Everyone loves a good celebrity scandal – like the one in which Naomi Campbell allegedly attacked her housekeeper last month over a lost pair of jeans. But, nobody likes that one more than hyperactive denim-design brothers Chip & Pepper. As it turns out, their extra-long, super-skinny Nik jeans were at the center of the hit-storm. And it only took a couple of days to make the T-shirt to advertise it. It reads, “Naomi Hit Me…For My Chip & Pepper Denim” -- a spin-off on the “Naomi Hit Me… And I Loved It,” shirt they issued several years back (why? just because), which Naomi made famous by actually wearing. Now the girl is giving the guys even more props. Got it? Neither do we.

“That was a huge compliment!” effuses Pepper, who was in fact named for his lively demeanor. “Here you have this supermodel, Naomi Campbell, who is world-famous and can wear anything, and she was insisting on her Chip & Pepper jeans for an interview with Oprah!”

The shirts, along with a wacky assortment of beachy stoner paraphernalia (old Stevie Wonder album covers, hammocks, California license plates) proudly hang in the window of their new Nolita digs. We admit, their shop, housed in the old Levi’s Selvedge space, has been open nearly six months and still we hadn’t checked it out -- a shame, really, because its décor is hilarious, like Jeff Spicoli does Double RL.

As Chip tells it: “Basically the store is a mid-century fishing lodge.  We have fishing lures hanging from a chandelier made of antlers. There is a huge window box in the back of the store that’s a picture of Lake of the Woods, where we grew up in Canada...”

“We even have an Atari Flashback 2 unit in there, so guys can knock out a game of Pong or Asteroids while their girlfriends shop!” adds Pep, as his brother calls him.

There are also copious amounts of super-washed caps, college-logo’d tees, and denim, including healthy stacks of the infamous Niks. It is, not surprisingly, their current bestseller. For guys, it’s the Ike Nifus, a baggy-butt, straight-leg cut named for their friend Mike Nyhuis (pronounced Ny-us), who came to be known as Ike Nifus after nearly losing a limb in a shark fight. We’re still trying to figure this one out, too.

Go There:

Chip & Pepper, 250 Mulberry St., NYC; (212) 343-4220; chipandpepper.com
“Naomi Hit Me” T-shirt, $30
Nik jeans, $190
Ike Nifus jeans, $186

Nik jean photo courtesy of activeendeavors.com