokyo (or even in London), I dive head first into Muji and stock up on everything. With 341 stores in Japan alone, it’s sort of like a 7-Eleven to them (although they have that in strength around Japan as well). Pens, papers, pads, folders, and even sometimes clothes if i need them. Muji is usually the perfect place to go and grab an incredibly inexpensive T-shirt when everything else is dirty, or if you just need a good looking bag, umbrella, or, well, pretty much anything else in the world without breaking the bank or the eyes (read: cheap and good looking).

And, it’s coming to JFK. A small victory for Muji lovers around the world, on October 22nd the doors will open to the new MUJIto GO store at the new JetBlue Terminal 5. Following Muji in Times Square and Soho, the JFK outlet is Muji’s third store in the states– and I would have to guess they’re going to be pretty aggressive here soon.

The store is focused on travel and mobile accessories, and if you’re as excited as I am you can download the PDF of the MUJI to GO Catalog here– get ready!

Johannesburg’s Dokter and Misses is not exactly a store, but it’s not soley a studio either. A bit over half of the apparel and furniture outfitter’s wares are from their own cubism-influenced label of jewelry, lights, T-shirts, and vests. It’s a place “where dreams come to life and vodka slaying superheroes support and uplift South African design,” say the co-founders. A collaboration between furniture designer Adriaan Hugo and multidisciplinary designer Katy Taplin, Dokter and Misses featured an anti-Mugabe, pro-democracy poster series with Kudzanai Chiurai in the wake of the Zimbabwe presidential “elections” earlier this year. All this from a pair who met designing cardboard handbags at university. Even Tim Gunn’s producers didn’t think of that.

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