The CLOT third anniversary is swiftly approaching! Rumor has it that the special guest d.j. is one of the hottest global d.j. / producers around. If the info is indeed true, I’m extremely excited since this will be his first time performing in Hong Kong. CLOT’s previous events have historically been my favorite parties of the year, and I expect the third anniversary to be equally amazing!

The past year for CLOT has been a milestone with several huge achievements. In addition to tens of high profile collaborations (such as LEVIS, and EA,) there’s been the Kanye West concert, the wildly successful launch of the CLOT Nike sneakers, and the CLOT clothing line – Alienegra, not to mention all of the action with Soleciety in Shanghai.

Congratulations Edison, Kevin, Pavlos and Billy – here’s to another year of taking giant steps forward! (p.s. I’ll leave the beer-bong home this year!)

Stay tuned for coverage!

Not only is he the pioneer of Japan’s streetwear scene, the founder of visvim, Head Porter, GoodEnough, Base Station and countless crossover collaborations, but Hiroshi Fujiwara plays a mean acoustic guitar!

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It all started on Tuesday when I received an invitation in the mail to check out the F.I.L. (Free International Laboratory) store opening. Actually, the invitation was for two events, a reception at the store from six to eight, followed by a live performance at an outdoor venue from eight to eleven.

F.I.L. is the storefront face of the visvim brand. Visvim was founded by Hiroshi Fujiwara, often referred to as the father of Tokyo’s Harajuku streetwear scene. He’s a visionary in the production and marketing of streetwear and is a mentor to such notable figures as Nigo, the creator of A Bathing Ape. Visvim products are highly regarded for placing equal emphasis on comfort, quality, and design. Although sold in select stores outside of Japan, the Hong Kong shop is their first foreign retail venture.

The Hong Kong F.I.L. store is a collaboration with the I.T. Group, one of the top players in H.K.’s upscale clothing market. Collaborations like this, where a foreign brand has a local partner are a common practice here. In particular D-Mop (another high-end retailer,) and I.T. are the local partner for numerous international brands. Silly Thing, more of a specialty retailer (among other things,) has also adopted this approach.

The store with windows covered on the day before the opening:

The F.I.L. store is located in the heart of Hong Kong’s Central neighborhood. Situated on number 18 Wyndham Street, it’s around the corner from D-Mop, Maison Martin Margiela, and a new Diesel shop. The store is also directly next to Sugar and Hei Hei – two mainstream clubs. M-88, the new building that houses Racks M.D.B. is right across the street. As far as foot traffic and exposure go, it’s in an excellent location.

I stopped by the F.I.L. reception at six-thirty. The narrow sidewalk outside the shop was crowded with press and onlookers. Stepping inside, the shop interior featured bare walls with a single rack of clothing on one side and a short shelf along the other wall on which shoes and a backpack were displayed. The checkout counter also housed jeans and several hats. What did it look like? Check out the photos and video! (more…)

Friday night I attended the launch of Levi’s Copper, a line of jeans that uses original-style copper rivets. The party was held at the Star Ferry pier, which seems to be the venue of choice for everyone these days. (Just to name a few, Nike and Diesel as well as high-fashion brands such as Vivienne Westwood have all used the space recently.) The location is good for a number of reasons – it’s directly in Central, (one of Hong Kong Island’s main neighborhoods,) the space is raw (so it can be outfitted in whatever way the client wants,) it’s a scenic location (with a view of both sides of the harbor,) and it’s away from all residential housing, (which means no noise or crowd complaints!)

Arriving at the venue, for a second I thought there was some sort of Flintstone’s theme going on. After passing through the reception, guests entered a faux mine shaft and proceeded through to the main room of the party. The rest of the venue was similarly decorated with fake stone and rock-textured drapes.

DJ Tommy, Hong Kong’s most famous home-grown D.J. started off the night, followed by a performance by the local group FAMA, sort of a Hip Hop / comedy duo. Ever wonder what rapping sounds like in Cantonese? Check out the videos of Clinton Sparks, Joe Budden and Fama performing! (more…)

I finally got around to selecting photos from the over two-hundred I took on the night of Kanye West’s first Hong Kong performance. The concert was a very big deal for the city. H.K. is not considered a first tier stop on the international concert circuit and seldom do artists visit the city for a show at such a peak in their career. (more…)

After checking out the band show on Friday night, I hopped into a taxi and headed up to The Peak, Hong Kong’s most famous scenic spot. The newly renovated Peak Tower was the site for Electronic Art’s event – a launch party for the new EA showroom and store.

CLOT, the multifaceted branding crew were the organizers of the event. EA certainly chose the right partner to handle the party. CLOT has been on a rampage lately, with projects ranging from launching a much sought after shoe with Nike to bringing Kanye West to perform in Hong Kong at the end of the month. The thing I like about CLOT is that they have vision and put their connections to good use. More than that, their events are always fun. It’s a win-win situation, people attending their events go away with a good time and sponsors are happy (well, except for time we were drinking Moet in the beer bong, but that’s another story!)

When I got to the Peak Tower the place was bathed in spot lights with a large marquee set up near the entrance. The building itself is interesting. It’s shaped like a partial elipse.

Over the last year, the place has been completely redone, making room for more new shops, including the EA store. The Peak Tower also houses the terminal for the Peak Tram, a main tourist attraction that takes you straight up the steep hillside. On the large rooftop of the Peak Tower is an observation deck that offers amazing views of the city. I didn’t know it at the time, but the party was located on the newly renovated roof!

After walking into the building, I took several escalators up to the rooftop. On the way up, I passed by the new EA store which was intriguing. Occupying two floors, it has an atrium-like wall of lights and around thirty gaming stations where visitors can sit and try out the latest EA titles. The place is divided into sub-sections which makes it more exciting to walk around and explore.

The renovated rooftop was much better than before. The entire roof is now accessible, as opposed to only half under the old design. Installed around the lengthy space are high-powered binoculars allowing tourists to focus in on the buildings below. For the night, the rooftop was also sprinkled with XBox 360′s outfitted with EA games. The space was divided into two sections, a VIP area and a normal side. Although a little hazy out, the view from the roof was spectacular. Click these thumbnails to see a bigger view.

The night’s decorations weren’t limited to the immediate grounds. Residents of The Peak, Hong Kong’s wealthiest address (and one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the world) were in for a shock as they returned home from dinner to find a huge logo of the branding group CLOT projected onto their mountainside! Actually, the light alternated between the EA logo and the CLOT symbol. One word: impressive!

Hong Kong’s famous D.J. Tommy was the first act of the night, spinning from an elevated platform just above a huge screen showing clips from different EA games. Later in the night N.Y.’s Just Blaze, one of the top producers in Hip Hop music would take over the decks. This would make Just Blaze’s third appearance in Hong Kong in the last year. He’s been here previously for the CLOT anniversary party and for a Diesel event as well.

The party was packed by eleven. Bottles of Moet and Hennessy were everywhere. It was a tough night to not indulge!

Towards the end of the night I went downstairs for a closer look at the EA shop. There were groups of people hanging out playing the games.

The police put an end to music on the rooftop, so the party eventually moved downstairs to the EA store. During the transition I had a chance to talk with Just Blaze about the old days of N.Y. Hip Hop radio – and he actually burned me a CD of a long lost show! I hope I can repay his generosity some day.

The Electronic Arts event was yet another in a string of memorable parties by CLOT. Despite all the planning, the CLOT events wouldn’t be a success without this guy, codename: Cobra, he even smiled for the photo!

Yet another interesting event brought about by Edison and the CLOT crew – Kanye West is coming to Hong Kong to perform with the Hong Kong Orchestra at the end of the month, November 28th. (Edison is going to open up for him.)

I’ve heard recordings of Kanye’s concert performance with live instruments, and it’s something not to be missed. With an orchestra behind him, Kanye’s musicianship really comes through on a higher level. It’s a quality that most people in Hip Hop these days couldn’t even attempt to match.

The venue is a brand new outdoor spot called ‘The Hong Kong Drive-In’ on West Kowloon, a recently developed area of reclaimed land located just west of Tsim Sha Tsui.

This is a must-see event for music lovers in Hong Kong!

After the Moussy fashion show on Friday night I jumped in a taxi and headed over to Happy Valley for the two-year anniversary of CLOT, a company started by Pop star Edison Chen with his friends Kevin and Pavlos. Since its inception, CLOT has been prolific at doing collaboration projects with international street artists and fashion brands. More importantly for Friday night, they throw excellent parties. Their launch party and first anniversary event have been my picks for party of the year, the last two years in a row.

This year’s event was located in a new club called Adrenalin that is situated within the Jockey Club at the Happy Valley racecourse. This was my first time here, and it’s an impressive two-floor club with excellent views of the Happy Valley neighborhood and race-track. It also has large outdoor seating which makes it unique.

New York’s Just Blaze, one of the top producers in contemporary Hip Hop was the special guest d.j. for the night. He played commercial Hip Hop, but cut up the songs expertly, and kept the pace going strong all night.

Both the large downstairs and upstairs areas were packed. The police asked the organizers to do a headcount… but the party kept going strong.

Was out the other night and I ran into Pav with a couple of foreigners. I started talking to them and one of them turned out to be the human beatbox Killa Kela. He told me he was performing at a Hip Hop concert the following Monday. This was news to me, since I hadn’t heard anything about it, or seen any promotion. It turns out that Edison was doing a big concert, and he brought Killa Kela, as well as the dancers the Clowns from the film RIZE to perform.

I’ve wanted to check out Edison’s music for a while, since I missed his last concert. I’ve seen a music video or two, but I still don’t have a feel for what type of sound he has.

I like what he’s doing as far as elevating the scene here in Hong Kong. He’s been leveraging his pop star status to get sponsors to put on interesting events. Edison along with Kevin and Pavlos have a company called CLOT. They’ve opened up JUICE, a shop in Causeway Bay to distribute new Japanese streetwear brands and accessories like Bearbricks etc. They’ve put on several exhibitions and brought over contemporary street artists. They seem committed to exposing people to new sounds and culture – and I appreciate that.

The night of the concert I met up with Min who gave me a backstage pass and a ticket. I wandered around checking out the venue. It was at the Wanchai convention center (that was built for the 1997 Handover ceremony) and the concert hall was huge! When I walked in the first thing I admired were the backdrops that I was told had been done by Phase 2, the legendary New York graffiti artist. I have to give props to the CLOT crew for getting him involved. The backdrops had interesting iconography including an image of Angela Mao from an old H.K. film.

There was a military theme to the concert, and the performers all had nicknames. It started off with Anthony Wong Chau Sang (the H.K. actor and sometime music performer,) giving a speech as “The General”. I guess the main point was that the entertainment industry here is screwed up, and they’re going to war against it.

The highlight of the concert for me was Maria Cordero’s performance of a new version of one of her old songs (she was a popular singer in the 80′s). I believe the song was “Sai Hei,” which I think is from the H.K. film, City On Fire starring Chow Yun Fat. Maria Cordero is sort of like the Aretha Franklin or Tina Turner of Hong Kong. She had a huge stage presence and totally commanded the audience as she performed. Her voice was clear and just boomed. It’s hard for modern singers to follow up after a strong vocalist like that. Most new acts just don’t have the vocal power of someone who is seasoned from working in clubs for a few decades. The one person who performed who does have a strong voice – Hanjin chose two slow songs to perform that showed off his vocal eloquence, but did not fit the bill or the audience. With a different song selection he could have rocked it.

Edison and M.C. Yan both performed well, but they were held back by the beats. The songs were over-produced, and didn’t allow their voices to stand out. The instrumentals were just not catchy enough. You don’t need much to rock a concert, a basic beat and some sort of hook will do. It’s all about how you use your voice, and what type of rhythm you can get going.

Which brings us to Killa Kela, who was the audience favorite. He makes incredible noises and beats with his mouth – no instruments or anything. The crowd was awed and captivated by his performance. I was into it, but was actually expecting a little more from him.

Overall the concert was impressive – it also featured the singer Steph, the krumping Clowns dancing and a good turntablist set from D.J. Tommy.