Rag & Bone

Kempt compatriot and American hero Michael Williams (better known as the man behind A Continuous Lean) is out in Vegas for the Project trade show. Things got a bit weird, but he managed to file the following dispatch for Kempt. Godspeed, Michael!

Being in the apparel business, coming to Las Vegas trade shows are a necessary evil. The adventure begins at the airport when you see twenty people you know load in to what is endearingly referred to as the “garmento express,” a plane where you can’t walk to the bathroom without hearing someone say “feel this quality.” Once you arrive and get yourself settled in, the ping pinging of the slot machines gives way to the soft embrace of convention center fluorescent lights.

More info and photos from the western front»

We tend to gloss over it, but the traditional dark glass wine bottle is a pretty stunning design object. It’s sleek, geometric, and classy without being ostentatious. In other words, it’s perfect just the way it is.

But you can’t please everyone, so Christian Audigier has taken it upon himself to make French wine “cool again.” Apparently by covering it with day-glo panthers.

Audigier’s trying to draw in the whisky-and-beer crowd, but as usual he’s missing the point. Wine isn’t whisky and covering it with tattoos isn’t going to change that. All it does is ride roughshod over the centuries of French style, and show off his own very short memory.

And produce some extremely ugly beverages in the process.

It’s a rare magazine piece that seems to be working with too much material, but when you’re dealing with the man behind Ed Hardy, we suppose a little excess is to be expected.

This month’s GQ profile drops what might be the definitive profile on Christian Audigier, the man who gave us the trucker hat, Ed Hardy’s neon panther hoodies and the ugliest wine bottles on earth. Our favorite part: the Quarterly’s Devin Friedman (known to Audigier as “Darren”) reveals that the maestro of Fraunch has employed a film crew to follow him around more or less continuously for the past five years of his life. And yes, that includes a makeup guy.

It makes sense, given that Audigier arguably saw reality TV culture coming earlier than just about anyone else. And once you’ve made an industry out of huffing the exhaust of celebrity culture, there’s no point scoffing at a little self tanner…

Also, he may or may not be co-starring in an action-comedy with 50 Cent.