Inspiration Vol #3: The Final Day and the RRL Party

By on March 12, 2012

Day two of Inspiration arrived far too early in the morning.  Nancy and I moved hotels to the historic Dolly Vardan in Long Beach in order to save the  long drive from downtown L.A.  We got to the show unpacked our gear  and prepared to meet and greet.  I was really impressed with all the vendors and dealers at the show.  I chatted up Bob Chatt and Owen about their recent reality t.v. show Combat Cash, and revisited all the best store owners in L.A.   Day Two was the day that designers cruised in to visit before heading out to the Rose Bowl to buy vintage design pieces on Sunday and then rush off to Las Vegas to represent their brands at Project clothing show.  Everyone in high end menswear dropped in to offer support.  Tsujimoto of Real McCoys, John Chapman of Goodwear Leather and I managed to get a  picture together.  We all share the same ethics and philosophies of how we make real pure and  true to the 1930s leather jackets.  We also all buy our leather from the same supplier in Japan.  I was very honoured that these two jacket makers let me join their ranks as an equal!  Kento, who is the next generation of Real McCoys and famous baseballer,  tried on my newest model the Canauck 1910 leather railroad jacket!  Innis and Sophie came by the booth and when Nancy, Naoko and Sophie started trying on my girls leather jackets the whole room stopped to watch.  It was really quite amazing.  Right at that time Paul D’Orleans of the most famous motorcycle blog The Vintagent, dropped in to say hello.  We have shared links for years without actually meeting each other.  However, like everyone else we all waited slack jawed and mezmorized until  the ladies ended thier fashion show!!!  Blair of General Quarters Store L.A. tried on a Heron.  He makes every jacket look good!  The most important two goals for my day were to meet Matt from Imogene and Willie and Kiya from Self Edge.

The show began to lull, by 2 in the afternoon everybody was exhausted and dreading the pack out because of the stairs and the single freight elevator.  Finally Matt came by.  He was one of my first customers and a real supporter of my jackets.  What a true Nashvillian gentleman.  I was blown away.   Finally, at the 11th hour  Kiya came by.  This was a big moment for me.  We shook hands and talked and then pow…just like that Kiya told me he wants to carry my jackets in all three stores.  Finally I will be back in Los Angeles.  Not just L.A., San Fran, NYC and Nashville and Portland!  So HBL will be releasing limited edition jackets in all Self Edges locations pretty soon!  Phew my trip was worth the 3000 mile exhaustion run.  So now it was pack up and load up Eric’s van for the Rose Bowl flea market the next day and get to the Ralph Lauren RRL party.  Well we got packed up and I had to shower up and de-swell my feet at the hotel.  RRL was incredible.  Jeff Decker was releasing his limited edition custom RLL belt buckles.  As we were heading to Project on Sunday with Jeff’s rare motorcycle cuts and likely showing his rare Crocker motorcycle in our booth I really wanted to show my support at the RRL party.  Well it was fantastic.  Everybody in fashion was there!  Nevermind that, RRL hired In and Out Burger to make burgers for everybody!!!

Nancy and I got up late the next day unlike Caleb and Eric who had to be at the Bowl at 5 am.  We were parting ways as I was hitting the Rose Bowl flea market which is the biggest most important junk sale on the planet for fashion designers and Nancy had to head back to Toronto for her other job.  Well it was an amazing day.  The best part was meeting Robert outside in the parking lot to discuss our not so secret boot project that will hopefully be coming to Himel Brothers Online store pretty soon!


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Posted in Customer Profiles, Design, Materials, prototype designs, Retail, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

4 Responses to “Inspiration Vol #3: The Final Day and the RRL Party”

  1. nate
    March 14, 2012 at 4:15 am |

    dude congratulations on being picked up by selfedge stores thats awesome!
    they should open a toronto location

  2. David Himel
    March 14, 2012 at 4:18 am |

    I am stoked…now I need to whip up the perfect jackets for thier stores!

  3. Shawn
    March 14, 2012 at 3:17 pm |

    Can’t wait to see more of the Canauck 1910 leather railroad jacket…and those boots! Thanks for sharing your experience and photos.

  4. nate
    March 14, 2012 at 4:44 pm |

    the kensington 1949 already is the PERFECT jacket

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