PROFILE
Born in Chiba Prefecture in 1977, he joined the famous Harajuku store "Lost Hills" as a buyer in 1995, became independent in 2011, and started working as a freelance buyer, and launched his own store "Mr. Clean" in 2018. He is known as a specialist in vintage clothing, nicknamed "God Hand" for the way he picks out the best vintage pieces from a large number of vintage clothes just by feeling them.
Fruit of the Loom in the 90's is an outstanding silhouette.
. First of all, please tell us about the position of "Fruit of the Loom" in the vintage market.
Kurihara:In the vintage clothing market, you can often find two types of "Fruit of the Loom" T-shirts, one with a so-called print body and the other with an underwear body. In fact, I checked my own T-shirts and found that I had about 20 Fruit of the Loom items. So, Fruit of the Loom's presence in the vintage clothing market is quite large.
Kurihara-san, when you buy vintage T-shirts, do you pay attention to the brand and quality of the body?
Kurihara:. Basically, I buy T-shirts with an eye on the print. However, not only for "Fruit of the Loom" but for T-shirts in general, the silhouette differs depending on the era, even if they are the same size. Therefore, when I visit a local thrift store or a dealer's stockroom, I check the age of the T-shirts by looking at the sleeves and neck when the T-shirts are hanging, and check the prints on the ones from the era I am interested in.
The single-stitched sleeves and the width of the neck ribbing on this body indicate that it is from the 90s.
Kurihara-san, do you have a particular vintage T-shirt vintage that you are interested in right now?
Kurihara:About 10 years ago, I used to wear a lot of items from the 70s, but I've outgrown most of them. On the other hand, now I wear more items from the 90's. T-shirts from the 90's generally have a wide silhouette and are short for their width, but compared to other T-shirt brands, Fruit of the Loom's T-shirts are longer and more comfortable to wear.
. Certainly, the length of the garments is longer than other brands of the time, giving the impression that they are easy to wear.
Kurihara:Perhaps it is because it was more of a daily-wear brand than a fashion brand, or perhaps it is a type of brand that is not so much influenced by trends. In particular, I personally like the XL silhouette of the "Fruit of the Loom" line from the 1990s. They are made larger than other decades, so I think they match the current atmosphere in terms of size.
. These days, items from the 90s are also popular in the vintage clothing market, aren't they?
Kurihara:. Yes, I think so. Especially when it comes to T-shirts, items from the 90s and 2000s are attracting more attention than those from the 80s and earlier. In particular, items such as band T-shirts and art T-shirts that not only have good graphics but also have a backbone and culture are popular.
. Most of Mr. Kurihara's collection is also from around the 1990s, rather than older items. Moreover, all of them have art and subculture in their backgrounds. Could you introduce some of your favorites?
Kurihara:So, let's choose about five of the ones I brought today, shall we?
This T-shirt parodies the character of the American detergent manufacturer from which Kurihara's store "Mr. Clean" was derived.
Kurihara:The body is made from a "Fruit of the Loom" long T from around the 1990s, and the print is by an American street brand. The fact that it is a long T-shirt is also typical of the time. Originally, the character was a white man, but it has been rearranged into a black man.
Photo print T-shirt by William Wegman , a photographer who takes portraits of dogs as models.
Kurihara:In the U.S., they were sold in museum souvenir stores, etc. , but in the 1990s, they were also carried in select stores in Japan. . The T-shirt on the left has a witty touch, as it looks like a necktie when worn.
The print T from Maurice Sendak's picture book "Where the Wild Things Are" is another motif that he always gets when he finds it.
Kurihara:. the T-shirt on the left appears to be a touring T-shirt for an American theater company. In my buying process, I check tens of thousands of T-shirts, but I only find a few Maurice Sendak T-shirts a year.
Illustrator Ken Brown's graphic T-shirt is identified as post-91 based on the copywrite notation.
Kurihara:This is a flashcard-style illustration of the difference between articles attached to masculine and feminine nouns in Spanish. . Ken Brown also produced Sesame Street, among other things.
The staff T-shirt at the Seattle peep room read "HAVE AN EROTIC DAY!"
I like the fact that it will have the catchphrase "The TM mark" and the TM mark.
Kurihara:Maybe they didn't really apply for a trademark, but they are putting the TM mark on it for the sake of puns. It looks similar to the icon of Nirvana, a band from the same Seattle area, and one theory is that this Nico was the original inspiration.
From left to right, tags from the 80s, also in the 80s, 2000s, and around the 90s.
. Basically, the older the fruit, the more realistic the pattern.
The black tag with the word BEST will be the one used on the cotton-poly blend body."
I didn't think there was much difference in the age of the "Fruit of the Loom" body itself, so I was surprised.
Kurihara:Not at all, we see henley necks from the 40's and sweatshirts from the 50's, military and casual shirts etc. exist and appear on the vintage clothing market until the 60's. . Thermals, parkas, etc. also exist.
A Fruit of the Loom sweatshirt from the 50s.
The silhouette is easy to wear with a longer length than other brands. Most of them are solid color when they come out,
According to Mr. Kurihara, "They were probably loved as everyday clothes, not as exercise wear.
T-shirts are familiar to me, but the quality of your vintage sweatshirts is also very high.
Kurihara:However, it was not until the 70s and 80s when printed T-shirts began to appear that Fruit of the Loom began to make its presence felt in the vintage clothing market. Until the 1970s, when Fruit of the Loom launched a line of printed body goods, the market was mainly underwear, but it is amazing that they were able to gain such a large market share in such a short period of time.
I guess this is also due to the high quality of Fruit of the Loom.
Kurihara:In the 70's, it became commonplace to wear a T-shirt as a fashion item, not as underwear or athletic wear, so I guess they were just able to keep up with the times. Also, pocket T-shirts had square pockets until around the 70's, so they are also popular in the vintage clothing market.
Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen any collegiate products that use "Fruit of the Loom" bodies.
Kurihara:That's true. The sports-oriented brands were sold as athletic wear at university co-ops, etc., but Fruit of the Loom was mainly sold at mass retailers, so I think the sales channels were different. Therefore, in the 1970s, many Fruit of the Loom T-shirts were printed in small lots with corporate prints, and you don't see many Fruit of the Loom sweatshirts with college prints.
I heard that Wal-Mart still carries the largest amount of "Fruit of the Loom" in the U.S.
Kurihara:I see. It's a spectacular sight to see Fruit of the Loom pack T's piled up in supermarkets, just like in the U.S. It's a striking logo, and it really stands out on the sales floor. The logo is impressive, and it stands out on the sales floor. . I also like the fact that the brand name is not a person's name.
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