It’s getting hotter here in Los Angeles and while I’ve been cordoned mainly to the Santa Monica area for the past few weeks, there was some pretty rad stuff happening in the rest of the city that I couldn’t pass up. Kinfolk Magazine was hosting dinner parties (which I didn’t attend, sadly), plenty of great shows were happening around town, Wittmore had their popup shop near West Hollywood and it was high time to pay our friends at Self Edge a visit. I had a ratty pair of Left Field NYCs with a thinning crotch region and some nasty holes around the ankles as well as two matching blown out pockets (those bandanas don’t function nearly as spiffily as they look). Self Edge has a great deal at all locations where you bring in your wrecked (but clean) pair and for $40 flat they take care of fixing it up. I’ll report back once the repairs have been completed.
I’ve admired Wittmore’s online shop for some time as they always have a great selection of the a-typical when compared to plenty of other dude-focused web retailers. They’ve also got a great little feature that lets you search by geographic region of manufacture. Want shorts made in USA? No problem. Two clicks. Scarves made in England? Same story. It’s cool to see the similarities between products based upon region as you navigate through. It gives you a great perspective on regional manufacturing techniques and design principles. I heard they were doing their first brick-and-mortar pop-up in Los Angeles, of all places, and given that they’re headquartered in NYC, I figured the opportunity to meet and greet and check the wares in person wouldn’t present it self again soon. Click here to read the full article.
The shop is set up in a temporary space specifically meant to accommodate pop up features (shops, galleries, etc.) and Paul Witt, owner, has done a killer job of making the space his own. From the racks, to the tables, to the Pantone posters on the white boxed walls, everything feels like California which is awesome considering his east coast roots. Paul is the nicest guy. We chatted for about 40 minutes about future plans and products and I snapped a few photos of a few of the great goods he has.
I swung by Self Edge and dropped off my pants for repair, slapping down a cool $40 for some serious reconstruction. The space is awesome and though I’ve only shopped the Self Edge in NYC prior to this, the space felt like it could be nothing else than the brain child of the Self Edge dynasty. Amazing products, really nice and friendly space. Snapped some more photos here. I’ll report back on how the reconstruction process goes.
We decided to skip town for a few hours on Sunday and head North (again) to a farm on the outskirts of the weird agricultural town of Oxnard. It’s the unfortunate smear on the map between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara (hence everything else on the coast as well) but produces some of the most important crops servicing not only the region but the nation at large. We visited McGrath Farms and were able to pick strawberries, kale, chard, arugula, butter lettuce, mixed greens (three rows of various greens that you picked/mixed yourself), wild broccoli (insanely delicious), and a host of wild flowers. What’s important here is less of the hippy-dippy Los Angelino aspect of the whole thing and more so the fact that these strawberries were normal sized which means that they were approximately half the size of some of the enormous chemically treated monstrosities I’ve purchased at the super market. There’s something really awesome about having a strawberry that takes two bites to finish because it’s so big you’d look like a six year old trying to down the whole thing. There’s also something even more incredible about having real, honest to goodness produce that hasn’t been treated with weird shit that makes it grow to freakishly large proportions. Enough soapboxing. Here’s some photos.
Afterwards, to top off our California experience, we snagged some fries and shakes from In-N-Out and cruised back to Santa Monica where we prepared some delicious food. There’s a connection between food and friendship that people have really latched onto in recent years and this was a great way to experience that. While we missed the Kinfolk dinners, we were able to do our own thing with some beautiful food that we picked ourselves. Couldn’t be happier with the experience. This is what summer is for: noshing on the good stuff that doesn’t grow during the rest of the year. Get out there and stuff your face with berries, for real, before they go out of season.
