BLK DNM Launches Its First Temporary Store and Brand Publication

NEW YORK, June 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Designer Johan Lindeberg's new contemporary luxury brand, BLK DNM (pronounced black denim), is available off-line for the first time at a new temporary store, entitled POP 1, located in the Soho district of downtown New York. POP 1 officially opened to the public on June 10th, 2011.

BLK DNM's online community can now experience Lindeberg's downtown-inspired product range in person. POP 1 will house the full men's and women's collections: denim, leather jackets, tailoring, knitwear as well as staple melange t-shirts and tanks ranging in price from $29 to $2,295.

Designed by Lindeberg and his creative team, the simple, raw, deconstructed interior features industrial fixtures and Baroque-inspired furniture. The store will display art installations, books and curiosities in addition to the current mixed-season collection. The new space will serve as the brand's creative studio as well as a second home for Mr. Lindeberg's team and downtown friends. Lindeberg notes, "I decided to be more personal with BLK DNM than I have with previous brands and therefore want to create a store that feels exactly as I like my own home to be."

Following its launch, POP 1 will host regular cultural activities including salons, screenings, and future product launches. "I want the BLK DNM store to be an inspiring environment with great creative energy. It was designed to manifest the BLK DNM culture. We are a downtown brand and our home is here," Lindeberg states.

To coincide with the launch of POP 1, Lindeberg unveils its publication BLK DNM Gazette 1 for the first time. This poster-sized, 30-page broadsheet includes unique artwork, photography, conversations and collaborative essays that convey the brand's identity and aesthetic.

Lindeberg conceived the bi-annual publication as a vehicle to establish a direct line of communication with the BLK DNM community. "From the beginning, I wanted BLK DNM to emerge from a dynamic creative process. I decided to launch the brand with a film and magazine, as a creative forum, rather than following the traditional pattern of staging a fashion show," Lindeberg says. The Gazette gives customers an opportunity to engage with the brand purely on an ideological level; there is no mention of BLK DNM product in the publication. "Its purpose is to create an interesting culture and manifest our creativity as a collective, rather than to promote product," added Lindeberg.

BLK DNM Gazette 1 taps into New York's undercurrent of independent, creative, heady, and often, rebellious energy, which initially inspired BLK DNM. It is a celebration of the creative process, depicted and described by renowned artists, photographers, directors, designers, and provocative thinkers who strive to push their own artistic boundaries. The pages are replete with abstract, eye-catching, unconventional content softened by seductive black and white photographs of beautiful women.

Stylist Aleksandra Woroniecka edited the Gazette, curating contributions from a cast of mutual friends and local New York personalities, including portraits by Peter Lindbergh, notes passed between artist Terence Koh and jewelry designer Waris Ahluwalia, and an account of Scott Campbell's disagreement with a gallery owner that led him to burn his work in order to preserve the integrity of his art. Nate Lowman lends his talent in the form of an insertion filled with illustrations of each of the BLK DNM Gazette 1 contributors. A complete list is below:

Waris Ahluwalia, Wes Anderson, Mathias Augustyniak, Jade Berreau, Scott Campbell, Horst Diekgerdes, Hampton Fancher III, Stanley Greene, Pauline Jacquard, Hannelore Knuts, Terence Koh, Peter Lindbergh, Nate Loman, Jose Parla, Steven Parrino, Christophe Rihet, Jerry Schatzberg, Eve Therond, and Franz West.

"Choosing collaborators came naturally, a mix of generations and talents, who would show a certain side of New York that I feel we unfortunately see less and less. The spontaneous, rough, creative, rebellious, dangerous but always aesthetic New York that, as a Parisian, always inspired me," remarked Woroniecka. "The first issue is New York with a little touch of a certain Parisian chic," she added.

A limited edition run of 10,000 copies will be distributed with online orders and at POP 1, where individual customers will be able to choose to pay what they want for it. All proceeds from the sale of the BLK DNM Gazette 1 will be donated to Free Arts NYC.

POP 1 is the first of a series of pop-up stores scheduled to open internationally throughout the year and the precursor to the launch of a BLK DNM flagship store in September 2011. The temporary store will be open for six to eight weeks and is located at 237 Lafayette Street, New York.

For more information about BLK DNM and to view the entire BLK DNM collection please visit www.BLKDNM.com and www.facebook.com/BLKDNM

To view the BLK DNM Gazette 1 visit: http://us.blkdnm.com/page/gazette/issue1/stry/issue1/

To download images of POP 1, Gazette 1 and a portrait of Johan Lindeberg please use this link: http://ht.ly/5f2Kl

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SOURCE BLK DNM