Has it happened already in the Meatpacking District? Eventually a hot shopping neighborhood will start to attract stores that need that hotness more than the neighborhood needs them. It's no surprise that Christian Audigier, the man behind Ed Hardy's new jeans and T-shirt shop on West 13th Street also brought us Von Dutch, a brand whose relentless overexposure took it from marginally cool to wouldn't-be-caught-dead-and-get-that-trucker-hat-away-from-me in a matter of nanoseconds. Like Von Dutch, Don Ed Hardy is not a designer. He is a famed tattoo artist, so Audigier has taken Hardy's designs and festooned them on jeans, sweatshirts, sneakers, T-shirts and, yes, trucker hats. The line has already been featured on The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, so let the overexposure begin.
More after the jump
One might guess that the location, right around the corner from the famous Hogs & Heifers
bar, was a big attraction for Audigier, but we doubt that any of the
bar's biker patrons would take a tattoo T-shirt seriously, especially
after it has been decorated by sparkly crystals, another trend
represented here that has seen better days some time ago. Actually, printed and embroidered jeans and T-shirts are far from the freshest design concepts around, and Audigier adds little to update the look. This is a well-traveled road already, especially in a neighborhood that boasts Jeffrey, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, and even Scoop. In fact, for a line based on something as transgressive and rebellious as tattoos, the clothes in this store are oddly bright and colorful. The tattoo designs blown up and printed or embroidered on fabric, sneakers or those trucker hats come off more like cartoons than skin art which leaves us with a store full of what looks like children's clothes for grown men and women.
It is only on the actual children's clothes that the designs look right. Even when printed on a biker jacket, the patterns have no patina, like a pair of hard, new jeans in desperate need of breaking in. The cavernous store basically looks like a big barn. The staff is certainly pleasant and welcoming, but we can't help feeling like this brand is a marketing concept in need of actual design to back it up. And we wonder if it will ever bother finding it.
Ed Hardy by Christian Audigier 425 West 13th Street, Manhattan
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