"Business As Usual" - Interview with Edison Chen and Kevin Poon

Although the last few months have been a whirlwind of drama for Hong Kong’s multi-talent Edison Chen, we recently had an opportunity to discuss with the star regarding the revamping of not only his current personal life but also the status and progression of his boutique Juice and his lifestyle label CLOT. The outspoken and sometimes controversial personality has some stern words for the world in his first public interview following his scandal. Juice and CLOT co-owner Kevin Poon also offers his own insights on the new direction of CLOT and the conceptualization of the newly renovated Juice which opens Saturday, April 19th. This re-opening will be met by the release of the “Business As Usual” t-shirt. The interview can be seen after the jump.

Juice
53 Paterson Street
2/F Flat A
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Edison Chen

How are things going? What have you been up to lately?
Things are going good… I am chilling and relaxing and focusing my energy on things other than Hong Kong entertainment, it has been refreshing and chilled… I’ve been in the States meeting people, chilling and making moves… Big things to come from the CLOT boys starting from the re-up of JUICE and onwards… I am currently working my ass off to get healthier and even stronger for when, IF I EVER come back to Hong Kong… I am settled now and I am feeling good…

Tell us about the concept and meaning behind “Business As Usual”.
BUSINESS AS USUAL has been the motto of the CLOT family since the whole HK SCANDAL happened… Everyone thought we were going to fold and our shit was going to crumble but it has actually made us stronger and we are coming back harder… We ain’t closing, we renovating, we dun got less customers, if anything there are more customers now so this tee is just for us at CLOT and the people who support our shit. This is a message to all the haters and doubters that we are handling BUSINESS AS USUAL… They can hate all they want but they can’t deny us and we can’t stop won’t stop and the only place we going is higher and higher up on the food chain till we are the top and people will no longer be able to say nuttin bout us….. ACU and JUICE are chilling AS USUAL, so why wouldn’t it be BUSINESS AS USUAL???

What sort of changes can we expect from CLOT and Juice?
JUICE is a more futuristic clean and sleek retail venture now… When we opened JUICE around 4 years ago everything inside, the design, the clothing, the music, the things that made JUICE what JUICE is, was super fresh and super new… No real stores or brands were around back then from a local perspective so we also brought some new flavor to the game, but as time passed and more and more people hopped on the street fashion bandwagon and more local clothing makers followed our footsteps we decided we needed to RE-UP not only our look but our whole vision… Being pioneers for the region we needed to give our supporters a version of JUICE that we thought fit to be for 2010 and we also needed to refocus the store as well. We will be expanding into other cities very soon so this is just the first chapter of the re-up… Taiwan, Macau, Beijing or LA??? Where will we go next??? Keep ya shit peeled to our site and keep updated on what the CLOT BOYS be doing… Also other than the facelift inside we will be selling new lifestyle products from candles to cameras, music and magazines on top of the shit we currently sell including clothing, toys, incense and special funkiness… We will be testing a lot of new labels at JUICE as well from now on so we will be carrying more AMERICAN and EUROPEAN brands other than the usual Asian brands you see… Maybe you will see us venture into the realm of the world in between high fashion and street fashion very soon too but we wun spoil too many surprises for now… is a full collection looming for the CLOT boys??? Haha u call it but dun say i said nothing cuz i didn’t…

Does this Juice/CLOT update reflect a new change of direction and theme for the brand?
I think we at CLOT are always changing and trying to push the envelope every day… We push each other and we try to find new inspirations from all the places the CLOT FAMILY are originally from and visit.. I wouldn’t say this was a time period where we decided we needed change… It just so happened that after some bullshit hit the fan our reno period was coming so for JUICE and CLOT we are always ever changing, that’s why the name JUICE… We got all different types of flavors and we mixing it up and trynna come up with some new flavors and styles… CLOT… The collection of all funky and fresh designers, ideas, concepts coming together in one place and exploding out into ya area… CLOT and JUICE stand for these things to me and i think that in itself explains how we have new ideas everyday and we keep our look and brand fresh collaborating with many of the people we admire and at the same time picking up some of their insights to add to our game…

What sort of upcoming projects can we expect from Edison Chen?
Man CLOT got a lot of stuff coming out from now till next May, we have so many collabos with great names and brands that we are all excited for… In the immediate future the Headporter CLOT Royale series will be launching including the CLOT Visvim Christos as well as a simple toy division rolling out. I feel sorry for the people who saying and talking shit about CLOT saying their brand is better and whatever, we at CLOT will never speak about who is doper or who is hotter, we let the people decide. We aren’t dictators we are just a creative bunch with a knack of knowing what people will be liking in the region… We let our work speak for ourselves, so for the PERSON or the PEOPLE talking shit bout EDISON CHEN or CLOT whilst i am not in town, I say this to them, PLEASE TALK SHIT TO MY FACE and start doing up ya labels and shit cuz we coming back harder. CLOT JUICE ACU EDISON CMD we all coming hard so watch out now, cuz I CAN SEE YOU but YOU CAN’T SEE ME. I am usually never one to talk shit but i can’t be left silent forever. I am a peaceful man now and i dun wanna start nothing but i am stating a lookout message for everyone. I think for EDISON CHEN u can expect me to be chilling in the sun lounging away from the hectic nature of Hong Kong. Nah nah nah i am jus buggin i am working on some charity functions hopefully i can get off by the end of the year and i am going to be filming some movies THAT AREN’T HONG KONG market orientated. I will be working my Hollywood game as i am now blessed with more free time to actually sit and talk wid directors and producers, my peoples at WILLIAM MORRIS and my boy JACK HELLER (of JHF fame) are picking up the game where i left off from Hong Kong in America. So keep ya eyes and ears peeled and bear witness to the wrath of the math and the journeys of the journeyman EDC, but to b honest i am just trynna chill and live my life. LET ME LIVE BABY LET ME LIVE… but in the meantime enjoy the new JUICE experience and enjoy the new CLOT hot shits…

Kevin Poon

How’s it going? Please introduce yourself and your role within CLOT.
Hi, my name is Kevin Poon and I am co-owner of CLOT.

What does “Business As Usual” mean to you?
It means nothing can stop us and business goes on.

Why did CLOT choose a tee to represent the concept of “Business As Usual”? Did you consider other methods?
We actually use a lot of methods to keep this concept throughout, we are renovating the store to a new concept, we have a lot of new interesting items coming out for spring all the way until fall and some interesting projects in the pipeline.

How is the new concept and design for Juice/CLOT changed upon from the past?
Our first store was very raw and wood based, after 4 years of running these operations we have learned a lot about retail and matured. The result is a new store renovation which is a reflection of us. It’s more mature, sophisticated, clean, minimalist and fine as this represents our taste and I think its going to be a great change for us.