MC FINCH
GET YOUR KITTY FIX
page directory 1.letter from the editor
7.december calendar
2.contributors
12.cat club
3.filtered perspective
14.japan la interview
4.hello kitty invades forever 21 event
16.gaga &terry
6.kpop obsession
Letter from the editor It’s round two of this magazine project! This volume consists of all the fashion fun that I have been experiencing in Los Angeles. I have definitely had loads of fun collecting all the information and I hope it’s of to good use to you. In this issue you’ll experience one of my all time favorite icons, Hello Kitty, who made an appearance at the Forever 21 in Hollywood for the launch party of their exclusive collection. I was going shop crazy because of all cute clothes they had. I ended up buying seven things and walked out a few free goodies from Sanrio. Lately I have been obsessing about a K-pop band named BIGBANG because they have fabulous style and really a goodlooking group of guys. I know you will like them too, so I had to include a story of them. Lastly, I want to thank all my close friends who have supported me. Enjoy the read!
Gina Mc Finch
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MC FINCH CONTRIBUTORS GINA MC FINCH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Aaron Lorenzo GAGA & TERRY
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TECH YO’SELF BEFORE YOU WRECK YO’SELF
Filtered Perspective the holga
Photo Credit: Holga Direct
Bless the photography lords because Holga decided to spread the love onto iPhone users. This heavenly phone case is an all-in-one filter kit that takes iPhoneoragphy to a whole new level. It allows you to individualize your photos look without downloading an app to get a desired effect. There is a fun mixture of filters and effects all you have to do it spin it around. Just like an old dial phone. It comes in three clever colors, black, stop sign red and twitter blue. This case is simply a great investment and beats out all the other lomography cameras. The biggest reason being you don’t have to worry about paying for prints. Sometimes your prints don’t even come out as you’d expect, so why take the risk? Since it is December, this is the a jolly holiday gift to give to an artsy significant other. 3
photo credit Holga Direct
Hello Kitty
invades forever 21 event
It was night full of Kittychan lovers and Forever 21
who were quite fashionable themselves with five
shoppers on Hollywood and Highland. The event was
costume changes throughout the night.
a launch party in honor of the collaboration of
Forever 21 and Hello Kitty collection. It allowed a
finally got inside and shopped around for myself. I
limited amount of shoppers to the exclusive pre-sale
grabbed all the cute and girly clothing they had for
of all the cute clothing along with free Sanrio
the winter. What was interesting, were the color
giveaways. One of the fan favorites had to be the free
choices the two brand decided to go with. Their
3D-Hello Kitty nail manicures. Hosting that evening
palette consisted of cobalt grey, tans, salmon pink
was the Kardashian’s younger sisters, Kendall and
along with white and black.
Kylie Jenner
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After excitingly waiting for the doors open, I
From crew neck sweaters, vinyl raincoats
dedicate their time on the cute kitty
and Hello Kitty printed stockings, Forever had merchandise by waiting in line for hours, just a variety of lady items for any girl to enjoy.
to for a chance get the limited edition purse or
One of the most popular items were for sale
doll. Many girls will admit it is an obsession
was the tan Hello Kitty printed button up
starting in early childhood. Parents would take
with the peter pan collar, which sold out
their daughter to a Sanrio store to buy some
quickly that night.
cute mechanical pencils or a Hello Kitty
One the best moments of the night was when Sanrio’s Chairman of the Board, Shintaro Tsuji and Forever 21 CEO, Do Wan
planner complete with stickers and that where it would start. Hello Kitty is still one of the most popular
Chang got together for a photo. It was
cartoon characters worldwide along with
fascinating to witness how much the Hello
Mickey Mouse. American markets, we will
Kitty craze has effected millions of Americans continue to buy Sanrio and Hello Kitty with adorable accessories and clothing. Hello Kitty has been bringing happiness since 1974 and has strongly progressed to the
merchandise and embracing each collaboration with open arms in hopes that it will never disappear.
masses. It has brought in almost 1 billion dollars a year to Sanrio. Many die-hard fans
Left: Sisters Kendall and Kylie modeling their Hello Kitty gear. Right: Mod Hello Kitty saying hello to fans.
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International Radar
K-POP OBSESSION
BIGBANG IS THE KOREAN WAVE OF MUSIC Though Backstreet Boys were the end of the boy bands, BIG BANG emerged onto the music scene. This group of good looking South Korean guys formed back in 2006. Taeyang, Daesung,and Seungri are the sexy singing vocals of the band. G-Dragon and T.O.P. lay down the rhymes by providing the raps. Their genre of music ranges from hip hop to electronica but during an interview with iWeekly Magazine, G-Dragon replied “Actually, we haven't set any boundaries on our music. Its always good to keep on trying new stuff and not limit ourselves to specific genres”. Surprisingly enough, their celebrity appeal reaches women of all ages. From twelve year old girls to nearly fifty year old women have loyally attend their concerts.
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Oh yes, majority of the BIG BANG’s front row is middle aged women who are super huge fans. Take a look at these guys, it is hard not to say they aren't fashionable. Their Louboutin sneakers, Jeremy Scott hoodies, and Balmain coats is far from the typical idea of a boy band. Fans say G-Dragon is the leading fashion head in the band but, each interestingly enough, these guys carry their own sense of style. Their latest album BIGBANG Special Edition has some electro pop tracks along with rap to party your ass off. Lets not forget that special dvd of their live tour featuring all their musical performances plus some backstage insight on each of the band members. If their songs don't attract you, then maybe their incredibly handsome faces will.
MC FINCH’S
December The Westside event roundup for the season Your ultimate holiday guide! The most anticipated events for some fashion fun, day or night
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Celebrate the 20th year anniversary of Divine Design at their gala. It will honor the smashing costume designer Patricia Fields and iconic chef Thomas Keller. divinedesign.org
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Helms Design Vintage Boutique has their seasonal shopping event back for the holidays. Vintage clothing and accessories are available for $50 or less. It’s a $5 entry but if you bring an unwrapped toy or bag of groceries, entrance is free. From 10am-4pm LightSpace Studio 8755 Washington blvd Culver City
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15-16
CHRISTMAS PARTY! Dress up and hang out with local fashion bloggers at the Snowball. Tis the season to get a goodie worth $200 is a definite perk! snowball11.eventbrite.com
Got a couple million dollars to spend? The original Cowardly Lion costume from Oz is up for sale at the Paley Center for the Media. Made from authentic lion hide, this one of a kind suit will be auctioned Dec. 15-16. 465 N. Beverly Drive Beverly Hills
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DECEMBER 17TH The long awaited Rodarte collection will debut at LACMA. Sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy influences for their gowns were derived from Fra Angelico and Italian renaissance frescoes. 5909 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles Ahmanson Building, Level 3
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manhattan beach blvd.
local excursions
the hidden treasures near the ocean
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local excursions
living it Manhattan Beach Blvd. consists of well-off locals in their casual beach attire eating, shopping, and laying out in the year around sun. Store goods seems to be targeted to trendy twenty-two to thirty year olds, but shoppers are at least thirtytwo. No doubt this crowd is the forever young and fit. Work out attire is the uniform along with a cute dog to complete the I just finished my run look.
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shops
The necessities of a style
American Apparel is one of the first stops you’ll probably make for your basic closet needs. This store location is laid-back and more helpful than your usual AA. A hot item spotted was their high waisted denim jeans that is good transition from your high waisted cutoffs.
local excursions
shops...
food
London Forever is one small store packed with loads of popular wearables. There is something for every shopper with their own personal style. Plus their fall winter items are extremely cute. At times their store can seem cluttered but their associates are very nice and helpful in finding what you need.
Simmzy’s is one delicious spot. The seating in this place is very limited due to this tasteful burgers and variety of beers. Many locals enjoy the semi-outdoor pub because they allow their dogs to come in and enjoy the atmosphere. Visiting Simmzy’s at its peak hours requires at least a thirty minute wait, so make sure you get their early.
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the movement
Cat Club MEOW. DESIGNERS BRING OUT THE KITTIES TO PLAY TO SATISFY ALL THE FELINE OBSESSED
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the movement
Yes this is a cat invasion. The crazy cat fanatics have made their way into the fashion scene. We’re not talking about your grandmothers ugly knitted cat sweaters. Stylish designers such as MUI MUI and Jeffrey Campbell have came up with some pretty attractive cat gear. MUI MUI’s spring summer 2010 hit the trend spot on with their white collar and two cats piece. The widely blogged, Jeffrey Campbell used a cat tapestry for his most popular Lita shoe. The obsession with cats began in the summer when printed t-shirts of space cats with laser eyes were being sold at Hot Topic. Interestingly the younger crowd embraced the notion of cute kitties pasted and spawned an iPhone app called Cat Effects. This app lets you customize your photos by adding sixteen different kinds of furry cats and lions too. We think this is only the beginning for all the kitten fixation. Surely we will see more fur balls on more clothing and acessories.
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store profile
Japan LA Interview The cutest store in LA for all the kawaii crowd
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store profile
The lovely and friendly owner of Japan La is Jamie. Jamie and her gals saw a need for a store that carried all the cute merchandise from Japan, so what better than to do it yourself. By turning into a savvy business women, Jaime opened up her store May 2006 off Melrose. Since then her store has grown and evolved into greater things.
What are some of your favorite items around the store?
What other brands do you carry? There is so many, but new ones that we
Since christmas is approaching, we
have brought in is San X Sentimental
brought these old ugly holiday sweaters
Circus which are really cute characters.
that are heavily embroidered. We
Another one is New Breed Girl, which is
wanted to make it easy for our shoppers
bright and raverish.
to find the tacky sweaters for the holiday parties.
Whats the next thing Japan LA will do? At the moment we are looking forward
I noticed that you do a lot of
to our six year anniversary because we
collaborations with stores, designers and large companies like Sanrio. How do you
like to throw a big party. We invite all our friends and shoppers to enjoy
do it?
giveaways . It gets really fun and the
Relationships are important to me and
companies we work with are pretty
for the store but we have built up our
generous by throwing in freebies.
loyal customer. It’s also a plus that we have the same type of market in Los Angeles that they want to sell to.
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Most of the time when we hear
of a collaboration between two artists, we expect greatness and yet we receive disappointment. It’s either too safe or they went too crazy, but with the GagaRichardson it became the right amount of crazy. The musical and performance artist, Lady Gaga, is a mega star whose countless couture outfits and smash hits really doesn’t need any more pictures than what the paparazzi have already taken let world renown photographer, Terry Richardson, into her life for twelve months straight. Terry literally travelled with Gaga for weeks documenting her every movement. They then took all those pictures and put them into a book. The book contains images from Lollapalooza through the final show of her Monster Ball tour. Richardson took Richardson took over 100,000 images and attended more than 30 Monster over 100,000 images Ball dates around the world. From the and attended more
than 30 Monster Ball dates around the world
2010 MTV Video Music Awards to the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal rally in Portland, Maine, to the Thierry Mugler show at Maxime, Paris, Richardson captures Gaga in her most personal and intimate moments. From sleeping to performing, Terry snaps pictures of Gaga. This twelve-month adventure includes all access, nothing off limits raw images that fans have been dying for. What more could the fame-obsessed culture we live in ask for? Richardson has been on his game for the past few years appearing in all the top fashion magazines and featured on blogs all around the world. Gaga as we all know is one of the most popular recording artist who refuses to let society dictate how she should act and what she should wear. I would highly suggest you pick up a copy of this book and indulge in some good ole fashioned voyeurism.
RESOURCES Holga http://shop.holgadirect.com/collections/frontpage/products/holgaiphone-lens-filter-kit-for-iphone-slft-ip4 Hello Kitty & Forever 21 http://www.hellokittyjunkie.com/ K-pop Obsession http://eng.ygfamily.com/ygf/bigbang.html December Calender http://www.divinedesign.org/index.asp?page=tickets http://www.goldstar.com/events/culver-city-ca/helms-design-districtvintage-holiday-boutique http://www.twopointohla.com/?p=1635 http://www.lacma.org/art/installation/rodarte-fra-angelico-collection http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2011/11/cowardly-lioncostume-from-oz-heads-to-the-auction-block.html
Manhattan Beach Blvd American Apparel 451 manhattan beach blvd, manhattan beach LF 451 manhattan beach blvd, manhattan beach Simmzy’s 229 manhattan beach blvd, manhattan beach Cat club locketship http://www.locketship.com/ cat effects http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cat-effects-draw-stampcats/id461572151?mt=8 asos http://www.asos.com/Women/ Jeffrey Campbell http://www.solestruck.com/jeffrey-campbell-litacat-tapestry/index.html Mui Mui http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/S2010RTWMIUMIU