The Alex’s met for the third time when Alex (2tone) was art director at Howe Denim, finishing up fall 04 and getting ramped up for Spring 05. Alex Vaz was brought on as a Jr. Designer. The day he came into Howe they recognized each other and they both shared a smile indicative of people with a questionable shared history. The way between the Alex’s used to be the complete opposite of their relationship now. If you would have told them three years ago they would be working side by side on developing their respective dream line together they would have both laughed incredulously. They had first met four years ago at a Hollywood club under les auspicious circumstances. Al Vaz was in attendance with his clique, a notorious straightedge set from the O.C. known as the Klobber crew, and Alex 2tone was with his people, LA’s longstanding AWR graffiti family. The Alex’s had seen each other in passing at various clubs and parties and had already developed a dislike of each other based on their own mutual, petty ignorance. The wrong words were spoken and bad things happened. Chairs and bottles were tossed, people were hurt, and feathers were ruffled. A beef was developing and for a month or two the rival houses clashed. More people were hurt and no one was winning. So, as it does in a stalemate, the altercations escalated, heavier guns were enlisted and convenience stores, hipster bars and house parties were turned upside down when the crews crossed paths. It all came to a head, and (as they are prone to do in the City of Angels), guns peeked their ugly snouts into the picture. A mutual friend of the Alex’s who feared for the lads put them on the phone with each other, and out of their respect for their girl, they hammered out a much needed, although uneasy, truce. In retrospect, they both admit to wanting to end the drama long before they spoke on the phone, yet they were too proud to show any sign of defeat. The rival houses stayed out of each other’s ways long enough to let the beef simmer down and except for a few minor altercations it stayed that way. Eighteen months later The Alex’s had both disremembered each other as they continued to focus on their respective goals in the industry, Alex 2tones working as a freelance designer, while he finished his education at UCLA’s film school and started on an apprenticeship as a tattoo artist, Alex Vaz putting his business and fashion degrees to work, “making the rounds” (as we are prone to do in this industry), gleaning knowledge from each company he worked for. Neither Alex thought they would see each other again. They were both wrong. Their second meeting was to be at a funeral. Their mutual friend Tracey, the one who enlisted the peace process between them had overdosed in her mother’s Jaguar. Uniformed kids found her parked on the top of Mulholland Drive on their way to Curtis Private School one morning, looking like she was sleeping with her eyes open, staring at the rising sun. They eyeballed each other during the service, and they cautiously spoke at the wake, bonding through their mutual grief over losing a valued friend. They were both surprised to find out that they worked in the same industry, and that they had a lot more in common than either Alex suspected. The second time they parted ways the air between them had been cleared but they were not yet allies. Another year and a half and Alex Vaz showed up at Howe and they were thrown into the design room together, and along with the rest of the design staff, they produced Howe’s best season at the time, Spring 05. From a shared love of Korean Barbeque, stolen music, and inane humor their friendship grew. They instituted the 4 o’clock Freakout, where they would battle each other with the worst music they could download, combined with the lamest dance moves they could muster, while they had their mid-day meltdown, getting ready for the long nights that were necessary to get the Howe product out the door. Eventually the design team of Spring 05 disbanded, and everyone went their separate ways, and the Alex’s nurtured their pet projects, Alex Vaz’s being True Love and Alex 2Tone’s named False Idols. You can discern what happened next. True Love & False Idols represents the freedom to do what we love amongst a climate of lemmings, man-babies and pseudo heroes. This is an artist owned and art and design driven collective in which the basic philosophy is to enjoy and believe in what we are doing, take chances, and have fun. Everything is crafted with passion and we hope the consumer will be able to feel the excitement that we put into designing this stuff. We are doing exactly what we want to do on a daily basis, and doing it amongst friends. This first season is a G-Fab Tropical Fantasy built around Glittery Idolatry, The Right to bear arms, Redemption, Desire, Genuine love of good hard music Dust ups and Rub Downs, and the True Love of Tracy and the False Idols that took her, may she always be remembered.