Junk Food and Street Wear Inception
Keith Haring was an American graffiti artist and social activist, participating heavily in street culture during the 1980's.
He garnered public acclaim through commissions to draw murals for national museums starting in Australia. His work is stark, sardonic, and politically oriented. Quickly becoming some of the most recognisable visual language of the 20th Century.
Junk Food Clothing Co. is a street wear store that started in 1998, as a the OG vintage t-shirt company. The store's signature graphic tees and sweaters, with typically caricature style drawings and cartoonish nature are a perfect example of how fashion doesn't always have to take itself too seriously.
Athleisure
Keith Haring's drawings are plastered across the store exterior on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach California, giving you a feel of what awaits inside.
In the premium t-shirt market, Junk Food are considered some of the founding fathers of this culture, printing the likes of ACDC, David Bowie, The Beatles, Mickey Mouse, The Rolling Stones and using a variety of other pop culture references on their signature tees.
With Spring in full force, and Summer on its way we'll all quickly be transitioning into street wear attire quite comfortably. Donning sneakers and active wear, pulling out our favourite graphic tees and rocking the all too underrated Athleisure aesthetic.
This post pays homage to a store that contributed to fuelling a movement, which is arguably now one of the most popular aesthetics in fashion today. From the rise and rebirth of Adidas, to notorious hype stores such as Supreme, and everything in between. To name a few: Stussy, Off White, Anti Social Social Club, Kith, Stampd, and Undefeated. Street wear is the new Haute Couture and it makes being trendy all the more accessible in the best way.
As I sipped on my Chai Latte, and tried on a white over sized, perfectly cut, graphic sweater with the letters LA printed on t it, using a geometric design of extreme hipster nature - mirroring my mood exactly at the time as a summer term student at UCLA - I realised that street wear really is sometimes the most expressive form of fashion.
“Whatever you do, the only secret is to believe in it and satisfy yourself. Don’t do it for anyone else.”
