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The Best Part About Clothing Is Culture with Jim Parker
87 Plays1 year ago
This week: Jim Parker, Merchandising Director at The Armoury, Head Honcho at Tazewell Clothes, virtuouso guitarist, Southerner, New Yorker, redhead, and much more.
We talk unhinged 90's fashions, The Colorado Rockies, accents, Hank Williams, Ronnie Van Zant, The Allman Brothers, clothing on an emotional level, and that's just the first 15 minutes!
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Transcript
Introduction to Hosts and Guest
00:00:00
Speaker
Good afternoon, I'm Connor Fowler. And I'm Matt Smith. And you are now listening to Apocalypse Duts. We are joined today by the venerable Jim Parker, merchandise director at the Armory, head honcho of his own brand, Tazwell, virtuoso guitarist, Southerner, New Yorker, Redhead, and certainly much more. Thanks for coming, Jim.
00:00:23
Speaker
I don't
00:00:40
Speaker
Uh, it's, you know, that's good. Uh, it is. Yeah. New York is threatening spring, but it was still like a high of 42 or something today.
Weather and Fashion Talk
00:00:50
Speaker
It was jacket weather today, baby. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's nice. Tweed and a jacket. That's so nice.
00:00:53
Speaker
know that you maybe gave me more than I actually have, man. Thanks very much.
00:01:00
Speaker
That is actually what I've been wearing today. So yeah, nailed it. Well, speaking of that, we have a feature. We can walk straight into it. The ensemble investigation. What are you wearing? Head to toe or vice versa? Head to toe. All right. Well, on my head, I've got these over the ear headphones, but I did have a hat on by Cody Wilma.
00:01:22
Speaker
I'm wearing a tweed jacket from the Armory. The cloth is Fox Brothers. Pretty sure I added that. It was part of the Ready to Wear to Collection a little bit ago. I think this was one of my picks, but I can't remember.
00:01:37
Speaker
Um, I'm wearing a, uh, a tassel, uh, wool gabardine snap front shirt. It's the stay tucked, uh, with a bandana. And, um, I actually, I'm wearing a lot of tassel. I don't, that's just how it is these days. Uh, some.
00:01:54
Speaker
uh of the Appalachians five pockets in uh desert sand and i'm wearing these old uh ostrich cowboy boots from this kick-ass boot store close to where my parents live oh ostrich cowboy that truly truly anchors anchors the fit yeah man yeah i just you know
00:02:18
Speaker
They're, I mean, they're like, um, they're like a Tony Brown, Tony Brown. Very nice. Very nicely done. I see. I know that this is your job. So very nice. Yeah. You know, you got to have an menswear. You have to have like 25 different descriptions of Brown, you know, that's it's important. Yeah. I'm also going to biscuit.
00:02:43
Speaker
You've got your usual tan, medium brown, dark brown, and then you've got like fawn and various other brown colors. What is the hat?
00:02:59
Speaker
the hat is um it's also it's uh i think cody calls this whiskey um because you know this is ben's wear and we drink i guess uh but yeah it's a sort of a western fedora it's got a tiny gambler's bow on it and um it's got a uh a bound edge which is
00:03:20
Speaker
uh pretty amazing because he does that himself by hand he he makes the hats himself but the the binding uh he whip stitches uh and he can only do so many like he could do like two or three a week like this otherwise he like he hurts his hand and he can't make stuff anymore so oh that's very special habit yeah hell yeah uh yeah so something we kind of uh like to lead most shows with
Fashion Influences from Childhood
00:03:48
Speaker
uh is what is your clothing or your uh sorry first clothing memory um it's deep yeah yeah i have i have two i think one is like an inherited memory because i i was i'm probably too young uh but this is people ask me like kind of how i knew i liked clothes and this is the real reason i think is like when i was a toddler
00:04:16
Speaker
My mom would quiz me like on learning my colors by asking me what color Vanna white stress was for the day so that's like So and maybe that's why I know so many color names cuz like, you know, eventually yellow is not except acceptable It's got to be like canary or something like that But my first like real clothing memory
00:04:39
Speaker
um where I was like oh I like clothes was uh it was like early 90s I was in first grade and we we used to do this like
00:04:48
Speaker
weekly thing where each student would go outside with a teaching assistant and do like a reading exercise and we eat we had like a special folder for that that work like like worksheets on sounding out words and stuff and my my folder was purple and for whatever reason around that time we're talking like probably 1993 ish there was a lot of Colorado Rockies stuff at Walmart and yeah
00:05:18
Speaker
Was that it? I did not know. I'm not a baseball fan. And I wasn't then either. I just had Colorado Rockies stuff. I had a t-shirt with, I'm pretty sure, Bugs and Daffy on it. And they're wearing the uniforms. And the logo had a bit of purple in it. And I was wearing purple shorts. And I had my purple folder.
00:05:42
Speaker
And i remember like being really pleased like that felt complete and i couldn't i didn't know why but i just that sticks out to me and that's my probably my first clothing memory. Boy knows. Yeah yeah yeah and also let's give a shout out to the nineties absolutely unfinched and other cartoon shit.
00:06:06
Speaker
Because like, man, if you didn't grow up in the 90s, that's really like, not something you realize was so prevalent. Yeah, yeah, I was playing a, I was playing a gig last night and this, this woman was talking to me, like she's a girlfriend of a bandmate and she was talking about the Simpsons.
00:06:26
Speaker
And I, I suddenly, I just had these memories of wearing like a lot of stuff with Bart Simpson on it, but I wasn't allowed to watch the Simpsons at the, yeah. And I don't know why it was okay. Um, to like have Bart on my t-shirt with like, you know, it probably said like eat my shorts or whatever it was that he said. And like, then like, but I wasn't allowed to watch the show. I don't know.
00:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Like, and one of the funny things about that is like, there was definitely a ton of like Simpsons, actual license merchandise. But there's also an entirely different, like, almost subculture of sorts of bootleg Mark shit from back in the day. Anywhere from like, Desert Storm shit to like him dressed as Rambo.
00:07:16
Speaker
I don't think that Gen Zers understand how weird the 80s and 90s actually were. Yeah, they've got this like kind of pastiche, kind of probably, you know, like when I was a bit older, I was really into the 80s, like early 80s. And I was, you know, I would buy like repro Van Halen t-shirts and stuff. But I think it was I was missing some context. And yes, I think
00:07:41
Speaker
young people, because I guess I'm no longer a young person, are missing the context of when we were growing up. It was really weird that I had a Colorado Rockies shirt. I didn't play baseball. I was terrible at baseball. I didn't watch baseball, and I lived in Tennessee, not Colorado. So why did I have a Colorado Rockies shirt? No idea. Yeah. So Jim, just out of curiosity, how old are you? 36.
00:08:11
Speaker
And where did you grow up? I grew up in East Tennessee in a little town called Midtown, which is in Marin County. It's like outside of Knoxville. Midtown has like about 1,500 people. Gotcha, gotcha. And now you are a New Yorker, which is why? Yeah, I've lived in New York for almost eight years.
00:08:37
Speaker
So big jump, big jump, but I made little small jumps in between. Yeah, as we all think. Yeah, sure. So what were people wearing in Midtown, you said? Yeah, Midtown. Yeah. When you were growing up, what did you see? I mean, were there things that influenced you down the line? Yeah, I mean, we can...
00:09:05
Speaker
Yes. So I mean, this is my, so my dad, if he were alive today would be a 93. And, uh, wow. Yeah. So he grew up and he was born in 1930, born on a tobacco farm during the great depression. Right. And, uh, he kinda like a little later on, like in the, in the, the 2000s when like American work where it was like really having that moment.
00:09:32
Speaker
I it was kind of weird every time I'd put on a chambray shirt or like do double denim or something because I just felt like I was cosplaying as my dad because that's what he would wear so that was like an early and like it's a constant influence on on how I dress and how I Developed products and stuff like that. I think about him in that sense a lot and like that time period But then yeah kind of
00:09:59
Speaker
I also, I have, I think about the term work where a lot because the stuff that we kind of fetishize is as work where the people, I mean, Midtown is just like.
00:10:13
Speaker
It's next to a small town called Kingston, which has like a coal plant. So, you know, they're actual, like, it's like people working in a coal plant and it's like a lot of working class stuff. So I saw a lot of like, my mom works in the medical field. She's director of a nursing home. So there were a lot of scrubs and then like a lot of denim is kind of what I saw growing up. Right, right. Yeah, because that's like lower Appalachian.
00:10:43
Speaker
Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah. And so there's, there's tons of cold, there's tons of like legitimate, you know, adjacent or cold adjacent gigs that people do and factories and shit that is all related to that. Yeah, that's right. That's right. So, um, it was like, you know, it was a lot of, um, it was a lot of like wrestler and rankler, um,
00:11:12
Speaker
And that, that sort of stuff. And I guess Colorado Rockies t-shirts. So, you know, side note, both brother and Wrangler denim have been woven in my hometown for a long time. Wait, really? Yeah. Uh, Mount Vernon mills, uh, one of their businesses. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know that you, yeah. That's what's the town that's, uh, Summerville or sorry, it's in trying Georgia, but Summerville is the, is the main town. Uh, my dad or my great-grandfather was.
00:11:43
Speaker
Um, the manager of the dairy, uh, dairies that were there when it was regal mills in the 1930s and forties. Wow. I had no idea. Yeah, that's like, yeah, sadly, but, uh, I think like, that's fine. Like Lee Wrangler, you know, all the subsidiaries like Maverick and shit.
Textile Industry and Southern Culture
00:12:10
Speaker
but they, yeah, for, you know, a hundred and something years at this point, they must have been the ones that developed the, uh, the broken twill with Wrangler then. Right. They were the ones that did that. I don't know if it was that mill particularly. I think that that happens like prior to then getting the contract or whatever, uh, cause Wrangler had their own mills at one point in Greensboro. Um, I think, right. Yeah.
00:12:37
Speaker
But yeah, they have woven various denims. They definitely did most of the rustlership when we were growing up. But yeah. That makes sense. That makes sense. I love that stuff, too. Yeah. And you said, unfortunately, they don't do salvage. But honestly, I feel sometimes that that's overrated. Oh, totally. Yeah. It's funny. Most people don't think of the South as this
00:13:07
Speaker
this like textile-heavy place, but it really was in a lot of ways for like a very long period of time, like even so today. Yeah, I mean, yes.
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we can, I'm sure we'll talk about this more, but I've just obviously, because of my own little brand, I have been researching a lot of textile production in the South. And I mean, like, I learned at one point, I think there were nine denim manufacturers in Louisville, Kentucky alone. Like that's, you know, the South was just full of that stuff for a long time. And sadly, it's going away.
00:13:42
Speaker
when stuff was made domestically at all. They're huge, huge, huge, huge places. Baltimore included, which is not even arguably, it is in the South, Baltimore. And Baltimore is a huge textile place too, tons of suiting and menswear, like very fine stuff. Totally gone.
00:14:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, uh, where I grew up. Midtown is next to another town called Herman. It's all in this small county room county. Um, and so sometimes I like, I'm, I mix them up when I'm talking and that's just because they're all like within 5 minutes drive and they all have like 1 stoplight, you know, but.
00:14:24
Speaker
Harriman had a huge knitting mill that closed before I was born, but I always heard the stories of that place. And then just right over 30 minutes drive to Knoxville, that's the largest underwear manufacturer in the country was there. That was standard knitting mills. And of course, the Alpha Industries was there making new 65s and stuff like that. So yeah, it was major.
00:14:48
Speaker
I wanted to ask, since we are on the topic, people say X is not a monolith. And I think the South is a thing that really is made into a monolith by almost everyone.
00:15:04
Speaker
There's a horrible negative perception of the South, especially in the North. And so I was wondering what your experience with that has been. I was going to ask about your accent. I have known plenty of people from the very deep South who no longer have an accent at all. Yeah. Accents are funny, man.
00:15:27
Speaker
I unfortunately, I remember as a kid being embarrassed about a Southern accent, having one and stuff like that and working to get rid of it. And now I listen to my mom who has a great sort of Appalachian accent and my granny who sounds like Dolly Parton, they have amazing accents and I'm like, damn, I really...
00:15:48
Speaker
I missed out. You're going into it a little bit now. Not to put you on the spot, but it's very funny to see. My dad, when he goes places, when he travels in the South, he has a Southern accent. He just does. Of course, yeah. When he's in DC, which is where he is from, nothing like that. He's a bureaucrat. Yeah, yeah. I can slip into it on purpose, but then also when I'm on the phone with my mom,
00:16:15
Speaker
my wife has pointed out, like, you know, my voice changes, it becomes like Southern, you know what I mean? But I think about accents a lot because you're saying, I think this is like a huge topic, but like the South is not a monolith. Well, like Tennessee has at least two really distinctive, if not three accents alone, just that one state. So there's like you said earlier, I'm from like kind of lower Appalachia, right?
00:16:47
Speaker
I kind of think of it as that whole area was like, uh, uh, it was full of Scottish immigration. And so it's like similar, I was just in Scotland recently and it was having these weird moments of like, everybody looks like my cousin. And like, I understand this really thick accent because it kind of sounds like, you know, my grandparents or something in it. It's not exactly the same, but I can, there's something there that feels familiar. But then like you move to Memphis and the accent is very different because that's like,
00:17:07
Speaker
And that has a specific accent.
00:17:17
Speaker
Mississippi River, like, kind of almost Delta. Accent not quite a, not a New Orleans accident, which even that my wife is from New Orleans and they're. 2 or 3 really. Major accidents there too, like her dad speaks with what's called a accident and I hope that's not.
00:17:37
Speaker
like super offensive and derogatory, I don't think it is, but that's what people refer to it as and it's like different than like what you think of as like the kind of the Creole guy or something like that. So yeah, accents alone, like there's not, just like there's not, Americans think there's one general like English accent and obviously there's not, and I'm not gonna,
00:18:03
Speaker
Even try to explain those but or do one because I'm not a voice actor, but there are so many Accents and dialects in the south because it's just I mean the culture is so diverse because of the immigration Some of it unfortunately forced, but yeah, it's it's I so I think it's like beautiful and varied and incredibly important to American history
00:18:32
Speaker
And we're so scared of diversity. That's like the number one fear in America. I mean, arguably the number one fear globally is diversity, but it's so precious, really, and special. It just doesn't, it's like the ultimate underdog in a way, and it really doesn't, it really doesn't get its due at all.
00:18:52
Speaker
Yeah, I think about, so like one of my hobbies is barbecuing. Yeah, right. And people think of that as like a Southern thing and it kind of is, but that came via like immigration on its own. But then like, if you think about the different types of barbecue, like regional barbecue, like Texas does brisket and like very little sauce, but then like South Carolina does this with like a mustard sauce.
00:19:21
Speaker
The mustard sauce just came about because there was German immigration there. Even the food, people think of barbecue as a maybe southern thing, but it's not just one thing, and it's not one type of food, and it wasn't cooked by just one type of person.
00:19:42
Speaker
And so I don't understand sometimes when people are like, well, like are afraid of immigration. And I'm like, well, that's what led to such like a beautiful culture that you supposedly love and now are trying to protect. I don't. Yeah. Anything good. Anything good is a mixture. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think about that a lot and it's kind of.
00:20:06
Speaker
It's hard to talk about sometimes because there are some really dark elements, of course, of the Southern history that are still somehow denied by people. And I don't understand that either. But yeah, I think there are parts that are definitely worth talking about.
00:20:30
Speaker
Certainly. Yeah. Which just, uh, just a side note on it. You're not my Southern values t-shirt, uh, which I am a huge fan of and I encourage everyone to listen to, or sorry, uh, look up and order one. We'll post it. We'll post it for sure. Also another side note, it's hilarious to me as someone that grew up in the life very deep.
00:20:56
Speaker
deep south, like very rural spot to hear someone else say that they masked and did not want their Southern accent. Because that was absolutely me from like, you know, my punk rock years on was like, I need to get rid of this. But now I get almost 40, I've come back to an appreciation for it.
00:21:20
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know when I moved to when I moved to New York. I was working at that. I still work at the armory and I have a colleague there. He's from Alabama and he's about my age and he's like super successful.
00:21:37
Speaker
He's an interesting guy. He's got a doctorate in ornithology, but now he's the general manager of this place. Anyway, there's no hiding where he's from when he speaks. He's got a very thick Alabama accent. At first, I remember being like,
00:21:53
Speaker
Well, that's kind of weird. And then I was like, wow, no, that's cool. This guy is like unabashedly. I mean, cause he can't like, there's nothing he can do about it. He's just unabashedly like from Alabama and he's got the accent and I'm like, yeah, nice. Yeah. And like, they're so good. It's so good to have an accent. I have the most boring voice in the world. It's the mid Atlantic accent.
00:22:19
Speaker
No, I don't know. I don't agree with that part. But I, but yeah, like, I don't know where that actually, I guess I do know, because you mentioned earlier, like, kind of like, almost like stereotypes of Southern people. And it's like pretty negative. Like, if you have that accent, maybe you're not educated, or maybe you're super racist, or whatever. And, you know, so that was that's what I was feeling as a
Fashion Influences and Lifestyle Changes
00:22:45
Speaker
kid. And like, also being embarrassed of
00:22:47
Speaker
being from a town of 1,500 people or whatever. But yeah, now I have a little age and distance and it's like something to be proud of, I guess. Certainly. So living in both very rural and urban, you know, Nashville, parts of the South, would you say that has changed the way you both approach living and, you know, your attitude toward things and also dressing?
00:23:17
Speaker
um and yeah i mean listen it's much easier to be a like a dude or anybody really into clothes living in a like a metropolitan area especially in new york like because it feels like everybody's really into clothes and um but when i when i go home to midtown um i stick out but there that's just kind of how it is and it's no deal but i also i also
00:23:45
Speaker
have grown to like I when I mentioned earlier like you know Midtown is really working class there's like a coal mine or like if you're a little or not coal mine but a coal plant and if you're like a you know a little luckier you go work at the the nuclear plants in Oak Ridge like that's it but it's always like working in a plant and like working class and I came to appreciate the those kind of clothes too
00:24:13
Speaker
because they're like really practical and I don't mean like like the perfect chin strap chambray I mean like the the flame retardant like polyester uh you know blue but not like just flat blue shirt stuff like that kind of stuff um so it's like a
00:24:34
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I live in a great place for clothes, and I get to see some of the best stuff in the world. And then also, I get to see these really practical clothes put to practical uses, and that's cool too. Do you think that there's some conflict
00:24:54
Speaker
between your sort of southerness, like the gentility, the slow pace, and what goes on in New York City. Like, I find it, I find it, and I used to love New York, now I just terrible anxiety. It's like, I wish I could walk so fast, I can't walk fast enough.
00:25:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's something that my mom complains about when I go home. She's like, why are you walking so fast? And whatever. That's right. That's right. There's an emergency. I need to get to this one restaurant that we have in Midtown. Yeah. I would say I don't I feel
00:25:40
Speaker
when I go home and I like I can relax into that like slowness because it's like it can be really frustrating that like maybe it takes a couple days for somebody to call you back or like maybe you're at a restaurant and the server is like being really slow with your order or just like talking a lot and asking you honey how you're doing and stuff like that.
00:26:06
Speaker
But it's kind of like giving me a perspective, being away from that and being in a fast paced environment. And now when I go back to it, I'm like, oh, this is, this is nice. I can appreciate it. I mean, I want it like all the time, but yeah. Certainly. Yeah. It's a hard balance to strike between like the urgency in an actual city and then like the slowness of everything else in the, yeah.
00:26:35
Speaker
Like it's very enjoyable, but sometimes you're also just like, okay, like I, I can't have this all the time and I wish I could, but it just, there's no possibility.
00:26:48
Speaker
Yeah, New York has this funny way sometimes of making you feel like you couldn't live anywhere else. And that's not healthy either. Yeah, you start going to like, you go, yeah, my wife calls this like,
00:27:08
Speaker
almost like the Williamsburg-ification of every little other city that we go to. So it kind of feels like we just seek that out because we're just looking for New York and sometimes if we can just get out of our head and be like, oh, this is cool.
00:27:26
Speaker
So I don't know, it's nice to have those two really diverse experiences, like a town of 1,500 people, and that's home, and then also a city of, what are we, 8 million or something? And that's home, too. Right. Yeah, I guess this kind of leads into what we're going to ask next. And we've kind of discussed this, or gotten into it a little bit already, but has being in New York really
00:27:53
Speaker
Impacted and affected your appreciation for like where you're from Yeah in ways that I didn't even expect There's like a new appreciation for the like a slower way of life But also this is I Hopefully this isn't like too weirdly political but it's made me like
00:28:19
Speaker
Go with it. All right. Cool. Great. All right. So I'm going to, uh, I was really, um, I was, uh, during the, during the black lives matter movement, I was really reassessing my education as a, as a, like a public school educated person in Tennessee. And I was having these moments, like I had a conversation, um,
00:28:48
Speaker
one time with a colleague who's from Australia. And we were talking about the American Civil War. I don't know why, but that's what we were, maybe we're drinking, we're probably drinking. And I- Wait, is this Dick? Yeah, this is Dick. Okay, good. I want to get into this show so bad. Please, please do. If you listen to this- Dick, if you're listening, Ricky, please get on your show, man. I find you absolutely hilarious. He is hilarious.
00:29:16
Speaker
Yeah, he's he's great. Um, i'm lucky to consider him a print and um He anyway, I don't know why we were talking about that. Uh, but I just blurted out uh, well, you know Robert e lee was the better general and I said that and he like yeah, right, right, right and he looked at me Yeah, yeah, yeah, and he looked at me and I was like, why am I? Why did I say that? right like
00:29:45
Speaker
so like i needed to be out of that like echo chamber sometimes like i mean where i like where i went to to college i almost said where i went to university hanging out with too many brits i guess but like where was college uh yeah right um like it was in murphy's bro tennessee and there was a civil war battle there and nobody lets you fucking forget that there was a civil war battle there and oh man it yeah and there's like always like reenactments and stuff like that um
00:30:15
Speaker
And so I was getting out of that constant thing of growing up, hearing about the War of Northern Aggression and meeting people in just day-to-day in a different area and talking about that. And they're like, what the hell are you talking about? I'm sorry, David. Go ahead. Because as someone from up here,
00:30:41
Speaker
How discussed is the war of Northern regression? Because people were in Southern areas of Annapolis, where I grew up, had Confederate flags and stuff. And they were about it. Before you go on, Jim, Connor, this could be a three hour long conversation if we actually let it just FYI.
00:31:08
Speaker
No, I know, I know, I know. The whole thing is a big topic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like listen, I'm not, I am not the person, I'm not the expert on this stuff and that's why, and I kind of learned that moving here and like trying to think about that and then like
00:31:29
Speaker
Basically, BLM kind of accelerated that for me and I was like, thankful. I was like, oh, I have some things that I need to learn or like, you know what I mean? That was like, and I think that's a, I hope that's like a healthy way to be of being like, I was like taught some stuff that was weird or like, you know, whatever. And now I'm trying to figure that out.
00:31:49
Speaker
but most people don't own it ever most people don't ever own it so yeah i've done it i i hope so i hope that like you know people understand that like because i i mean i was like literally taught that in public school do you know that's not a you were in child you were indoctrinated yeah yeah yeah it's uh it's a real thing and like there's i mean
00:32:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of so to answer your question about how often do people talk about the Civil War. I wouldn't like it's not a daily conversation, but it's more like.
00:32:23
Speaker
The framework of it is just different because it's been taught to everyone in a different way. It's a rewriting of history that everybody kind of accepts. And if you don't accept that, you're the bad guy. Well, and it's very – yeah, it's very bad even to say the Civil War is about slavery.
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I've had that fight. I've had that fight. To your point, it's not like a daily conversation, but I would call it a specter that just is overhanging all the time. That's right. And it, yeah. Yeah. And it's a specter. It's a, it's a ghost that's denied. Like a lot of people can see it, but a lot more people are being, it's pretend that they can't. And that's really sad.
00:33:16
Speaker
Yeah, I grew up a half hour south of Chickamauga. So shout out Northwest Georgia. Yeah. Anyway, I don't want this to be a really interesting turn. And like, it's, I don't know, kind of, it's kind of like a fun, you know, fun part of seeing someone's development from A to B. So yeah, yeah.
00:33:46
Speaker
Um, and we don't, we don't really talk this very often. Like, I think that the show at the outset, we had an idea of what we were going to be talking about and it was going to be extremely political. And then as it happened, we didn't really touch it.
00:34:04
Speaker
And it was fine. But now I think we're kind of like, yeah, maybe we ought to get back to the thing. Yeah. Back to the drawing board. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting perspective on this, particularly because all three of us are from SAP in one way shape or form. Yeah. I guess, I mean, you can, I don't know, I was thinking about it.
00:34:31
Speaker
When I first started Taz, well, I was doing that. And then I was making a record with this guy who's also from the South. And I was telling him about it and how I was going to tell these stories about Southern culture and then also really make people understand that I don't mean the KKK and slavery and stuff like that. That's not OK. And there can be a New South. And he looked at me and he was like, dude, you're not going to change the world selling t-shirts.
00:35:00
Speaker
And so I understand that this is also a podcast about clothing. And it might be hard to talk about politics. But clothing, the best kind of clothing to me is culture. And politics is part of culture. So yeah. Totally. Yeah. You kind of just outlined the idea that we have for this show. There it is. Yeah. So you mentioned making a record.
Musical Influences on Fashion
00:35:29
Speaker
I personally, I've known you for a couple of years via Instagram and whatnot. I know that you play music and your pandemic videos of you playing shit, they were some of the best part of 2020 for me, honestly.
00:35:47
Speaker
Oh, whoa. Yeah. Like, it was just super fun to like, see you go and, you know, go into town on this shit that, that I like. So, uh, thank you. I don't know if I ever told you, I may have told you that before. I don't know. But, uh, well, thanks for that. Yeah. I got a lot of positive feedback on those because I like, yeah, I mean, it was just like,
00:36:15
Speaker
Honestly, me just probably being 14 again for a little bit, right? I've also like, yeah, side note. It's like, I've, I've realized that a lot of the like music side of Instagram is so chill and just like super supportive of people trying to do whatever they're doing. Like, even if I don't personally like it, I'm just like, Oh, that's, that's very appeal. Uh,
00:36:41
Speaker
Yeah, I find that too. It's not as like, I mean, obviously I know about like the like clothing, Instagram and stuff like that. And I find that like way snarkier, but maybe that's industry itself is like way like,
00:36:57
Speaker
i find that if you're working in the in the clothing industry that you're like kind of defined more by what you don't like and that means like that's kind of like a negative right off the back it's kind of negative so yeah i don't know but anyway yeah those those videos were like um just uh me giving myself something to do every day and then also like kind of rediscovering that i liked to do that thing so yeah okay so
00:37:24
Speaker
going into music, have there been artists kind of over the years that have really like influenced you in terms of dressing? And, you know, I feel like we all have those people we emulate. But yeah, was that a part of your kind of like clothing journey? Yeah, I think about this a lot because I like part of my job at the Armory and then my own thing like, you know, like
00:37:52
Speaker
I hesitate to say I'm a designer, but I do develop products and I like what I generally when I'm doing that I have like a
00:38:05
Speaker
I have like a I think about like a general kind of mood and then I try to find people that are that match that mood and not not the other way around so like when people ask me like what style icons like that so that's kind of what you're getting at I like I sometimes have them but they change quite frequently and they like they're it might be like
00:38:25
Speaker
One like a person's hat one day and that's it So like right now I have been thinking a lot about hats because I'm working on hats for tassel And so I'm thinking about Hank Williams and I'm thinking about Ronnie Vance ant Which is like really yeah, which is a real like Weird thing and I don't think of Ronnie as like a style icon for me really but his hats were awesome and so like that's the
00:38:55
Speaker
That's what happens to me. When I put together the first collection for Tazwell, I told people that I wanted my clothes to look like they fit onto the record cover of Live at Fillmore East, the Allman Brothers live record. And so all the people on that record, including the roadies on the back, for a little while, those were my style icons.
00:39:21
Speaker
growing up it would have been like actually still Hank Williams because my dad would listen to that. He would listen to Hank and he would listen to Bill Monroe. So that kind of era of
00:39:35
Speaker
of country music up into like basically the early 60s. The sequence sort of, but not too many sequence yet, but the nudie suits and that kind of thing. That was like a big part of my childhood. Like my first favorite song was Hot Dog by Buck Owens. Buck and the Buckaroos had like some great stage outfits. So that was, yeah, so that was like,
00:40:04
Speaker
It's been cool for me to see more and more people in current fashion stuff looking at that. Nudie suits and Western suits in general and old country music and stuff like that and using that as style reference because I legitimately grew up seeing those photos. Yeah.
00:40:28
Speaker
So those are some of my earliest. And then I was talking about this recently, actually, when this is kind of weird, but in elementary school, like probably kindergarten, my style icon was Michael Jackson.
00:40:42
Speaker
Um, so it's always been like some kind of musical artist. That feels weird to say now that Michael Jackson was my style icon when I was five, but that's true. I would dress up like he, uh, I would wear it like that was around the time of a black or white. And I would like dress up like him as best I could and like play that cassette single over and over again. So, so for whatever reason, like, um,
00:41:06
Speaker
From pretty early on in my life, music and clothes have kind of been intertwined in that way. I think about them in really similar ways. When I think of a music artist, I almost always think about the clothes they wore too.
00:41:26
Speaker
And then like sometimes when I'm, if I'm developing a product or something, I like to put together a playlist or something like to, to kind of set a mood, like they're, they're, they're intertwined. Yes. So the next question is sort of a two part question. Okay. Okay.
00:41:49
Speaker
There's a contrast between Southern rock and traditional menswear. How did you personally get from point A to point B? And then I was also wondering,
00:42:02
Speaker
How does it feel to be launching your brand when it seems like the things are becoming trendier and trendier and trendier, but it's your idea? Well, okay. Yeah, I'll just go chronological there.
00:42:24
Speaker
I don't necessarily think that traditional menswear and then southern rock and country are as divergent as they might seem at first. There's a lot of tailored clothing, especially in country music, or there was. There's not so much anymore. But I also think about, I know a lot of
00:42:53
Speaker
musicians that work in the fashion industry and I think there's like there's a connection at least like I think why musicians are drawn to that is that if you're on stage whether you want to admit it or not you think about how you're presenting yourself to an audience and like that's kind of the same idea in fashion and with classic clothing
00:43:19
Speaker
You're kind of thinking about people of a bygone era and a lot and like now at this point if you're playing southern rock You're thinking of people from 50 years ago. So you're still thinking of people from a bygone era So I don't think there is as divergent It's just like it's maybe just a different genre sort of Yeah, but how I I don't know I guess How I got there
00:43:48
Speaker
It's a similar, it's a similar idea, I guess, of when I was talking earlier about losing my, my accent, I.
00:43:57
Speaker
I was drawn to classic menswear partially because I just like clothes and I have my entire life. I went to fashion school and I learned about clothing construction and I've made clothes in the past. At first I was attracted to the idea of classic clothes as craft.
00:44:23
Speaker
and learning about that. And then I kind of liked the idea of...
00:44:28
Speaker
classic clothes is like dressing up to play a part. And for me, for a little while, that kind of became like dressing up as like a ritual Italian dude or like an A-D-Z-U-P and that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you scroll past the guitar photos on my, or the guitar videos on my Instagram, you'll see me in like, you know, a chalk stripe DB and I'm like doing my best Gordon Gecko or whatever, but like,
00:44:57
Speaker
Yeah, but eventually I realized that like I was kind of, I also always liked like, uh, you know, almond brothers and.
00:45:06
Speaker
and Skynyrd and then earlier like Hank Williams and Bill Monroe and Buck Owens. And I was thinking more like how to incorporate that, like how I, you know, I denied my accent. I'd almost, I felt like I had been denying this other thing that I really liked and I wanted to try to incorporate that.
00:45:31
Speaker
as I move forward with my own thing and then whatever else I do in the industry, I want to keep exploring how to mix those different things together. It's the same idea as playing an instrument. You have influences. My first main influence on guitar was Randy Rhodes. And then I got into some other people, and then there was a hot second, there was a jazz moment, and that didn't last very long.
00:45:58
Speaker
So now, when I play, I have all these different influences, and I improvise. When I'm playing, I think, oh, that's a... I hardly ever play Randy Rosalix anymore, but I think, oh, that's a Jimi Hendrix lick, and then, oh, that's maybe how Jimi Bryant would have played something.
00:46:20
Speaker
And then that's how Jim Campolongo would have played something. And eventually that all mixes into something that's me. And I feel like I'm finally maybe figuring out how to mix all those elements from my youth of the country music stuff. And then later when I was in high school into the 70s rock stuff into the classic thing that I've been doing for a decade.
00:46:46
Speaker
Did that answer the question? I think so. I think so, dude. And that kind of honestly. You're a good interview. Dude. So I'm just going to say our next question was, what does the development process look like for Tazwell? And literally, I think you just answered it in the answer to that question.
00:47:10
Speaker
It's like, yo, you, you have the same view for what you're doing with that as you do for literally the rest of like the parts that fit into that. So I think that takes care of it.
00:47:24
Speaker
Okay, cool. I mean, I'm happy. I can get into the real nitty gritty if you want. That's just like that. While I was listening to the answer to that question that hit me, I was like, Oh, this is just what he's trying to do with as well. Just like with that, you're doing cough and buttons and literally no other difference.
00:47:47
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, the only thing I would add is like, I've kind of told this story before, but like, uh, so the first thing I put out for tassel was a, was a record, uh, which is stupid because I launched a clothing brand with a seven inch single. Um, but I don't like, uh, what happened, why, why that happened is I was like the, like, I think most people that like have worked in a clothing store, like worked in the fashion industry, um,
00:48:14
Speaker
Like I had been thinking a little while about like doing my own thing and I didn't know what I was doing or like, um, I didn't really want to own a retail store or whatever. But, um, you know, I was just walking around the village one day and like suddenly the name, the, uh, a few products and a lot of that song all popped in my head, like just at once. And it was like, Oh, this is,
00:48:39
Speaker
Like for me, it, it's all kind of the same process. It's kind of, kind of strange, but like, um, yeah, that's, that's, that's it. Yeah. That works for us. Yeah, dude. That's a beautiful, beautiful fucking series of things.
00:48:58
Speaker
Yeah, exhaustive answers. You have total answers, which is, I hope so. It's like, it's like Connor and I talk about a bunch of this shit and not to get to like, you know, behind the scenes or whatever. We talk about a lot of the interconnections between like music and clothing particularly. And then of course, there's, you know, a million and one variations of things like that. But
00:49:24
Speaker
But like, you know, kind of, kind of hearing about what drives you to do your brand and to like start making your
Emotional Connection to Fashion
00:49:31
Speaker
own thing. I don't know. It just like, it speaks to the heart of kind of what we want to get to with, with people because that's like, that's a, that's a fucking answer. Um, I hope so. Yeah. I don't know. I'm like.
00:49:46
Speaker
I find that I'm like less and less interested. I will talk to, of course, like, cause I have to, I will talk to people about like, Oh yeah, well my, the tassel five pocket pants have like double flat filled out seams and you know, that kind of stuff. I'll, I'll talk about that, but I'd rather, I've found that like the people that actually get it, get it on a, like an emotional level. And that's where I'm at too. Like I, I mean, I like craft and I, like, um, I,
00:50:16
Speaker
I can't make patterns, but I talk with pattern makers a lot, and I do sourcing, and I know technical stuff, and I do that for a living. If I really wanted to just do technical stuff all the time, I would
00:50:30
Speaker
do something that made me a lot more money do you know what i mean yeah yeah yeah so i like i for and for me it's really hard to like i can't separate the like the music thing and the clothes thing and i can't separate the emotional part like uh sometimes i can like my part of my day job at the armory is like making sure that
00:50:51
Speaker
The stores have enough Navy socks. Like I'm not like humming. I'm not writing a song about that, but like they're, yeah. So that like day to day, but I think why anybody would get into this industry is to, is, is because of the way the stuff makes you feel. So I'm just getting a little better at expressing that. And no one ever says that.
00:51:13
Speaker
like nobody ever says that people always people as you said people always say I'm interested in the craft I'm interested in this or that but the point is like it's it's cool right like I like it because it's cool I like it because it makes me feel good yeah I wish like
00:51:30
Speaker
The thing about obsessing over details feels like such a real dude bro hobby thing, and that's fine. If you're having clothes as a hobby is okay, but it feels like a lot of dudes especially need to have some kind of
00:51:53
Speaker
like justification for what they're doing and like it's fine if you if you if you're just like into that but just say that like i don't like i really dislike it um when people say buy less buy better because that's like some kind for a couple reasons one you've taken this like dita rom's quote and you've added the word buy to it twice so you've like made it this capitalist manifesto for whatever fucking reason you're just like bye bye great thanks
00:52:23
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. That is the painted rainbow flag sidewalk of quotes. Like, yeah, yeah, it's. Yeah, no, it's the fucking be the change you want to see in the world. Oh, true. Okay. Yeah. It's my fault as in his signature. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:52:44
Speaker
It's just, I mean, I like, there's always got to be this like practical reason. And like, I get it, like the talking, like economy sucks and like things are expensive and like, yeah, sure, fine. But also like if the t-shirt or the pair of pants or the shoes or whatever, just like make your life a little bit better and you just like it, just be okay with that. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's okay to enjoy things.
00:53:14
Speaker
Like, it's okay to enjoy that. Enjoy them and hurting somebody. It's okay. Yeah. You know, Jesus Christ. Yeah. I also, yeah. Yeah.
00:53:27
Speaker
I was going to go on another tangent, but I need to form that before I just go off and piss off a lot of tailors. I'd be happy to have you on again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's going to become a Jim Parker running segments. We can have a Bitch Fest episode about shit. Yeah, no. That'll be another episode. Yeah. Right, right. All right. Sorry. Oh, no, dude. This has been awesome, but we do have one final question, which is,
00:53:57
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah. The crux of the entire interview right here.
Guitar Collection and Teaching Experience
00:54:02
Speaker
How many guitars do you own at the moment? Hold on. I'm in my spare room that I use for recording and stuff. So there's five.
00:54:20
Speaker
I think it's nine. It's not that many. I think it's nine. I have one on one. Yeah, it's nine because they're eight here and then I have one on one to a student. So yeah, nine. Wait, do you teach guitar lessons?
00:54:35
Speaker
Yeah, this is that was something that I did a little bit in my twenties and I stopped doing it when I moved to New York. And then after, like, after the worst of COVID. I started playing out a lot and occasionally people would ask me.
00:54:54
Speaker
like, hey, do you teach? And I was like, yeah. And then I suddenly I started picking up students and it's like super rewarding in a way that I didn't remember from when I was doing it previously. And yeah, it's it's been really great, actually. That's awesome. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, on that note, Jim, thank you for coming on. It's been a really fun conversation. And we're
00:55:24
Speaker
Just as we're wrapping up, always want to give the guest a chance to shout out whatever they want to shout out. So go for it.
00:55:32
Speaker
Um, yeah, sure. So, um, let's see. Uh, I just got a bit of press and rub report about my little brand tassel clothes. Check that out. Um, you can go to the website. It's tassel clothes.com. Um, or my Instagram at tassel clothes. You can also, if you want to see me play guitar, um, and you're in New York, uh, you can come out every Friday to, um, this little honky tonk called skinny Dennis. I play with a band called the national reserve.
00:56:01
Speaker
there every Friday from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., so trying my best to shred my fingers off, so come out. Also, spell Tazwell, because this is going to take a few people. Yeah, sure, it's T-A-Z-E-W-E-L-L. It looks like Tazwell, but please don't say that. Yeah, yeah. This was a conversation prior to our interview with the Kotter and I. Yeah.
00:56:30
Speaker
Yeah, I never expected that. I never expected that because I obviously I heard tassel my whole life and then the first person was like Tayswell and I was like, Oh shit. Well, you know, too late now. So, uh, again, back to the English language being absolutely ridiculous. Oh man. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Silent ease, whatever, man. It's literally my job. Yeah.
00:56:57
Speaker
All right. So everyone, thank you for listening, Jim. Thanks again for coming on. Questions, comments, concerns, or just want to say or send this year a funny meme apocalypse does at gmo.com at apocalypse does on Instagram. I'm Matt Smith at rebels robes. And I'm Connor Fowler at Connor Fowler. All right. Thanks for listening.
00:57:27
Speaker
Bye-bye.