Archive for May, 2007
How much do you spend on clothes?
Cote from the Redmonk crew asked on Twitter how much people spend monthly on clothes. Thinking about this I found it easier to ponder my yearly spendings on clothes since I go for months without buying and then end up in a shopping spree. I found that I spend on three different categories.
1) The Basics
I think you can get basics like jeans, shorts, sweaters and shirts in good quality for great prices. My favorite stores in the US for these commodities are Target, Costco and Loehmanns. The best however is Muji, which I discovered in Tokyo, but they are expanding to Europe as well. Muji is an abbreviation of the Japanese “Mujirushi Ryohin†which translates into “no brand, but nevertheless high quality”.
“Through the careful selection of materials, streamlining manufacturing processes,
and simplifying our packaging, we have continually introduced high quality Muji brand products onto the market, at lower than usual prices.”
So in total I spend about $250 per year in this category.
2) Urban Streetwear
Always need to have comfortable but funky clothing for hanging out in the Mission or the Haight on the weekend. I also just enjoy discovering the latest trends in funky stores with clothing from local Bay Area designers. My favorite store in this category is Upper Playground on Fillmore in the Lower Haight.
Another great option (not only for clothing) is Giant Robot (again my love for Japan). Karen got me this great T-Shirt for my birthday.
Other favorite shopping options include Villains in San Francisco and for upscale streetwear Fred Segal in LA.
Typically I buy a couple of pieces a year (some T-Shirts, Polo shirt and a Hoody) which total around $300.
3) Designer clothing
Yes, I have to admit I continue to be a sucker for nice Designer clothing (what do you expect I am European after all). I indulge in buying a few nice pieces a year (ideally when they are on sale). My favorite brands are Prada and Giorgio Armani and I buy modern but timeless pieces which I can wear for many years. Typically this includes dress pants, dress shirts and sweaters. For jackets I prefer Stone Island, but they are hard to find in the US (Fred Segal has them). Another great designer is Martin Margiela. Check out his uebercool retro web site and don’t let the intro screen (“This site is not under construction”) deceive you.
Finally my shoe purchases fall mostly in this category as well, since I tend to wear a favorite pair for years. Currently my absolute favorite shoes are from Medium, which is somewhere between Designer and Urban Streetwear (if you meet me it is very likely I wear the Medium Soloist). The dress shoes I mostly wear this year are from Trippen, great shoes from Berlin. I am eyeing however Paraboot which I saw in Tokyo.
Again I tend to buy only a very few pieces a year so I spend probably around $1,000.
There you have it. Total is $1550 per year which averages $130 per month. Hopefully this gave you some inspiration to look beyond the regular mall clothing. Also let me know about other cool stores/brands I should check out.
“Boing” makes Max laugh
Here is a little clip I recorded of Max recently. Everytime I say “boing” I am shaking my head, which makes him laugh.
Enjoy and cheers!
Three Years of Flickr: My Top Ten Pictures – Part 2
So here are my top five pictures on Flickr (ranked by number of views). It seems that Flickr users are primarily interested in girls (no surprise here) and computer memorabilia (probably also no surprise given the number of geeks who use Flickr).
#5 Girls in Tub @ Tao in Las Vegas (1380 views)
I took that picture less then a year ago when I was partying with some friends at the Tao night club in the Venetian. The club is great, but I still prefer the Sunday School parties at Body English (Hard Rock Hotel).
#4 Friendly Elevator Service (1388 views)
I was staying in the Hilton for the ASUG annual conference in Anaheim. The girls were there for another event (obviously) and had hijacked the elevator. Back then Craig Cmehil, who commented on the picture, was still a software developer at Hella. How times change. Now he is a Community Evangelist at SAP and probably is traveling more then me.
#3 Original Apple 1 (1542 views)
Another cellphone camera picture taken at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. If you are ever in the Bay Area make sure you visit this great exhibition. They also have a good speaker series.
#2 Adobe Illustrator 1.0 (1626 views)
More views then the Apple 1 picture… Makes me proud to work at Adobe. It is amazing what a loyal community of users Adobe has in the creative community. Who knows, maybe one day my first Apollo application picture will be featured in the Computer History Museum.
#1 Girls Gone Wild (19,028 views and counting)
Well, what can I say… I posted this picture on Flickr with the specific purpose to get many views. A little experiment to see how many people would find and view a photo with cute girls and tag baits. Eventually I put it also into four photo pools. While I expected about 1000 views the result was astonishing. Over 19,000 views (10 times more then any other of my Flickr pictures). Also even so the photo is over 2 years old the number of views continues to increase at a steady rate. I have to admit that I even didn’t take this picture. While I was working at a trade show in Vegas my brother Thomas and his friend had fun at the Palms Hotel pool and they took the picture with my camera.
I will check back again in three years and lets see if any other of my pictures will get more views eventually. I heard that cute baby pictures are also popular 😉
Three Years of Flickr: My Top Ten Pictures – Part 1
Today I wondered which of my Flickr photos have the most views. I hadn’t checked for a while so some in the top ten were surprises.
Lets start with #10 At the Pool of the Palms (963 views)
This is the only picture in the top ten which does not have a proper name on Flickr. It was taken at the pool of the Palms hotel in Las Vegas. My brother is ordering a drink from a hot waitress. Initially I was wondering why this is in the top ten but then I realized it is right next to the number 1 picture…
#9 Homebrew Computer Club Retrospective (1232 views)
Taken with a cell phone camera at the 30th anniversary of the Homebrew Computer Club at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. This is one of a number of pictures in the top 10 with a lot of geek appeal. Hey it even features Steve Wozniak.
#8 My little handheld computing history exhibition (1267 views)
Another computer history related picture. This collection actually sits in a corner of my office. My favorite is the Sony MagicLink in the back. Back in 1996 I worked on an interesting project between a German telecommunication company and General Magic.
#7 Prototype Ebay client based on Adobe Apollo (1273 views)
This is the newest top ten picture. It was taken at the 2006 Adobe Max conference. I think this was the first time the E-Bay Apollo Prototype was demonstrated in public. Time will tell if this becomes a historic photo (I certainly hope so).
#6 Crowded Booth at SAP TechEd 2005 in Vienna (1301 views)
I have no idea how this picture made it to number 5. I assume it was linked in a Blog or on the SAP Developer Network. I guess never underestimate the power of the SAP developer ecosystem.
The top 5 will come soon. So look out for my next post, including the number 1 picture with 18862 views (and counting).
