The Olympics were an interesting time for fashion and a blindingly obvious one. Let’s take our hearts, douse them in red paint, blow them up and hang them on our sleeves. Not bad… but not the best look.
One can only represent patriotically with a Team Canada hockey jersey or a Canadian tied round your head for so long, so when I saw the work of local designers Geographic Apparel sitting at Blim’s stall at the Powell Street Festival, I knew I had found the cure for Roots overload.
Jay Ng and Tameem Barakat are serious Vancouver heads. Those of you with funky ears may well remember Tameem’s legendary band, Threat from Outer Space. As astute when it comes to design as they are patriotic, they’ve gone ahead and flipped the script on the usual tourist fare. Yes, there are moose and maple leafs, but there’s also a dapper looking Pierre Trudeau, and representations of their Vancouver, one capped by the big ol’ W that shines brightly over Vancouver’s downtown core.
Welcome to East Van and Sharks and Hammers are doing the same thing but on a local scale. Proudly repping their hoods with shirts that flip the George, Paul, John, and Ringo shirts you’ve seen around — they rep everything from the streets of the downtown east side through the the glorious neighbourhoods of East Vancouver.
It’s a fresh approach and one worth the hunting out. You could sit there and rock your I Heart Vancity shirt, but are you aching for some new patriot love?
I heard there is a new clothing label out of Surrey. cam clothing or something. i have seen their facebook page and some of their clothes look alright.