The passage of my life is measured out in shirts

[imomus]

For reasons too complicated to go into, but mostly tied up with my nomadic lifestyle over the past few years and space constraints in a New York apartment too small for a swinging cat, I was only re-united with my stuff -- 59 boxes full of personal effects -- yesterday. The first box I opened was full of clothes from ten years ago, mostly t-shirts. Some of them are still wearable, some aren't, but each has a history and brings back its own memories.

I've made a Flickr Slideshow of me modeling this t-shirt time capsule. For captions explaining the history of each shirt and whether I'd still wear it today, click the "i" at the centre of the first photo (you might want to click "slow" too).

The entry headline comes, of course, from Brian Eno's song "King's Lead Hat":

The killer cycles, the kilohertz
The passage of my life is measured out in shirts

And the more semantics there are on the shirt, the more that's true. What could be more rooted in a particular time, place and sensibility than a t-shirt?

When I dug these out and started modeling them for Hisae, I told her that many of them were too retro-70s to be worn now. "But the 70s might come back," she said. What, again?

Lightning doesn't strike twice! The 70s came back in the 90s, so it couldn't possibly come back again now. That fancy vampire is firmly nailed into his coffin. But the 90s themselves, in the form of, say, Shibuya-kei, that could respectably be revived. And, at a pinch -- and only for the real cognoscenti -- it might be possible to revive the-70s-as-they-appeared-in-the-90s, as long as you were able to distinguish that from the 70s themselves.

Comments

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Heh. I like this entry.

That tshirt with the low neck-line... no so much eccentric as just plain trendy.




The t's I like:

The green tshirt you said was too garish -- it is slightly so. but I'm 23, I reckon I could pull it off... I really like it alot. it'd look especially nice with a red zip-up hoodie.

Yellow thrift find -- really like this one.

The t's I dont like:

kahimi -- anything with pixel-art is lame.

Kriedler -- The trimming is horrible...

[akabe.livejournal.com]

>>-- it might be possible to revive the-70s-as-they-appeared-in-the-90s, as long as you were able to distinguish that from the 70s themselves.


hmmm, i don't know, i see 60s 'Summer of love' stuff everywhere (say Arte TV) and if I recall the 90s 70s revival was basically preceded by a 60s revival so who knows. Then if there is something to the kassel documenta thesis 'is modernity our antiquity?' then we might be doomed with real 70s revivals for the whole millenium.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

A Thousand Year Reich of the 1970s? What a nightmare!

(Unless it's Steve Reich.)

I thought those Arte 1968 graphics looked awful, totally Austin Powers!

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

YOU MEAN IT´S NOT THE 70S ANYMORE???!!!

[neil-scott.livejournal.com]

There's a T-shirt in Primark at the moment that looks like Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Relax T-shirt but with the legend: Made in the 80s.

As someone born in 1979, I was uncertain if it applied to me.

Anyhow, I look forward to reading about the other 58 boxes.

[alphacomp.livejournal.com]

Whatever happened to the orange jacket?

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

you´re actually pretty hot in that picture. BRING BACK THE 70S, MOMUS. I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT.

aquarists unite - we have nothing to lose but our signs

[niddrie-edge.livejournal.com]

Christ I just wrote about nostalgia for the 90s ripping off the 60s/70s over at my place

spooky otto!

Re: aquarists unite - we have nothing to lose but our signs

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

It's rarely just one period that gets revived and retooled: I remember during the 80's when the 60's were being mined, the 30's and 40's were also being nipped.

Does no one remember the 70's when it was the 50's turn? The 10's-20's were fair game during the 60's-70's, too.

The Victorians were all over the place: Roccoco revivalism, neoclassicism, aesthetic medievalism, etc.

It appears that revivalism has always been with us; when one recalls such times as, say, 1804, they still mention how the era lifted from greco-roman antiquity and ancient egypt--but over time that just becomes part and parcel of that age, too. One can keep digging, and digging, and digging...

[cityramica.livejournal.com]

can i have one of the tshirts you don't want anymore?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Mebbe.

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

I would totally buy that Don't Stop the Night shirt for $50!

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

...or the Hippopotamomus shirt

Lightning doesn't strike twice!

[pay-option07.livejournal.com]

Any quotes from Eno's Oblique Strategies?
Looks like a Momus Deck ready for a Poker Fight!
Shibuya Style.

These snaps make you look....

[(Anonymous)]

....like an American Apparel ad - the way the flash is bouncing off the white wall behind you.

It's almost as if each of these T-shirts transforms you into a different character. now there's a Momus album concept...

The Key West shirt, in particular, is so kind of surfer/fratboy/american slacker/Ocean Pacific-y...it's diametrically opposite to the constructed image of "nomadic berlin/tokyo/NY art hipster"...I think you should wear it all the time to throw people off. the purple is actually quite flattering!

[(Anonymous)]

"It's just that whenever 80% of people are doing the same thing, some alarm bells should ring." Somehow this applies to jeans but not t-shirts?

[obelia.livejournal.com]

that generic wide sleeve length and width is terrible. maybe you could cut them to be more like an elongated cap sleeve, and somehow turn them into slim fits. and give them all an heavy acid wash so they go nice and soft.
yes
thats obviously what you should do
;)
hahahaha

ps
http://imomus.com/tshirtshist.jpg
so 'trendy' and american. heehee
looks like a nice fabric though

generic wide sleeve length and width is terrible

[akabe.livejournal.com]

it absolutely is. that's why the grey low-neck and the nipples ones are balsam to the eye.

let graniph have another few runs then we might get people designing actual t-shirts when they say designing t-shirts .. at least until the 90s revival strikes back.

[kalafa.livejournal.com]

the "Don't Stop The Night" shirt is absolutely FANTASTIC.

[runawaytoday.livejournal.com]

nick, the 70s are ALWAYS back. the 70s are perpetual, they exist and they dont exist at the same time. theyre the alpha and omega of style. wear those shirts!

[transairn.livejournal.com]

am I the only one that thinks it's strange how people are telling you how to dress?

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

Just think about it: Momus as an international sex symbol. Our help could make him a star!

...or just some well-dressed blogger. It's basically the same thing!

[theilybinilwys.livejournal.com]

Make a YouTube video of yourself peeing on them , then ebay them. List all the auctions in one post, and tell us to bid on all of them at the same time, then the first one again, then the third one fifteen seconds later...

[(Anonymous)]

How can 90s 70s come back when people are still doing it? The kids are trying to kill off colours, djs and funk but older people insist on being 'young'. Which makes them look old.

[(Anonymous)]

70s through 90s revival?
It will come, it will come, it will surely come.
Thomas.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm 26 (as of 07/07/07, thank you Al Gore!) and I feel like I have a lot of personal effects, but arguably not even 30 boxes...do you at all regret holding onto all 59 boxes for so long?

[(Anonymous)]

dear momus:

this comment is unrelated to the interesting project you describe in your current entry, but i wanted to ask you: do you still play shows? if so, have you got somme hidden page where concert dates are listed? could you direct me to it?

gratefully yours, a fan

[bonsai-human.livejournal.com]

Given your aversion to jeans, why embrace this other ubiquitous clothing item so wholeheartedly?