Author Archives: the Editors

The Grunion Run Groomsmen Shop 2012 VideoThe final part of our collaboration with the L.A.-based groomsmen label
By the Editors |

You might remember something about a lookbook we’re pretty proud of that was posted recently here on Handlebar. Well, we put together a little something else that day, too, and this is the result.

The final chapter of our first (and hopefully not last) collaboration with The Grunion Run comes in the form of the video you see above. And while dashing, debonair fellows like Carey Grant and George Clooney have set a high standard for style in film, we really think that we’ve been able to push the bar even higher with this short clip.

Just kidding.

But it does feature some supremely dapper groomsmen attire and a lot of laughs. Here’s hoping that you enjoy our lookbook video as much as we did making it. Watch it above, then take a peek at a few goofy outtakes from the shoot after the jump.

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The Grunion Run Groomsmen Shop 2012 LookbookThe debut lookbook from L.A.'s stylish, affordable groomsmen outfitters
By the Editors |

WE’VE ALL BEEN there before: Your buddy’s getting married, and he asks you to be one of his groomsmen. You’re thrilled. Honored, even. But then he asks you to drop a couple hundred bucks on an ill-fitting rayon suit that you’re never going to wear again. Not so thrilled now, are you?

That’s where The Grunion Run Groomsmen Shop comes in. Launched earlier this year, the L.A.-based label makes affordable, great-looking shirts, ties, vests and accessories that are ideal for your friend’s Big Day, while also making for solid additions to your everyday wardrobe.

In the interest of full disclosure, we have to mention that The Grunion Run was founded and designed by our co-founder Yang’s sister Yun and brother-in-law Kevin. But believe us when we say that there’s hardly any nepotism at play here—as two style-minded twentysomethings with limited disposable income, The Grunion Run’s well-designed basics are right in our wheelhouse. After all, where else are you going to find a $40 dress shirt with such a perfect trim fit and collar? Or a #menswear-approved slim red chambray tie for a mere $22 bucks a pop?

We’re beyond excited to have been involved with the styling and creative direction for The Grunion Run’s 2012 Lookbook. It’s one of our favorite projects we’ve worked on thus far, and we couldn’t be happier with the results. Take a gander below.

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A Note from the Editors: July 2012We gon' party like it's our birthday
By the Editors |

SEE THAT PHOTO right there? That’s us, Yang and Jeremy, just over a year ago. We were sitting in Jeremy’s closet-sized apartment in SoHo, and we’d just printed out the very first poster bearing the Handlebar logo. That night, we ran the ink cartridge in Jeremy’s DeskJet dry, then wandered around downtown New York plastering up fliers on every street lamp, sign post, and mailbox we could find.

It was close to three in the morning when we finally got back, but we stayed up till the break of dawn writing, designing, and talking feverishly about all the big plans we had for our little mustachioed pet project. Handlebar’s launch was only a couple of weeks away. The future couldn’t have seemed brighter.

A YEAR HAS passed, and a lot has changed. Yang’s grown his hair out (he tells himself he looks like Don Draper), and Jeremy now lives in a closet-sized apartment in the Upper East Side. We’ve gotten jobs, switched careers, and one of us even moved out of the country. We’ve learned new languages, made new friends, and gained new family members. But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed at all in the last twelve months: our unbridled, incontrovertible, verging-on-sociopathic passion for this website.

When we sit down and look back on everything, it’s really kind of nuts to think about where Handlebar has taken us thus far. This magazine has given us the opportunity to converse with our idols, collaborate with some truly amazing folks, and see our goofy ideas become reality. It’s taken us across the country and around the world, and helped us to grow creatively. Most of all, it’s taught us about who we are, the men we’re becoming, and all that we’re capable of.

It’s been an incredible ride. Thanks so much for coming along with us.

WE KNOW IT’S been a little quiet around these parts lately, and we’re sorry. Every great story has a few bumps in the road, and needless to say we’ve had some trouble balancing our commitment to the site with all of our other responsibilities lately. But all of this time away has only made us hungrier, more eager — it’s lit a fire in our bellies that a dozen cases of Tums couldn’t settle. We’re shaking off the cobwebs and getting things back in gear, and let us be the first to say: Damn, it feels good to be back.

There are new heights for us to reach, new plateaus for us to conquer, and we’re ready to take the next step forward. By this time next year, who knows where we’ll be?

The future still seems brighter than ever.

— Yang-Yi Goh & Jeremy Wolf

Co-Founders, Handlebar Magazine

In Memoriam: Maurice Sendak, 1928-2012A small token of appreciation for one of children's literature's all-time greats
By the Editors |

MAURICE SENDAK UNDERSTOOD. He understood that children are not the pure, delicate flowers they are so often made out to be, but wild, curious creatures, full of passion and imagination and mixed-up emotions. He understood that adolescence is just as—if not more—discordant and turbulent than any other stage of one’s life. He understood that growing up is a process that never truly ends.

That’s why his books are almost certainly among the first you remember reading. Sendak’s stories take us to dark, fantastical places—but they always feel familiar, as if those places were inside you all along. They were. And they always will be.

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The Week in Entertainment, Vol. 37We discuss the songs, shows, flicks, and videos that caught our attention over the past seven days
By the Editors |

This week, hip hop loses a pioneer; A$AP Rocky takes on Paris; the latest Spidey flick looks less than amazing; President Obama shouts out Young Jeezy; Bethesda Softworks goes steampunk for its latest game; and a young man’s drinking prowess is not quite what it seems. 

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