PICA~POST
MMXVII
No.12
Red Hot Word Buffet
No.12
MMXVII
Red Hot Word Buffet Ruminations from the Editor......... 02 Claude's Recipes.................... 02 Tasty Ingredients................... 03 Ostinato & the Golden Compass....... 04 This is an Interview with Marc & Laurent from Arpenteur.............. 10 You Say Gelato, I Say... Gelato..... 13 Mr Universe......................... 25 Forgotten Fodder.................... 32 More Tasty Ingredients.............. 35 Triple Nomicide..................... 36
Editor: Sam Waller Design: Steve Hockett Photography: Adam Hindmarch, Sam Waller & Google Images Styling: Liam Daly & Steve Sanderson Illustration: Ben Lamb & Stuart Fear Comic: David Bailey Words: Sam Waller, Mark Smith, Neil Summers, Harry Longstaff, Matt Raikes, Eddy Rhead & C.Bradshaw
Published by
Clothes Wearers: Ebo, Georgina & Ben Thanks: Everyone at Edwin, the lads at Arpenteur, David, Sam & everyone else at Universal Works, Michael Mayren, the main-man Mike Sallabank & anyone else who helped out in some shape or form.
of Cottonopolis www.oipolloi.com facebook.com/oipolloi @oipolloi
Printed by: MARC the Printers & Push Print
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Creative Direction: Steve Sanderson & Nigel Lawson
Claude's Recipes TAP WATER SANDWICHES Ingredients: Tap Water / Bread A tasty treat for those on a budget. Just splash a playful touch of H20 onto a slice of white bread and you’re good to go. Other tasty budget sandwich fillings include brick-dust, or if you’re a bit more sophisticated, why not push the boat out with some coffee granules (preferably Maxwell House)?
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Ruminations from the Editor
QUATTRO-CARBOIDRATI PIZZA Ingredients: Loads of pasta / Loads of potatoes / Loads of rice / Loads of noodles / Pizza base Here’s one for all you carb-fans. Whimsically rumble the pasta, potatoes, rice and noodles in a pan of boiling water (ideally a red pan, but a blue one should be fine) until devoid of flavour or texture, then whack them emphatically onto the pre-bought, ready-made pizza base (no point in faffing around with flour and stuff). Barstardise in the oven for approximately 27 minutes and 12 seconds before impulsively serving with an ample side-arrangement of rice, pasta and maybe some chips or wedges or something? ENJOY! AMBASSADOR’S DELIGHT
Here you go... the twelfth issue of Pica~Post. We’ve been making these things for a few years now (the first one came out in 2011, if you wondered), and we’re still not really sure what they are. Are they fanzines? Are they magazines? Are they just a load of nonsensical utterings printed on to paper and then stapled back together again? Who knows? What we do know is that we thoroughly enjoy making them, and whilst spending countless hours working on something like this might not make a lot of sense as a ‘marketing strategy’, if someone, somewhere out there in the real world gets even the smallest morsel of enjoyment out of these things, then that’s good enough for us. Anyway, let’s not get too emotional — let’s talk about this one. For some reason Pica~Post No.12 has got a fairly flavoursome food theme to it. Not too sure why, but sometimes these things are best left unknown. So without further spiel, grab a fork and dive in*.
Ingredients: A Big Box of Ferrero Roche / Some Champagne / Three Lobsters / Other Expensive Foodstuffs... maybe truffles? Luxury meets convenience in the recipe everyone is talking about. Why waste time chewing when technology can do it all for you? Simply slark all the ingredients into a smoothie maker, blast irresponsibly for a baker’s minute, and then decant into one of those plastic cup things everyone is walking around with these days. Or if you’re really in a rush, just pour it straight down your gullet. You deserve it!
*Metaphorically speaking, of course. Oi Polloi will not be held responsible for stomach aches and general digestive issues.
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Tasty Ingredients Some things we’re into at the minute...
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Vans No, not the battered old Ford Transit that’s been parked suspiciously at the end of your road for the last few days — when we say Vans, we’re talking about the California shoe company who’ve been making sturdy canvas kicks since 1966. This lot were the first to make shoes with skateboarding in mind — all the way back in 1975. Nearly 5000 years later, they’re still hard to beat.
Adsum
Olderbrother
Proper high class garb straight off the mean streets of New York. Is it sportswear? Is it outdoors-wear? Is it life-wear? We’re not really sure. It’s dead good though. Sort of like A Kind Of Guise crossed with 6876, if that means anything?
Proper laid-back hippy fare from Portland. Oversized shirts... rice paper... turmeric dye... very tasty. We could be wrong, but we reckon this is what people in utopia wear.
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Ostinato
 AND THE GOLDEN COMPASS MARK SMITH ON STONE ISLAND 04
“WRITE US SUMMAT ABOUT STONE ISLAND” THEY SAID. “YOU DID THAT EXHIBITION IN LONDON DIDN’T YOU? WITH ALL THE COATS.” In the UK at least, until relatively recently, the name Stone Island was welded to the concept of football casuals. Having taken a lead from their Italian subcultural counterparts in the mid-1980s, the brand slowly but surely filtered onto the football terraces and found an unlikely home. While the smart Italian kids in places like Milan and Bologna were hanging out in sandwich shops, the cultural landscape in the UK was different. It ticked a lot of boxes though. The utilitarian and military influences hit a very particular spot with groups of lads drawn perhaps unknowingly to the masculine overtones, and the hefty price tag pushed it out of the price range of the masses, adding even more appeal. Its popularity in those circles has rarely waned in the years since, and while Stone Island today gets the love from all corners of sartorial society, if you’re a market town match goer, Stone Island is still worn as a badge of honour. It would be incorrect to categorise all football lads as right wing in their politics, but amongst that community there are undoubtedly some who lean that way. What would they think of the fact their design hero was staunchly and actively left wing? Osti dipped in and out of local politics in Bologna, a town noted for its open-mindedness. Perhaps it doesn’t matter that much, but it’s certainly noteworthy. Politics aside, those foundations of appreciation in the UK were forged in the 90s when acid house had washed away and given way to the pure-breed lad. While early adopters will tell you they were onto the brand before the 80s were out, Stone Island really began to make its name in the UK during the 1990s. Today the brand named after a boat is riding the crest of a wave.
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When Oi Polloi asked me to pen some words about Stone Island it was an easy sell. I’d spent weeks immersed in the brand as part of preparations for the Massimo Osti Archive Exhibition that Proper curated in January, visiting the Bologna archive twice and spending hours with Lorenzo Osti. But who am I writing it for? It’s a brand which induces levels of fandom more at home with musicians or football clubs. Though I’m relatively well-versed in the history of the brand, what can I say about it that hasn’t already been said? I’m preaching to the converted aren’t I? Well, let me have a go anyway...
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Osti’s personality shines through in the Stone Island DNA, even today 12 years since his untimely passing. With Osti’s former collaborator Carlo Rivetti now at the helm of the good ship Isola Di Pietra, the brand has shrewdly remained true to the values Osti installed, yet evolved just enough to remain contemporary. As with most elements of the clothing business, the ever-shifting sands of fashion play their part. While the likes of Steven Spielberg and Alan Partridge were pictured wearing the compass patch way before it could count on the popularity it now enjoys, it was rarely a brand sported by the masses. These days, grime and rap artists have latched onto the brand in a big way. Collaborative projects with the likes of Supreme have only added weight to its popularity in those circles. Inevitably, that moment in the sun will eventually pass but what’ll remain will be a brand with an undeniable DNA and a rich history on which to draw.
Stone Island took its moniker from Osti’s love of the water. But while the roots of Isola Di Pietra are undeniable, if you were a cynical marketing type looking to appeal to earthy UK subcultures, you could hardly invent a brand name more fitting. Stone Island was born out of the unique perspective Massimo Osti brought to fashion design. Having trained originally as a graphic designer, he created garments in an unorthodox way and his indirect route to fashion meant he had little regard for the conventions held dear by the menswear establishment. If something hadn’t been done before, Osti rejected reason and saw it as a challenge. Barriers were there to be broken, boundaries to be pushed. It was that attitude which saw Massimo Osti pioneer many of the quirky garment treatments we see today. Fabric which changes colour depending on the heat, reflective jackets, coats made out of cotton made to age gracefully with wear and lots more off-the-wall designs all came from the Osti stable. The concept of wearing a down jacket away from the mountains was a foreign one until Osti paired the idea with deerskin and smartened things up. In amongst the thousands of fabric samples in the archive, it is said that only 5% resulted in something usable. If something wasn’t right, Osti kept on trying to make it right. This stubborn streak perhaps made sense given his name. The Italian word Ostinato means Obstinate in English and this fact wasn’t lost on some of those who knew him. The list of his innovations is too long to go into, but if you’re intrigued, it’s all laid out in the Ideas from Massimo Osti book, a genuine bible for anyone interested in clothing design as well as how their cool jacket came to prominence. Though it’s now fair to say Stone Island is the big hitter amongst the Osti offspring, it began as something of a diffusion line, born out of its older brother C.P Company. It was a vehicle for Massimo Osti to experiment with sportswear while at the forefront of dyeing techniques. When GFT bought the company in 1983, Osti remained its driving force until eventually leaving in 1994 to work on other projects.
WHETHER YOU’RE SPITTING LYRICS OUTSIDE A HACKNEY HIGH RISE, SMOKING CIGARETTES IN AN ALOOF MANNER OUTSIDE AN ITALIAN BUTTY BAR OR WALKING TALL IN A POLICE ESCORT AT AN END OF SEASON PLAY-OFF, THE POWER OF THE PATCH WILL NEVER WANE.
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Stone Forza Island!
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ARPENTEUR
WITH MARC & LAURENT FROM
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THIS IS AN INTERVIEW
WORDS: SAM WALLER 08
Laurent:
IF YOU’RE READING THIS, THERE’S A 59% CHANCE THAT YOU’VE ALREADY HEARD OF ARPENTEUR. BUT FOR THAT REMAINING 41%, HERE’S A FEW INTERESTING FACTS...
It’s like in some newspapers there are little comics with two of the same pictures with seven differences. It’s the same with some of our designs. From one version to the other, only maybe the zip or the lining will be different.
1. ARPENTEUR IS A CLOTHING COMPANY. 2. THE NAME IS FRENCH FOR ‘SURVEYOR’.
Sam:
4. ALL THEIR STUFF IS MADE IN FRANCE.
Do you think a lot of things change too fast? A lot of stuff isn’t given time to develop before the next version comes out.
5. THEY LIKE COTTON SMOCKS.
Marc:
IT’S BASICALLY THE SORT OF STUFF YOU’D WEAR IF YOU WERE WANDERING A DESOLATE BEACH IN SEARCH OF WAVE-WORN PEBBLES THAT REMINDED YOU OF A LONG-LOST LOVER... IF ANY OF THAT MAKES SENSE?
Sam:
3. IT WAS FOUNDED IN 2011 BY TWO COUSINS.
We won’t scrap a design. Very often we try to keep an idea and change it until it gets better. But once you add a new step, you want to add another new step. It’s endless. How did this start? Have you always worked with clothes?
WE INTERVIEWED THEM A FEW YEARS AGO, BACK WHEN WE FIRST STARTED STOCKING THEIR WARES, BUT WHEN WE HEARD THAT MAIN-MEN MARC AND LAURENT WERE IN MANCHESTER FOR AN AFTERNOON, IT SEEMED ONLY RIGHT TO CHARGE UP THE DICTAPHONE BATTERIES ONCE AGAIN AND HAVE A GOOD OL’ POW-WOW...
Marc:
Laurent:
I was in the movie business. I studied cinematography and was a production manager.
Sam:
Do you take much inspiration from films? I know that a lot of designers will take things from obscure films or something subtle hardly anyone noticed.
Sam:
I did an interview with you lot a few years back over e-mail. How have things changed since then? Have things changed?
Laurent:
It could be someone on the street or maybe a photograph.
Marc: When was the last interview? Sam: I’m not sure. Maybe two years ago? Marc: It hasn’t changed much actually.
Marc:
I think it’s got to come from somewhere. Sometimes I’m inspired by clothing that I think I’ve seen before, but then I’m not sure if it’s just something that I imagined.
We prefer to go at a very slow pace. We are very focussed on our clothes, trying to evolve and improve step by step.
Sam:
Yeah, sometimes you can get inspiration from something you remember, then when you see it you’ll realise it was nowhere near as good as you thought it was.
Sam:
Yeah, I suppose the people who wear it and buy it will notice that something has moved or changed slightly.
Marc:
For instance, we make a knitted jacket called the Roscoff. It’s the fourth version, and although it may appear to be the same jacket, it evolved significantly since the first version.
Marc:
Sometimes it’s better not to see an existing original item beforehand. I’d picture something in my head first and then try to find similar reference garments to use as technical guides.
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Actually, we come from totally different jobs.
Sam:
Marc:
Like reading a book and filling in the blanks?
In Europe we have a history of interpreting American culture in clothing, for better or worse. We sometimes find products from old French jeans companies who tried to mimic American style in a slightly awkward and cheesy way, and for us that’s very interesting. The result is an honest interpretation made with what was to hand locally. So if we were to draw inspiration from Americana, maybe we’d ask ourselves, “How could we make something slightly off, but in a local way?”
Marc:
Yeah, but when we get to the technical aspect of the clothing, we need references. We often look at vintage, but not necessarily very old items. We’ll look at stuff from the 50s, but also things from the 80s and 90s. We try to cook from different eras and to leave space to our imagination.
Sam:
I remember you saying before that you got a lot of inspiration from what you described as ‘tacky clothing’.
Laurent:
Sometime you can get clever details from stuff like that. It’s all a matter of context. You can take something from a cheesy context, and make it a bit more beautiful, and why not? We don’t believe a beautiful design has to come from a beautiful source.
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Sam:
Not many people do what you lot are doing. I suppose it’s workwear, but it’s not the usual Americana stuff you see everywhere.
Marc:
Although we like workwear and it will always be an inspiration, for us it goes beyond that. We try to make clothing we’d like to wear; with a homespun, casual vibe that we like to believe is our own.
Laurent:
It’s just having a different point of view on French culture.
Marc:
It sometimes starts in the factories. We’ll look at what they’ve made before. Sometimes there’ll be archive garments or fabric scraps left. That’s the specialty of making in France — it’s getting to see what’s possible locally and adding in our own influences.
Sam:
Sam:
How important is the French thing. Do you ever see things like an old American jacket, and think, “We’d love to make something like that, but it wouldn’t fit.”
Do you have to avoid stuff looking ‘too old’ sometimes? Is it a conscious decision to avoid it becoming like fancy dress?
Laurent: I
think it is conscious, and it’s important to us that we don’t look like a vintage brand. We’re doing garments for today. Our garments couldn’t have been made in the olden days. Our eyes are from now.
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Marc:
Laurent:
We need to be true to ourselves. We grew up in the 90s. We grew up with the Internet. The clothes are an extension of who we are.
Usually, fashion is associated with photography and film, but for us comics were just another way to see things. It’s like associating it with an abstract painting or a piece of music. It gives it a different atmosphere. It’s something that gives you specific emotions.
Sam:
What clothes did you wear growing up?
Marc:
In my case it was skateboard clothing, because that was part of my education in style and music. That’s very common to many teenagers to see how people dress in skate videos or how the locals dress, and go to skate shops. This is a nice introduction to clothing for young people in my opinion.
Marc:
With Régric the illustrator, we try and translate what is in our head when we are working on a new collection. I think it’s the most expressive part of our brand. It sets the tone.
Sam: It sums it up very nicely. Marc: And because it's an abstract
Sam:
Yeah, you’re not necessarily thinking about clothes, but you want to buy the clothes that other people wear. It’s quite an honest thing. It’s functional. What were you into Laurent?
style it leaves space to imagination.
Sam:
Laurent:
I wasn’t that into skateboarding as a teenager. I think this might sound a bit funny, but I was more into a mix of sportswear clothing and remnants of bourgeois style... Lacoste polos, simple sweaters and tracksuits.
Marc:
I’m not sure. But here is one of the reasons why we produce in France. It’s because of the value we attach to a product that is not material. It’s like when you go to some place as a tourist, and you want to buy a souvenir — you want to buy the souvenir that was made in that place. You don’t want to buy something that’s been imported. Or maybe it’s like the difference between a real painting and a very well made reproduction. It’s about authenticity. This is why you always attach value to the jumper you owned as a little boy — it’s not just a sweater, it has emotional value.
Sam:
I suppose that’s the age you start to make your own decisions a bit. Changing the subject slightly, how do comics come into all this? You’ve used very French looking comics and illustration in your labels and stuff since you first started.
Laurent:
We’re really into it. We love the aesthetics, and it’s been with Arpenteur from the very beginning. We use the comics to suggest an atmosphere around it. It’s kind of an extension of the clothing.
Sam:
Do you think people can often overlook European culture? Or French culture in your case?
Marc:
This style of drawing is a big part of French pop culture, so for us it’s natural to reference it, as it’s what we grew up with. We chose to illustrate Arpenteur this way because we think it is timeless.
Marc:
Not so much culture, as major French fashion culture is very well respected, but I feel that clothing that isn’t high fashion had been overlooked until the internet made it better.
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You obviously put a fair bit of thought into your clothes. This is maybe a bit of a heady question, but why do you think people can have such attachments to something as simple as an item of clothing?
Sam:
Sam:
Definitely. Okay, we’ve talked for a fair while now. Last question... Arpenteur is very much its own thing. Was that your intention — to create something new?
Things like old work jackets and more normal, everyday clothes?
Marc:
Yes, for me that’s the starting point of what we do. Trying to take normal clothing to a blurred frontier where you’re not sure if it’s some homespun piece or a modern creation.
Laurent:
Yeah, we started the brand to do our own thing. If we copied the best brands of today, it would just be a copy.
Laurent: For
instance, here you see Barbour jackets all over the place. But in France you won’t see a local French outerwear company worn in the same way. It doesn’t exist anymore.
Marc:
It’s about not compromising. For instance, we never did five pockets jeans because there’s so many people that can do them better than we can. Maybe, as we said before, we could find a way to make them ‘off’, and then they’d be right for us. Until then, we’re not going to make a weaker version of something that already exists.
Sam:
What about French cinema? Are there still good films coming out of France?
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Laurent:
French cinema isn’t what it used to be. Globally, I think movies are less interesting today than they used to be. It comes from money. Producers need to take risks on new things. I believe TV shows are more interesting than the movies now. It’s a different way to tell a story.
Sam:
I suppose with you being into films Laurent, and Marc being into comics, how do the clothes come into this. Do you think there’s ‘cinematic qualities’ to what you make, if that makes sense? Are these the sort of things you’d imagine characters wearing?
Marc:
If I did comics, the characters wouldn’t wear Arpenteur.
Sam: Haha,
what would they wear? Weirder stuff?
Marc: Spacesuits Laurent: I think
maybe.
I would use Arpenteur clothing in a film. Arpenteur is a reflection of today and so it would leave a little trace. I think it’s important for future people to see how some of us dressed at a certain point.
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You Say Gelato,
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I Say... Gelato We’ve made some clothes with Edwin. There’s coach jackets, chinos and baseball caps, all in flavours seemingly inspired by Italian iced-dessert vendors. It's all available to buy, wear and eat right now.
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Mr Universe RED HOT WORD BUFFET
AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID KEYTE 25
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WHETHER IT’S THE LATEST AND GREATEST TRAINERS THAT YOU DEFINITELY NEED TO HAVE, OR MYSTICAL FABRICS THAT PROMISE TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE BEYOND COMPREHENSION, THE MADCAP WORLD OF CLOTHING IS RIFE WITH DAFT GIMMICKS TRYING TO CATCH YOUR ATTENTION AND PRY OPEN YOUR WALLET. BUT IF YOU LOOK PAST ALL THE NONSENSE, THERE ARE A FEW PEOPLE TRYING TO DO THE RIGHT THING — QUIETLY AWAY MAKING DECENT, WELL-MADE CLOTHES THAT WON’T GO OUT OF FAVOUR IN TWO WEEKS. ONE SUCH FIGHTER OF THE GOOD FIGHT IS DAVID KEYTE — THE MAN BEHIND NOTTINGHAM’S UNIVERSAL WORKS. UNIVERSAL WORKS IS SOMETHING THAT’S BEEN SOLD HERE AT OI POLLOI FOR A FAIR WHILE NOW, AND WHILST IT’S DEFINITELY MOVED ON A BIT SINCE THE EARLY DAYS, THE HEART HAS REMAINED FIRMLY IN THE SAME PLACE — IT’S STILL SHARP, GOOD LOOKING STUFF THAT YOU COULD WEAR DOWN YOUR LOCAL PUB WITHOUT FEELING LIKE A PLONKER. O.P. BOSS-MEN STEVE AND NIGEL ARE BIG FANS, AND RECENTLY SAT DOWN WITH DAVID TO ADD A FEW OF THEIR OWN DESIGN DETAILS TO SOME CLASSIC UNIVERSAL WORKS GARMENTS — NOTHING MENTAL, BUT THE RESULTS ARE PRETTY GOOD. WITH ALL THIS CURRENTLY BOILING ON THE STOVE, NOW SEEMED LIKE A GOOD TIME TO COLLAR DAVID FOR A BIT OF A CHINWAG. I INTERCEPTED HIM AND HIS RIGHT HAND MAN, SAM, IN A MANCHESTER CAFÉ ONE WEDNESDAY MORNING AS THEY WERE ON THEIR WAY TO BOLTON. HERE’S A MUCH EDITED VERSION OF A VERY LONG CONVERSATION ABOUT CLOTHES, GROWING UP AND THE JOYS OF WORKING DOWN A MINE...
Where abouts did you grow up? I was born in a place called Tamworth — a little town just outside of Birmingham. Is that where the Tamworth pig comes from? Yeah it does have a pig. There’s a castle too. It was once the capital of Britain, in the 12th century. I think of myself of a Brummie, but I was never right in the city centre. Was being into clothes in a small town a bit of a weird thing back then? I came from a very ordinary, working class factory, and people wore clothes to work that they took off as soon as they finished. They were builders and bricklayers, and my dad was a baker. We didn’t have a lot of money for clothes, but people still liked to dress up at the weekend. It was okay to be interested in looking good, because that’s why you earned money – to go out on the Saturday to drink and have a good time. It was okay to like a nice suit or a nice jacket. It was the end of the 70s and the early 80s and punk had happened and there were new romantics — blokes were wearing make-up. But even in the 50s people were dressing as rockers or teddy boys. They were really into their clothes, and they were just working class kids getting dressed up.
How did this all start? When did you get ‘into clothes’, if you know what I mean? I was about 11 or 12 and my mother bought me some shorts that I was meant to go to school in. But there weren’t any other kids in shorts, so I wasn’t wearing them. And I decided then that I’d never let anyone buy me clothing. I persuaded my parents to give me the money they spent on clothes, and let me buy them. I realised I was pretty obsessed at that age. I don’t think it was something I thought I could work in as a job, as those jobs didn’t exist where I grew up, but I knew I was obsessed.
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You see documentaries about punk and it looks like this massive thing, but was it like that everywhere, or was it just a few people in London? How much of this was happening on the outskirts of Birmingham?
Yeah, definitely. Think we went off on a bit of a tangent then. How did your clothes obsession become a job? I did a lot of jobs. I left school at 16 with no qualifications, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I did a lot of things for the next two or three years, trying to find something vaguely interesting.
As a teenager I was into Northern Soul. That was about music and about dancing, and hugely about the clothes you wore. And that was a very northern thing. And I thought everyone was doing it, only because my mates were doing it. We were obsessive about the height of our waistbands on our trousers or the widths of our pants, and other people did look at us like we were a bit weird. I remember buying a pair of quite skinny 501 jeans and thinking I was a punk when I was about 15 and people pointed at me in the street. I looked weird to them. At that time I was in a relatively small town in the Midlands, and people were doing the things that people were doing in London.
Didn’t you used to be a miner?
Where do you think these things come from? What do you think dictates what clothes people wear when listening to a certain type of music? There’s someone who starts the trend. The guy putting the rave on, or the DJ. Movements start and you never really know how or why. Usually it’s a bunch of disaffected kids who want to do something different. It was the same with punk, and it was the same with rave. Why does every kid who is into hip hop wear the same thing? It’s because they want to be part of something. It gives you an identity. I think men are quite obsessive. Maybe we just like collecting things? Where do you think that obsessive thing comes from?
How come? Because every weekend I would drive to Manchester or Nottingham or Birmingham or Leeds, and I would buy clothes. Because I was going to these shops and spending enough money that they noticed me as a customer, they eventually asked me if I wanted a job. It was because I had money to spend that I found my way into that business.
When I wanted those 501s, it wasn’t a pair of jeans I wanted, it was 501s. It’s about fitting in, and wanting to be a part of something. Maybe we need something to be obsessed about? We’re part of the cog of the massive corporate world, so maybe we need something that’s more than the boring job you do?
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I was, for almost a year I was underground. It was horrible. My job was to drive a conveyor belt which carried the coal from the coal face. There was about an hour’s worth of shovelling coal every day, and five hours of not doing very much, in somewhere that could collapse at any minute. I saw several people carried out with life threatening injuries. It was a fairly unpleasant place to be. You’re a long way underground, in total darkness, shovelling coal. But it gave a lot of people like me who didn’t have a qualification a chance to make half decent money, and spend it on clothes. In fact, having that job enabled me to get a job in clothing.
Do you think having a job like that makes you appreciate things a bit more?
Yeah, it’s not dress up. What do you think about people dressing like they’re 1940s explorers?
As far as I know, I’m the luckiest man in the world. I do what I want to do, and no one tells me to do something else. I appreciate every single hour of that. Having spent time working for a lot of other people, doing jobs like shovelling coal back onto a conveyor belt... this is a doddle. I get very stressed, but I still appreciate every single day of it, because I could be down a mineshaft.
I went to a swanky bar in London on the weekend that had been there since the 30s, and there were a bunch of people there who were dressed like they were from the 30s or 40s, and do you know what? They looked absolutely amazing. If anyone dresses up and makes an effort, then good luck to them — I love it. But I don’t want to dress like that, and I don’t want to make clothes like that. Not because I think they’re wrong, it just doesn’t interest me. If you want to dress like you’re a Himalayan mountain climber from 1952, then what’s the point, because you’re not. Things have moved on. We’ve changed and developed new things. You can’t uninvent them. I do need a pocket to fit my fat iPhone because phones have got bigger. I want to acknowledge that and move with it, because I think it’s a more interesting way to design, and a more interesting way to live.
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So what shop were you working in? I worked in a shop in Derby called Knockabout. Pretty shit name isn’t it? There was a shop called Limey’s in Derby which sold Paul Smith and Stone Island, and this was the poor man’s version. I then got a job working for Paul Smith, running his original shop in Nottingham. When was this? Maybe 84? I’m very bad with years. It’s because I can’t count very well. I’m not very good at looking backwards, because I’m not interested. The past is done, I can’t change it.
Maybe skipping forward a bit now, but you started Universal Works in 2008 didn’t you? I remember back then it was really hard just to get simple, no nonsense stuff like plain sweatshirts or button down shirts.
Haha well you’ve done a good job of telling us your life story so far. How does the past come into what you do with Universal Works?
Yeah, when I was at Paul Smith we did a collection in the early 90s that was based on blue collar workwear, and nobody bought it. But by 2008 or 2009, very simple shirts, work jackets and regular pants were what people wanted. For me, it was the same thing I’d done 15 years before, but in a different silhouette. The things that guys wanted to buy had come back to what I wanted to give them. Really, I was designing my own wardrobe.
It’s hugely about appreciating the past, but we’re not trying to repeat it. Our bestselling jacket is based on something my dad wore at work. I called it the Bakers Jacket, because he was a baker. It’s not actually what he wore; it’s just something with a bunch of pockets that has a nice fit. It’s appreciating what it was, but trying to do something today.
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How do you rebel
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if you are mates with your parents? 29
What were the first things you made?
I can’t help but feeling that there’s less radical thought. We’ve all accepted that there’s only one game in town — get a job and buy stuff. We’re not very socially minded anymore. We don’t want to help anyone else, it’s just all about yourself, and it’s all about stuff. We have created a world of very cheap clothing. As a proportion of our wealth, we spend less on clothing than our grandparents did. We expect clothing to be cheap, and almost throwaway. Hopefully the people who are into Universal Works want their clothes to last a little bit longer. And I’m glad that things from my first collection would fit into my 17th collection, and I can still wear the same sweater I made 8 years ago. It’s a bit bobbly, but it hasn’t got a hole in.
Well, I’m still wearing the first jacket we did. I did a meeting last week, and the thing that struck me most was that if I put the first collection into the room amongst the new collection, it would all fit in. We’ve made tweaks and the fit is better, but it would all fit. So the same core stuff has stayed the same?
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Yeah, exactly. I still think, “Would I wear it.” If I wouldn’t wear it, I don’t want it in the line. I can’t possibly wear everything we make, but it’s still about whether it’s relevant to my life. I have a picture in my head of a friend of mine who I go for a beer with, and would he wear it? He was always the best dressed guy in the gang, but he’s a builder — he doesn’t fuck about — he doesn’t drink cappuccinos. He’s an ordinary bloke who likes a beer and going out, and he likes to dress nicely. I want to look him in the eye.
Where’s your stuff made? I get the impression you put a bit of thought into stuff like that. We make some of it here in England, we make a lot in Portugal and we do some stuff with a factory in India. We don’t make anything where I haven’t personally been and sat in with the people making it. Well, there is one exception — I haven’t been to where the make the shoes we do with Novesta yet.
You want to get on a bus and not feel like a wacko. Yeah, but you know what? Something you might wear in a nightclub in Spain might not be the same thing you wear on the bus to Oldham. We’re complex characters. I really hope I can make something you might want to wear for your holiday in Spain, and something for your bus ride home, and make you feel comfortable in both. But they are quite different situations. I think that’s perfectly ok. I wear a hat most days and people think I’m weird for that. Someone shouted at me on the way home last week because I was wearing a hat.
That’s in Slovakia isn’t it? Yeah, I’m going to go. I feel bad that I’m making something from somewhere I haven’t been. They’re very open to me going, so assume they’re going to be okay. I want to know that I’m not abusing someone. I don’t want someone to have a shit job, a shit life and shit wages to make me a shirt. It’s wrong. Equally, people need jobs — who am I to say they shouldn’t sew stuff for Topshop or whatever? I just want the people who make stuff with our name on to have decent opportunities and decent working conditions. I don’t want to make anything from anywhere with bad conditions. I believe it makes bad clothing.
Haha. I think that’s good in a way. It keeps people in check. I don’t think that sort of thing happens as much as it used to. Do you think people are a bit softer now? I grew up in a time when you definitely didn’t want to be like your parents, and now people grow up and their parents are their mates. That’s become normal. I wanted to be a rebel. I wanted to spraypaint walls and kick things. How do you rebel if you are mates with your parents?
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I know you were saying before that one of your jackets was based roughly on something that your dad used to wear. Where else do you get ideas from?
That must be a hard thing to replicate. It’s not that I then want to try and design something that looks like that, but sometimes it’s about the things going together in a way I hadn’t thought about, or maybe it’s to do with the silhouette of something. Maybe they’ve got a funny old jacket on that’s a bit too short, and I might think, “That looks great, we should do something with those proportions.” It’s often these strange people that are wearing these things.
Currently they’re entirely from watching Wes Anderson films. I guess most of it is already in your head, to a large extent. I think again, it’s that idea of understanding and appreciating the past, and trying to make it relevant. Of course I see a lot of films and I see people on the street. I might think, “Wow, black pants look great with a white t-shirt, I should do more of that.” It sounds naff because everyone says it, but inspiration is around you. It’s picking up on these little things.
Yeah, definitely. They know not what they do. Okay, we’ve talked for two hours now and only ordered a few cups of tea. Probably need to wrap this up. You got any wise words you’d care to share?
I read somewhere where you’d said you were influenced by old men waiting at bus stops.
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Be nice to people. And don’t believe everything you read.
Yeah, old men are brilliant, because they wear too many layers. They’ve always got at least five layers on. A really battered shirt, an old adidas track top, their wife’s coat and a hat and a scarf because they’re cold even though it’s June.
PICA~POST 12
LIKE OTHER ENJOYABLE THINGS SUCH AS MUSIC AND FILMS, FOOD HAS STRONG NOSTALGIC PROPERTIES. SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE WAY THE MIND IS WIRED UP TO THE TONGUE MEANS THAT YOU ONLY NEED TO REST A COLA CUBE ON YOUR TASTE BUDS TO BE INSTANTLY TRANSPORTED BACK TO YOUR CHILDHOOD AS A VICTORIAN SCHOOLBOY PLAYING IN DISUSED MILL-BUILDINGS AND HAVING YOUR LEG AMPUTATED. BUT UNLIKE MUSIC AND FILMS, FOOD DOESN’T LAST THAT LONG. NOT ONLY DO NEW FOODSTUFFS CROP UP EVERY MINUTE, PUSHING OLD FAVOURITES FURTHER AND FURTHER INTO THE BACK OF THE CUPBOARD, BUT — AS YOU PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW — FOOD HAS A SELL-BY-DATE. SO WHILST RECORD HOARDERS CAN HUNT DOWN A RARE 12” FROM 1978 WITH RELATIVE EASE, ANYONE LOOKING TO DINE OUT ON DISCONTINUED DELIGHTS IS IN FOR AN EVENING OF STOMACH ACHE AND PROJECTILE VOMITING.
WITH THAT IN MIND, HERE’S THE NEXT BEST THING... PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT OLD FOODS YOU CAN’T GET (AND SHOULDN’T EAT) ANYMORE.
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RISE & SHINE Eddy Rhead, Editor, The Modernist Magazine
THE GREGG’S BLACKCURRANT FRUIT TART Sam Waller, Oi Polloi There’s maybe ten other discontinued Gregg’s delicacies I could put here, but when it comes to forgotten flavours, nothing comes close to the sour punch in the mouth once known as the blackcurrant fruit tart. These were one of the original sweet treats offered by Greggs back in the great bakery takeover of the early 2000s, and tasted a bit like wiring your tongue to a slightly corroded car battery. I’ve got no idea why these were discontinued but I imagine their potent, electric flavour might have been a bit too much for some weaklings to cope with. They weren’t for everyone, but the best things in life rarely are. Greg... if you’re reading this... please sack off all those naff donuts and bring back this absolute edible howitzer. WHACKY VEG - CHOCOLATE FLAVOUR BABY CARROTS C.Bradshaw, The Coefficient of Drag Look, it was the 90s. I was young and my healthy mistrust of Iceland own brand products hadn't developed yet. I don't know what else to say. They were a total write-off. I'm sorry for bringing them up again tbh, but we have to talk about difficult things sometimes... Basically, in an attempt to make veg more desirable to the youth, some evil scientist at Iceland HQ created this sweet/savoury Frozen-stiens Monster of a veggie side. I was doping my cereals pretty heavily with mini-marshmallows at the time and I started using Whacky Veg too, as a way to get even more performance enhancing sugars into my diet, and you know, just to have more fun. C'est la vie! But the reality wasn't fun, it was a disgusting, inedible reality. But everyone else was doing them so I had to as well, keep my performance levels up. At my lowest I was doing a bowl a night directly into my glycogen window. The day they were discontinued was a happy day.
TURKEY TWIZZLERS Matt Raikes AKA Burgundy Blood Jamie!!! Give us back our Turkey Twizzlers you slobbering top loader, trucker hat, pukka prick!! Poor Bernard Matthews must be Twizzling in his bloody Turkey coffin, “they're boooootiful,” his haunting Cornish voice screams from a Norfolk graveyard. What next? The Mini Kievs ?? The Turkey Drummers ??? Where will it stop? This is political correctness gone mental. You go and eat your hummus quiche mate but leave our Great British Turkey Twizzlers the fuck alone!
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It probably seems difficult to comprehend to some younger readers, but we didn't get a fridge until the late 70s and my Nana didn't get one until 1983. In Salford during the 1970s milk was sterilised and delivered daily, 'fresh' food was kept in the larder and anything else came out of a can or packet. One such 'delicacy' my Nana kept in as a 'treat' for when us grandkids came round was powdered orange drink. Kellogg's did a version called Rise and Shine and I think my grandad used to know someone who worked at Kellogg's in Trafford Park, so got it cheap. The nearest it got to an actual real orange was its colour. A glowing radioactive liquid, it tasted of powder and chemicals, left a furry coating on your teeth and increased your heartbeat to 180bpm. My first psychotropic experience, aged 8, was after eating spoonfuls of undiluted Rise and Shine straight from the packet. I think it was 97% sugar, 2% Tartrazine and 1% artificial Orange flavouring. It fell out of fashion when something called 'orange juice' came on the scene. I'm sure it's still available in some parts of the former Soviet Union where it's popular with crack addicts who have lost at least three of their senses.
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QUATRO Neil Summers, Proper Magazine I think I can pinpoint the start of me having pretentious, delusions of grandeur back to the spring of 1984, when I first clapped eyes of an advert for fizzy drink Quatro. This was without a doubt the coolest drink advert I'd witnessed since the days of the Cresta bear and his cries of “It's frothy man!” and by god did I need to get me a beaker full. After witnessing the dystopian advert (created by the same people responsible for Max Headroom and some Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club videos) I pegged it down to my local Fine Fare supermarket and scored a litre. It came in a big green plastic bottle that looked like it had been swiped directly off a Tattooine breakfast bar and also featured a pleasing Commodore 64 style logo on the front, just in case I hadn't fallen completely head over heels in love with 'Quatro world' already. Unlike most things in life, Quatro actually tasted as good (and as futuristic) as it looked — thanks to a heady four-way mix of pineapple, orange, grapefruit and passionfruit. Then a year or two later it disappeared just as quickly as it had first appeared — no announcements on the tannoy at Fine Fare, nothing on Granada Reports or TV-AM — it was game over for Quatro. Despite some dabbling on the continent with Orangina and Fanta Limon in the late eighties I never really got over Quatro's disappearance. Apparently they still sell it in South America but I'm buggered if I'm going to Buenos Aires to relive my pretentious teenage pop powered memories.
CADBURY'S ROWNTREE’S SECRET Mark Smith, Proper Magazine As a sugar addict, the food I miss the most is the Cadbury's Secret. It came with a cardboard tray, much like its erstwhile cousin, the Bounty bar. It was like a stiff papery stretcher which held the fragile chocolate construction together just long enough for you to devour it intact. It was like a little brown piece of shredded wheat and barely a day goes by without me wishing it was still around. Edit: I think maybe the sugar has muddied the water of my mind, because google tells me it wasn't Cadbury's but Rowntree. And there was no papery stretcher. Ah, the 90s. BIG BITES Harry, Oi Polloi Collective 21st century anxiety and depression can be traced back to the disappearance of Big Bites from our supermarket freezers. I used to buy one of these sweet vanilla bad boys every time I went out to shred, in the skating heyday of 2011. I don't actually recall when they dropped from the face of the earth, I just remember starting college, winter coming, time passing, and when summer next showered her sunrise beams on me, they had gone. I have never seen one since, nor found any conclusive proof online why they disappeared. Detractors say that they stopped being produced because they were “boring” and maybe, might have had a really racist name before Big Bite. They tasted of innocence, sunrises and sunsets, promise, hope, sick ollies and manuals. My ex-wife says I'm slightly too obsessed with finding them, but I won't stop until those glorious slabs of vanilla ice cream are back in my grubby mitts.
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Tasty Ingredients Some more things we’re into at the minute...
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Nature Shoes Nature is a Danish company who make ultraEuro comfort shoes. Imagine if a Jacoform and a Clarks Wallabee shacked up in Hebden Bridge and you’re on the right track with these. Just the thing for when you’re on holiday in a foreign city walking for hours in the wrong direction.
That Battenwear Tracksuit
Pataloha
These days tracksuits aren’t just reserved for personal trainers and mafia affiliated wise-guys... even you can wear one. New York’s Battenwear make a particularly outstanding version. A bit more subtle than most, it’s what’s known to some people as ‘sophisticated sportswear’. Real classy.
They may be famous for their clever outdoor gear, but Patagonia also do a strong line in Ace Ventura approved Hawaiian shirts. Mad patterns... fancy buttons that look like they were carved out of a coconut shell... these things couldn’t be more tropical if they came with a free can of Lilt.
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"A FEW SECONDS DIFFERENCE BET DISASTER AND SUCCES
Marie T Smith, Microwa
CAN MEAN THE TWEEN TOTAL DELICIOUS SS"
ave Cooking For One
MMXVI