Oak’s Happy Hour Special
- story Alex Frank
When we spoke to Jeff Madalena and and Louis Terline of Oak for our 10th anniversary issue last year, opening a bar was still just a glimmer on the horizon. Blackout is now officially open, and in true Oak fashion, is bringing the best of the best tonight, with DJ sets from DFA and LCD Soundsystem whiz James Murphy, amongst others. We predict a bar filled with Brooklyn kids (and probably a few Manhattan folk too) dressed in asymmetrical black ensembles. And If you mostly can’t afford Oak’s pricey duds, like us, the promise of an hour of $3 well drinks tonight might be your best chance of buying into the Oak way of life.
OAK Meet ‘n Greet
- story Erin Hansen
OAK—one of our main go-to’s for garbs—is having a good ol’ fashioned meet ‘n’ greet tonight for some of their most beloved jewelry designers. Featuring pieces by FADER favorites like Chris Habana and including Pamela Love, Anna Sheffeild, and Langoliers, the designers will be present and clinking glasses to celebrate their fall 09 collections. Just be forewarned of the overzealous credit card swiping that may take place after a few cups of bubbly.
OAK (Williamsburg)
208 N. 8th St.
6-9pm
Style: A.OK
- story THE FADER
While a few of our favorite NYC shops sank like rocks this year, some have taken the next step to keep their heads above the rushing waters. Two of our favorite NYC shop owners, Louis Terline and Jeff Madalena of OAK, have done just that with the launch of their new basement store A.OK, a collection of playful summer jaunts at what we term, “vacation prices.” Using their style wizardry to source new designer pieces along side selected vintage and their own economically smart styles, prices range from cheap to a step above for those on a sliding scale budget. We scored a few gems last week and even recognized some featured FADER favorites like Warriors of Radness and Alexandra Cassaniti who are singing the fashion anthem to our surf-themed style parade at the moment—scissors, over-sized tee, snip and voila! we naked on our bellies—and to score on a score, OAK is throwing a launch party tonight at Don Hill’s with FADER 59’s Lauren Flax and others. Peep the invite after the jump.
Style: HOOD BY AIR / Classics Launch Party
- story THE FADER
Last Tuesday, clothing label Hood by Air launched their “Classics” collection with a party at the Oak Showroom, jams pumped up by Kid Cudi and Brooklyn favorite DJ Kingdom. The “Classics” collection features designers Shayne Oliver and Raul Lopez’s popular and much beloved styles at a less costly price. Lopez told us they wanted to give something back that was a little more financially “accessible.” A concept that made our eyes grow wide with hungry shopper’s dementia, as we’ve had our eye on their unisex styles for more then a year now. The collection includes their signature leather accessorizing, but also shiny-coated tees, an awesome screen-printed sweatshirt (after the jump) and a reversible logo’d pair of shorts for rear-end admiration. To say the least, the occasion was not lacking in downtown style and we spotted a grip of young stylish men and women in shades of black and grey (including a threesome of coordinated fashionistos).
Stylee Fridays: Oak Showroom Spring ‘09 — The Mobolaji Report
- story THE FADER
When you work at a magazine there are usually discussions about “bringing stuff to life” at some point or another. Like, how can we bring this feature story/pair of aladdin pants to life? It might sound a little cheesy but it’s really just about making things that are swimming around in our heads seem palpable and real for everyone else. As far as the style department is concerned, contributing style editor Mobolaji Dawodu is the person who makes sense of all the fashion traffic in our office. We hunt and gather shoes, earrings, top hats etc and off he goes to India, Idaho or wherever to conjure up fashion story magic, with two huge duffel bags and a photographer in tow.
Zamari at Oak recently invited us to the Showroom’s Spring 09 menswear preview and we thought it might be nice to apply our bringing-stuff-to-life rule to a different milieu. So instead of the usual straight-up review with pretty pictures of our favorite bits and bobs displayed on hangers, we brought Mobolaji along and set him a little 30-minute Stylee Friday challenge: pick three of your favorite menswear designers from the Oak Showroom and style yourself in an outfit from each collection. Of course there was an overwhelming amount of new and lovely arrivals, including standout collections from FADER favorites Hood By Air and Stansfield. So narrowing it down to just three golden nuggets in half an hour definitely wasn’t easy.
Style: Hearts Like Oak
- story THE FADER
There aren’t enough zeros in our account right now to accommodate all the beautiful things we plan to purchase from NYC store Oak. So it helps to take the pain away that the folks at Oak know how to throw a good fashion shindig, like they did last week at the Bowery Electric, just spitting distance from their new Manhattan location. The party launched the second installment of Oakzine, a newsprint format mag they plan to release twice a year. Each issue hosts a different editor. This time around it’s Brian Ware, with stories from the likes of contributing FADER editor, our very own T Cole Rachel. If you can bear the shopping temptation (their accessory selection alone has been known to bring grown men to their knees), go pick up a copy at Oak, and check out the dream-like photo essay with Lykke Li and fashion story shot inside the hide-and-seek cubby holes of the store’s Leviathanesque installation. Spreads from Oakzine and pics from the party after the jump.
Stylee Fridays: Oak Comes to the City
- story THE FADER
It’s been three-and-a-bit years since Jeff Madalena and Louis Terline opened Oak in Williamsburg, a style institution that has been consistently tempting fashion folk from all corners of the city (more specifically BK-resistant Manhattan dwellers) with a beautifully edited collection of fashionable wares. Oak is opening a super swanky new location on Bond street, their first store and showroom in Manhattan at the former Ghost store site this week. We were lucky enough to have co-owner Louis give us a mini-tour earlier this week before the officially opening on Monday.
