LAS VEGAS

Brock Frederick is on the prowl for something cool. His livelihood depends on a successful hunt.

Frederick is co-founder of the Cream store in Norfolk, which sells sneakers, designer denim and other clothing that you can’t buy just any old place. It’s a fine art carrying some of the world’s most sought-after designs, especially now that high-fashion boutiques are popping up all over Hampton Roads.

Frederick and other new boutique owners help to define what’s hip in Hampton Roads, and whether locals look hip when they travel to other places.

Frederick is spending the day with thousands of other buyers at the fashion trade show Project, which is being held this week alongside the world’s largest fashion convention, Magic, just a short taxi drive away.

Magic features major “urban” lines like Sean John, Rocawear and Akademics, while Project features clothing that is more experimental, less likely to be in a department store, and generally more expensive than the goods at Magic.

“This is really nice stuff,” Frederick says, looking at a $380 hooded sweatshirt by a brand called Public School.

Cream once featured A Bathing Ape hoodies and bright T-shirts, but styles change. Now, he’s examining perforated leather jackets, and a $345 jacket of cotton and cashmere with a retractable ski mask.

“That all-over-print hoodie – the streetwear thing – it’s just kind of over,” he says as music booms over the floor.

Cream has a store in the Gallery at Military Circle with a cold, minimalist feel, to better accent its unique screen-printed T-shirts and pricey denim.

People will pay a high price for a certain look, and Frederick is here to find it.

“I want to look at it, feel it, touch it,” he says.

It’s 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, and Frederick has inspected 11 brands – everything from Polo Ralph Lauren to Triple 5 Soul.

He has a few more stops planned. Next up is William Rast, the line founded by Justin Timberlake. A rep from the company has been calling and e-mailing him about looking at the clothes, he says.

Lacey Wall, a regional specialist whose job is to know every boutique in the Southeast, goes over the details of the denim with Frederick.

“This is the one Jessica Simpson wore that everybody was just going crazy for,” she says.

Frederick isn’t moved.

She shows him some ultra-skinny fits. “They’re like leggings,” she says.

“At home, the girls wear those with high-tops,” says Frederick, surprising the rep. Here at the fashion conventions and most other places, girls wear skinny jeans with heels.

“It’s like a tomboy look,” he says.

On and on this dance goes. Frederick decides on skinny jeans in a dark rinse, because Norfolk girls love skinny jeans.

Frederick arranges to have digital photographs e-mailed to him, so he and his partner, Joe Cherry, can review them. If the men agree, William Rast’s skinny jeans will end up in Military Circle.

On the way to his next stop, Rock & Republic, Frederick talks about his competition.

Business has been brisk, he says, but some of the urban stores at Military Circle, including DTLR and Up Against the Wall, are among the top performers in the country.

Rock & Republic, a line of designer denim that can cost up to $400, might have the kind of merchandise that can set Cream apart.

At the Rock & Republic booth, a near-fortress with high, black walls and the logo embossed on the sides, visits are by appointment only.

After about a 20-minute wait, Frederick is allowed in.

He sits at one of four counters, stocked with handbags, shoes, sneakers and accessories and lots and lots of jeans.

A salesperson starts the process of helping Frederick decide which jeans are right for his store. She goes through some 50 pairs over the next hour as styles are weeded out based on the tiniest of details.

“I like that wash, but not that fit,” says Frederick.

She shows a style that is only going to boutiques, not department stores. It has a specialty back pocket.

“I’ll take it,” he says.

He nixes a pair with metallic leather “Rs” on the back pocket. The one with an embroidered purple logo on the back is out, too. He likes the one with the R in pink stitching on the back, outlined in some dazzling crystals. Now, about nine pairs of jeans are hanging, tiered, on two racks in front of him. He looks like he’s watching a tennis match, back and forth, studying.

“What do you think?” he says.

“This delivery concerns me,” she says. “These washes are so similar, they could cannibalize one another.

“This jean is going to be harder for a girl to find a top to go with. This jean is lighter, and will lighten your floor in fall. You could go darker, but it depends on the weather in your area. Is it hot there in fall?”

It could be hot one day and cool the next, he says.

They brood some more.

She warns that one style features white leather that, when washed, will bleed into the denim’s blue, so Frederick dumps it. There’s another with embroidered lines on the front in red he decides against.

Finally, 10 pairs are selected.

Frederick takes pictures with his iPhone. Back home, he and Cherry will examine them.

These Rock & Republic jeans might be available at Cream in August.

Malcolm Venable, (757) 446-2662, malcolm.venable@pilotonline.com [1]