Reyesspring2016

SNEAK PEAK

LIU WEN

A PREVIEW OF PUCBLIC SCHOOL’S SPRING LINE

BREAKING BARRIERS IN FASHION

INSIDE LOOK

E! NETWORK’S RICH KIDS OF BEVERLY HILLS

COFFEE CONFESSIONS WHAT YOUR CUP SAYS ABOUT YOU

CITY LIVING

TIPS FOR CONQUERING THE CONCRETE JUNGLE

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President & Publisher VANESSA REYES

Editor

SANDY SILVER

Executive Editor DAVE LEE

Managing Editor JAMIE KING

Deputy Editor

TAKE A WALK ON THE URBAN SIDE WITH

AUDREE SMITH

Art Director Megan Lane Senior Editor Tori Kim FASHion Editor ROB WEN

Photo Director JAMES DAVIS

VEIN is a culture magazine that aims to showcase the latest and upcoming trends in fashion, art, and music. Street style and youth culture is central to VEIN’s identity.

Photographer LESLIE GRACE

STYLIST

MARIE WELLS

Assistant stylist Tom Drake

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Dear Readers, First of all, I want to say thank you for picking up the first issue of VEIN. We look forward to growing and hope you join us we continue on this adventure. It is packed with fashion and city know how.

VEIN is honored to have had Liu Wen pose for our cover. Styled by Jamie King, Wen stuns in tribal chic looks for spring that break the fashion mold. She encourages us to “go rogue” and take risks when it comes to fashion.

One section I’m sure you all will particulary enjoy is the City Guide. For this issue we got to explore close to home and took a trip to the Arts District in DTLA. We will be leaking local secrets and by the end of the story you’ll know what hot and what’s not in the Arts District.

I hope you enjoy.

Sincerely, Vanessa Reyes

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2016 Spring/Summer Collection

By Lane Kim

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What Your Cup of Coffee Says About You

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By Tina Wells

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For those who are lost, there will always be cities that feel like home

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MISS SELFRIDGE- Grey Waterfall Duster Jacket

Grey longsleeve longline jacket with a statement waterfall drape.

TOPSHOP- ‘90s Racer Vest Keep your basics on point with this ‘90s inspired staple vest. Crafted from a soft jersey fabric, we’re loving the on-trend racer back cut.

White Nicholson- Cotton And Silk-blend Twill Shorts

Raoul ivory and black Nicholson shorts.

Cotton and silk-blend twill. Slit pockets, piped trims, fully lined

BURBERRY PRORSUMBlack Halsmoor Tassled LoafersAubergine rained goatskin leather Antigona envelope clutch.

GIVENCHY- Antigona Envelope Clutch Givenchy Aubergine rained goatskin leather Antigona envelope clutch.

TOPSHOP- ‘90s Racer Vest

White Nicholson- Cotton And

Keep your basics on point with this ‘90s inspired staple vest. Crafted from a soft jersey fabric, we’re loving the on-trend racer back cut.

Raoul ivory and black Nicholson shorts.

Cotton and silk-blend twill. Slit pockets, piped trims, fully lined

Silk-blend Twill Shorts

MISS SELFRIDGE- Grey Waterfall Duster Jacket

TOPSHOP- ‘90s Racer Vest

Grey longsleeve longline jacket with a statement waterfall drape.

Keep your basics on point with this ‘90s inspired staple vest. Crafted from a soft jersey fabric, we’re loving the on-trend racer back cut.

White Nicholson- Cotton And Silk-blend Twill Shorts

Raoul ivory and black Nicholson shorts.

Cotton and silk-blend twill. Slit pockets, piped trims, fully lined

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JUNE 2016

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LIU WEN TAKES ON SPRING’S TRIBAL CHIC LOOKS FOR VEIN

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Written By Jen Mae Photographed By David Bellemere

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Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment

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Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn VEIN | 22 | SPRING 2016

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city guide:

dtla aRts distRict Find out our favorite places to shop and explore in Downtown LA’s trendiest neighborhood

By Marietta Springs

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It may seem like a no man’s land at first glance, but the Downtown Arts District in Los Angeles is a whole ‘nother beast when you take a closer look. Equal parts warehouse wasteland and burgeoning hub for LA’s young, professional and creative, the Arts District is the city’s neighborhood to watch.

And with approximate limits of Second Street to Seventh Street and Alameda Street and the LA River, surprisingly, the Southeast section of Downtown is totally walkable.

Sprinkled amidst these perimeters are the makings of a community rich in character, featuring stylish galleries, handsome coffee shops, socially conscious boutiques and some of the best restaurants and bars.

These pockets of budding establishments lie amidst a stretch of early 20th-century warehouses—many ex-factories—some of which are deserted, but all of which hold the promise of artist studios and loft apartments with exposed brick walls and floor-to-ceiling windows.

Before it’s crawling with crowds and Silver Lake expats, get the lowdown on the Downtown Arts District’s best places to eat, drink, shop and explore. But if L.A. is going to remain a creative capital, its civic and cultural leaders are going to need to do more than offer really great talk about how great we are. We need solid ideas — and the execution of these — to keep Los Angeles a great place to be an artist.

The report is helpful as a compendium of statistics about which creative industries call California home and what their economic impact might be. But it is pretty optimistic about what constitutes a creative industry. Among the 1.4 million jobs generated (direct, indirect and induced), fields such as apparel manufacturing and wholesaling are included by the report’s authors. By that logic, all those sweatshops in Bangladesh comprise a buzzing cultural district. Arts District’s changing landscape is worrisome to longtime residents If this report is to be more than just a feel-good data dump, it could use some solid recommendations on how L.A. compares to other cities culturally and how we might improve the situation for artists and cultural organizations, both small and large.

New York’s Center for an Urban Future issues a similar report (with far less frequency) on the state of the arts in that city. But “Creative New York,” as it is called, is far more comprehensive. For one, it offers data on how the city›s cultural scene fits into a larger national picture.

It covers the city’s job growth in creative sectors relative to other locations in the U.S. It breaks those jobs out by neighborhood. It addresses cost of living issues and closures of cultural spaces, as well as the drying up of government grant dollars. It looks at the strength of the cultural nonprofit sector and attendance figures in the performing arts.

It provides a holistic picture of the city’s various cultural assets within a local and national context. In fact, it was in reading “Creative New York” that I found out how much Los Angeles County seriously lags when it comes to share of households donating to public broadcasting or the arts. New York is number one on the list. DeKalb County, Ga., is number two. San Francisco is number three. L.A. doesn’t break the top 10. (For shame, El Lay. For shame.)

“Creative New York” also, quite helpfully, offers nine pages of concrete recommendations on what might make the city more hospitable to the arts. This includes a description of the types of programs that have successfully supplied artists with free or below-market studio space. It offers tips on how artists might better qualify for subsidized housing. It suggests ways in which the tax code can be less punitive to creative workers.

It even, quite intriguingly, discusses ways in which real estate developers and property owners might better support cultural activities by designating less lucrative second- and third-story or other off-the-street retail spaces as cultural zones that rent at below market rates.

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TOP SHOPS TO BROWSE HAMMER AND SPEAR In 2013, husband and wife duo Scott Jarrell and Kristan Cunningham opened Hammer & Spear, a multidisciplinary design firm and brick & mortar retailer in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles. In two short years, they have grown exponentially, with the reopening of their newly expanded 5,000 square foot showroom. Here, they feature a collection of hand-picked vintage pieces and a well-edited selection of lifestyle products, while providing a platform for the work of burgeoning LA designers. This concept translates seamlessly into their design firm philosophy of working closely with artisans to achieve site-specific designs, uniquely tailored to every client.

ALCHEMY WORKS Alchemy Works is a gallery, retail, and events space concept, located in the Arts District of Los Angeles and at Lido Marina in NewPort Beach, California.

POKETO Founded in 2003 by husband-and-wife team Ted Vadakan and Angie Myung, Poketo is a lifestyle brand and purveyor of design-driven wares meant to instill art into everyday living. Over the years, Poketo has grown from an upstart creative enterprise to an online destination with two retail locations in Los Angeles: The Poketo Flagship in the Arts District of Downtown LA and Poketo at The LINE Hotel.

Both locations regularly host art exhibitions, workshops, and more, acting as hubs for the local creative community. In addition to collaborating with over 200 international artists on exclusive products, Poketo has worked with notable companies and brands including Nike, MTV, SF MoMA, De Young Museum, Disney, Target, and Nordstrom.

APOLIS In 2004, brothers Raan and Shea Parton founded Apolis with a simple idea that business can create social change.

Their travels abroad immersed them in personal stories of struggle and survival and inspired them to create a business model that bridges commerce and economic development.

Along with their commitment to global advocacy, they also understand the importance of sourcing and manufacturing locally. Whether it means partnering with manufacturers in Uganda, Peru, Bangladesh, or around the corner in Los Angeles, the Partons have used their model of “advocacy through industry” to empower people to determine their own future.

WITTMORE Wittmore is a modern and approachable lifestyle shop, offering clean, smartly edited clothing, accessories, grooming supplies and gifts from brands with a global perspective.

Wittmore strives to be a forward-thinking hub celebrating timeless style and design, driving forward into new and exciting areas of fashion, design, art, and culture. Wittmore showcases the sensibility, personal style, and marketplace knowledge of its founder, Paul C Witt.

ARTS DISTRICT CO-OP The Arts District Co-Op is an eclectic mix of retail concepts coming together in a communal environment that fosters creativity and commerce. We are located in the heart of the Downtown LA Arts District and offer a blank slate for vendors to come together in an avant-garde market environment. Seeking to step away from traditional retail the Arts District Co-Op is the perfect place to spend an afternoon discovering what LA shopping has to offer.

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“City officials,” the report states, “should work with local development corporations and other business organizations to develop a set of carrots and sticks that could encourage landlords to rent these spaces to arts organizations, creative sector businesses, freelancers and others with significant space needs.” Which gets to execution.

And this is where civic and cultural leaders come in. In recent weeks, developers and civic leaders in the Arts District have been debating the minutiae of a live-work ordinance that would help preserve the character of the neighborhood by continuing to develop buildings where creative types might be able to both live and work.

But the ordinance — and the debate over it — strikes me a little bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. What does it matter if a studio-loft has 1,000 square feet of livework space if it is totally unaffordable?

This isn’t just a zoning question, it’s an income question. If neighborhoods such as the Arts District are to remain dynamic and true centers of arts production, we need to think not only about setting aside spaces that are functional for artists, but that are affordable to artists, too.

And by artists, I don’t mean well-paid showbiz types, programmers or the mysteriously wealthy members of the elite who can afford to dump $7 on juice. A healthy neighborhood is like a healthy ecosystem and should have a little bit of everything — including members of the working class.

This will require some carrot-and-sticking from our city leaders. That means developing incentives to build affordable housing and giving financial breaks to cultural spaces (not just of the high-end variety). This will have to come the likes of the City Council and Mayor Garcetti. And it will have to come from figures such as City Councilman José Huizar, in whose voting block the Arts District resides. Huizar, incidentally, is no stranger to development, some of which isn’t exactly known for its sensitive urban planning.

Any change at this point will likely come too late for the Arts District, which is already up to its man-buns in single-origin coffee and $9 avocado toast (the equivalent of the hourly minimum wage in the state of California). But there are still other areas of the city to consider, places that haven’t been developed to death.

A series of thoughtful, well-considered recommendations issued by an institution such as Otis in its annual report could be helpful in creating a map of what could be done in Los Angeles — not just in the Arts District — to keep the arts scene blazing.

In 2013, Mayor Garcetti posted a photo of himself to Twitter holding a sign that read #ArtsMatter, with the statement: “Let’s make sure L.A. is the creative capital of the world for years to come.” Good idea. Let’s start by finding a way to keep the artists in town.

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DO THESE LOUBOUTINS MAKE MY ECONOMIC THEORY LOOK BIG? Written by Gus Donohoo | Photographed by Tony Kelly

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The E! Network’s Rich Kids of Beverly Hills takes a stroll through the day-to-day minutiae of seven young adults who are the progeny of some of the rich and/or famous of Beverly Hills.

The show gives a kaleidoscopic view of 21st century affluence, depicting lifestyles that seem to inevitably crystalize into chlorinesoaked champagne flutes. Flaunt caught up with three of these privileged individuals—Dorothy Wang, EJ Johnson, and Morgan Stewart.

All are Rich Kids of exceptional opportunity. Wang is the daughter of a billionaire Chinese retail tycoon, Johnson is the son of the Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson, and Stewart is the daughter of a Beverly Hills architect who owns a construction firm.

The Rich Kids of Beverly Hills seems in many ways to be a product distinct to the times—a reality television show, born from Wang’s Instagram, and awash with selfies, superyachts, private jets, and hashtags of aspirational opulence—#cocochanel

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#fabuluxe—but there are precedents that launch the narrative much more directly along a historical trajectory of class and wealth. The nature and shape of aristocracy has changed, but the fundamental geometry—the pyramid—remains more or less the same.

Exceptional wealth has bred distinctly recognizable personality archetypes for centuries. Royalty, aristocracy, the well-to-do, toffs, dandies. Charles Baudelaire wrote in 1859: “[D]andyism is not even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance. For the perfect dandy, these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of his mind.”

All of the Rich Kids I spoke to were quite sincere, and did not— at least over the phone—project an air of “aristocratic superiority,” but their love of clothes and material elegance is evident.

The Beverly Hills bubble. A place where dreams inflate and deflate, and float through the air with transparent optimism, and just a hint of a fabulous rainbow sheen.

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". A place where dreams inflate and deflate, and float through the air with transparent optimism"

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