Smak Parlour’s fashion truck on 40th Street between Locust and Spruce Streets / Photo by Mia Holley.

Over the last 10 years, pop-up shops have become a must-do trend in the fashion industry. While seasonal holiday stores—like Spirit Halloween—have already anchored themselves in this market for decades, retail and fashion tycoons like Target, Gucci, Dr. Martens, Louis Vuitton and Kate Spade have all developed pop-up shops at one point or another.

Smak Parlour, located at 219 Market Street, is no stranger to the pop-up concept. The Old City boutique founded and run by best friends Katie Lubieski and Abby Kessler has a temporary space at 126 S. 19^th Street opened through November 9th, moving to the King of Prussia mall the day after for the holiday season.

While the two 34-year-old fashion designers—who started their t-shirt line SMAK in college—are following an established trend, they’re hoping to capitalize on another budding craze already taking over Los Angeles: the fashion truck. And they’ve started here in West Philly.

“We love the idea of bringing our merchandise straight to our customers, it is the ultimate in customer service,” Lubieski and Kessler wrote to West Philly Local in an email. “It’s an emerging trend for food to go mobile, we decided why not do that for fashion too?”

Since July of this year, Lubieski and Kessler have operated their Smak Parlour mobile store on 40^th Street between Locust and Spruce Streets, serving mostly students from University of Pennsylvania and their alma mater Drexel University. Equipped with a dressing room, West Philly shoppers can peruse the truck’s array of affordably priced clothing (available up to size Large), jewelry, and accessories while on break for lunch, in between classes or during a mid-day walk. Smak Parlour’s parked on 40^th Street every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday between 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., and occasionally visits other locations throughout the city.

But, for the fashionistas, a brick and mortar store, pop-up shops and fashion truck are just the beginning. The two women are looking to expand their brand through “whatever opportunities come our way.”

“We have a great staff and awesome, affordable merchandise. Maybe there’s a Smak Parlour store coming to West Philly down the line, who knows?!,” they wrote.

–Annamarya Scaccia

Tyrell Biggs (in the white t-shirt) still schools young Philly boxers in the finer points of the sweet science at a gym in the basement of the Shepard Recreation Center near 57th and Haverford.

Tyrell Biggs was one of those dudes who may have hit his prime too early.

He was a starting forward on that legendary West Philadelphia High School basketball team that won a state record 68 straight games on its way to Public League and City titles in 1976-1978.

A few years later, as an amateur boxer, he won gold at the U.S. National Boxing Championships. In 1982 he won the amateur World Championships in Munich. Two years later his path to professional boxing was clear after he won gold in the super heavyweight division at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, beating future champ Lennox Lewis on his way to the title. He won his first 15 pro fights and got a shot at the title in 1987 but lost in a seventh-round TKO to Mike Tyson.

All by age 27.

For Tyrell Biggs boxing was a way up in life, as it still is for many kids in the city. But like many young people who get a lot of money at a young age, Biggs battled drug and alcohol addiction during much of his adult life. He is the subject of a feature documentary that you can help make happen called Whatever Happened to Tyrell Biggs? (see video below).

Here’s the plot outline for the documentary, which is being produced by Lunchbox Communications (the crew that made Digital Dharma):

“In 1984, US Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Tyrell Biggs is hailed as the second coming of Muhammad Ali. What should have been the dream launch of an international boxing legend in reality, marked the beginning of a long period of misfortunes, both in and out of the ring. This feature biopic explores one man’s fall from grace into the depths of despair that pushes him to vanish. Living in that territory in between fame and failure, Biggs confronts a struggle that lives within us all.” A good chunk of the production of this film is already complete, but the production team needs some help getting this important story about someone born and raised in West Philly.

Project Runway Season 12 winner Dom Streater making it work (Photo by Barbara Nitke / A+E Networks)

While it’s no secret that West Philadelphia is a neighborhood of stars, it was confirmed last night when Dominique “Dom” Streater won season 12 of Project Runway.

Throughout the season, the 24-year-old local fashion designer, who was born and raised on 58^th and Chestnut Streets (“a really nice community to grow up in,” she said), captivated the judges with her juxtaposition of competing patterns and bold colors. And her collection shown on last night’s Project Runway finale was no different—appropriately titled “Retro Redux,” Streater’s runway show at New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week was a vibrant explosion of cool blues and purples intercut with contour shapes that oozed luxury and sophistication.

It’s an edgy trademark look that defines her trend du jour line, the Halcyon Clothing Collection, which she currently designs out of her home in Overbrook. But, as Project Runway’s latest winner, Streater will have the opportunity to launch her next collection with the help of a sizeable prize package, which includes $150,000 furnished by GoBank, state-of-the-art products from HP and Brother Sewing and Embroidery, and a $50,000 styling contract with L’Oreal Paris (among other goodies).

Before last night’s season finale aired, West Philly Local had a chance to chat with Streater, a graduate of Moore College of Art and Design, about making it to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, what defines West Philly fashion, and building her brand in her hometown. Continue Reading

Community Connector program volunteers. Photo courtesy of PEC.

There are a patchwork of community groups, improvement districts and major institutions trying to distribute news to their constituents in West Philadelphia, from fliers piled in the entranceway of a local church to email chains and Facebook pages.

Some of these efforts, such as the University City District’s (UCD) printed newsletter, have achieved widespread distribution and are commonly seen at coffee shops stacked next to the latest weekly newspapers.

But without the resources of the UCD, how can community groups get important news like road closings or information about available services out into the community?

The People’s Emergency Center (PEC) is experimenting with a model that enlists members of the community to distribute the news themselves.

PEC’s Community Connector program drops off informational materials on a bi-weekly basis to volunteers located in the neighborhoods of Belmont, Mantua, West Powelton, Saunders Park, Mill Creek and Powelton Village.

The volunteers then distribute the materials to every house within a four block radius of their home. Volunteers must also hand in a completed log sheet when new materials are delivered and are invited to attend monthly meetings.

“We believe that direct face-to-face interaction is one of the most effective methods for disseminating information and building credible relationships with a community,” said Cassandra Green, manager of community outreach and partnerships at PEC.

The idea for the program was pioneered by The Enterprise Center in the Walnut Hill neighborhood. PEC was able to replicate it through the support of the Philadelphia Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a local branch of the federal community development organization.

PEC was intent on figuring out a way to better get news out to the community because it wanted residents to know about its wide variety of programs addressing housing, unemployment, financial counseling and social services.

“Without knowing what assistance is available many residents who are eligible simply miss out,” Green said. “Information about these resources should be disseminated in the most direct way possible – through one-on-one human contact.”

For more information, contact Cassandra Green at 267-777-5893 or cgreen@pec-cares.org.

–Alex Vuocolo

West Philly squatter Jessica Meyers now officially owns this rowhome (with the red bench) near 52nd and Funston.

Awesome news for Jessica Meyers, the heroine of our story “Jessica Meyers, squatter-turned-homeowner, wins bid for home, and loses donations,” originally published in July, 2013. Her dream of home ownership officially came true last week when she paid off the remainder of the auction balance owed for the abandoned rowhome at 52nd and Funston where she had squatted for the past eight years. The Public Housing Authority signed over the deed to the house last Wednesday, NBC Philadelphia reported.

Jessica says going to closing was “amazing.”

“I can’t believe it came to realization and that I came up with the money in two months. It’s a true testament to not giving up,” Jessica told West Philly Local. Jessica landed the winning bid for the legally-abandoned PHA-owned site in July, and had to come up with the remainder, which she partially raised through two online fundraisers, money she received from friends, part-time jobs and selling some of her belongings at flea markets. Some of her friends, though, told her during the two months to just give up. But she didn’t.

Jessica is now putting together a press packet with a letter of request for donation to building material companies like Home Depot, Lowe’s and local lumber yards stating why she needs building materials.

Contact sheet of “Everyone is Photogenic” Test Run / Photos by JJ Tiziou.

Stand in line at your local pharmacy and you’ll see the message loud and clear: your beauty is only worth the skin you’re in. It’s a message displayed between the lines of bright and bold typography—insistent typeface meant to catch your attention.

The messages we receive about how beauty’s defined—and what defines it—are a daily part of our lives. The way we regard ourselves is evidence of that.

But for West Philly photographer Jacques-Jean “JJ” Tiziou, there’s another epistle that should be shared—one that, if held with the same earnestness as it envisages, could dismantle superficial beauty standards.

That message? “Everyone is photogenic.”  Continue Reading