Tuesday, March 8, 2011

555: RAMONES TEE STORY BEHIND THE PIECE

555 Clothing and Design                                                               JYD
Punk:  
a. something or someone worthless or unimportant.
b. a young ruffian; hoodlum.
c. a style or movement characterized by the adoption of aggressively unconventional and often bizarre or shocking clothing, hairstyles, makeup, etc., and the defiance of social norms of behavior, usually associated with punk rock musicians and fans.
pertaining to, characteristic of, or adopting punk styles: punk youths; punk hairstyles in various colors.
I couldn’t help but share this fav item of mine, the story behind the item Ramones tee!!! Punk rock princess never die!! No matter where on our globe.  
On this day, I was living in a lovely mountain top home in Kenya.  Working and living with even more awesome people at the kccslums, helping the forgotten. 
With my mind far from fashion that rocks hot, I was on my way to do up some washing when John (slum kid represent!!!) was coming in from doing the same, wearing this ripped-up punked-out Ramones tee--arms cut up and all.  I gave him a super big smile, stop dead in my tracks, and he's looking at me like, what?
Of course he has never heard of the Ramones...you gotta understanding how poetically beautiful this moment is.
 John's story is more than incredible: taken in about a year ago by my good friend Marcus ( frontrunner of the KCCSlum project he rocks) John is 14 years old,  from the Kenyian slums, homeless since he was 4 years old.  This kid John is more punk rock rebel in his own right than he’ll ever know!
We traded 2 of my boys pre-packaged kind of t-shirts for his punked up tee.  Of course John seemed a little more than confused with the exchange! Each of us was quite happy with the deal though.
If clothes could talk and tell their story I wish this Ramones tee could .  
YOU ROCK JOHN !!!!!! a true punk rocker freedom fighter. 
 “Go into the streets, into the slums, into the fashionable quarters. Go into the day courts and the night courts. Become acquainted with sorrow, with many kinds of sorrow. Learn of the wonderful heroism of the poor, of the incredible generosity of the very poor—a generosity of which the rich and the well-to-do have, for the most part, not the faintest conception. Go into the modest homes, into the out-of-the-way corners, into the open country. Go where you can find something fresh to bring back to the stage.”   Minne Maddern Fiske (1865-1932)
 “At its best New Wave/punk represents a fundamental and age-old Utopian dream: that if you give people the license to be as outrageous as they want in absolutely any fashion they can dream up, they'll be creative about it, and do something good besides. “  Lester Banges 
 If you have a heart that cares and shares,  check it out! 
punk rock princess 
JYD


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