Lowenbrau and Chelsea
Today's subject is fashion.
I have this nasty habit of trying to jump in on a clothing fad too early and too extreme, turning my back on it when it goes mainstream, then finally coming around just as it starts to go out of style. I like to call this little problem "keep it real, keep it real, never mind". The most recent example of this is vintage t-shirts.
A few years ago I started looking for some nice shirts that I could wear to prove my edgyness. I picked up an ebay red Mickey Mouse T that is way too tight, a powder blue Expo '86 shirt as a gift (hi Mark) with sleeves that are funky, and a too big and worn out Idaho boys state ringer that I talked a friend (sup Bulldog) into giving me an extra of. Only problem: I'm not an edgy hipster. I feel like a fraud wearing those clothes. I look and feel better in J Crew and (occasionally) the less edgy Urban Outfitters gear.
But after aligning myself so clearly with the 'real' vintage croud, I certainly couldn't buy the good looking faux vintage wear that Gap, UO, and (most notably) Abercrombie started pumping out. The only thing worse than a falling apart "Getting Lucky in Kentucky" shirt is a brand new "Getting Lucky in Kentucky" shirt made to look falling apart. I certainly wasn't about to represent the "Abercrombie Tennis 1956" or some crap like that.
And in the middle of this story, time passes... (If only this were film, so I could set a couple fuzzy lens slow motion clips into a montage with some Hall and Oates).
If you've ever read this site before, you know where I'm going with this Last week at J Crew I broke down. I picked up a couple of faux vintage shirts. In my defense, the shirts fit me well, aren't blatantly cheezy, and they were on sale. On the flip side, 5+ years of ignoring the fad has cast me on the downward spiral of it, and just being a late sellout doesn't make you any less of a sellout. *
Finally, a description of the shirts -- if you care:
1) A navy shirt that says "Gramercy Park restoration 1975"
2) A powder blue pocket-t with a Birmingham logo on it (some sort of hind-legged lion that looks like a cross between the Chelsea and Lowenbrau logos).
* Unless you are the entire Beatles musical catalog, now being covered in a commercial near you. Thanks for buying the catalog then shilling it to all of freaking Madison Ave. Michael Jackson. Boo.
