Hello everyone, it's been a while.
For this long-awaited WIZZARD LINER NOTES VOL.8, titled "PRINT T-SHIRTS," I'd like to talk a little about one of WIZZARD's most iconic items, the print T-shirt.
Thank you for joining me again.
T-shirts originally appeared as underwear, but now they are a top that everyone surely owns at least one of. Among them, printed T-shirts serve as a medium for advertising companies and musicians, or as a tool to print political slogans and messages, or to express and promote one's hobbies and values.
I believe I was in my third year of junior high school when I bought my first print T-shirt. In the 80s, right in front of the Omotesando exit of Harajuku Station (now the @cosme building), there was what was informally known as "Tent Village." It was a place where makeshift shops lined up, selling a lot of bootleg idol and band merchandise, punk shops, vintage clothing stores, and leather specialty stores were all clustered together. I didn't know it at the time, but Seiji of GUITAR WOLF apparently worked at a leather jacket shop called SUPER JUNK. Perhaps because Tent Village was also a tourist spot, it was a relatively easy place for a junior high school student like me to enter. As I was starting to get into bands and music, I clutched my allowance and went shopping with my friends, seeking something unknown in Tent Village. I remember how funny it is now to recall how high-strung I was, with so many emotions like nervousness, excitement, anxiety, and anticipation building up. Since I didn't have a lot of money that day, I had decided to buy either a band T-shirt or a long-sleeved T-shirt.
I didn't know which of the many shops was best to look at or buy from, so I scoured all the seemingly relevant stores. I was torn between the punk shops and band merchandise stores that I liked. The shops with clearly written prices didn't have much that I liked, and there were shops where the prices weren't clear at all, and the items were hanging on the walls inside the tents, meaning I had to interact with the staff.
After seeing me wandering around like a suspicious person several times, the older brother working at the shop said to me, "Hey kid, do you like punk?" (I don't remember the exact words from so long ago, but it was something like that).
"Oh, not that much," I replied.
At that shop, there were SEX PISTOLS muslin shirts, and THE CLASH, THE DAMNED items covered in plastic, looking genuinely imported and impressive, and, of course, priced accordingly. The items I was aiming for were beyond my budget for that day... But I just really wanted to buy something! After all, I had come all this way! I left the shop where the friendly older brother told me to "come again," and went back to the cheaper T-shirt shop I'd visited earlier. As far as I remember, my first T-shirt purchases were one item that seemed to be a bootleg of THE DAMNED, and for some reason, a JACK DANIEL'S T-shirt, famous for whiskey, which hard rock bands like GUNS N' ROSES wore at the time, making a total of two shirts. Why did I also get the JACK DANIEL'S T-shirt? LOL. I've forgotten the bitter details, but needless to say, the JACK DANIEL'S T-shirt ended up as loungewear... LOL.
"After all, I came all this way!" - that often leads to regrettable purchases, doesn't it? LOL
WIZZARD still releases print T-shirts every time. The appeal of print T-shirts, I believe, lies in their ability to express oneself easily by printing slogans, messages, or showing hobbies and values. Every season, we print messages and slogans related to the theme. As I briefly mentioned in VOL.5 "MADE IN UK," because the beginning of my sensitive period coincided with the heyday of NEW WAVE, I had a very strong admiration for London, and I'm still influenced by the style of Katharine Hamnett's slogan T-shirts, which New Wave artists of that time also wore. It seems that by simply printing political messages in large, well-balanced block letters, they were designed to be easily replicated so that the intended message could reach as many people as possible. When I learned that, I got goosebumps. As a tool to convey messages, and connecting fashion as a form of expression, I intend to continue expressing my own messages on PRINT T-SHIRTS.
Thank you for reading LINER NOTES VOL.8 this time! See you next time in LINER NOTES VOL.9.
＜Back Number＞
VOL.7 https://wizzard.stores.jp/news/61d975cdc15c5a09a6026e7a
VOL.6 https://wizzard.stores.jp/news/61c2c1be3475ed5b82164c4e
VOL.5 https://wizzard.stores.jp/news/61bc95e0d26fa50526613c9c
VOL.4 https://wizzard.stores.jp/news/61b492273475ed58db0e3176
VOL.3 https://wizzard.stores.jp/news/61aa2ef8b91b75549afa7abd
VOL.2 https://wizzard.stores.jp/news/61a07134b91b75123e2cd5d2
VOL.1 https://wizzard.stores.jp/news/61b9cd652ee5c27732582351