A couple of close friends have a new project underway -- Kitschworth. Stay tuned for big things from these guys.

Kitschworth

I came across some strong comments from Jeff Staple recently. I would take them further to say that the people one meets on the hunt are almost more important than the actual item sought. I think store owners appreciate the correspondence. (Note: correspondence does not mean incessant calling every day for a shoe release that you won't be able to get anyway.)Say hello...see what happens. Respect the culture.

After a long conversation with my friend Tetsuya from New Balance, we shared a common thought that the internet and blogs have made it too easy for people to check out and get new things. We recalled that when we were young, a hunt was necessary to acquire what you really coveted. Even prior to the hunt, you needed to do your homework...research...study...and observe. Then if and when you finally get what you were looking for, the entire experience along with the product itself becomes so much more valuable. Everything now is just 2 clicks away. People spend months and sometimes years developing things. For the viewer to just give it 2 seconds on a blog and click away isn't fair. Hold it in your hands. Try it on. Make the decision for yourself. So with that, I have decided to just show labels of some of the notable brands that were here. Some good stuff from all of them and what you should do is go out and look for these young guns if you're interested in them. Do your homework and see if it's something you're into supporting.


Jeff Staple Blog

The Governor Slept Here

The Governor Slept Here

What: Former home of Massachusetts governor, of 7,500 square feet with nine bedrooms, four full bathrooms and two powder rooms on 1.1 acre.

Where: Winchester, Mass., roughly eight miles northwest of Boston.

Amenities: Original oak detailing and mahogany paneling, views of the Mystic Lakes and Boston Skyline, hardwood floors, detached two-car garage, koi pond. The house is listed on the Massachusetts registry of historic properties.

Asking Price: $3,295,000

Annual Property Taxes: $12,281

Listing Agent: Richard Church, of LandVest, 617-817-3461; rchurch@landvest.com

House Tour: Massachusetts Gov. Samuel W. McCall - also a lawyer, journalist, and longtime congressman - had this home built in Arts & Crafts and English Tudor style around 1902 and lived and worked here during his term as governor from 1916 to 1919. (His lieutenant governor was Calvin Coolidge.) On Myopia Hill overlooking Boston, this home is being sold by the estate of wine merchant Samuel Seidman, who had bought the home in the 1970s and restored the property. Within the past decade he renovated the kitchen and most of the bathrooms and added an elevator. The floor plan, hardwood floors and wood paneling are all largely original.

Due Diligence: The buyer who would most likely need a new heating and air conditioning system and should replace the original windows. The lot can't be subdivided.

On-Track in Long Island

House of the Week - June 20, 2008

House of the Week

What: Six-bedroom house with six bathrooms and two powder rooms totaling more than 6,500 square feet on 14.4 acres.

Where: Brookville, NY, a bedroom community on Long Island about 30 miles east of Manhattan

Amenities: Designed for an owner who’d contracted polio, the master bedroom, public rooms and gardens are all wheelchair-accessible; large outdoor train set; space for five cars in three garages; garden folly; garden shed in Victorian teahouse style.

Asking Price: $7,200,000

Annual Property Taxes: about $50,000

Listing Agent: Kathryn “Cottie” Maxwell of Daniel Gale, 516-857-3011 kathrynmaxwell@danielgale.com

House Tour: William U. Harris Jr., who died earlier this year, served during World War II as a U.S. Army officer in the Philippines, where he contracted polio. He then ran his family’s bank, Harris, Upham & Co., now part of Citigroup, and built this house in 1962. A railway enthusiast, Mr. Harris installed a 19th-century-style, tennis-court size Western railroad scene with a functioning station house.

Due Diligence: The kitchen has been renovated, but bathrooms and other rooms need updating. The unusually large parcel has development potential, but the family prefers to sell to a buyer who will keep the property intact.

House of the Week - June 13, 2008

House of the Week

D'Artagnan's Neighbor

What: Stone country house of 8,500 square feet with six bedrooms on 180 wooded acres.

Where: Municipality of Gironde, Gascony region in southwestern France.

Amenities: Pool, caretaker’s house of about 2,100 square feet, two wood-burning fireplaces.

Asking Price: $6,000,000

Annual Property Taxes: $12,281

Listing Agent: Xavier Attal, of Immobest International, +33(0) 6 72 20 63 05; and Prestige Property Group, sales@prestigeproperty.co.uk, +44 (0) 1 935 817 188

House Tour: Commercial architect Christian Moisset built this large estate home 25 years ago as a retreat for his family, his real-estate agent says. (“Three Musketeers” aficionados know Gascony as the region the hero D’Artagnan hails from.) In the village of Belin-Beliet, this home is constructed entirely of solid cut stone from the nearby Bordeaux region and includes custom wall paneling made from cashew trees. The hexagonal, 1,600 square foot living room has a vaulted umbrella shaped ceiling nearly 20 feet high and a massive crystal chandelier, included in the sale. A lower level holds a large entertaining space with bar and a hand-painted bird-themed fresco on the ceiling. The caretaker’s house is a renovated antique home transported from a nearby estate.

Due Diligence: The region has few second homes, and some would-be owners might prefer France’s more-fashionable Southern coast or resorts in Brittany and Normandy. While expensively constructed, the home hasn’t been renovated since it was built.

This is an interesting article from The New York Times entitled "It's Not So Easy Being Less Rich"

One of her clients recently confessed that his net worth had decreased to $8 million from more than $20 million, and he thinks that his wife will leave him. He has hidden their fall in fortune by taking on debt to pay for her extravagant clothes and vacations.

“I literally had to sit there and tell him that he had to tell his wife that she had to stop spending,” she said. “He was actually scared she would leave him because their financial situation changed so drastically.”

It’s Not So Easy Being Less Rich

House of the Week - May 23 - Florida Home with Extra Key

What: Waterfront, Mediterranean-style house of 11,200 square feet with five bedrooms and 13 baths, on 1.5 acres, close to Biscayne Bay; price includes private island in the Florida Keys 15 miles away.

Where: Coral Gables, Florida, just south of Miami

Amenities: Designed by Phineas E. Paist, architect of Miami landmarks such as the old Federal Courthouse; on the coral Gables waterway about a mile from Biscayne Bay, and built in stages beginning in 1937. Two covered boathouses, separate guesthouse, dance pavilion, heated Olympic-size pool, tennis court.

Asking Price: $22,000,000

Annual Property Taxes: $100,000 for house, $2,000 for island; both will likely go up after sale.

Listing Agent: Audry Ross, of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell Inc., Realtors, 305-960-2575

House Tour: The house has original tiling and detailing in all rooms, including a big fresco in the larger boathouse. The estate of the late Tom Maxey, a local civil attorney, owns the property, which has been in the family for more than 50 years. The private island, Ragged Key 3, sits at the northern tip of the Keys and contains 3.4 acres of mostly tidal mangrove trees. The island has 0.85 acres of buildable land; it features a two-story house of about 2,000 square feet and a caretaker cottage.

Due Diligence: The main house hasn’t been significantly renovated since the kitchen was updated in the 1970s. The main estate can be subdivided but the development must win approval of a local building and zoning department.

Florida Home with Extra Key

This is an excerpt from an article in Fortune Magazine titled "You have 7 years to learn Mandarin."

You have 7 years to learn Mandarin

Will China take the crown?

Angus Maddison's forecast (which uses purchasing power parity) isn't built on outlandish assumptions. He assumes China's growth will slow way down year by year, and America's will average about 2.6% annually, which seems reasonable. But because China has grown so stupendously during the past decade, it should still be able to take the crown in just seven more years.

If that happens, America will close out a 125-year run as the No. 1 economy. We assumed the title in 1890 from - guess who. Britain? France? No. The world's largest economy until 1890 was China's. That's why Maddison says he expects China to "resume its natural role as the world's largest economy by 2015." That scenario makes sense.

China was the largest economy for centuries because everyone had the same type of economy - subsistence - and so the country with the most people would be economically biggest. Then the Industrial Revolution sent the West on a more prosperous path. Now the world is returning to a common economy, this time technology- and information-based, so once again population triumphs.

House of the Week - May 16th

What: Riverfront house of 5,500 square feet with three bedrooms and four baths, on two acres.

Where: Garberville, CA, about four hours’ drive north of San Francisco.

Amenities: Designed by Julia Morgan, architect of William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon castle, bordered on three sides by Benbow Lake State Recreation Area; private dock on the Eel River; guest and carriage houses with full kitchens.

Asking Price: $8,500,000

Annual Property Taxes: $18,000

Listing Agent: Suzi Schultz at Real Estate Depot, 707-923-3600

House Tour: San Francisco hotel heiress Margaret Stewart commissioned this estate in 1926 from the Paris-trained Morgan, who was already working on Hearst’s gargantuan San Simeon project. The main house features an 850-square-foot “great room” originally used by its Christian Scientist owner as a reading room to study the church’s literature. Morgan never finished the grounds. Current owners Jim Sergi and Allison Huegel, co-founders of a pharmaceutical marketing company paid about $1,000,000 for the property and put $6,500,000 into a major renovation of all three houses, adding a pond, gardens and other landscaping. The houses come outfitted with art, antiques and period reproductions, including original draperies made into pillows for the main house.

Due Diligence: The house is a few minutes’ drive from a private airstrip, but weekend commuter from San Francisco might find it too remote. The owners chose not to seek historic designations for the property because they felt they would put too many restrictions on renovations.

House of the Week

Maintaining brand image while trying to grow in size is one of the toughest dilemma's apparel companies face. Examples are everywhere. This article is about a group of very territorial North Shore surfers who call themselves Da Hui.

With annual sales of roughly $2 million, the privately held Da Hui is a flyspeck in comparison with mass-market behemoths like Billabong or Quiksilver. But the appeal of the label — now sold at surf shops in 19 states and 12 countries — is that its black boardshorts and no-frills logos both bypass the sport’s floral sartorial clichés and also, for those in the know, summon up a hard-core, roots surfer image of riders like those Da Hui underwrites.

These days the black boardshorts that once signaled territorial assertion are sold at Costco, presumably to consumers innocent of their original intent.

Da Hui Article