Shop our full line of men’s denim.

“One of the things I’m interested in, insofar as subcultures are concerned, is how subculture really traffics in overexhausted iconography, especially with aggression and morbidity. Most subcultures keep notching up the irony levels. That’s the paradox-that the chosen images are things that have been completely strip-mined and that all value has already been leached out. And then you try to update them so people invest that much more belief into them.”

Violette’s work somehow brings simplicity with complex meanings, but it it’s own very unique way. His installations show culture through excess, anxiety, and despair, bringing in highlights of musical influence and real-life violence. Through one of his many mediums, Violette is able to notice the pains of individual immorality and directly relate them to the Goth genre.

“I’m interested in a visual language that’s over-determined, exhausted, or just over-burdened by meaning. The heavy-handed one-to-one of ‘black-equals-wrong’ is incredibly interesting to me — less as something that has a meaning in itself, but more in how those visual codes can somehow become reanimated. That’s constant throughout my work. All those images are like zombies — they’re stripped of vitality, yet sometimes they get life back in them … and like zombies, usually something goes wrong when they wake up again.”

Not only is his work filled with meaning and symbolism, but it is created with incredible craftsmanship. Removing theory and thought, his pieces are physically beautiful and hold the pinnacle of any room.

Their new record, The Mountain Moves, is due out on June 25th (Partisan Records) and will certainly be a piece you want to scoop up.

These are our actual moms, dressed to kill throughout the decades. Share your stylish mom photos, and treat her right this Mother’s Day.

This isn’t a group of men that huddle around a fire and watch Davy Crockett on their iPads. It is a group of unique and dedicated persons that share the fraternal concept to teach, share and learn the skills needed and required to survive and live as the great American mountain men did. As a brotherhood, the group has embedded their mentally to that of a pioneer in the 1820s-1840s. That period in time represents the peak movement of the mountain man into the Western frontier.

The American Mountain Men Association was founded in 1968 by Walt Hayward with an original seven members, including Hayward. What started out as a survival club known as “The Brotherhood of American Mountain Men” soon grew, as interest from others across the nation joined along. With an article on the group being published in Gun Week by Major Slim Ackerman of New Mexico, more letters requesting membership poured in than the group could handle. Very few were actually accepted.

Within the association are several brigades and chapters throughout the country that host weekend gatherings to celebrate the lifestyle. Everything from the clothing down to the tools and shelters used are replicated with as much authenticity as possible. The only modern element allowed are the cameras to document the gatherings.

Photos are credited to the amazing Rocky Mountain Outfit (Colorado) of the AMM Association.

For more information on the American Mountain Men Association, please visit their website.

For more information on the Rocky Mountain Outfit, please visit their chapter page.

Shop our selection of Women’s sneakers and Men’s sneakers and try your hand (or maybe we should say foot?) at this casual cool look.

Freckles are hereditary and common among pale-skinned folks, but can also appear on those with darker complexions. They crop up via pigment deposits in the skin, usually caused by sun exposure in summer before fading again in winter. Sometimes they’re seen as flaws and concealed, but we couldn’t disagree more. To us, nothing looks friendlier than a speckle of freckles. Take a peek below at some of our favorite freckle faces.

Plantable consists of four potted table legs attached to a recycled wood tabletop. Simply plant and water your favorite climbing vine such as tomatoes or sweet peas in each pot, and watch them slowly grow around the table. By creating this piece, the team meant to call attention to the expanse we put between ourselves and the food we eat. Vegetables often go through processing and manufacturing before they are set on a dinner table and their Plantable not only showcases organic and sustainable growing processes – it also reconnects diners with the fun and beauty of the environment and what we eat.

“The space provided for plants to grow in the four legs reflects on the distance we place between ourselves and the processes involved in making our food. We’ve tried and tested climbers, tomatoes, herbs and sweet peas. The Plantable is handmade in our workshops in Southeast London, where each leg is hand bent and fillet brazed into the framework. A handmade English oak top is then placed over it, for plenty to sit around and enjoy”.  Sounds like the perfect thing for an Earth Day dinner party.

Botanically, succulents are plants having more than normally thickened and fleshy parts, usually for retaining water. A cactus, for example, is considered a succulent plant, though not all succulents are cacti. Succulents are adapted to dry environments, thriving in the desert and loving nothing more than a hot, sunny day. They are said to be great houseplants for those of us with less-than-green thumbs, though just like any kind of relationship they are easily destroyed by complete neglect or too much love.

The key to a happy succulent is giving it an environment like that of a desert: hot, dry light, cool nights in the shade, and very little water. The best type of soil or rocks to plant in vary depending on plant, but usually, the more porous the better. Well-draining soil allows for complete drying out between waterings, would should happen sparingly. The thicker the leaves, the less water your succulent needs; the leaves are storing up moisture for later. Succulent plants love bright, hot sunlight, though are prone to sunburn, so they should also spend some time in the shade, just like the rest of us.

Most succulents are great communicators and will tell you what they need if you just pay attention. If they have brown spots, they are getting sunburned. If they are etiolating and getting taller with plenty of space between their leaves, they are not getting enough light and are stretching to find it. If their soil is wet – at all – they don’t need water; they want to be warm and dry.

One of the coolest things about succulent plants is their ability to propagate. Start with one plant and you can grow a whole garden from its plucked leaves. Simply snap a rosette from the mother plant, set aside until the cut end callouses over, and place in a new pot to let root. You can keep repeating this process just about forever.

There are so many different types of succulents, cacti probably being the most widely recognizable, of which there are over 2,000 species. In pre-columbian Mexico, the roots of the peyotl cactus were chewed on for their hallucinogenic properties and also used as an ancient anesthesia. Organ pipe cactus, shown below at a botanical garden in Oaxaca, are traditionally used in Mexico as borders, corrals, and fences to keep out foraging livestock or unwanted strangers.

The Plant is a journal about ordinary plants and other greenery. The magazine brings together photographers, illustrators, designers, musicians, writers and visual artists who all share a love for plants, offering a simple, personal and cozy new look at greenery. Freunde de Freunden calls The Plant “the newest and a most austere incarnation of the classic gardening digest” and interviews co-founder and co-director Carol Montpart here.

If you’re close enough to a desert to enjoy the incredible, seemingly never-ending cactus-studded landscape, consider yourself lucky. Succulent plants laugh in the face of adversity, thriving in a dry, hot place that would kill ordinary houseplants, hiding secrets – okay, water – in their fat stems and leaves.