Worn Magazine Issue 4 by Nicole Aguirre

wornmagazine washington, dc

$10.00 US

THE TRANSPORT ISSUE

ISSUE NO. 4 2012 Fall/Winter 2012/2013

Worn Magazine is a D.C.-based publication intended to bring greater awareness of fashion and art to the District and to the world. The photographs you see on these pages were shot by local photographers using clothing from local shops and designers at locations right here in our neighborhoods. They are evidence of what local talent can create and they represent our vision of the future of Washington, D.C.

Visit us at www.wornmagazine.com

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Front cover photography by Nicole Aguirre

Worn Out

Sink or Swim

Man Oh Mann

Concubines

Scoot Over Rover

THE TRANSPORT ISSUE

Mu Sang Sa

Cougar Competitive Cheer

In the Mood for Love

Fall/Winter 2012/2013

masthead Editor-in-Chief & Photographer Nicole Aguirre

Contributing Photographers Nicole Aguirre Jim Darling Caroline Lacey Steve Goldenberg Michael Kandel Leslie McConnaughey Marshall Johnson

Contributing Writers Jacqueline Hiersteiner Eric Brewer Nicole Aguirre

Contributing Stylists Carla Cabrera Beth Silverberg

Hair & Makeup Akemi Kanazaki

Communications Intern Sara Murali

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Photography by Nicole Aguirre

editor’sletter When we mention Worn Magazine to those who have never heard of it and explain to them that it’s a print magazine, we get the inevitable look of surprise. It’s not that people question the reason. Say for example you tell someone you’ll send them a telegram or have the audacity to leave them gasp, a voicemail. Few actually miss those past forms of communication that have either an ancient but useless charm or are simply inconvenient. While print magazines continue to communicate ideas in a world that has become saturated with digital information, we understand that people continue to appreciate the tactile experience of a magazine. We all know that thumbing through a magazine offers a feeling that doesn’t translate when swiping virtual pages across the current wonder tablet. So why the surprise? These days, no one takes the effort of publishing in print for granted. That surprised response we get after saying the word print usually includes a smile. There’s a shared and common understanding that no printing business agrees to print anything for free. Not business cards, not party fliers, and certainly not a 60 page

large format color magazine. Because of this basic fact, there’s the idea that what goes into it is special and has value. We believe that what we’ve poured into the fourth issue of Worn Magazine makes it our best one yet. While considering the content, planning the shoots, selecting the art and putting it all together, we never once took the attention of our readers for granted. If you’ve checked us out before and loved what we did, we wanted to you to be happy you returned. We’re glad to have you back. Though, after a year hiatus the team has evolved to include new contributors and collaborators, the goal of Worn Magazine remains the same. We want to provide what no other print magazine dares to do for this city. It’s an uncommon reflection of the art, beauty, personalities and style that we feel makes D.C. special. The starring appearances in this magazine are from people that shine from right here. We hope that what’s inside was worth the wait. Have at it and let us know what you think. Visit us on Facebook and share your comments. “Like us” there and stick around because there’s more to come.

Nicole Aguirre, Editor-in-Chief THANK YOU to Eric Brewer who makes everyone around him better, to Richard Rached for his wisdom and friendship, Sarah Walker, Avi Gupta, Lisa Markuson, Carla Cabrera and Marshall Johnson at The President Wears Prada, Steve Goldenberg, Michael Kandel, Leslie McConnaughey, Beth Silverberg, Jim Darling, Jacqueline Hiersteiner, Katherine Mann, Wellesley Scott, Greg Marsh, Gerry Helsgott, Akemi Kanazaki, Beth Ferraro at Vivid Solutions, Sara Murali, Viktoria Ivanova, Sung Kim, Kate Greene, Somkiat Umkerb, Cathy Chung and Katerina Herodotou at Treasury Vintage, PollySue’s, Mauro Farinelli, Sim Khan at Brimble & Clark, Jaclyn Randolph & Kimpton Hotels, Leigh Connor, Ginger Root Design, Junction Vintage, Michael Clements, Richard Rached, Shannan Fales and Megan Gay at Junction Vintage, Kota Eberhardt, Holly Bass, Steve Cummings, Kwan Mi Sunim & Mu Sang Sa Temple, Emily Johnson, , Jayne Sandman, Beth & M. Loren Copsey at The Daily Rider, Katherine Martinez and Ashley Turchin at La Petite Marmoset, Caroline Lacey, Joshua Yospyn, Erin Derge and Kristen McCoy at Ginger Root Design, Karlos Leopold at Boundary Road, Merin Guthrie, Emma Fisher, Ra Ra Rasputin, and Alex Taylor at Birch & Barley.

To purchase back issues visit www.wornmagazine.com

Fall/Winter 2012/2013

worn out

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Artist Holly Bass gets around on her blue bicycle on U Street NW

Artist Steve Cummings and his 1959 VW Transporter hand-painted by Ephrem Kuaukau

Photography by Michael Kandel

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Photography by Nicole Aguirre

Eric Brewer in his 1967 Datsun on H Street NE

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Photography by Nicole Aguirre

Emily Johnson with her 4-Stroke Genuine Stella

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KATE GREENE STARS

SINK

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICOLE AGUIRRE 10

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MAKEUP + HAIR BY AKEMI KANAZAKI STYLING BY BETH SILVERBERG

OR SWIM

SHOT ON LOCATION AT DONOVAN HOUSE Fall/Winter 2012/2013

First page: Top Dr. K Vintage Sunglasses Junction Vintage Second page: Swimsuit American Apparel Necklace Rachel Pfeffer at Ginger Root Design This page: Gown Junction Vintage

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This page: Earrings Jewelry by Beth Lauren at bethlauren.com Jumpsuit Rachel Roy

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Vintage bustier La Petite Marmoset at Lapetitemarmoset.com

Vintage bustier at La Petite Marmoset

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Necklace Rachel Pfeffer at Ginger Root Design Swimsuit American Apparel

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Vintage neglige at Junction Vintage

Gown Junction Vintage

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Jacket La Petite Marmoset at lapetitemarmoset.com Swimsuit American Apparel

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D.C. Artist Katherine Mann Takes Us Take one step up the staircase toward the sweltering second story northwest D.C. studio where Katherine Mann works and you’ll begin to recognize the enormous commitment that goes into creating her multi layered landscape portals. When not at residency elsewhere, the D.C.-based artist works out of this space to transport the viewers of her art to another wold. While greeting her in the Spartan environment overlooking the rooftops of adjacent buildings you can’t help but realize that Katherine is every bit as engaging as the worlds she paints. I met her before she was a true rising star in the D.C. art scene, when she entered the Hamiltonian Gallery fellowship program for emerging artists in 2009. I was immediately struck by the vivid, abstract landscapes she painted. As former Director of the Hamiltonian Gallery on U St., I got to know her well and found that she is deeply knowledgeable about art history, theory and practice. She is also as committed to arts education as she is to sharing and broadening her work through residencies. We reunited this past summer to talk about the elements that shape her work. What’s your personal background and how has it affected your work? I was born in Wisconsin, but I only lived there for six months. I moved around a lot as a kid. I’ve still never lived anywhere for more than four years. My father is a diplomat for the U.S. Government, so we split our time between the D.C. area and China, Korea and Taiwan. I went to high school in Israel. My mom is from Taiwan. That experience of being a bi-racial, expat artist definitely comes through in the work. The pieces are very fragmented and they seek to take congruous

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vocabularies and elements and smash them together to see if they work. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. They also have a nomadic, gypsy-feeling that comes from my childhood. Also, because I’m half Taiwanese, my first experience with art was being trained as a traditional Sumi ink painter. All my work is still made with Sumi ink and acrylic. A painting’s meaning to me and its organization is also based on those ancient techniques. The pieces feel airy or clodded or not, depending on how much stuff and how many layers are being placed on top of each other. That idea of an immersive space also comes from that Sumi tradition. A painting should feel like it’s transporting you to that unique world. Can you talk about your paintings as they operate as portals? I’ve always said that the paintings were landscape portals into a fantasy world. How do the pieces live in the realm of landscape and fantasy and still have that bodily aspect? That’s really interesting for me to think about. Those are the building blocks of the fantasy world I’m making. A piece will usually have a rectilinear surface. I want them to feel like they extend on forever, and you’re just experiencing a window into that space. How do you explain the portal through which you’re trying to transport people? It’s a little bit of a disturbing world, but it appreciates beauty. The elements of beauty are considered and reconsidered and multiplied. The

MAN OH

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM DARLING WRITING BY JACQUELINE HIERSTEINER

MANN Inside the Portals of Her Work concept of repetition is dealt with directly. The pieces can feel poisonous, but also deliciously ornamental and overgrown.

always going to be abstract gestural motifs in the paintings, because they begin with stains of water and ink.

How do you prepare yourself to travel into this other world, this other mind set?

There’s also the illustrative aspect and neurotic, detail-oriented aspects. I’ve been thinking about what it means for something to be decorative, and what it means when I take an icon or character and repeat it over and over again until it becomes bimorphic or cancerous. A piece I have in my studio right now has a ribbon that is repeated hundreds of times until it no longer looks like a ribbon, but more like a coral reef.

The process of making the paintings does that for me. There’s a fast and a slow aspect to my painting. There’s so much repetition that if I’m drawing a ribbon over and over a hundred times, I don’t have to think very much. That can act as the slowing down or the refreshing part of the process. The manual labor keeps me from constantly caring about where the piece is going to go. The element of chance also helps a lot. There’s a lot of control and decision making, but there’s also this element of going with whatever gravity or evaporation does to the painting. How is your work evolving? Two main things have been evolving in my work. In general, the process of the work changes incrementally and very slowly. I’m still interested in chaos and control and spontaneity and of a change operation as the beginning of a painting on which to build. The paintings accrue bits of minutiae until they become something bigger. That’s always going to be the central idea for me. The way that I think about that idea has also been changing. There are

Another thing that’s changing is that I think the pieces are getting more bodily. I’m more interested now in what happens in one piece when you have that decorative aspect and you combine it with something that feels very fleshy. What kind of new themes, movements or attributes have you been thinking about? I’ve been looking at a lot of sculpture recently. I don’t want to be a sculptor, but all of my favorites artists are sculptors likes Judy Faff or Heda Coyne. They have the same interest in accrual. I would like to see if I could explore the sculptural aspects of paper in the future. My pieces are all on paper and the paper buckles a lot. It’s very aggressive. When you put it up against the wall, it won’t just sit there perfectly. I want to see if I can take advantage of that aspect of paper in the future. I’m also looking into printmaking and making my own woodcuts. That’s something I was doing at a residence in Ohio. They set me up at the

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MAW 72 x 120 in Acrylic, Sumi ink and woodcut on paper 2011

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BLIMP 60 x 87 in Acrylic and Sumi ink on paper 2012

“Seeing a painting should be the same as living in that space.” University of Dayton in the visual arts center and there was no one else there, so I made a lot of repetitive woodcut blocks that I’d like to start placing in the paintings. It’s a perfect way to create busynesses in the simplest way possible. How much do you think about your viewer when you’re making work? The way I’m immersed in paintings is probably always going to be more active personally than the viewer’s experience will be. The paintings are very process-oriented. The way I interact with them is a process of frustration and battle, because they don’t work for so long and there’s this fear and panic that they won’t ever work. Tons of them don’t work and get thrown away. That kind of anxiety and panic is a very serious way of interacting with a painting for myself, but the viewer won’t ever have that experience. I do want the viewer to have that experience of viewing from far away and up close. I also paint that way and look at the piece as a mathematical question. I want them to be able to get lost in the piece the way I do. It might be an easy way to create an immersive piece, but having a large thing that is filled up with smaller things forces the viewers to immerse themselves in it. How do you manipulate the viewer’s act of looking? There’s a story about an old Chinese master and this way of creating paintings that allows the viewer to step into them and walk from one detail to another. You go from the temple to the mountain and the waterfall. The idea is that seeing a painting should be the same as living in that space. I think of my pieces the same way. All the pieces are placed to help the viewer navigate from one thing to another. Mark Rothko said something similar about his own work. If you go to the Rothko Chapel, you’re supposed to feel like you’re in one of his paintings.

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Do you relate fashion to your work or look at fashion for inspiration? I’ve always been into costuming in the Beijing Opera, particularly the headdresses they use. It’s a perfect example of a place where I can take ornamentation in the real world and translate elements of it into abstract pieces. I went through one phase where there were a lot of circular bobbles being repeated in the paintings. Those were coming from the Phoenix headdresses in the Beijing Opera. I’m not so interested in specific fashion designers, but I like taking elements from that world and placing them in my own. Ribbons and braiding are examples that have appeared in my paintings. The braiding came from a residency I did in Austria, where that style was big at the time. What do you do locally to be inspired? I go to my friend’s exhibitions and the museums. I also look at a lot of plant life in gardens around the city or at the Botanical Gardens and the Arboretum. I also just went to Mattsholka in the Berkshires in Western, Massachusetts. That is my favorite museum. They had a show called Invisible Cities, which was mainly architectural, but the idea was for artists to reinvent cities or worlds for themselves. That’s totally up my alley, the idea of creating something that is not an object or a portrait, but an entire system in which viewers can immerse themselves. What does the future look like? The next residency I have is in the Spring of 2013. It’s Venus in Omaha, which will be great. I’m really excited about it. This fall is going to be mainly focused on my two D.C. solo shows at Project 4 Gallery and Honfleur Gallery. I also have my first museum show coming up at the Rawls, which is affiliated with the Virginia Museum of Art. I have to get moving!

DAILY RIDER

the

| Twitter: @thedailyriderdc 1108 H ST. www.thedailyriderdc.com ne (202) 396-0704 www .thedailyriderdc.com

arrive Fall/Winter in style. 2012/2013 23

CONCUBINES The Concubines is a blog started in February 2012 by friends Caroline Lacey and Claire FrĂŠmont while living in Paris. It documents the women and their friends and pairs each image with a piece of poetry. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve featured a few exceperts. To see more visit theconcubines.tumblr.com

Photography by

CAROLINE LACEY theconcubines.tumblr.com

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breathing may surprise ourselves —let’s then despise what is not courage my darling(for only Nobody knows where truth grows why birds fly and especially who the moon is. — e. e. cummings my darling since

Now i lay(with everywhere around) me(the great dim deep sound of rain;and of always and of nowhere)and what a gently welcoming darkestnessnow i lay me down(in a most steep more than music)feeling that sunlight is (life and day are)only loaned:whereas night is given(night and death and the rain are given; and given is how beautifully snow) now i lay me down to dream of(nothing i or any somebody or you can begin to begin to imagine) something which nobody may keep. now i lay me down to dream of Spring —E.E. Cummings, Untitled

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If I don’t love you baby, grits ain’t groceries, eggs ain’t poultry, and Mona Lisa was a man. -Little Milton

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Gone mad is what they say, and sometimes Run mad, as if mad is a different direction, like west; as if mad is a different house you could step into, or a separate country entirely. But when you go mad you don’t go any other place, you stay where you are. And somebody else comes in. —Margaret Atwood

Her voice was but the shadow of a sound, and she had, to complete her delicacy, so relaxed her nerves, that she became a mere nothing. —Mary Wollstonecraft

Fall/Winter 2012/2013

Spaces

Space No center, no above, no below Ceaselessly devouring and engendering itself Whirlpool space And drop into height Spaces Clarities steeply cut Suspended By the night’s flank Black gardens of rock crystal Flowering on a rod of smoke White gardens exploding in the air Space One space opening up Corolla And dissolving Space in space All is nowhere Place of impalpable nuptials —One and the Same (Lo Idéntico) by Octavio Paz (translated by Johannes Beilharz)

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Photo by Amber Mahoney

SHOP LPM www.lapetitemarmoset.com Fall/Winter 2012/2013

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Main Buddha Hall, Mu Sang Sa

MUSANGSA

ON RETREAT AT A ZEN TEMPLE IN KOREA

writing and photography by NICOLE AGUIRRE

n 2007, while i was a student at the George Washington University, I studied abroad in Seoul, South Korea. I was there on a government scholarship and my job was to learn Korean. One day I was hanging around a Zen temple after a Sunday practice and I met a Buddhist monk named Kwan Mi Sunim. She needed someone to help her proofread a document in English, and we became instant friends. Originally from Poland she moved to Korea over 15 years ago to study Zen. Every year, Korean monks go on two major retreats called Kyeol Che. Each lasts three months. There is one in the summer and another in winter. It’s a time for intense practice where monks spend about 9 hours a day in meditation. Both retreats are held in silence. That year, Kwan Mi was spending summer Kyeol Che solo in a small temple on a remote mountaintop in the ancient Shilla Dynasty capital of Kyeong Ju, and she invited me to join her. Just a few hours from Seoul on a high-speed train, Kyeong Ju is carpeted in lush rice paddies and ancient Buddhist ruins. The landscapes there explain why Korean ink paintings look the way they do. As I arrived and walked up the steep hill to the temple, a petite monk came out to greet me. “How long will you be staying?” she asked. “About five days if that’s alright,” I said. “You can stay your whole life,” she responded. I could tell from her face she was serious. For those few days it was just Kwan Mi and I, and two very old ladies who helped to look after her. I followed the temple schedule, and was assigned the task of washing dishes after every meal. Washing dishes is a classic Buddhist practice in moving meditation. It teaches you to just do something without projecting whether you like doing it or not. After a few days Kwan Mi could see that the practice spoke to me and she suggested I go to a place called Mu Sang Sa. “It will be great,” she said. “They will break your mind.” I wasn’t so sure this was a good thing. I also thought that maybe if I went there was a chance I would never come back. I still had some unfinished business (my entire life) to take care of back home. Photo above: Borobudur, Java, Indonesia.

On the train back, the colors seemed brighter, the sounds seemed louder, and I realized that something had changed in me that was never going to be put back together the same way again. It was as if that weekend had pressed the zoom out button on Google Earth and I was now able to see Earth, and my life, from the perspective of space. From there, Earth and each country looked incredibly small. Seeing the world from zoom out had the effect of permanently destroying all notions I had about the perceived importance of a career in international affairs and dedicating my life to navigating the ins and out of how countries relate to one another. Of course it’s noble job, and someone has to do it, but I decided then and there that it wasn’t going to be me. In a moment, I attained that my time on earth was limited and that I might as well spend it in pursuit of what made me truly happy. I trusted that somehow the outcome of this decision would have a greater impact on the world than what I could accomplish in a government bureaucracy. Kwan Mi and I have stayed close ever since that first retreat and she has become my lifeline for a complete outside perspective. When I left that tiny temple, I promised her I would return and see her again someday. In September 2011 I kept that promise. On that trip back I spent a few days in Seoul and then escaped to the countryside to the famed Mu Sang Sa. Among Buddhists, this temple is famous for being a haven for international monks and practicing laypeople. The temple is run by two Zen Masters, DaeBong Sunim and DaeJin Sunim, both are Americans, both Jewish. DaeBong Sunim is the head monk and originally from Philadelphia. Before becoming a monk he worked as a psychological counselor at a hospital and he was also a welder at a Naval shipyard. He once told me a story about how long ago he had convinced himself he was going to kill someone. Even a monk’s mind can think up some crazy things. Thankfully, he reconsidered. DaeJin Sunim is the temple Abbot. He’s originally from Brooklyn and he’s what I like to call a techie monk. He has a

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Top left to right: 1. Kwan Mi Sunim, 2. The Main Buddha Hall at Yong Jeon Sa 3. Monks at Mu Sang Sa Temple 2011, 4.Nicole Aguirre, photo by Kwan Mi Sunim. www

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“You can stay here your whole life.” smart phone on which he downloads apps to buy train tickets and check the schedules. The first time I saw something like this it struck me as strange, but in Korea technology is as much a part of life as eating and breathing. Plus monks need to check departure times, too. When you arrive at a temple, it is customary to bow three times to the Zen Master. DaeJin Sunim was there that day, so Kwan Mi took me to make my bows. After I was done, we sat on the floor cross-legged across from each other while he tried to decide what to make of me. “You’re pretty,” was the first thing he said. “Oh no!” I thought. Pretty is the last thing you want to be at a Buddhist temple. Beauty is worthless in a place where everyone has their head shaved and hair on your head is sometimes referred to as “ignorance grass.” Afterward, Kwan Mi took me to her room to put on my new clothes. I wore a gray robe-like top with roomy pajama-style pants that velcro along the ankles to avoid revealing any skin. There’s a certain procedure for putting these clothes on that takes some practice. Despite what one might imagine, there is nothing easy and serene in committing to life in a temple. It’s no Eat, Pray, Love. When you’re there, you keep the temple schedule, which means the following: Wake up time is at 3:00 am. You get up, get dressed in your gray temple clothes and rush to the meditation hall. 108 bows starts at 3:25 am. That is stand, kneel, prostrate, kneel, stand, 108 times. The group does these bows in unison facing each other in a circle around the room. There is no one there to give you instructions. You just go with the flow. When everyone is done you go immediately to the Buddha Hall for morning chanting at 4:00 am. For me, this is the most beautiful part of the day because the sun has yet to rise, the crickets are chirping, and the orange robes of the monks shine in the moonlight as they silently enter the temple and leave their shoes at the door. Chanting the Heart Sutra in Korean, the moktak is hit to keep the pace. Chanting is a form of meditation. The words help you focus your mind. At a certain

point the sounds of everyone chanting together blur into one and for a second you become the sound. After chanting you head to the meditation hall for an hour and a half of morning meditation. For beginners, this tends to be the hard part. Sitting Zen starts at 4:40 am and with the change in sleep schedule, staying awake can be a challenge, let alone meditating. Like I said, the purpose of living in a temple is not to have a relaxing time or transcend your consciousness. The point is just to be there, do your job well (mine was cutting fruit in the kitchen everyday) and face yourself and your thoughts with nowhere to hide. Sound fun? In my opinion, monks are some of the bravest people in the world because they choose to face themselves as they are everyday. They lean into the sharp edge of the sword when most people would fear the pain. Monks from all over the world come to practice at Mu Sang Sa. During my stay there was a woman from Virginia, another from Israel, and also monks from India, Czech Republic, California, and Poland. The atmosphere is of serious concentration, but everyone there is friendly. Everyone is also there for a different purpose. Some are new monks learning the robes before entering seminary, others are more experienced monks who live there full-time. Still others are there temporaryily, for a month or maybe a year, taking time out of their busy lives back home to slow down, learn from others, and get to know themselves better. This is what Buddhism is all about. It’s like Lao Tzu said in the Tao Te Ching, “One who knows others is clever, but one who knows himself is enlightened. One who conquers others is powerful, but one who conquers himself is mighty.” If you are interested in reading more about Korean buddism, I recommend The Compass of Zen by Seung Sahn Sunim.

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Nicole Aguirre with Kwan Mi Sunim, Dok Seong Sunim, Zen Master DaeJin, Dok Jang Sunim, and monks at Mu Sang Sa Temple in South Korea

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE GOLDENBERG Cougars Competitive Cheer

Though not as iconic as baseball, cheerleading is an essential piece in Americana. The pomp, circumstance and performances are brilliant combinations of skill and style. But what happens after the girls leave the stage? What does it take for an eight-year old to launch herself repeatedly 15 feet into the air? The pressure to perform is intense and this project aims to go behind the curtain to see who the girls are and get a peek at what drives them.

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(e)merge art fair Oct 4-7 2012 Capitol Skyline Hotel Washington, DC www.emergeartfair.com

Thursday: Opening 7–9 pm Friday: 12–7 pm Saturday: 12–7 pm Sunday: 12–5 pm

For more information: www.emergeartfair.com

Partner:

Fall/Winter 2012/2013

In the Mood for Love In 2000, a director from Hong Kong named Wong Kar-wai made a film called “In the Mood for Love.” Based in 1962 Hong Kong, Kar-wai tells the story of two couples living next door to each other. The husband of one is having a secret affair with the wife of the other. Slowly, the other two begin to put the pieces together and as they reenact their partners’ illicit affair, they develop a love of their own. But their love is doomed from the start, as neither could ever commit the same indiscretion as their partner. This editorial is an homage to the beautiful cinemateophy of Wong Kar-wai and the haunting scenes of his perfect film.

Photography by Nicole Aguirre

Styling CARLA CABRERA Lighting MARSHALL JOHNSON Hair & Makeup AKEMI KANAZAKI Creative Direction ERIC BREWER Models VIKTORIA IVANOVA + SUNG KIM Shot on location at HOTEL ROUGE + BIRCH & BARLEY

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Dress & Purse Treasury Vintage Tie Vintage

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Top: Vintage dress PollySueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Suit jacket Brimble & Clark Tie Vintage.

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Above: Suit jacket Brimble & Clark Tie Vintage. Page 51: Suit jacket Brimble & Clark

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Dress La Petite Marmoset at lapetitemarmoset.com Vintage purse Treasury Vintage Suit Brimble & Clark Tie Vintage

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SCOOT

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1970 Lambretta GP150

OVER ROVER

Worn Magazine throws open the doors of Modern Classics, DC’s one and only scooter repair shop. Without them, we’d be dead. Here’s why.

WORDS BY ERIC BREWER PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICOLE AGUIRRE & LESLIE McCONNAUGHEY

ll scooters are not created equal. Anyone in D.C. who owns the kind that matter knows Wellesley, Gerry, and Greg. The three men banded together in 2008 to create the miracle that is Modern Classics, a scooter and motorcycle repair shop that is the go-to haven for anyone who rides a scooter in D.C. The shop service area is a big sexy mess of Vespas, Lambrettas and Stellas in line for some TLC. These scooters with their roots in Italian design have a way of inspiring a kind of lust and obsession. Ride one and you’ll understand. Own one that needs work and these three guys are your friends.

The people you see looking chic, effortlessly slicing through traffic and parking wherever the hell they goddamn feel like, need friends like Wellesley, Gerry and Greg. It’s very easy to become accustomed to life in the that top percentile. Forfeiting it due to a flat tire or a faulty carburetor is not an option. You can wear a white dress, scoot through the city in your favorite heels, and have no idea what a carburetor does but you do need to know how to smile when Gerry gives you that concerned (what the hell did you do?) look over his glasses from behind the counter of Modern Classics.

“I should get a Vespa!” The thought pops into the minds of about 1 out of every 3 city dwellers. It’s pretty much a fact. Those that take the leap and find themselves twisting the throttle of one of these machines rocket straight into the top percentile of the coolest people in the city. It’s the Italian effect. The ridiculously fashionable youth of 1960s London understood that. The scooter riding Parisian women who frequently end up on The Sartorialist get it. That guy who looks kind of like you but with a nicer fitting jacket and a much hotter girlfriend holding onto him tightly as he flies down Wisconsin avenue? He gets it, too.

Modern Classics President Wellesley Scott never takes a day off, but we lured him out of the shop with the promise of food and drinks so we could better understand the kind of passion that led to opening Modern Classics. At the time of this interview, Wellesley had just returned from a four-day scooter rally at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Scooters are his life. In 2003, at the height of his obsession, Wellesley owned 22 scooters that he managed to line up in three rows of seven and store between the two white lines of a single parking space. Shuffling the scooters around when-

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Above caption: Modern Classics Co-founders Gerry Hellsgot, Greg Marsh, and Wellesley Scott

“ They didn’t think we could do it, so then we had to do it.” ever he wanted to ride a new one, “was like one of those puzzle games,” he says. So why would a mentally stable, well-traveled guy who studied exiled German literature at Oxford and has a law degree decide to put all of that aside and dedicate his life to scooters? As our food arrives, soft-spoken with a wry sense of humor, Wellesley tells us how it all started.

his future and realized that even if he made it to the top of the organization he could still make more money working on scooters and probably have more fun doing it. Today he spends seven days a week working alongside his Modern Classics co-owners and speaks openly about the joys and challenges of running a business with his friends. It was a business that was never supposed to succeed.

Picture this. You’re 17 and shuffling along between tourist attractions in Rome along with ten awkward high school classmates. You hear an unfamiliar sound that is the buzz of a twostroke engine zooming by. You turn your head as a leggy Italian woman parks her burgundy scooter with a cheetah print seat by the piazza. She looks up and smiles at you from her behind her dark sunglasses. It is love at first sight. Almost twenty years later Wellesley can perfectly recall the look of that PX150. The woman is just a blur.

Vespa Washington in Georgetown had been in business for six years when the owner abruptly announced he was closing its doors in 2008 at the height of the economic recession. The sales and service operation had been too far behind in debt and the arrangement it had with Piaggio meant that even the full price sale of a scooter incurred a loss. At the time, Wellesley was lead mechanic at the service shop with Greg, and Gerry worked as the manager.

Two years later and back home in Illinois, Wellesley said ciao to a pocket full of cash and bargained for his first scooter, a rusted out 1966 Vespa. Two-wheeled vehicles are a tradition in his family. His mother rode a 1981 Harley Superglide. As he was growing up, there were always people around who owned motorcycles. His mother’s friend Paul restored clocks and collected BMW motorcycles, many of them with sidecars, which he parked in his house like works of art. Wellesley clearly takes after his family. Since buying that first Vespa, he’s been the owner of 64 scooters , 14 motorcycles, and at age 35 has never once owned a car. Given that the tendency for motorcycle riding and risk taking is in his blood, we’re not surprised that life in the non-profit world just didn’t cut it for Wellesley. After working for several years for the Grocery Manufacturers of America, he visualized

When the owner announced he was closing down, the guys had three options: the first was to continue as Vespa Washington, the second, to open their own shop, and the third was to split up. Option one was quickly ruled out after they learned it would cost $300K to buy all of the equipment and pay off the shop’s debts. That left only two options. At the time Wellesley was leaning more toward using his law degree than starting his own business, but after the owner of Vespa Washington expressed his skepticism over the guys’ capacity to make to open their own shop, the choice was easy. “They didn’t think we could do it, so then we had to do it.” With no assurance of finding repair shop or sales space, no service equipment, and no standing contracts with vehicle suppliers, the foursome set out to bring the necessary pieces together. Within four months, the team had located a space, signed a lease and bought 80% of Vespa Washington’s operational

Fall/Winter 2012/2013

“Don’t tell Gerry I was wearing these shoes.” inventory at auction for a fraction of the price offered to them by their former boss. It was an impressive feat that resulted in 60% more room for a crowded service shop, zero debt acquisition and a better location for scooter owners and shoppers to reach them by metro. The startling move that left their previous employer incredulous, meant that they now had a place to continue doing what they loved. Happily ever after only happens in the movies. Ensuring those new Vespas and Buddies get timely attention and are returned promptly to their eager owners takes a lot of teamwork. The team manages to do this without a clear captain in charge. “Going into business in general is a challenge. Being in a situation where you’re all equals is harder.” The strengths and weaknesses of each member seem to be understood, but what they all have in common is a hands-on approach to dealing with customers. On any given day, if you walk into the shop you’ll be face to face with one of the owners who will fit you with a new helmet and will probably be the same person who changes your oil. “It’s not every day that you have the owners of a business in the trenches. Fortunately or unfortunately, we are not surrounded by minions,” says Wellesley. This closeness to their customers is what makes Modern Classics so different. Spend any amount of time there and you’ll be hard pressed not to make new friends. Ever since the days at Vespa Washington, Wellesley and Gerry have been rescuing stranded scooterists all over D.C. They’ve come to the rescue of a certain Worn Magazine editor-in-chief more times than she can count. Their motto might as well read, be loyal to us and we’ll save you someday. In a city where

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friendly customer service is harder to find than an original Walkman, it’s clear that Modern Classics customers appreciate the effort. It’s not unusual to see the owner of a fixed up Vespa walking in with a gift of Italian champagne and lingering to hear Gerry talk about his mother in Milan and the glory days when he used to race motorcycles. They sit through Gerry’s lectures about safety even if they don’t always listen. “Don’t tell Gerry I was wearing these shoes,” said one anonymous customer after bringing in her scooter in for a tune up wearing less than sturdy footwear. Buying a scooter is a lot like joining a gang. There’s no easy out without pain and suffering. “Don’t let me buy anything,” have become the first words I whisper under my breath to my friends as I walk into the shop these days. Scootering is a lifestyle and once you’re in it, you’re hooked. It’s no wonder that the growing creative class in D.C. has been the first to embrace the trend. These early adopters that have chosen to invest in a cooler way to get around include art gallery managers, graphic designers, restaurant owners, tattoo artists, videographers, and electronic music producers – just to name a few. They reflect the changing atmosphere of the city as it becomes increasingly more cosmopolitan. More rule breaking creative thinkers are putting down roots here, buying houses, and investing in the kinds of things that make a city feel more like home. That includes getting around their way. We encourage this kind of behavior. So next time you ride by, make sure to honk. See you on the road. (Full disclosure: Worn Magazine editor-in-chief Nicole Aguirre has been a customer for seven years, ever since she bought her first Vespa in 2005. Writer Eric Brewer has been a customer since 2007. Both are addicted to Modern Classics and are reluctantly sharing their secret with you.) Modern Classics, 955 V Street Northeast, Washington, DC

From top left across: Norman Piccion, Sarah Walker, Christian Myers, Shannon Mahoney, Ryan Holladay

Fall/Winter 2012/2013

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“My Vespa’s in the Shop”

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Seelbach Bourbon | Cointreau | Sparkling Wine | Peychaud’s & Angostura Bitters

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Featured dish: Rabbit Galantine

Fall/Winter 2012/2013

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