(No Subject)

Ah…downtown Los Angeles. As you may know, we here at (No Subject) have been posting up in DTLA for a couple years now. We’ve grown to adore this  infamous city and our downtown locale, extortionate parking rates and all. So for this week’s Must Follow Friday, we’re sharing some of our favorite downtown offerings!

EATS: As far as good eats go, we in the downtown area are pretty spoiled. If you too have trouble deciding on a new place to have lunch, we suggest you try Baco Mercat, a.k.a. the home of the “baco”, a delicious, signature flatbread sandwich developed by chef Josef Centeno.

Follow: @BacoMercat 

SWEETS: The next best thing to a cupcake grown from the soil is a BabyCakes NYC cupcake. Luckily for us, this NYC cupcake brand traveled West! At BabyCakes, Vegans and dessert-loving-gluttons alike can satisfy their sweets cravings and maintain some semblance of health consciousness. Fawning over its dedication to delicious baked goods made from only organic ingredients (not to mention wheat-free, soy-free, gluten-free, egg-free, vegan…you get the idea), BabyCakes is definitely our office addiction.

Follow: @BabyCakesNYC

READ: The Last Bookstore is your one-stop-shop for nourishing both your literary and musical addictions. Boasting of a vast and well-priced selection of new/used books and records, the quaint destination provides for an extremely satisfying browse and doubles as a music venue several times a month.

Follow: @LastBookstoreLA

SHOP: For all of your vintage clothing needs, head to Virgo. A far cry from the wholesale madness one tends to associate with the downtown area, this small boutique offers a carefully-curated selection along with a range of custom services.

Follow: @VirgoDowntown

SEE: DTLA is a pretty safe bet for moviegoing if your goal is to escape the frenzy of contrived blockbuster madness. Instead, you’re likely to find venues that consistently offer up bonafide classics, like the Downtown Independent. A popular destination for cinephiles, the theatre proves that a killer roster of films and events keeps the people coming.

Follow: @DowntownIndie

IMBIBE: If you’re on the hunt for craft beer, look no further than BUZZ. Go to get acquainted with the all-knowing staff and excellent selection of beer/wine/spirits during their bi-weekly tasting nights!

Follow: @BuzzWineBeer

Explore all of our favorite spots for yourself, and have a great Memorial Day Weekend! Go America! We love you!

Don’t forget to follow us @NoSubjectLA!

Limited spots. Trust us, you won’t want to miss this!

We are so excited to announce our new client, Omaze!

Omaze offers the ability to engage in life-changing, mind blowing experiences that benefit charitable initiatives.

This awesome start-up is innovative, fun, smart, and forward-looking. We are so excited to be on board with the Omaze team to help them bring you the extraordinary. Their beta site will be up next month. If you would like to be among the first to have access to these incredible experience go to omaze.com to request an invite and get ready to unlock the remarkable.

With NEON being on the tip of every trendy tongue, it doesn’t look like this palette is slowing down any time soon! The idea is to keep it fresh by working neon into your look in discreet, but significant ways.

Try picking up a bottle of shocking pink fabric paint, and take some of your out-of-date items and make them new again! This one bottle of paint can update anything in your closet from a pair of shoes to an old layered necklace. It’s also your go-to for stylish 3-D nail art! Less is more when it comes to updating your items- just a single line can make a big statement. I kept it simple-chic by putting that single line around the edges of my keds, on the first layer of this trifted necklace, and down the center of each nail.

You’ll start thinking of this bottle as an accessory itself! You can get creative with your applications, and spruce up any item your wardrobe with a hint of neon.

Keep on top of all the trends in jewelry, color, and style by following District C!

Brightly,

-C

Just in case you’re too swamped with work/responsibilities/etc. to notice…summer is right around the corner! And if you’re anything like us, it’s an unofficial summer ritual to spend a good amount of your days laying out in the sun with nothing but your iPod. For this week’s Must Follow Friday, we’re aiming to help you build your perfect summer playlist with a selection of some of our favorite music blogs to fit your needs, no matter what your preference is. Happy Friday!

Join us for this VIP shopping event with G-Star Raw in Beverly Hills. The first 20 people to RSVP are guaranteed admission. RSVP to hello@thereisnosubject.com with “GStar 5/15 RSVP” in the subject line and your name in the body. Get ready for shopping and cocktails!

TheStylish is a new YouTube style channel from some of the brains behind Project Runway and InStyle Magazine. They recently featured our very own Chelsea Matthews and her lovely mom Cynthia Kerson in their ongoing series Wear I’m From. Watch the video and gush over some mommy-daughter love as the duo discusses how their styles have influenced each other.

Name: Rachel Kraus

Occupation: Account Director

Origin: I’m from the Westside of LA (just like the Whole Food’s Parking Lot guys), and have had stints in the bay area, NYC, and the UK. Now I call West Hollywood home.

What do you love about Los Angeles?
LA is so brash. It is exactly what it is, it makes no apologies. I love that.

Where do you like to shop in L.A.?
Wasteland on 4th St. in Santa Monica. The Melrose Trading Post. Anthropologie (for its calming aromas!). The internet.

Where do you like to grub in L.A.?
Thai town: cheap food, the best flavors!

What are your hidden L.A. gems?
For food: Reddi Chick, a little window in the Brentwood Country Mart that serves rotisserie chicken and the best fries west of the 405!
For drink: The bar in my living room. We call it the Barbara Jordan, after the illustrious congresswoman and feminist activist whose name it bears.
For exercise: Earth’s Power Yoga on Melrose. Great, simple classes that make your body hurt in the best way.
For fun: Sitting on the patio of Hamburger Mary’s and observing Wednesday night tranny bingo and of course all the older ladies getting their margarita on.
For tunes: Constantly switching between 88.9 KXLU (the last indie station in LA!) and 93.5 KDAY (hip hop today and back in the day, obviously).
For views: The top of Capri in the Pacific Palisades. A gorgeous view down a somehow lush valley that goes all the way down to the ocean.

What motivates you to get up in the morning?
Making my friends laugh and my family proud, finding the perfect words to put to paper, analyzing television as high art, splurging on novelty shoes, brainstorming sessions that feel like your brain is moving faster than you can talk, seeing the world change so fast, knowing that every day I and we all have the power to change our lives completely.

What do you bring to (No Subject)?
An analytical mind, a sassy ‘tude, and a creative spirit.

Follow Rachel on Twitter! @realkrauswife

The fashion blogosphere is suddenly rife with new video content. We’re not sure if it’s just us but – well, yes we are. It’s not just us. Amazing, creative, and high quality videos that feature collaborations between fashion lines and artists, musicians, directors, actors, and other creative players are popping up all over the place.

We are by no means complaining. It was about time we started innovating the slideshow-as-runway-recap. And a funny or gorgeous YouTube spot is a perfectly wonderful way to see the latest collections from our favorite designers, while also catching new tracks from up and coming rappers or reconnecting with artists deeply loved. It’s collaborative, it’s multi-faceted. It’s cultural multi-tasking and we love it. But where do we see this? How do we see this? And WHY?

watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uH0TfkLN3w

Online Canadian retailer SSense rocked the fashion AND music world when it released “I Think She Ready,” the first shoppable music video (non-shoppable above, see the shoppable video here). Ssense took a leaf out of the one-click-shopping bible (Dangerous!) and made it easy for music and fashion fans alike to get the styles they see in the video simply by clicking on the looks viewers like in the video. If this didn’t reignite my love for the Alexander Wang Extreme Cat Eye sunglasses, nothing will (Hint: it did). So, BAM! Fashion + Music + Commerce, monetizing content in a totally creative way.

In this artistic short film directed by the well-respected Steven Sebring, Patti Smith writes poetry all over Reed Krakoff‘s Boxer Bag while gritty narration talks about what it means to be a boxer, in the ring (I used to be a contenda!). I know, gasp, that poor bag. But it’s Patti Smith! And we’re not really sure what’s going on but Just Kids was so hearthwrenching and I must re-remember to recommend it to my friends! And I find myself wondering in the meantime what does that Boxer Bag look like anyway so I’ve just spent time surfing the Coach website looking at handbags and oh man they win! This piece of actual art inspired deeper engagement with artists and brands. And I also feel good about myself because I looked at art and am now more culturally educated. Fashion + Film + Art + Poetry, because cultural betterment drives brand engagement.

Our next relevant example takes us to the always lovely streets of mid-century (inspired) Hollywood – and the accompanying patterns that juuuuust happen to be so on-trend right now! Gia Coppola, niece of Sofia, directed a short video called “Writer’s Block” narrated by Aubrey Plaza that showcased pieces from the recent collaboration between DVF and Current/Elliott. Marketing-wise, this is the most straightforward of the three, I think, in that it’s clearly using video to promote the clothes for their own sake. But, it is a pretty darn cute video, and the fact that it showcases these (gorgeous) clothes doesn’t mean that watching the dreamy prints float through this film was not totally enjoyable nor did it make me want the clothes any less. In fact, I want them more, because I can visualize the at once cutesy and glamorous feel they’ll bring to my own life. The envision-able fantasy best ignited by film makes me want that look and world for myself, not just the clothes, aligning me with the brand’s whole look and feel rather than an item or two. Moving Images + Story-Line + Glamour here create an emotional connection with the audience.

Fashion, film, art, music, poetry are all different realizations of creative energy and ways we express ourselves. They are natural collaborators, and it is much more difficult to keep fashion distinct from art or film wholly distinct from music than it is to combine them. And the short form video provides a perfect platform in which to do so. The consumer or casual internet browser can stumble on something that catches his or her eye, not have to commit too much in pressing play (especially with the potential opportunity for sharing this with others in the back of his or her mind), and having done so engages attention for more than the typical 5 seconds of scrolling through photos.

In these cultural combinations, one-two punches of sentiment and fantasy, these brands manage to create meaningful content and become a trusted source of inspiration online. Creative content brings in multiple audiences – the Patti Smiths with the Reed Krakoff’s – creating more brand exposure and familiarity across the board. It establishes the brand as one that creates, not one that purely sells. And finally it allows a consumer to take on the aesthetic of the video and the brand as his or her own as they continue to share with their own communities. Collaborative videos across cultural genres are useful and interesting to consumers, beneficial for brands, and maybe even worthwhile for the sake of the art and artistic process itself.