Fact: Ragamuffin Clothing, a progressive, revolutionary line founded at Berkeley recently collaborated with the Esface team this year for the Jazz and Reggae Festival, hosted at UCLA every Memorial Day. The collabo has been waiting to happen and finally was officially sparked weeks ago after both President’s, Oladele (esface) and Leandrew (Ragamuffin) had a sit down and met at the Esfac’e Lab on the Peninsula to discuss the opportunities for the strategic alliance. Both companies represent the more progressive, socially conscious side of the urban fashion spectrum with missions that seem nothing short of compatible so we can expect to see a lot more of this synergy in the future.

For those of you in the Southern California area, come out this Memorial Day Weekend, May 24-25 for the annual UCLA JazzReggae Festival.  Enjoy two days of great music, food and more.  Performaces by Erykah Badu and De La Soul, to name a few.  Esfac’e will be represented there along with Ragamuffin, another progressive bay area clothing line out of Berkeley. For more info about the festival, please click here.

A talented  group of teens from Venice, CA have created a brilliant software program called Fast Fit 360.  Seeing as the new American trend is to manufacture clothing oversesas, this interactive program allows the client and vendor to have “virtual” fit sessions without having to travel to the factory itself.  “Fast Fit 260″ has been called the “MySpace of Fashion,” by   By reducing the costs of travel and time consuming meetings, businesses can can not only expidite their work flow, but also add more money to their bottom line.  For more info click here to read the entire article from the California Apparel News.

Fact: After a couple year absence, Esfac’e comes back to host the Blackfest 3 on 3 tournament this year, getting a strong 7 teams involved, with Team Esface losing by 1 in the Championship (next year is Redemption year). And of course, we had the Esface booth showcasing our latest Nu Face shirt along with the Black on Black Series released in March.

This SATURDAY, join Chillin’ Productions & Esfac’e along with many other local designers at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco (SOMA).  Shop, drink and be merry with local artists and new talent.  There will be live painting, silk-screening, and DJ’s spinning all night. Doors open at 8:00pm - 2:00am, $7 admission, 21+ID.

Join Esfac’e on Saturday, May 2nd for Chillin’s Productions “50 Fashion Designers” show. Enjoy works from local fashion designers, live painting, live silk-screening and music.   Located in SF at 111 Minna Gallery in SOMA.  8:00pm-2:00am, only $7 at the door, 21+ID.

Famous fashion & ad photographer Steve Shaw headed the new ad campaign showcasing hip-hop artist Kanye West for Louis Vuitton.  We’ve already seen the fashion leak showing Kanye’s shoe designs in red—check out the new color ways here, courtesy of Hypebeast.  Look for his shoe line in LV stores in June 2009.

Come out this Saturday and check out Esfac’e on the runway. We will be participating in the 1st Annual West Coast Caribbean Fashion Show 2009.  The show is located in Historic Sweet’s Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland CA 94612.  General admission $20, VIP $30, Runway seats $40. Doors open at 8:30pm, Fahion show starts at 9:30pm.  After party til 2am.

Rocawear takes their store on the road calling it the “Rocawear Roc Pop Shop.”  According to Jay-Z’s new social networking site roc4life, the shop is “a lifestyle shopping experience brought to you by Rocawear, showcasing new and exclusive Rocawear product.”  So far the shop scheduled to be touring Brooklyn, NY, dates TBD.

Hip-hop artist Kanye West has collaborated with Louis Vuitton’s Creative director Marc Jacobs and debuted their shoe designs at this year’s Paris Fashion Week. The Kanye West for Louis Vuitton Collection will be available at Louis Vuitton stores in June 2009.  Click here to watch Kanye’s shoes walk the runway with the newest LV collection.