On one side you had a couple of the artists painting a replica of their printed t-shirt version, on the other there were outlined illustrations in black and white. The curious (including myself) were invited to actually color in the illustrations with paint markers of flashy purple, pink and blue colors. I participated in coloring one of the flowers on the panda filled canvas (subliminal message that Dahlia is a flower). It was fun, silly and interactive.

I bought the DJab CD because I digged the sound and took a few photos. It wasn’t particularly a party per se, but it did attract curious onlookers to check it out. They were also selling all sorts of DJ-related goods like headphones and more listening stations on the inside of the store.

Not sure if the guys digged the t-shirts since it was too early to say if the event was a success, however it did make for an interesting shopping day.

If you’ve passed by Simons, there’s actually a listening station outside the store where you can preview the compilation album called “I See The Light” that will be sold for the event. From my impression, it’s one of those electro 80s inspired albums, which isn’t too shabby to listen to on a Sunday morning to pump you up in the morning.

While H&M may have had Lindsay Lohan’s girlfriend spin at the opening of the downtown store, it’s an interesting coincidence that Simons will collaborate with musical and street artists with much fanfare for a new collection they’ve just acquired. It’s especially notable that this is all for the men’s collection, which often gets overlooked and rarely receives any attention from the media. For a department store, Simons has done everything to keep its inventory fresh, exclusive and young, pushing past the traditional boundaries of department stores and really turning it into a fun shopping experience.

We can see that music is increasingly sharing the spotlight with fashion, which really has always been the case since the inception of popular music. We can associate music and looks with the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Music has really caught the eye of fashion.

Expect the party to go down at Simons from 12pm to 4pm on Saturday, I’ll be there to take in the scene and take pictures.