Julius Shulman, reknowned architectural photographer died yesterday.  He is probably most kown for his picture below.  Its a shot of Koenig’s Case Study House No. 22 and probably most famous architectural photograph taken in the US.  With just one highschool photography class to his name, Shulman got his start when a photo he had taken of a Richard Neutra house caught the architects eye.  After WWII he was hired to document Arts & Architecture magazine’s famed Case Study housing program.  Working with pretty much a who’s who of modern architecture – Rudolf M. Schindler, Gregory Ain, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles Eames, Raphael S. Soriano, John Lautner, Eero Saarinen, Albert Frey, Pierre Koenig, Harwell Harris and many others, Shulman’s work really captured the feeling of the era.  Southern California in the 50’s was a design hot bed that really helped define California Kool from the aforementioned archicture and design such as the famed Eames chairs, to the whole kustom car culture, to jazz and the arts, and it still feels relevant today.  Thanks to Shulman’s photography generations to come can enjoy that moment.

R.I.P. Julius Shulman 1910-2009

wesurfed sat and sunday at malibu, found these pics of da cat showing how its done…

Our homie 12th Planet has been blowing up recently.  Pretty much leadin the US dubstep revolution John has been chargin an adventure in bass driven WAH WAH WOBBLENESS.  He’s been super busy -in the last month hes been recording a new album, rocked 2 scion shows, Electric Daisy Carnival, toured the west coast and mid west, remixed mstrkrft’s heartbreaker, the list goes on.  We got some ridiculous 12th Planet video and music that we were gonna wait for the new ampal site to share it with you, but had to post these pics we found from last nights show…

pics via theyoungwolff.com

We had been working/holding on this hat for about a year and a half.  The design was originally inspired by 60’s motorcycle culture and classic work wear.  We found the red and blue striped hickory denim in the basement of a fabric store near the Mexican border and bought up their stock.  We added a second colorway and it became almost a home/away version of the hat.  As election season started heating up we began to see the hat as a red, white, and blue hat.  If McCain had won, would we still have wanted the association?  Fortunately B.O. became our 44th, and as I wore the prototype during his victory speech one quote really spoke to me.

“…The true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.”

The words of wisdom became a water based print (so you won’t feel it) on the inside alongside some satin seam taping for your comfort.  We present to you the ”the 44th,” the first release of our Ampal Snap Back.

For our Ampal Snap Back, we created a profile and style completely our own.  It was inspired by the strong front silhouette of the 80s and early 90s snap backs but with a modernized deeper fit.  We stubbed out the brim and added four double rows of stitching to complete the look.

These will be hitting stores soon, but if you’re in Los Angeles we dropped off a few at Barracuda on Melrose  and Archrival in Little Tokyo for the weekend.  Maybe if you call they’ll ship you one.

Cheers to Uncle Sam and an epic 4th of fun in the sun…

René François Ghislain Magritte