Everyone Wants This Logo T-Shirt
Also, the most durable designer resale bag ever, archives, flatware, etc.
This is a Rando Report.
On Shirts…I want more logos
While backstage at the Big Apple-based Louis Vuitton show, I stopped Alana Haim, who was wearing a T-shirt with “Ghesquière Girl” encircled by two blingy hearts…an ode to Louis Vuitton womens ’s artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière. She told me she made it herself…with a bedazzler. There are TWO versions: One bling, another sans. I have already received DMs asking…how do I get this? Time will tell, but she should create a second…career out of this!
This isn’t the first time Haim has made her own merch: The Cut reported back in April on how the musician made her own “Team Ciara” T-shirt on Watch What Happens Live in a response to the Summer House drama1. She’s got a knack for this!
I wish someone (LV, Haim: please!) would produce this “Ghesquière Girl” shirt. After all, Ghesquière himself has his own history of riffing on commercial graphics. Take his Balenciaga scuba print from spring 2003…Balenciaga-MENSA collector Eden Pritikin discovered that the team had once tweaked “A Save the Amazon” graphic on a T-shirt, which they printed on those highly collectable scuba Balenciaga pieces. (You can still find the Balenciaga scuba print tanks for relatively cheap.)
Also, I miss the psychotic Stella-era Chloé logo shirts showing fruits and zodiacs and the numbers “69”, all of which were so flagrantly fun. Stella was considered a nepo baby, which made these shirts feel even more reckless, experimental, and like a hissing FU to everyone who scoffed at her. TBH, jokes on the haters, too: Those shirts have long reached cult status, and I can’t find a Stella-era Chloé banana shirt for less than…$800.
Speaking of logos, I love the sexy Climax Books logo baby tees in their blazing reds, citrus yellows, and vacation oranges…Dial “C” for Climax. Saucy.
There is EMILY DAWN LONG, who prints catchy phrases and cheeky graphics (she designs her own) on vintage shirts she’s sourced from the ‘50s to the early ‘90s. Justin Bieber was just spotted in a purple “Bug Me” one with a laptop on his head. “I say ‘bug me’ a lot when people come by my studio and ladybugs have shown up every summer since I moved into the women’s showroom,” she told me.
Each of her shirts…is sold out. Good luck finding one now, especially after Bieber-EDL fever. Though, there is one on eBay from her collaboration with a24’s The Drama that is listed at….$399?!
Anyways, what I want: That three-quarter length baseball tee with “Emily” stamped on the chest that shows just a sliver of her midriff.
Dawn Long messaged a group chat I’m in a few weeks ago with a photo of the “J’Adore Dior” shirt, a piece that is glamorously burned in everyone’s prefrontal cortex. Makes you think….you will go down in history if you have a great logo shirt.
And before the next thing…Women’s History Museum has great vintage logo tees. I love the Antoni & Alison (a brand that has seen new life thanks to girlie-fab Instagram accounts) “Help Me PERIOD” T-shirt. Sometimes, the Women’s History Museum vintage graphic tee offerings have a Shanzhai twist to them with a bunch of gibberish slathered on the chest.
On References and Archives
I have been thinking about the state of archives and references. I must not be the only one who, whenever they try to access an ancient shoot on TheFashionSpot…there is a sad little broken link? Or if I stumble on Pinterest, there is a beautiful image…with no identifying details?
My head spun when steff yotka from i-D tapped me to go through the magazine’s unreleased archive and write about the experience. I jumped on the opportunity. A free archive for me is… orgasmic. (I’m currently shelling out over $1k for a Vogue Italia one. Don’t remind me about the library card circumvention.)
Anyway, the i-D archive is a candyland, spanning from 1982 to 2019. Spelling mistakes, college-aged kids doing their thing, and campaigns that are truly vibrating with youth…versions of campaigns that you won’t see in the Vogues! Also, great spreads and interviews about how people actually dressed and not just an online silo of gifted duds.
At the moment, the i-D archive is not searchable, which I love. You can either view this method of research as painful or as a way to discover something. I thought of it as the closest thing to cracking an old magazine or photo book. Yes, it’s not the same as having an item physically in your hands, but the act of clicking through the i-D archive requires note-taking and concentration. (There are no bookmark tools, either…as of yet!) This isn’t just an instant gratification “search a term” and-you’re-done type of thing. Anyways, read the piece here.
Also, Steff and I had a follow-up Substack Live conversation about the archive, which spiraled into something else along the lines of that everything is a reference, and everything has been done before. That isn’t meant to be derogatory, but more of the idea that everything you see now has roots somewhere else. This gets lost in the era of the internet because a lot of the images we see…are marooned without credit or provenance, clinging to life on Pinterest or Tumblr. Now, imagine if those websites just… disappeared?!
In our conversation, I gave an example of “What’s In My Bag”, which is now a common series (both video and written) for media and brands. But “What’s In My Bag” was once a huge phenomenon in print, like Allure and Teen Vogue, as well as The New York Times. (You probably remember this!)
There is the epic Kate Spade book Contents (2001), which I recommend everyone buy if they can find it for under $600. The company was so bold and confident that they didn’t even make the women featured use Kate Spade products! And hell, this was a bag project! Fat chance this would ever happen today.
But earlier than all of this is the Irving Penn2 “Theatre Accident, New York” photo from 1947 that shows a spilled bag of things, including a crushed cigarette and a tiny pink pill. Side note: One of the intimate moments in Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) is when Helen purposely spills her bag, and Jessica helps her gather her belongings. We see a tampon in the mix!
I think the internet and working from home have completely fried our brains, and we don’t know the root of anything anymore. Frightening. On that note, stay tuned for the i-D archive release.
Are You “Kitchen Blind” Too? (I’m Learning!)
I understand clothes, but I am horrible at anything that has to do with home things. I have pathetic conversations with fellow writer and interiors extraordinaire Sydney Gore about just how kitchen-blind I am. My philosophy: As long as you can eat off of it (a plate) or use it (a fork),
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