Alife - Fuel July 24th 2000

By Saidah Blount

Is your personal concept of style being forced to tread water in a hostile sea of off-the-rack rugby shirts and mass-produced hiking boots? Join the club, my friends. It's a sorry state of 'fashion' when you can walk down the streets of New York City (supposedly the personal style capital of the western world!) and witness numerous people wearing the same outfit you scanned on page 46 of this month's Vibe magazine!

But here to shake up the stagnant concepts of American streetwear retail is NYC's alife. The store helped make the Orchard Street strip in NYC's Lower East Side the hottest fashion destination since Madison Avenue. As you'd expect, alife effortlessly merges the best and most cutting-edge aspects of the retail and creative realms. Consistently showcasing gear, art, music, and accessories that don't pander to the masses, alife is quickly becoming the favorite treasure trove for style hounds who make their uniqueness a priority. But check out who else has clocked the alife vibe: Q-Tip, the Fader, models Trish Goff and Shalom Harlow, Harper's Bazaar, Liv Tyler, Beans from Anti-Pop Consortium, and Jalouse magazine.

The alife crew (Tony, Tammy, Rob, and Arnaud) sprung out of the magazine and fashion industries-- three out of the four worked together, and quickly tired of the daily grind. "We all had our dreams, and we wanted to get together and try to figure out how we could fulfill them as a unit. That's how we came up with the concept of the store." Rob adds, "[alife] is a retail operation that merges a creative and a design studio, and we think we got a pretty cool atmosphere going on right now."

"The concept behind alife is collaboration at a whole level, whether it is creative or retail...focusing on the fact that product is not enough," says Arnaud. "That was our first idea for our first ad. We didn't have a name for the store, and we just ran 'Product is Not Enough.' The idea behind that was that nowadays, as far as shopping's concerned, products can be found to be very similar from door to door. When you go from point A to point B you'll find the same thing. We thought it would be important to focus on the overall feeling that people would get when they come in, and their experience of shopping."

That's guaranteed when you step into the alife store. From the tagged tiles on the wall to the clean and minimal way that their products are displayed, alife revolutionizes the shopping experience. While attempting to re-invent a casual but cutting-edge niche for young urban shoppers, alife avoids coming off as trendy or cliched. "We weren't trying to reinvent the wheel, we were just trying to take things a step up from what was out there," says Tammy. She adds, "I think that in some respects– especially since we are not just a shoe store– but in general, when you go to other shoe stores, say on Broadway [popular shoe strip in NYC], it's like shoe after shoe after shoe piled on top of each other, and it's just bedlam! We tried to create an environment where it wasn't just a crowded shoe store, and it wasn't clothes with a few other objects. It's all other interesting things together. I think that might be a little different from the rest."

Additionally, alife fervently believes in establishing close links with those that they choose to do business with. "As far as collaboration is concerned, we always try to establish partnership-like relationships with our vendors and with the artists that we present. We try to grow together and try to foster the kind of communications that would exist among friends, and that is what we do-- we root people up, we put their shit out there, and at the same time, it's beneficial for us and we all grow. That is pretty much modus operandi here," comments Arnaud.

Contrary to America's current obsession with cookie-cutter fashion, alife is backing a new cutting-edge street style that stresses comfort at all levels. It's practically the backbone of the crew's philosophy. "It's been a problem for young urban people to find products that fit with their individual style and their lifestyles. Shoes and accessories that fit with their jeans and whatever else they put on," says Tony. "The brands that are here [in the store] are worn as street gear in Europe and Japan. But here in the States, the brands that are sold as street gear are really limited, and doesn't particularly match with everyone." Arnaud adds, "Some may say, 'Oh, I can get some Timberlands, some sneakers, or maybe some Kenneth Cole's,' but that doesn't vibe with everyone."

And the four definitely believe that American streetwear is now being influenced from beyond our shores. "The Europeans and Asians are bringing a new flavor to streetwear and how it's presented and worn. And magazines-- magazines like Jalouse and Tokion-- kids are buying those magazines. I'd say even more than American fashion magazines," says Tammy. "Yeah, magazines like i-D, Dazed and Confused, the Fader, The Face, Wallpaper*, that come in with a subject matter like music and style, but are designed so stylishly; the paper quality, the photography. People are looking now at quality and longevity. Americans have been strong at marketing, but Europe has been stronger at quality and those products that no one else will have. They're solid, and that's where we're personally going," tells Arnaud.

The future for alife looks especially bright. In addition to expanding their roster of hot-to-death parties in the NYC area (check out their Thursday night at Chinatown's Good World for proof!), the store is planning on expanding their Website (www.alifenyc.com ). More artists will be collaborating on changing store installations, and a visit to Europe this September finds the team involved in a show called "What's Next." After that an alife book may be in the offing. The crew is also thinking about creating their own line, "alife is definitely able to translate itself to many different projects and opening other stores...not just retail. We're definitely aware of the options of where we can go," states Rob.

Between the people and the product, alife is all about letting style treasure hunters find a mix of unique gear and cutting-edge comfort...a rarity in this urban outfitted world!

alife
178 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002
(646) 654-0628
www.alifenyc.com

Brands you'll be able to cop at alife: Duffer of St. George, Tsubo, Snipe, Trippin, Angola, Nu Flo, Staple, G13, Leftfield, NZ, Generic Costume (soon), Sub Freaky, Nixon watches, What's Your God, Bathing Ape, TVT, Techno Marine, graff tools, Hysteric Glamor, Red Devil, Crink, Ryan McGuinness skateboards, CDs from [record label] K7.