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Raif Adelberg Deadboys Clubhouse Punk Rock Art Pop-Up Comes To Vancouver (PHOTOS)

LOOK: Vancouver's Punk Pop-Up
Press release

Raif Adelberg lives a life of juxtapositions.

On the one hand, he's a globetrotting fashion designer whose high-end clothing is sold at luxury fashion retailers Barneys. On the other, he's a father who spends his down time in his quiet home on B.C.'s Bowen Island.

"It takes balance," Adelberg tells The Huffington Post B.C. "I love the hustle and bustle of the city, but like living on the island. It's nice to come home and just be away from it all. I think it enables me; it works for me in the sense that if I create something, it comes from a natural source, not from the influences of my surroundings like stores or magazines."

It's this balance that allows Adelberg to extend his creative arm in so many different ways, whether it be art, fashion, or something in between.

Cue The Deadboys Clubhouse, an amalgamation of Adelberg's expansive creative output, and his first Vancouver show since 2010.

Part pop-up shop and part art installation, The Deadboys Clubhouse, which Adelberg has been touring around the globe since 2006, comes to Vancouver this Friday, Oct. 25. Taking over Fortune Projects Space (147 E. Pender St., middle floor) from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., attendees will get to see some of Adelberg's art pieces and shop his designs (some of which were made specifically for the event), all which channel New York's famous and now-defunct punk rock venue, CBGB.

"I wanted to create an environment for people to come and enjoy some good punk rock," says Adelberg. "I'm not following the template of what would normally be in a pop-up store." He was hoping to have a blind tattoo artist in attendance, he adds with a laugh, but that fell through.

For Adelberg, living outside the norm is, well, the norm. It's not that he specifically tries to colour outside the lines, it's that he sees the lines differently—and doesn't care if you think his picture looks weird.

"[I tell people to] create their own footprint, create their own signature, and not feel like you have to do something because it's something that's trendy now," he says. "Just do what comes naturally to you. There's no right and wrong. Turn a dream into a reality. A dream is a visual; you can't dream something you can't see."

In Adelberg's case, that means continuing to explore punk rock art and culture through The Deadboys Clubhouse. While his high-fashion designs go one direction, his pop-up shops go another. Always juxtapositions.

"I grew up skateboarding, influenced by punk rock and pop culture," he says. "I can't expose that with my luxury label because it doesn't really fit anywhere. Even though I do have elements of it, I'm not able to really do those things the way that I see fit—the way I do for Deadboys.

"With Deadboys, I can write, 'You can't kill something that's already fucking dead' on a t-shirt," he continues. "No one would buy that at Barneys or Bergdorfs. But at a nightclub someone will come in and be like, 'Ah, fuck yeah, I'll buy that.'"

Check out a preview of The Deadboys Clubhouse:

The Deadboys Clubhouse

Raif Adelberg's The Deadboys Clubhouse

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