Hasta La Ideas

Images: © Ripped: T-Shirts from the Underground

A testament to the post-punk art and music scene of the ’70s and ’80s, “Ripped: T-Shirts from the Underground” offers a visual history of the time through rare and one-off t-shirts. From Sonic Youth to Run DMC, the Sex Pistols to The Kinks, Talking Heads to The Cure, and, of course, Van F****** Halen, the tees in Cesar Padilla’s 200-plus piece collection are impressive, to say the least. Padilla, owner of downtown NYC vintage store Cherry and the book’s editor, has been working on the collection since he was a kid. Here, he shares the best of the bunch –glorious sweat stains and all – alongside musings of luminaries of the decades, like fashion designer Betsey Johnson and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, as well as younger fans including singer/songwriter Will Oldham.

As singer/poet/writer/all-around-agitator Lydia Lunch describes in the book’s introduction, for decades, t-shirts have acted as an “iconic symbol of defiance.” The DIY stylings of many of Padilla’s tees reinforce this sentiment, as do insights from musicians and artists. Commenting on a spread of Sonic Youth shirts, for example, Thurston Moore writes: “A cool t-shirt has no rules, the more unique the better. I was doing solo sets on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour and decided to sell T-shirts that were limited and designed on the spot. I hit Targets and Wal-Marts and bought white Beefy-Ts and magic-markered art and words on them, signed and numbered them, and sold them for a couple of bucks more than I paid.”

Describing the impetus behind his collection, Padilla concludes, “I grew up in Southern California and was raised by my two sisters. As a consequence, I was on the Sunset Strip at an early age, attending rock shows and being exposed to many things a ten-year-old wouldn’t normally have been exposed to. In 1988, I went traveling to South America. When I returned, my mother had thrown away my rock T-shirt collection, documenting this misspent California youth. Since then, I have been searching for the Holy Grail. This collection is clearly a direct result of such pillaging.”

Ripped comes out 9 March 2010 and is available now for pre-order on
Amazon.

by Quincy Moore

U.K.-based makers of luxury Italian-leather holdalls Caracalla Bagaglio fashions their “Commemorative Motorsport Collection” line after the past triumphs of famous race cars and their drivers. The company, owned by motorsports aficionado Simon Jordan, borrows its first name from the Roman emperor whose historic baths were the site of Ferrari’s first victory in 1947 and gets its surname from the word for luggage in Italian.

While only die-hard fans will get the historical relevance of each bag, it takes little more than a simple aesthetic to admire the classic elegance of these weekend getaway companions.

Craftspeople hand make each bag in Italy from fine leather that closely matches the interior color of the car it celebrates. For instance, our favorite variant, the Lotus JPS No. 6 (pictured top), uses stark black with gold stitching, just like the Formula 1 whip Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi drove to victory in the 1972 Italian F1 Grand Prix.

A stamp of the Team Lotus emblem just below the opening of the No. 6 adds to the immaculate detail of the accessory, a design repeated on other models. Features also include a detachable shoulder strap, internal pocket, end-to-end zipper, and metal studs for protection while sitting on the ground.

Each measures 22″ long x 12.5″ wide x 11″ deep, and sells online for just under $445. Pick one up from Bagaglio.

Made from the remnants of Australian cricket balls, Bowling Arm leather bracelets are a colorful wrist accessory that nicely utilize an otherwise purposeless scrap of material. Each one-of-a-kind piece builds character with wear.

The brainchild of Australian industrial designer and fine artist Simone LeAmon, as director of studio O.S. Initiative, LeAmon focuses on creating engaging and sustainably-minded products whose process has a story to tell.

The bracelets come in red, yellow or white and sell online for AUD $44.