/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/45467454/2009_07_loganreise.0.jpg)
Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
John Varvatos is soon to have a badass new neighbor—Logan Riese, whose hand-tooled leather and denim creations have succeeded in making Lenny Kravitz, Dave Navarro, and Bon Jovi look infinitely tougher than they probably are. We spotted this signage in the window of the former Closetry shop, and after a little research, found that Riese's main claim to fame is his "exquisite leather" work, crafted on pre-WWII era sewing machines and enhanced with exotic skins like shark, ostrich and stingray. The designer also boasts a jewelry line, featuring plenty of skulls, daggars, and gothic crosses, but it's his website copy that endeared him to us the most. And we quote: "In this story, the hero's hands always ache and his fingers are always swollen as he bends over the intricacies of his handcrafted art. Here, as in few such stories, are the unsettling truths of an artist battling the blandness and safety of the American closet." Now that's true marketing poetry.
· Logan Riese [Official Site]
Loading comments...