DURKL's Gonna Make You Jump Jump

There is a defined calculation declaring ‘wearable vintage’, but I'm pretty sure it’s anything 20 (+/- 2) years previous to right now. When I was in High School, late 70’s polyester and exaggerated bellbottoms seemed to be to be the IT material. And now it’s about the 80’s, and we all want to be Sloane dating Ferris.

But the 90’s? Dirty koosh balls and Fimo clay animals? A t-shirt designer in my current hometown of Washington DC is attempting to re-popularize a decade that hasn’t quite yet reached vintage maturation. It’s a tricky calculation to pull off. Although symptoms of the 90’s have made slight ripples (Hogan Knows Best, the unabashed club-love for Montel Jordan, Mark Wahlberg’s strangely infallible career post Marky) wearing uber 90’s gear is still a precarious game. But Will Sharp, who sports subtly inflated LA Gear pumps and a t-shirt with a Fresh Prince pizzazz preaching, “Don’t Sweat the Technique” can pull it off.

I shot the recent campaign images for DURKL’s MCMXCI (1991 in Roman numerals). At first I found myself hesitant to believe in the sincerity of Richard Simmons, squiggle puzzles, and mechanical fist-pumping neon shirts, but after reviewing the images on the big screen I was suddenly reliving why I loved pink spandex and hammer pants. The 90’s were about vivacity, movement, good vibrations; the music was mostly PG13 (Naughty by Nature and Salt-n’-Peppa avoided the R-rating by ‘OPP-ing’ and ‘Shooping’). So why not exploit bright colors and memories of a good economy? The vintage maturation of 1991 may be a bit premature for fashionista standards, but let’s let DURKL break some ground. Ferris was always a little too short for me anyway.