Broad&Market

School’s been over for a hot minute and currently I’m in Osaka for two weeks over my winter break. No purpose in mind – I just managed to have enough money for a plane ticket to see friends who I won’t be able to meet for a while after. At any rate, I ran into this guy below and a whole chain of good idea-forming events followed after that. No, he’s not in Philly but well, it’s nice to meet people you admire who enjoy what you put out there. Also, that is me on the right …

(I suppose I should mention that many layers does not equal a chubby man. He is quite slender.)

“Can you tell me your name?”

“Nick Currie, aka Momus.”

“And where are you from originally — give us your hometown and how old you are.”

“I guess my hometown would have to have been Edinburgh, but not for years and years. But I’m forty-nine years old. I must be the oldest person you’ve ever interviewed.”

“That’s not true. What’s the favorite thing you’re wearing today?”

“Um, probably the glasses, which are like optha…malogical glasses from a market in Berlin, customized by Hisae, my girlfriend, with little beads that hold them on so I can just sneeze, and when they fall off…”

“No worries?”

“No worries. But they’re very very cheap. It wouldn’t matter if they got broken anyways.”

“Are they – wait – can you see through them?”

“Yeah, I’m short-sighted, so when I wear them I can see pretty well.”

“Okay, cool. What do you think of when you get dressed in the morning? What’s your goal?”

“Well I dress very quickly, but I do bring some ethics to bear. Usually I’m color coordinated, and well just now I’m living out of a suitcase, so I don’t have much choice, but you know, if I have a blue sweater I’ll pick a blue shirt to go with it… Um, but I think when I’m buying clothes I’m also exercising some kind of policy* as we were saying in the cafe. My policy is probably to evoke some kind of otherness and to refute the global monoculture in some way. Like the global monoculture represented by GAP and UNIQLO and the basic, supposedly supercultural, you know — which usually ends up meaning jeans and a black jacket or whatever, and white shoes, you know, running shoes — this global reductive norm is really my enemy. And I’m struggling against it by using other reductive norms like workwear — that’s a bit of a paradox… So workwear, or like, kabuki clothes or gardener’s clothes or peasant’s clothes, or sportswear like golfing wear. Weird kinds of nerdy sportswear, not advanced, high-tech sportswear. So, yeah, in a way I’m just using a weird kind of cut-and-paste, eclectic version of the same kind of reductive clothing that people are wearing. But hopefully with the effect of one of those children’s games where you sort of flip the card and you get a totally different chest and different legs and different hat.”

“Have you ever been yelled at on the street for anything you’ve worn?”

“Well because I wear an eyepatch I get an awful lot of people yelling ‘pirate’ at me. Or kids pointing and saying ‘look a pirate’.”

“Can you tell me your current obsession? Fashion or non-fashion related.”

“Mai buum wa sou-sou desu.” (Nick is using ‘my boom’ which was a phrase from the 90s used for one’s current obsession. Sou-Sou is an amazing clothing/footwear brand based in Kyoto, which actually can be purchased right in Philly at Omoi!)

“Why is that?”

“Because I just got into Sou-Sou in Tokyo and got excited by a store where you can buy tabi shoes and tabi socks (tabi = split-toe) in various colors and patterns. And we’ve just eaten in a cafe which has Sou-Sou decorations. I’m amazed that such a place exists.”

(Wearing layered, unraveling old sweaters of Hisae’s)

And here, my magnificent Japanese phone ran out of recording space for the interview, so we stopped. Just as well. Nick said volumes in his brief commentary on the ‘global reductive norm.’ Additionally, he keeps an outstanding blog (which he says he’s going to stop come February this year) with all sorts of (head-nodding/mind-blowing) commentary and insight on myriad cultural topics. For me, his observations on fashion are so on point, articulating things I have not yet begun to pound out into solid thoughts (read: awesome). He also makes music and writes for various publications. Ask Wikipedia about “Momus” if you are interested.

* the Japanese use of the English word “policy” (ポリシー or porishii) seems to refer more to an individual’s personal statement or life policy. For example a vegetarian could say that their policy is not to eat meat and to respect animals.