„Entschuldigen Sie mich, Sie wissen, wo der Gawsie Ausstellungsraum ist?“ Ich bat. Ich war im Gerry Gebäude Los Angeles-terra im cotta und in die Stadt industriell auf der Außenseite und säubere und in den Minimalist Kalifornien Markt Mitte-Art Fluren auf dem Innere.

„Gawsie, Gawsie…“ Ich könnte Geistesfinger sehen, einen eingebildeten Bart als der Pony-angebundene Ausstellungsrauminhabergedanke irgendwo zu streichen. „Ohh, OH-. Sie sind zahlreich vier-OH--zwei. Sie sind die neuen Kerle.“ Sicher, ist neuer York-gegründeter auserwählter Ausstellungsraum nach das Los Angeles' Art und Weisebezirk - „Sie kann die Farbe noch riechen neu,“ sagte einen Besuchsentwerfer - aber Gawsie hat einen Namen für sich seit der Produkteinführung 1998 von ATHL gebildet, das Gawsies erste Einleitung in den athletischen Markt war.

„Wir kamen mit schwarzen langen Hülsen mit reflektierenden Drucken, mit den Buchstaben ATHL über dem Kasten heraus,“ erklärt Steve Patino, Publizist für Gawsie und seine Schöpfer, die 2020 Multimedia entwerfen und beratene Mannschaft. „Wir drückten das Konzept von `athletech,', das das Konzept des technischen Athleten ist. Tatsächlich drückten wir das Konzept mehr, als der Name der Firma,“ er fortfährt. „Photographen würden bis zu uns kommen und sagen, `, das Sie sind dieses ATHL Firmarecht?' und wir würden, `Nr., wir sind Gawsie Athletech sagen - ATHL ist eine Abkürzung für Athletech.' “

Während viele andere Art und Weisedesignmannschaften an gerade diesem haften - das Entwerfen von Art und Weise und werden von gerechten Art und Weiseentwerfern, 2020 gebildet - sagen Sie sie mit mir, „twenty-twenty“ - ist ein Kollektiv der einzelnen Photographen, der Netzentwickler, der Musikproduzenten, der redaktionellen Verfasser, der Straße Abnutzung Entwerfer, der Berühmtheitstilisten und der Markierung von Produktenberater. „Das Konzept für 2020 kam ein langfristiges vor,“, sagt Ricardo Llano, kreativer Direktor 2020's. „Ich und meine Freunde wurden vibe über kunst und Design, würden wir in Projekte und in kunsterscheinen malen und erhalten. Es ist dieses vibe, das in 2020 einsteigt, und die Arbeit, die wir erledigen.“

„Wir sind alle, also verschieden und wir bedecken Sie soviel gerieben,“ addiert Patino. „Es ist, also ausgedehnt, ist es allerdings stark zu beschreiben. Sie holen uns ein Projekt, fast, egal was es ist, [wir können es tun.]“ Eine regelmäßige Mittelgruppe des Renaissancemannes, 2020 verweist Produktplazierung für andere Art und Weisefirmen, Artberühmtheiten, Eintragfadenfotographie, produziert Musik, bietet im Kleinen beraten, Einbrennen und Netzentwicklung an. Noch findet die Gruppe Zeit, auf Gawsie vollständig zu konzentrieren, dem sie zu sich teilt offenbar in zwei Linien plant: Gawsie Athletech und Gawsie. „Wir wußten immer, daß schließlich eine Abteilung und eine Trennung der Firma ein Teil unserer Zukunft sein würden,“ sagen Patino. “And we are developing a completely separate accessory division for fall ‘04 and a co-op double label project with Creative Recreation footwear, for spring ‘04.”

Gawsie Athletech is composed of 1998’s ATHL and 2001’s very similar extension of ATHL. The 2001 collection featured, as Patino describes, “full top and bottom micro fiber suits, technical running shorts, amazing applications, dry yarn moisture wicking tank tops developed in Italy and Portugal. The 2001 line was compared to Prada sport, Patagonia, and Nike running product,” he continues. “We used technical fabrics with sleek Euro-styling fit and colors.” The Athletech division aims “to be like the Champions, Reeboks and Nikes of the world, which is a huge, hardcore athletic-oriented business,” he says. “We already sponsor local basketball teams in our local community. So uniforms and making actual hard goods like basketballs and baseballs — designing tennis rackets and so on — is a part of our big picture.”

And then there’s the just Gawsie division, which Patino describes as “our premium designer sportswear label, similar to Lacoste, Bikkemberg and Fred Perry. We’re aiming to be the future of the athletic industry from the US market,” he says. Fittingly, Gawsie is sold at Fred Segal, Atrium and Bloomingdales, Zebraclub, Madison, while Gawsie Athletech intends to be featured in major gyms and other athletic outlets. The Gawsie line began with the medieval-themed Palladium Park, which was Gawsie’s third shipment in 2003. “[It was] our strongest group ever,” says Patino. “Palladium Park was broken up into two deliveries: the first half explained the collection with graphics that consisted of four teams that went to battle at Palladium Park. The four teams at battle were the Archangels, Eagles, Lions, and Warriors. These teams all consisted of four graphics, each to make up the teams, and were produced in shades of browns, nudes, reds, and light blues, with pop-color prints to encompass the battles. Our second delivery of Palladium Park will be in stores by December 2003,” he continues. “[It] will showcase three different groupings of Italian Merino wool, hand-knitted sweaters from Italy. We also added to the collection by adding fleece from Portugal in majestic gold, with dark brown lion prints to tie back to the tee shirt grouping on top of a long sleeve grouping with new advanced printing techniques in dark colors of arc angels and lions. The Palladium Park collection is the first collection by Gawsie,” Patino describes, “to fully open the doors and eyes of the elite of the elite of the premium sportswear market and make history throughout the world.”

“Palladium Park was about the local heroes, local teams and local championship battles,” clarifies Llano. “The word ‘pala’ [refers to] ‘Athena,’ the goddess, and ‘dium’ [to] the field or garden — ‘Athena Garden.’ Warriors would battle for a place in her garden and to be by her side.”

“It was a very dark collection that opened up premium sportswear accounts all across the country,” says Patino. “Like Bill Hallman, in Atlanta; Untitled, in Chicago; Zebra Club, in Seattle; Boro 51, in Nevada; Commander Salamander, in DC; Madison, in LA; American Rag La Brea, Bloomingdales, Fred Segal; Atrium, in NYC, and the list goes on and on.”

The current collection, Coastal Sol, has continued to open accounts across America — think Saks and Bergdorf Goodman — picking up where Palladium Park left off, and then some. Gawsie’s first full collection, Coastal Sol has wowed initial watchers, offering fifty-plus cut-and-sew designs beyond the graphics-based gear. And though Coastal Sol shows a sunny disposition typical of spring — and while Palladium Park’s darkness seemed a perfect fit for fall — “the two collections are kind of seasonal only because of the delivery dates,” Llano tells me. “Coastal Sol could have been fall and Palladium Park could have been spring. It’s about the concepts, the athlete and the spirit of the sport. Not the season or popularity,” he says. “Coastal Sol is a little different because I wanted it to be more fun, young and more about the lifestyle of a golfer.”

The collection is comprised mostly of male fashion fundamentals: shorts and pants, jackets and button downs, tee shirts and polos — all with urban-yuppie pastels, cursive lettering, subtle details (like faux darts on a windbreaker), and contrast stitching on back pockets begging for focus on fit body parts — that lend the collection a feminine-but-hardly-effeminate feel. It’s metrosexual, only not on a bullet train to Cliche Land; it’s Ryan Seacrest, only with a better tan and a bling-bling edge; it’s trendy, only many moments ahead of being dubbed that. It’s a little dandy, sure, but I like to think Gawsie wearers are men who turn down their hairstylist’s suggestions of highlights; fellows who are hush-hush about eyebrow waxing; guys who drink white chocolate martinis for the vodka content; dudes who dig lines like Coastal Sol because they’re simply –

” — Real pimp stuff,” pimped Select Showroom owner Matt Germaine. He laid out the Coastal Sol collection, the hypothetical vacation wardrobe of a young professional way into golfing attire. The fresh-from-New-York samples seemed largely and chicly Easter egg-colored: mint greens, sky blues, and sunset oranges played up against darker logos and sand backgrounds. There are basic, relaxed-fit chino shorts, with carpenter hook details — theoretically for golf paraphernalia — and slacks simple enough to shift attention to other pieces–like breezy, cotton-linen, two-button blazers, with selectively frayed edging. Some of the pieces have lightly gelled text — “Coastal Sol,” “Feeling Good,” and less legible English-Italian-French scripting — while others are more classically preppy in blank Italian seersucker fabric. Tee shirts are swept with bold graphics prints, front and back, following soft color schemes: baby blue with navy blue and white, bright orange with light, light sherbets. The most popular print is a sketchy golf bag crossed out by golf clubs, largely on tee shirts or on the back of piqued polos.

It’s the polos that better articulate the Coastal Sol concept than what the title, simply scripted onto blazers and shirts, can do. There are forgettable solid, piqued polos, with only teeny trademark nickel-plated logos to distinguish them, or now predictable prints (Hawaiian flowers or golf graphics). But then Gawsie’s young professional turns into more of a fashionisto via smooth cotton polos that feature three pearl snap buttons and half of a front pocket — hypothetically for sunglasses — with stitching that outlines the missing half, hinting at novelty over practicality. And for the metrosexual unconcerned with looking hetero: try a cashmere, johnny collar polo with tiger stripes over a palm tree and Caddillac graphic. It’s these pieces, and the adventurous tee shirt versions, that are the link between Gawsie the obviously street-wearable and Gawsie the almost-runway. Several items in the collection find this point between high and low, including the hypertextured terry cloth hoodies (in royal blue and melon) and the “Rainman” poncho, with its crisscross neckline and bibbed hood, and its PU-coating that offers an almost slippery feel to compliment its trench coat-like belt details.

“The press is eating that up,” said Germaine, of the poncho.

I swallowed.

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