Kong Lung Trading Employee’s Picks for the Season
November 2010
This month we decided to ask the creative team at Kong Lung Trading to share their ever stylish roundup of favorite picks from the store. With the always changing inventory and fresh store displays, getting the inside scoop of what’s hot at Kong Lung Trading is useful and valued information.
Whether you have been coming to Kong Lung Trading forever because you know you will find the coolest gifts, or if you just like Kong Lung Trading for its inpirational eye candy, we hope you consider Kong Lung Trading to be one of your favorite stores. Please let the staff assist you when looking for those holiday gifts and don’t forget about the complimentary gift wrapping.
Deborah’s Pick: TORI RICHARD
Inspirational, sophisticated and exotic clothing for the individual who appreciates the finer things in life.
Tori Richard’s apparel is a true reflection of good design and art that is inspired by trends and cultures from around the world. This Hawaiian company’s philosophy is based in the honor or creating fine garments to resonate a life of luxury and style.
Tori Richard began creating men’s wear in 1969, almost 20 years before the founding of Tommy Bahama—a point of pride for Debra when selling these beautiful garments. Tori Richard is a true family business and offers only original prints and artwork on their products, setting them apart from other resort wear companies. The company is also a great resource for designers and artists as they have digitized almost 14,000 of their textile prints for reference.
Please stop in today to browse our hand picked collection of Tori Richard men’s wear. Because of Patty’s amazing buying style many customers see these products in a whole new light. Whether you are looking for a quality shirt made from textured silk, a silk blend or cotton lawn, (the company’s signature and proprietary fabric), you or your loved ones will surely covet these incredible and sophisticated garments for many years to come.
Janet’s Pick: ESTEBAN
An Appeal to your Senses
Southern France, the fragrance capital of the world, is home to Esteban—a company started in the late 70’s by Jan Max Esteban. This company has been creating scents and imaginative products that convey a love of travel and discovery through fragrance. Esteban is known for their style, which intertwines Mediterranean and Japanese sensibilities, allowing these irresistible aromas to tell their story in your home and to carry you away to a far away land.
Kong Lung Trading carries Esteban’s room sprays, scented boxes, refresher oils and diffusers. The scented boxes are delightful little gift packages containing ceramic pieces, seaglass, river rocks or tribal beads inbued with the essence of the collection’s scent. Each scented box contains different objects that represents the story of the collection’s distinctive smell.
When Janet was asked why she chose to feature Estaban as her pick of the month she replied, “I think these will make really nice gifts for the holidays and the price is excellent. I love these.” Her favorite scent, Ambre, is one of the company’s most popular. It is described as a subtle Amber fragrance, enriched with bergamot and neroli, a serene arousing caress of precious woods and lingering sensuality of vanilla.
The fragrance of Teck & Tonka is a souvenir of Africa, conjuring wooden houses full of spices: nutmeg, cinnamon, clove…Teck & Tonka revives this blend, one of the most entising in the history of perfumes. Each fragrance tells a story, which one will you choose?
Patty’s Pick: HEATHER BENJAMIN JEWELRY
Sparkle this Holiday in a Heather Benjamin Drusy Necklace
What is a drusy? A drusy refers to a rock surface (usually a cavity) covered with tiny individual crystals. These sparkly and opalescent crystals provide a reflective surface reminiscent of sugar or snow. Whether the crystals appear on the surface of the mineral or are recessed into a crevice the result is the same, a stunning gemstone. And stunning is a perfect description of Heather’s pieces that incorporate these incredible stones.
By utilizing century old methods of metalsmithing, Heather Benjamin’s jewelry is designed and created around a stone, gem or fossil. Her work is available in a satin or hammered finish, and offered in sterling silver or 22k vermeil. Each stone is bezel set and these designs are inspired by cultures and their relationship to the sea and to nature. Her work has been described as organic elegance meets chic and bohemian and it is this perfect juxtaposition of these elements that makes her jewelry unparalleled in style and creativity.
Kong Lung Trading has a wonderful collection of Heather Benjamin’s fabulous one of a kind jewelry pieces in stock. Come in and pick out your special necklace. Isn’t it time to shine?
Book of the Month: LOCALS ONLY
by Hugh Holland, edited by Steve Crist
Publisher Notes:
One afternoon in 1975, a young photographer named Hugh Holland drove up Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Los Angeles and 
encountered skateboarders carving up the drainage ditches along the side of the canyon. Immediately transfixed by their grace and athleticism, he knew he had found an amazing subject. Although not a skateboarder himself, for the next three years Holland never tired of documenting skateboarders surfing the streets of Los Angeles, parts of the San Fernando Valley, Venice Beach, and as far away as San Francisco and Baja California, Mexico.
During the mid-1970s, Southern California was experiencing a serious drought, leaving an abundance of empty swimming pools available for trespassing skateboarders to practice their tricks. From these suburban backyard haunts to the asphalt streets that connected them, this was the place that created the legendary Dogtown and Z-Boys skateboarders. With their requisite bleached blonde hair, tanned bodies, tube socks and Vans, these young outsiders are masterfully captured against a sometimes harsh but always sunny Southern California landscape in LOCALS ONLY.
Holland’s skateboard photographs were first shown at M+B Gallery in Los Angeles in 2006. Following the success of the show, his work has been shown in Paris and New York City and used in American Apparel publicity campaigns. Holland resides in Los Angeles.