Evan Kinori designs beautiful, simple, long lasting garments in San Francisco. 

We love meeting local designers and visiting them in their studios.

From our visit some highlights…

Voyager: How would you define Luxury?

Evan: There is an interview from Inventory magazine with Maurizio Donaldi (Maurizio former creative director of Levi’s Vintage) - where he says something along the lines of ‘luxury is durability…something that lasts that you don’t have to worry about’.  I like that idea, ofcourse luxury is about beauty and elegance, but the sense of enduring quality & trust should really define luxury.

Bullshit luxury is just sprayed on logos. Something that isn’t necessarily made with quality. So with my work, I have to construct everything in a way that if people were to beat these products up, they only look better and remain structurally sound.

Voyager: When is it ok to cut corners?

Evan: Umm that’s a good question, no one really asks that. That’s something I have to think about all the time as I scale from making everything myself to using commercial production sewing shops. I think its 80% intuition - the concern with 'cutting corners’ is just about ensuring that the product doesn’t lose integrity and no one is taken advantage of in the process of creating that product.  

I’m not interested in saving a dollar if something loses quality or something is truly changed for the worse, but at the same time I have to be practical so little tweaks get made. Just keeping honest to my goal and ethics is the deciding factor.

Voyager: How do you stay original?  Do you even need to?

Evan: Considering it’s 2016 and everything has been done, I feel a certain freedom in not worrying about trying to make something absolutely fresh - I’m really into classics and lasting design, so for me I choose to express myself in subtle tweaks and refining these enduring elements to create something contemporary but recognizable. The amount of influences that we are exposed to nowadays is unprecedented - we’re all sampling and re-hashing and even with the same elements new results arise through each different perspective. I am far more concerned with authenticity and creating something from an honest place, that may or may not fall in line with a trend or whats cool at the moment.  

Voyager:  Let’s talk about color choice? What’s the tone of this set and collection? Where is it moving?

We’ll blue is certainly present. My first few productions are about fabric I already owned and that means alot of blue/indigo fabric. Moving forward I just plan to reinvent these trusted styles through textile choice - mostly earth tones and classic colors but by playing with the same jacket in linen, denim, or melton wool - each fabric has its own personality and gives the same style multiple identities. I definitely think navy offers a lot to people, its like the more sophisticated black !

Its very hard to separate one’s interests from trends in general. There is a general zeitgeist that influences our choices and I think being a part of the zeitgeist and absorbing the generational feelings is important for designers and creators.

Voyager: In that regard who is influencing you?  

There is a British company SEH Kelly (http://www.sehkelly.com/worn/) that is bar none the best - everything is from the UK: the fibers, the horn buttons, the weaving, cutting and sewing all happening there. The price is reflective of that quality but its an approachable price point along with being beautiful and very honest.

Musically and culture-wise I’m influenced by things from the late 60s and early 70s generally. The Stones 72-78, jazz in the 50s and 60s, the restricted and functional design of military and work clothing, its a pretty chaotic melting pot…

Voyager: Are you interested in making your product more accessible?  

I have an inherently anti-capitalist, anti-corporate mentality - which is ironic as someone starting a business. Accessibility in terms of spreading the word, yes I’m hoping to get my product out there and maybe get people questioning what they pay for and what is involved in the making of products. revealing the difference between well constructed garments versus a shined up piece of crap.  Im happy to grow if I’m adhering to my ethos of quality and a 'fair trade’ approach. If you mean accessibility in terms of price, thats not what this product is about: I’m making extremely well constructed clothing from beautiful textiles woven in reputable mills, where no individual is taken advantage of - so if accessibility means making a product that bears my name 'inexpensive’ or 'cheap’ so I can reach more people, then no, I don’t have any interest in that. Good products cost money, and the only reason its such a shocker nowadays and in our culture, is because we have no idea the humanitarian and social cost of our 'cheap’ clothes, food, furniture, etc.

Shop Evan Kinori 

Had the pleasure to sit down with Taka Hori, Ken Ken Ramen’s head chef to discuss Ken Ken’s new Canadian Crab Special Ramen. A new special ramen using local ingredients and seasonable high quality Canadian Crab, a pescetarian stock made from dried...
Pop-up View Separately

Had the pleasure to sit down with Taka Hori, Ken Ken Ramen’s head chef to discuss Ken Ken’s new Canadian Crab Special Ramen. 

A new special ramen using local ingredients and seasonable high quality Canadian Crab, a pescetarian stock made from dried grilled halibut, mackerel, sardine and other fish bones. Topped with Ken Ken’s famous slow cooked eggs and featuring a thicker wavy noodle this is an interesting complex and healthy ramen option for the winter that aims to offer a balanced experience highlighting seasonable crab.

Taka shared with me his thoughts on this new dish.

What attracted to you crab? 

Taka: I wanted to make a seasonable special based on fish. Something that featured a strong unique winter season item. For all chefs this is an exciting item - crab. I wanted to make a fish broth ramen for our customers who are pescetarian and who love ramen.  Crab is part of that effort.

Could you walk us through the broth and how you came about making it?

Taka: The broth in an old school Japanese fish stock. It has a lot of different fish bones to penetrate the core essence of fish. We are using grilled fish bones that I pick up from one of my sensei’s restaurants. He uses high quality fish in a sushi restaurant and I’m lucky to use the bones for our fish stock. We grill and dry the fish bones to extract flavors. We cook all the bones, freeze them to lock in flavor and then dry them in the sun for at least 3 days to get an extra dry concentrated taste. The bones take on a beautiful amber color.  We cook these bones and this stock is the base that we mix and blend with our vegan broth using different seaweeds, veggies, mushrooms etc. Its almost like we are making a tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen but using fish bones instead.

What kind of fish bones are being using?

Taka: Halibut, Makeral, Spanish Mackeral, Sea Bass and Dried Bonito as well as scallops. 

Do some fish bones have stronger flavors than others?

Taka: Yes - as you know Bonito or certain fish that we call “blue” family fish like sardine or mackeral has a a little bit of bitter fishy taste. Snapper, sole, haliput instead have what we call a “white or clear” fish taste. I then try to balance these “clear” taste bones with the heavier fish of the “blue” to create a pleasant experience. This is our original “dashi” stock. 

Before Ken Ken - you worked also in Sushi restaurants. Did these experiences help in making this ramen?

Taka: Of course - because these original fish bones actually come from one of my sensei’s (teacher’s) high quality restaurant and I worked with him to really focus this style ramen.

The crab ramen features a new wavy noodle you developed - could you tell us more about that noodle.

Taka: The crab ramen features a lot of crab ramen with a light flavor fish stock. Very simple and clear, but this mild impact needs a strong noodle with a strong character to create harmony and impact.  We tried many noodles and with the help of our noodle factory we came up with a wide noodle that has a strong impact. This creates a balance. Soft light airy crab, fish stock and a strong character noodle. I hope this creates a harmony for customers.

What kind of tare (flavor profile) are using to finish the broth? 

Taka: I use aged soy sauce and a crunchy Mendocino sea ribbons to finish the stock. I hope customers will enjoy.

Ken Ken’s Crab ramen is available in limited servings on Tuesday and Wednesdays evenings.

Awesome overview of Japanese Psych rock.

Fun playlist to get you going @ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiLgSyzyVJQ&list=PLMfvPq5Hes9gsJsdcpxaXTN6P0OS3Fr3e

(via jimhaku)

Source: nightpong

This weekend! West Coast Craft is a craft and design show featuring carefully selected designers, artists, and craftspeople living and working on the West Coast. Using a variety of mediums, including wood, metal, leather and paper, these designers...
Pop-up View Separately

This weekend!

West Coast Craft is a craft and design show featuring carefully selected designers, artists, and craftspeople living and working on the West Coast. Using a variety of mediums, including wood, metal, leather and paper, these designers create singular items that exemplify the mood and aesthetics of their West Coast lifestyle.

Cool but sunny, laidback yet innovative, they represent the best of west coast craft.

We’ll be there with our friends serving and hawking Japanese Bento Boxes! Made fresh!

Japanese Vegan , Veggie and Meat Bentos - 10$

Delicious!

More info @ http://westcoastcraft.com/

Tattoo - John Whale

Tattoo

According to Aetius, a physician
of some second-century repute,
the ancients had their own receipt for it:
as if preparing for their funerals
they would take some corroded bronze
previously attacked by vinegar
and grind it solemnly with vitriol
and just a touch of predictable gall
before they applied it with needles
to the relative permanence of the dermis.

And now, at both ends of the M62
there are reports of the stricken natives 
taking this rite of the hot scratch
some way closer to their raw grief
by asking their artists to grind 
the course ashes of their beloved 
with a suitably black ink
and to bury this finer dust
through repeated puncture wounds
in the form of words which go down
deep into their sore and grieving flesh:
Just like me / They long to be / Close to you.

From ’Frieze’

Fairytale Dreams.

Curious about Lolita styles? This doc. is probably the best on sharing the emotional card on what motivates this advanced style.

Not personally are steez, but fun to see a passion and energy behind these gals.

Suger Coated.

Tomoo Gokita was born in 1969 in Tokyo. He gained attention in the late 90’s for his extemporarily produced drawing works. In recent years he has created abstract paintings that simultaneously pay heed to specific motifs, including portraits which appropriate the colors of black and white.

Parklet Design Discussions - Open to the Public! Kenken is working with the planning department of San Francisco on a Parklet in front of 3378 and 3376 18th Street. We’ve gone through initial notification processes, planning requirements, SF DPW...
Pop-up View Separately

Parklet Design Discussions - Open to the Public!

Kenken is working with the planning department of San Francisco on a Parklet in front of 3378 and 3376 18th Street.

We’ve gone through initial notification processes, planning requirements, SF DPW reviews, community outreach and are finalists for approval in the next few months for construction and approval.

We are working with 2 sets of architects on designs for parklet and would like to invite the community, our neighbors and interested parties to send feedback and participate in person at a public meeting at 6pm on 8/19/2013 at Ken Ken Ramen (3378 18th Street) to discuss feedback etc.

We’re open to all ideas on how we can design a parklet that is suited well to the community, is easy to maintain and improves the street.

8/19/2013 - 6pm @ 3378 18th Street.

Open to the public.

We’ll provide full current architectural plans and renderings and invite others to give feedback, critiques and ideas.

Above rendering is one design option Kenken is considering.

Meet artist Julia Lemke, designer of Auger + Ore, a 22 year old San Francisco resident, beekeeper, and pinball enthusiast. Finishing up her last year as a graphic design student, Julia works part time at Voyager/Revolver, and keeps our jewelry shelves well stocked with her handmade pieces. This past week Julia let us into her home/workspace to let us have a look around at some new creations and let us know what she has planned for her brand Auger + Ore.

Revolver: Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you started Auger + Ore?

Julia: “I have a graphic design background, and I think that has had the most profound influence on me. There are many opportunities in design to dabble, it has gotten me into photography, styling, marketing, packaging, product design, all relevant skills to developing a brand. I’ve always had drive to create, I think I got that from my parents. My mother is an artist, and growing up she taught me all sorts of crafts: Ukrainian eggs,  glass fusing, basket weaving, quilting, silversmithing. My dad’s influence was design. He is an industrial designer, we were always designing, and building things, tree houses, wooden toys, furniture. My aesthetic is a mix of both of my parents: Folk Art and Minimalism.”

Revolver: What is your creative process like?

Julia: “It’s kind of a mess. Honestly, I can be scattered with my ideas, I get really excited about new ideas and projects and it can be hard to focus. My notebook is full of frantic scribbles, sketches for projects, and so many lists.  I tend to have ten projects going at once. Sometimes I will spend a morning working one idea, and than with other projects I can devote months to. I mostly like to learn new things, I tend to bounce around from project to project. I will be obsessed with ceramics, the next day textiles. It can be overwhelming,but it keeps me excited about my work.”

Revolver: What are your favorite materials to work with?

Julia: “Texture is always the driving force. I am very tactile, mixing contrasted textures and weights. I like things that have a human quality to them, and don’t feel too polished: smooth, heavy ceramic, rough twine,raw wood, and hammered brass. I try to incorporate natural elements whenever possible, and lately have been experimenting with mixing moss or seaweed into my tapestries.”

Revolver: What are you looking forward to next?
Any upcoming projects you are excited about?Julia: I’m really interested in weaving. I love kilims and dhurries, and I would be thrilled to make my own.I just started learning, but my next endeavor is going to be building my own loom.

Revolver: How would you describe Auger + Ore in four words or less?Julia: Organic, Primitive, Simple, Warm

Revolver: What artists or designers inspire you? Are there direct influences to your jewelry?

Julia: Doug Johnston, Cy Twombly, Ruth Asawa, Anton Alvarez, and Maja Ruznic are my favorites right now.Tribal art from around the world is an obvious influence in my work. Someone recently gave me this book of tribal decorations from Africa and it completely blew me away. It is truly stunning.

Revolver: How do you take your coffee?

Julia: Tons of cream.

Revolver: Describe your perfect sandwich.

Julia: Pesto, goat cheese, artichoke hearts & arugula on ciabatta. 

Auger + Ore is available at Revolver and Voyager in San Francisco . Also check out her site here.

Julia is amazing!