90s On My Mind
and things for regular life
It was 70 degrees in Brooklyn the other day which means it’s time to get out the shirts, shorts and slip-on Vans and put away the parkas and puffers. BUT!
If like me, you spent the last year parked, you’ve become a puffer so some of those shirts might be a bit snug.
Bad news: weight gain :/
Good news: buy some new shit!
Your Weekly 3
I love retro 90s anything, so the focus for shirts are shops that specialize in them. As usual, they’re all small businesses.
In the spirit of this roundup, here’s an extensive 90s playlist I made that’s public both on YouTube and Apple Music. Let’s do it.
1. Retro Teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees
Varsity
First of all, I’ll use as many e’s as I want. Second, Varsity does have a brick and mortar in Los Angeles as well as an online shop. These dudes know what’s up when it comes to 90s gear. I also LOVE how they subdivide everything in the drop down menu so you don’t have to scroll through a messy, unorganized series of thumbnails.
https://www.varsitylosangeles.com/
IG: @varsitylosangeles
Middle Tennessee Vintage
I’ve seen some rad as f-word wrestling tees here. I reflexively hide good sources, but sharing is the point of all this now, isn’t it. As far as I know they only do Instagram and have an eBay store. The upside is they trade as well as buy/sell. Also, I just realized their initials are MTV. Ha.
Insta: @middle_tennessee_vintage
https://www.instagram.com/middle_tennessee_vintage/
eBay: https://www.ebay.com/str/damrons
Never Gonna Turn Down Again
The best place for vintage heavy metal shirts. Especially long sleeved. The collection is small, but hyper focused. There will be bands you’ve never heard of or didn’t know made shirts. If you like heavy metal art then you’re gonna love it all. I met the dude that owns this shop at A Current Affair in LA a few years back and bought a Napalm Death shirt. The price was fair and I wear to this day. He’s super nice and has a great eye and knowledge base. Hit him up and tell him I sent you.
http://www.nevergonnaturndownagain.com/
Insta: @nevergonnaturndownagain
2. Lugging Stuff Around
Life is one long chore consisting of moving things around for various (lame, boring) reasons when all we’d rather do is sit down (cool, fun) and think about not holding heavy stuff. I don’t know about you, but since this pandemic started my back has been way out of backpack shape. That is to say, it feels great for once.
Over the years, I’ve tirelessly searched for the perfect bag to carry my things and not hurt me at at the same time. It doesn’t exist. Carry any backpack around long enough, especially in NYC, and it’s gonna hurt. However, I have found a few that cut down on the pain and are spacious and have tons of little pockets for everyone from artists to photographers.
WANDRD
Carrying on the long, confusing tradition of brand names that have a letter taken out of the word, comes Wandrd. I stumbled across this one at the Huckberry store in NY’s West Village. The matte finish caught my eye. Even though matte is supposed to do the opposite. Take that, matte finishes!
The disinterested employee said something about it being made for photographers, but all I heard was, “has many compartments.”
It’s comfy, has tons of pockets a roll top, and side opening to get in and out with ease. There are padded barriers for delicate objects, which velcro in and out, it has a rain cover that stuffs into the butt pocket, a removable seat belt strap, an ID and passport holder on the inside so it’s always protected and the list goes on and on. They honestly thought of everything. This is the single greatest backpack I’ve ever owned. And it’s under $200.
DSPTCH
I swear they spell it this way, no joke. I don’t know why so many companies do this. Anyhow, I owned this bag before the Wandrd and loved it. It was my primary day bag and weekend bag for a couple years. It expands out to hold quite a bit so I’d take it on 3 day road gigs frequently.
This company is very technical and utilitarian so the materials are strong and there are tons of add ons to customize it to your lifestyle. Tons of colors too.
https://www.dsptch.com/collections/backpacks/products/daypack-ballistic-nylon
Winter Session
“But Nick, I’m difficult and picky and I don’t want a backpack,” said at least one of you just now in a really whiney voice. FINE. How about this cool leather and/or heavy canvass tote bag with a shoulder strap! I’m not against totes by any means. I love farmer’s markets and you can’t legally enter any without one. Problem is the totes we normally carry around all sort of just appeared in our lives somehow. I have 12 and I can’t remember where I got any of them. There’s a good chance we’re all born with five totes to our name. Point being, they all suck. This one doesn’t. Hooray.
This guy here is a natural leather that will darken over time.
I like this mix of leather and waxed canvas. You’ll get ‘oohs and ahhs’ at the farmer’s market and maybe even a discount on locally sourced honey.
A final thought on bags: do not under any circumstances buy a messenger bag for daylong bag needs. I tried to make them work for years and no matter how many shoulder straps and cross body straps for stability they feature, they’re just not gonna do an adequate job distributing weight. This is one of those instances where you sacrifice cool for comfort and your body will thank you.
3. Spomeniks
After WWII, Yugoslavia declared its independence and to celebrate, their new leaders commissioned a fuck ton of memorials. The results and in some cases ruins are scattered all over what is now Serbia & Montenegro.
It’s a fascinating story and they’re all works of abstract beauty.
There is a website dedicated to the structures that has the complete history.
To only list three would have been selling it short. Check them all out.
I enjoy doing this and would enjoy it more if you subscribed and sent this to a friend.
See you next week.