The Blog The 100 Year Plan #

San Francisco, The Beautiful Struggle: Shortly after Vegas we arrived in San Francisco with very little time to plan a test shoot with some young faces and a young local SF photographer Josh Farriar who only shoots film. This should be interesting we thought and it certainly was. The Bearded Man the planner he is, quickly went into research mode. He found out about the scheduled shoot the day we arrived in SF and a day before the scheduled shoot. A hundred questions and answers later, he had researched the photographers, researched the stylist, reviewed the faces and scouted some locations with Earl from the SF shop. Here are some previews of the shoot, they are actually behind the scene shots taken with our shop camera. Earl who is also a photographer in training served as our behind the scene camera. Come to think of it, most of the talent on set was in training, we should have called this series “Training Day” but “The Beautiful Struggle” worked out better. Stay tuned for the final shots. The BKc, Style + Character & The 100 Year Plan . . .

Inspiration LA, The Bearded Man: Now I am starting to understand why some of my friends have a place in NYc and one in LA. Grant it I researched properties in LA for my bi coastal interest, but the allure of LA life always wears off a week or so after you find yourself in the rush of NYc life. But this time, something different happened, I actually got the chance to really understand that certain things I grew up around can only really be enjoyed in warmer climates. Take my love of motorcycles, vintage and old cars for example. I’ve had my Harley sitting in my office for a year and a half because I was too busy to ride it or the weather was not right. But in LA, the weather is almost always right and you are never too busy for a cruise. I came out here for Rin Tanaka’s Inspiration show and 2 business meetings, but I think I walked away with an even more important lesson about life, my personal taste and where I want to ultimately end up. Somewhere warm for certain, all greyed out riding my Harley, maybe not my current bobber but something comfortable with my beard flowing in the wind and a tweed BKc hat.

I remember spending summers in Pensacola Florida with my brother in law and sister and as a young lad he would school me on old cars, old music and lots of fishing. He spoke allot, so I am still processing some of the information 15 years later. But I never forgot his advice on buying American cars, “never buy a dodge if you are buying an American car”. I never researched that and trusted his wisdom and never did buy a Dodge. So when we came across this 1948 Dodge pick up and started falling in love with it, I could hear him in the background saying “it’s a dodge”. I walked away from the car and drove back 2 hours to Hollywood and came right to the computer to research his advice, I’ll let you guys know how it goes.

Brooklyn Museum + BKc + Model casting: As the weeks got closer to showtime we had some serious decisions to make. Do we continue to search for models through twitter, facebook and our previous database of “everyday people” interested in joining us on the runway or do we call on the pros. We thought long and deep, met for hours discussing the pros/cons and made the call. Yep! we literally made the call at 9pm to a photographer friend of the BKc, Marcqui Akin and had him call in a last minute favor. Call the agent who mentioned that he wanted to work with the BKc and see if he can get us some great faces for an upcoming show. It would be great if we can actually speak to him tonight and let him know our needs. A few calls later, The Bearded Man was on the phone with George from Red Models and the rest is American history.

Special thanks to the amazing cast of professional models, we showed up on time for fittings and were also on time the night of the event. This industry is infamous for horror stories, so work with the pros, they’ve normally seen enough to know how to shift to plan B. Salieu Jalloh our lead man/team captain opened the show to a series of ohhhs and ahhs, with his serious yet charming look and his confident padded shoulders. The emails and mentions we received about the models, lead us to believe that we made the right decision, after all the hours of meeting. We have so many more pictures to share with you from the show, if it’s too much let us know and we’ll TRY to stop. In the mean time enjoy the beautiful footage. Model selection can make or break a show and so we decided to dedicate this to all aspiring models, agencies and reps with a professional out look on things.

Models featured in the show: Salieu Jalloh, Samba Kone, Shawn Salemi, Robbie Morimoto, Ricky Owen, Justin Passmore, Kyle Bretz, Louis Mayhew, Joe Choi, Jordan Torres, James Hill, Caesar Stovall, Clifford Mamotte, Castile Cortez, Anthony Guzman, Woody Withers. Happy NYFW to all and book lots of shows.

SALIEU JALLOH in deep thought as he prepares to open the show.

Gigi & The Bearded Man inspects and touches up anything that may ruin a great shot.

The Bearded Man adds final styling touches to as they prepare to hit the runway.

Back stage is either a mix of dull waiting, lots of laughter or pure chaos. Any one of those could be the mood at any given moment and you have to be prepared for them. The boys are enjoying the laughter before the chaos.