"'... [T]here is a dark reality where it’s like, OK, I’m buying this in this place where it doesn’t have value, and I’ll bring it to the Lower East Side where some kid in all black will want it.'... In the competitive world of vintage hunting, some of the biggest fanatics don’t covet the perfect pair of 501s but rather a 1930s jacket found in an abandoned mine shaft and tinged with chemicals (also for sale in Mr. Lange’s shop). Where some cringe at the prospect of decades of dirt and grime on their clothes, others relish it. 'There is something cool about feeling someone else’s skin on you,' Ms. Trufelman said. 'People want to see signs of wear and tear. It’s a way of valuing someone else’s life and livelihood.' But even those who embrace thrashed clothing as the apotheosis of a certain gritty authenticity might sometimes pause to wonder.... 'There is a whole stolen valor side to this: You didn’t earn those rips. You didn’t paint anything'.... 'I’m not a laborer... I just want the look.'"
From
"Oh, This Old, Tattered, Moth-Eaten Thing? So-called thrashed clothes — garments resembling something closer to rags — are coveted by vintage fanatics" (NYT)(free access link, so you can see photos of this stuff).
Hard to believe people are still beating themselves up for appropriating the workwear of manual laborers. The shopkeeper who selects distinctly interesting pre-worn clothes that would have been thrown away and sells them for a good price deserves his money. It's not a "dark reality." But presenting your work as "dark" — or the "skin" of others — is pitching the sale.
Here's the Instagram page for Lange's store, sumshitifound.
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Sum?? Is his newfound shit additive in real value?
How much for a mid 1960s Beatles style turtleneck dickie?
How about a lime-green double knit leisure suit, complete with white belt and shoes, and a wide-collar acetate shirt? Medallion optional,
Call it Trust Fund Fashion. Most of those clothes look like they could only be worn once or twice before they finish falling apart.
I clicked over to the instagram page, and I thought the worn Carhartt did look good. I could absolutely see a person wanting to pick it up purely for the looks, and figured it would be a good thrift item to pick up for maybe $40-$50. Then I read this in the linked article.
"The tattered garment is, however, available to designers and stylists for rental. His prices start at about $125 for three days, roughly a quarter of what Mr. Lange estimates as its retail value."
New Carhartt jackets are upwards of $150 I believe. Now I can absolutely understand preferring the look of a worn jacket over new, but not to several times the price of a new one.
I was at first dismissive of the idea people wanting to buy something unique and authentic, but I think there is some merit to that. The clothes a person wears affects their mindset and outlook of how they see themselves in the world. People who don't frequently wear suits almost assuredly feel differently when they put one on, perhaps more formal, more sophisticated. Why wouldn't it work in a different direction of someone who has never been an outdoors type or done hard manual labor feel differently if they put a well-worn Carhartt jacket? Maybe they feel tougher, more resilient and stoic?
"There is something cool about feeling someone else’s skin on you" - Hannibal Lecter
It's now illegal in Mass. to throw out used jeans and worn-out socks
November 01, 2022
It's now against the law in Massachusetts to throw out that used Halloween costume, ripped T-shirt or moth-eaten sweater.
Starting today, Massachusetts residents must recycle their old clothing and other textiles instead of tossing them in the garbage.
But don't worry, police aren't going to break down your door if you slip up and throw out your skinny jeans. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees waste disposal, says it targets major offenders of waste bans, not individuals.
"Our approach is to go out and conduct inspections of solid waste facilities and to identify loads of trash that have large amounts of banned material, and then look to identify where that's coming from and take enforcement that way," said John Fischer, the DEP's deputy division director.
State environmental officials say they believe Massachusetts is the first state to ban disposal of textiles. That regulation is one of a few new and expanded waste bans going into effect this month. The state is also requiring people recycle mattresses , and that businesses and institutions producing more than a half-ton of food waste each week — like a hospital cafeteria or grocery store — donate or compost some that material.
Even though the DEP's regulations are focused primarily on larger businesses, Fischer said individuals can do their part to help reduce the amount of waste produced in Massachusetts.
Shit! I own some really valuable clothes.
1. “Sustainability is a flex.” Yes, that’s what it always was.
2. The hey fuck face riff on the north face logo (on the instragram page) makes the same point.
Life is just a costume party on the street
Look at me, I'm in tatters
"You didn’t earn those rips. You didn’t paint anything'.... 'I’m not a laborer... I just want the look."
say that you DON'T work for a living, without saying you don't work for a living.
i wonder how calloused their hands are? what are their shoes?
What would be the plural of hipster doofus? Hipster doofii?
now talk about distressed jeans
Considering the state of some of the clothes in the NYT article, does the store have a “You break it you bought it” policy?
A flock of birds. A doofus of hipsters?
NYT should limit itself to this kind of stuff.
It’s one thing to have a well-worn patina about your casual wear; it’s another to look like the wardrobe department for the shooting of a zombie movie.
It reminds me of factory-distressed furniture. The article already mentions pre-ripped/faded jeans. I guess the next step for the fashion industry is to add some dirt/paint or moth holes.
OMG! I TOTALLY miscalculated my net worth! I have "pieces" going back to WW2. I'm even currently wearing, no doubt to the detriment of its market value, a fireproof thermal shirt worn by a NASA pilot c. (gotta say "c.". Ups the rent.) 1970.
Inventory time!
Whiskey: there's a scene in some old movie where the owner of an antique store is "aging" a chest of drawers by beating it with a chain, and adding wormholes en mass via a shotgun loaded with birdshot.
Nostalgie de la boue.
"Mr. Lange is part of a growing community of vintage dealers focusing on the distressed...."
I work outside a lot on our land, so my work clothes are subjected to fairly frequent abuse. I could probably raise a fortune with some of my jeans, because, being cheap, I've discovered that the wear points that give out first - rear pocket corners and belt loops, usually - can be reinforced from the inside with fabric glue and if necessary, a glued-on patch of obsolete denim material. I've got some legendary faded jeans, probably 15 years old, that I keep mostly because Carhartt doesn't make'em anymore - the old 15oz fabric, loose-fitting, working man's jeans. The comfortable kind, where you can lift your leg to climb on a tractor. Nowadays, they're all tight-legged show-yer-ass-crack skinny Euro-trash stretch models. Carhartt has changed their target audience for dopes like this 'growing community' of soy-lattes that are drawn - like moths - to this kind of moth-eaten thing.
"Don't think of it as dust. Think of it as maybe the soil of some great past civilization. Maybe the soil of ancient Babylon. It staggers the imagination. He may be carrying soil that was trod upon by Solomon, or even Nebuchudnezzar."
"Recontextualizing"? Is that another word for lying?
Fashion for those times when trust fund hipsters are feeling nearly as faded as their genes.
Thrift store? Is NYT in the habit of conducting class shaming? Warfare? How very DEI.
Fashionables for femanity.
There is a whole stolen valor side to this: You didn’t earn those rips. You didn’t paint anything'.... 'I’m not a laborer... I just want the look.'
To me there is something obscene about effete elitists who absolutely look down on working class people nevertheless trying to look as though they work with their hands for a living. They’re trying to look like people they despise.
There's one born every minute. Can't blame a guy for taking advantage of it.
They do recontextualizing of drugs at the end of their profitable life, too, with benefits at a lower price, greater safety, and equitable effectiveness.
My grandfather was a cowboy, and was riding and shoeing horses and mules into his 90's. His wardrobe reflected it. He was a relatively small fellow, but all his male descendants are burly guys of 6 feet or more, so when I was cleaning out his closets and barn some years after his death, there was little that any of us could use. Nor was it in keeping with our lifestyles or tastes, for the most part. I picked out a cowboy hat and a bolo tie to remember him by, and we were planning to take the rest to Goodwill for donation, but one of my in-laws called a frantic halt to it. She has a side gig selling some of the most remarkably crappy junk imaginable on Etsy and Facebook Marketplace and Ebay, and assured us there was a market for weatherbeaten, grimy old work clothes. I told her she could take anything she thought would sell, and we'd split it 50/50. She took the whole big pile, along with a few broken-down saddles that couldn't be repaired, a couple of branding irons, old horseshoes, a box of rusty tools, and similar detritus and knick-knacks we had no use for. And I'll be damned if she didn't hand me over a thousand dollars in cash the next time I saw her. Blew my mind to see how much people would pay me for stuff I would have paid someone else to haul away.
tcrosse said...
How about a lime-green double knit leisure suit, complete with white belt and shoes, and a wide-collar acetate shirt? Medallion optional,
When I went to school in Kansas that was called a "Full Topekan".
Hassayamper
Those western items will show up in a Ralph Lauren "horsey" print ad.
Well, the store name is truth in advertising.
One way to get more mileage out of that old pair of jeans or khakis that you wear to dig in the garden or while you are working in your workshop is to use Gorilla tape on the inside when the knees blow out. (although I am now considering selling my carefully curated collection on eBay. "Complete with genuine oil spots and hardened epoxy!")
I knew that mothed-out Slayer t would make bank one day.
DEI approved cultural appropriation
I had a job that required steel toed boots, so my uncle who recently retired gave me his last work pair. He retired in 1982. I wore them until I had a one year assignment on a construction site and got a coupon for a pair of Red Balls. I wore the Red Balls for a couple of years, until somebody in the family needed a pair, so I gave up the Red Balls. Damn fine boots. I still wear my uncle's pair whenever I need to wear steel toes.
My sibling is very much into vintage fashion. One thing not mentioned is that it favors smaller, slender people. Because we were smaller and slenderer back then. My sibling is, like me, fairly petite and in decent shape. Not bird-like skinny, as if you could pick one of us up and break us, but average meat on the bones for a fit adult. Yet, my sister often finds clothes labeled for 'husky girls' to be the best fit.
@ALP
I'm not certain when this Life Savers' Ad ran, but I think few people in America today would describe the girl on the left as fat.
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