It was sometime last year, during one of my routine visits to Taipei, I was introduced to the mixed-metals works of Kopo. Kopo has his workshop set up near the university district, and sculpts his works in that very space where it also serves as a storefront. His sculpts are very impressive, and the fact that the whole production route is ran within Taiwan, I was keen on working with him on a series of items for VEIL. After a few sit-downs with Kopo, we decided on various accessories items to make for Spring of 2012. So, after a few months, we now have the goodies to roll out just in time for the season.

First, we have this skull ring we titled “VENGEANCE”. Consider it as the “part 2″ to our “ANGRY SKULL” silver ring from last year we made with Volt (Taipei jewerly maker). This Kopo sculpt has a more aggressive look to it. Unlike the silver ring, this VENGEANCE ring has an open-size, which makes gifting much more easier. The skull ring comes in 3 colorways; silver, vintage bonze, and the matte black. To some of our customers, the best about this might be the fact that due to this material used, the VENGEANCE ring doesn’t cost an arm and a leg! This was in fact one of things we wanted to make sure when we started this collection; the VEIL accessories line can be more affordable.

The Spring accessories collection consists of rings, necklaces, and bangles. Please stay tuned for the informations of the other new items.

This week we came to Taipei. First visit this year for me to this city; Always enjoyed coming over here where we have great friends. Spent a few days with our crew at the Veil Taipei Store, ironed out how we will drop the collaborations this season. If you visit the store, remember to say hi to Jil and Queenie, the ladies who manage our Taipei retail.

Met up with Jukai, of course. Caught up with what went down while I was away for the past few months. I definitely missed alot of great actions! Need to come back more often. Jukai’s Plug-In design house is also doing very well, which we are very happy to hear. Work hard, bro!

Footwear for the trip, I put on a pair of B/W Converse Jack Purcell. Dead on classic. Is time to go back to some of the older stuff.

To start things off for 2012, we got together with sports brand Li-Ning once again to collaborate on a new series. Our last sneakers project with LN released exactly 12 months ago, so this seems like the right time to drop some new ones. Taking the Chinese sports brand to a different direction, we proposed two new outdoor boots as our collaborative platform, dubbed “7-Holes Booats” and “MotoTie Boots”. For our special series, we opted to use “Mountain Soul” as the name, reflecting on VEIL’s past outdoor series products. With easy wearability in mind, we used black and beige across 4 items with a mix of nubuck leather and suede. Our graphic print was lasered in, the effect is very nice. Nothing flashy, just visible details and quality.

“Mountain Soul” Moto-Tie Boats

“Mountain Soul” Moto-Tie Boots

“Mountain Soul” 7-Holes Booats

“Mountain Soul” 7-Holes Booats

These 4 items will drop at VEIL Taipei Store and selected Li-Ning Stores in Mainland China. Yup, these, while are limited in quantities, are not exclusive to VEIL Stores. You wanna see the exclusive editions? Will show you them a bit later.

Everyone struggles with staying motivated through the winter. The new adidas Oscillate Warm running shoes make it a little easier to get out there thanks to breathable CLIMAWARM™ to keep your feet warm and dry, as well as a flexible upper and heel-to-toe cushioning. With the launch of this new model, we were invited by adidas’ Germany headquarter to design a special colorway. We titled VEIL’s edition the “Purple Swamphen”.

The color palettes chosen resemble the large bird with a very loud explosive call. Evidence shows that the Romans kept Purple Swamphens as decorative birds at large villas and expensive houses. They were regarded as noble birds and were among the few birds that Romans did not eat. We chose this subject as a reminder of what’s out there in the environment, as there are so many wonderful species facing extinction, we should enjoy their existence while they last.

As part of this Purple Swamphen Pack, we are offering 3 t-shirt colorways and a VEIL backpack with matching colors. Designed for short trips, the backpack sharing the same title has multiple divisions to store your laptop, clothes, and of course, a dividable lower section for your camera, sneakers, or whatever you take with you for your route.

Expect these items to hit our Asian accounts soon. Please stay tuned to the VEIL website at http://veil.hk

Apparel brand VEIL started rolling out its Fall/Winter collection. Its latest release included some seasonal basic items, which are just in time for this weather. Here are a few pieces from the recent drop.

Military Shirt L/S

Washed Denim Button-Down Shirt

SPARROW Crew-Neck Sweatshirt. As one of the brand’s key visuals, this sweatshirt only comes in grey.

CLIMAX Crew-Neck Sweatshirt

DIGITAL TRIBE Fleece Zip-Up Hoody

DIGITAL TRIBE Fleece Zip-Up Hoody

More items can be found at the VEIL Taipei Store and various authorized dealers.

Vist the website for more details. http://www.veil.hk

As my girl was complaining so much, I paused on sneaker shopping for a while. A short while. Upon my return to the shopping mood, or should I say when she was in a better mood, I immediately went back and hunt down the grey SKY FORCE II Vintage that I missed when I was in Taipei. I opted for the black and red colorway when I was there, and holded out on this grey one, but then I said “no, I need the grey as well” You guys know how it is.

So, I was glad to know that a shop actually kept a pair of grey for me after I expressed my likings on one of those mico-blogs. Got it! Happy!

VEIL 2011 Fall Collection looking good in our studio. Actually a small part of the collection came in, we are expecting a bigger shipment next week. Most of the items were pre-ordered by our clients, so I am actually still waiting to see which items I’ll get to keep a piece or two for myself. I have my heart set on the denim shirts and the military shirt. Love what Suzzy did with the details. Will post up the goodies after I get proper photos.

Got gifted by Adidas, as they hooked me up with this pair of Mega Torsion Flex M. Love the leather plus performance look/feel of this. Had the urge to go running when I saw this~ but of course I didn’t go.. Thanks Gigi!

Worked with the guys at Protest Design Company again, this time on this Feather Bangle for VEIL. We released this in Mainland already, the reponse was very positive. This was only the first drop of a series we got going with PDC. Yeah, expect to see more. (That VEIL x New Era 59Fifty is not out yet~~ wait for it)

VEIL is set to release these Sparrow Feathers and necklace. Made with sterling silver, hand sculpted by Volt in Taipei, these Sparrow Feathers symbolize the brand’s motto of “Never Compromise”, just as sparrows would rather strave themselves to death than to be caged by mankind.  The charm on the necklace is actually a sparrow skull. Alot of VEIL’s accessories relate back to sparrows, and this is just one of a handful of items set to drop this autumn.

VEIL official website: www.veil.hk

After my routine visits to Taipei and Hong Kong (my actual home), I’m now back in Shanghai. The Taipei team and Shanghai crew are focusing on Veil’s 2012 S/S collection. We are still a few months behind, as we’d like to actually finish a season’s design 2 seasons ahead of its debut. Well, that’s the timeline that we hope we will eventually get onto. There’s a process involved that we are still trying to learn and get use to. Having dealt with bigger brands allowed us to learn the process that they use in the big leagues, but our problem is that we still want to stay true to what we want to do, and not turn ourselves into corporate slaves. Hmm.. We need to do an balancing act along the way. As mentioned before, the A/W collection this year for Veil will have a bit more accessory items, which we knew the bigger stores will not want to take on. But then again, we like those items, we like to use those items, so, hell, we are making them!

I don’t know about North America and Europe, but Asians went nutz over the recent Animal Pack Woven Footscapes put out by Nike. Leopard and zebra prints were pretty well received in Asia for the past 2 years, and this pack was a hit with the sneaker headz here. If you see these still available in your local sneaker store, well, cop them!

Came to Taipei because VEIL participated in an exhibit currated by COOL Magazine. It wasn’t a tradeshow, as it was opened for the public. There were fellow clothing brands, celebrity performaces, Freestyle Sessions with the b-boys, the works. Lots of fanfare. It was fun for me since I got the chance to meet some old friends over the 3 days span. We just all met up at the venue, and then went out for coffee meetings all weekend long. Yup, I had alot of coffee and pizzas between those 3 days.

For VEIL, we put on display the latest items we have developed for Autumn/Winter 2011. Usually, we don’t like previewing products too early before the actual drop, but for this event, it seemed the right thing to do. The folks were happy to see our luggage collection, as well as our accessories section of the catalog. As blogged here before, our collaborative efforts with jewerly-maker VOLT continued, and we showcased some of those new items here.

It was a good environment for media and brands to mingle. A few tv stations came over to investigate how different brands will tackle this ever-changing youth market. VEIL’s Queenie was shot here for a MTV spot. Once stuff like this hits television, … you know what will happen.

Thanks to Taiwan for embracing VEIL, embracing what we are trying to do. And of course, thanks to our fellow brand-builders for supporting an outsider like VEIL in entering their market, lots of mutual respect here.

Arrived Taipei City last night, and just in time for today’s “East vs West” Basketball Game hosted by Phantaci & Nike. East and West represent the 2 main districts in Taipei City. Each of the 2 teams were comprised by memebers of streetwear brands in its respective district. So, members of Phantaci, KenLu.Net, UnderPeace would be in the East Team. While on the West Team, has guys from VEIL, Remix, Overkill, Subcrew, Mania, SMG, etc. It was just for fun, most of the audience were from the different brands, this wasn’t opened to the public.

Sam and Frankie were there as well. Sam represented his Subcrew, played on our West Team.

Jukai represented VEIL. He played real hard~~ He tried, put it that way~

Group photo!!