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Woody Allen Takes On American Apparel

Woody Allen Ad / Photo: Boris Fishman

Pencil-necked cradle-robber/once genius filmmaker Woody Allen is tight over this American Apparel ad from 2007, and is suing the brightly-colored hipster shopping haven for over $10 million dollars. According to the Dow Jones, Allen claims the billboards featuring him dressed as a rabbi (taken from a scene in Annie Hall) were used without his permission. Allen’s legal team also said that the billboards not only were displayed in prime spots in NYC and L.A but also on AA’s website and partner sites. We’re thinking American Apparel should’ve just went with Matisyahu—we hear he comes much cheaper. Remember the non-Hasidic Woody after the jump with one of our favorite scenes from Annie Hall.

Fat Joe To 50 Cent: You’re A Clown

Fat Joe hit Rap City and didn’t waste any time discussing how shook G-Unit is when it comes to the NYC club scene, and how beef with 50 has only made him richer. He goes on to explain that no one makes consistent hit albums like him. Watch him spit in the booth after the jump.

DVS Agrees To Stop Knocking Off Louie

Although it seems that everyone and their mother has parodied Louis Vuitton at some point or another—shit Stussy made a name for itself way back when by ripping off high end fashion logos—there’s one thing for certain: skate brand DVS won’t be doing it anymore. Today we got word that they’ve reached a resolution with the fashion house over the alleged infringement:

DVS has acknowledged Louis Vuitton’s intellectual property rights and has agreed to discontinue all manufacture, exportation, importation, distribution, advertising and marketing of said products.

The Toile Monogram, which has been a signature of Louie styling for over a century now, and the Multicolore mark—the traditional Toile mark combined with the 33 Murakami colors—are safe from streetwear for now, and believe it or not, Burlington Coat Factory too, they also got notice.

Trustafarian’s Lawyers Hate Word: ‘Trustafarian’

The aNYthing legal drama continues and is even starting to spill out onto our keyboards. We received a cease and desist letter from some overly aggressive lawyers on behalf of Anything Corp.’s Kiernan Costello, newly enthroned arch enemy of aNYthing founder Aaron “A-Ron” Bondaroff. They are demanding we desist using the “t” word when referring to the upper income bracketed aNYthing comptroller. The only problem is that dastardly free speech thing, and not just this stiffly defined legal mumbo jumbo version they present:

Damn guys. Might we suggest you start spending your resources on more pressing business matters, and less on trying to censor the people covering it. See the rest of the legal rambling after the jump.

aNYthing Countersuing A-Ron for $5 Million

Last week we mentioned that A-Ron was suing his own company for trademark infringement and now the legal drama surrounding the aNYthing case continues to bubble over as we just received word that silver spooner Kiernan Costello—current controversial owner of aNYthing—is now countersuing A-Ron for the humongous sum of $5 million. No, seriously, that’s a five with six zeros. The suit basically alleges that the “Don” broke all sorts of contractual agreements when things went south. The document is 40 pages long and discusses everything about the case and its far reaching implications even mentioning: retail accounts (Situation Normal, Union, Goods, etc..), websites like Splay, rock band The Virgins, the 205 Club, and a whole cast of characters and interesting tidbits. We poured through the massive document—which BTW, is a great case study for streetwear brands and entrepreneurs in general—and pulled out the highlights of the case and present them, just how you like it, in snippet form, and after the jump.

Fujiwara Hates Non City Dwelling Americans

Way back when we featured Hiroshi Fujiwara, he mentioned not being all that interested in expanding into the American market and even admitted to not really knowing that much about American consumers anyhow. But one thing he does claim to know is how detrimental non-attractive people can be to a brand and it’s perceived coolness. In this Portfolio piece on the continued Bathing Ape phenomenon, the 40 year-old Japanese designer expresses his disdain for Nigo, and rural dwelling Americans who rock the gear, but it has nadda to do with the designs:

“I just wonder how he feels when he sees ugly people wearing his clothes. If you go to the countryside in America and people are wearing Bathing Ape, that’s not very cool.”

Although we could dissect this a few ways we’ll go with the obvious. Cause, not for nothing Hiroshi, but as far as looks go in America—including the dreaded suburbs you mention—we’d refer to you as the pot calling the kettle black, sir.

[Source]

Is This aNYthing Lookbook the Reason A-Ron Left Everything?

Although the beef had been broiling between trustafarian Kiernan Costello and aNYthing founder and mouthpiece A-Ron Bondaroff for months over sorted issues—like how aggressive the company should grow once it got such widespread exposure and sales hit the million dollar mark—sources close to the “Downtown Don’s” version of events claim it was this year’s new lookbook that ultimately made A-Ron walk and go so far as to start a whole new brand production company: “Off Bowery” (which btw is a horrible name, but as long as Simon is still designing, who cares right?). Although most streetwear blogs—except SlamxHype and Ctothejl—are avoiding everything aNYthing related like a limited edition case of the mumps, we’ve decided to post some excerpts from the look book and let the public decide their own level of exposure.

Update: A tipster writes in: “A-ron was waaaaay long gone before the thought of this look book even started….this look book is just another example of the brand without him, like the old Glob etc.” In other words, he had absolutely nothing to do with it. Thanks for setting us straight!

Weekly Recap: Eat Your Heart Out Ladies

We went trick-o-treating with Anna Rexia. [Link]

Alife and Asics relied on Godzilla for inspiration. [Link]

Agent Zero shot and scored. [Link]

Reebok was in their element. [Link]

A-Ron was left without aNYthing. [Link]

A-Ron Doesn’t Own aNYthing

A-Ron with aNYthing crew/Photo: Clayton Patterson for The Villager

This has been simmering for a while now, but it’s official: Aaron Bondaroff aka A-Ron, no longer has anything to do with aNYthing, the very brand he created and that was profiled extensively in both the New York Times Magazine and the Post, not to mention numerous magazines and blogs. The ‘Downtown Don’ apparently didn’t have any kind of deal ironed out and somehow managed to hand his entire company over to an investor he took on. Locked out of his own store and website, he’s suing KlemanKiernan Costello and his own company, Anything Corp. for trademark infringement, and according to the IRAK blog, the suit was filed on September 11 in Manhattan Federal court.

Mind you, this isn’t the first time that the coolest kid south of Delancey Street has gotten jerked. Last year A-Ron was suddenly locked out of restaurateur Serge Becker’s 205 Club, after thoroughly hyping the hell out of the spot and working for almost a year as the “creative director.” With things going sour at 205, you would have thunk that A-Ron would have had shit all buttoned up when it came to his own brand.

Chuck Zito Offers To Beat Up Tommy Lee and Kid Rock

Paul Shore, Chuck Zito, Pamela Anderson/Photo: Richard Liriano

Pamela Anderson might have moved on from both Tommy Lee and Kid Rock with rumors she’s married Rick Salomon—yeah, the guy who banged Paris Hilton in that tape—in Las Vegas this weekend, but the beef between her exes remains. But who’s going to reff the five million dollar grudge match between Kid Rock and Tommy Lee? Chuck Zito—who has a history with Pamela Anderson—says he’s the obvious choice. “Either that or I’ll fight them both” said Zito as he swaggered across the grounds of the Playboy Mansion Saturday night according to one of our spies in the field. “I don’t think either of them know how to fight, but Kid rolled up on Tommy, got to give him credit for having the balls.” This is after all from a guy who wrote a book called Street Justice. And though the Oz star was surrounded by ultimate fighting champs like Frank Shamrock there for the Strike Force mixed martial arts bout, there was no doubt Zito could have cleaned house. And he was ready, showing a reporter the raw knuckles on his massive left. “A guy accidentally fell on me-face first,” he explained.