Iquitos, Peru

NAME: Samantha
LOCATION: Starbucks, Lakeview

Well, I got it at, um, in Peru when we went on a cruise down the Amazon River. We stopped at this village and, um, it was - they didn't take money so we bartered our stuff. My mom brought a bunch of things and I traded one of my old dolls for this beautiful shirt.

You traded a doll for this shirt.

Yeah. Isn't it cool? It has like cool little birds on it. And we went down this river right here - well, the Amazon - and then this is like ... [Samantha is pointing out the geography of Peru's rivers on the map on her shirt] ... other little rivers and then we went to Peru. Iquitos, Peru.

And it was in Iquitos where you bartered-

It's not in this actual town. It was in a little village. I don't know what it was called but it was tiny.

What kind of doll was it?

It was like a barbie and then I also gave them one of my old Mickey Mouse shirts.

And do you feel now that it was a fair trade?

Yeah, because my Mickey Mouse shirt had a hole in it.

How old were you?

Eleven? Twelve? Eleven, probably. I also got to touch this really cool frog that's poisonous. It's red, and if you boil its skin that's when it gets poisonous and people would put 'em on their arrows in the old time to shoot stuff with.

Fishbone

NAME: Angel
LOCATION: Whole Foods, Lakeview

Fishbone was an early-80s band that was a ska/punk/metal hybrid ... they had a couple good records in like the mid-, late-80s. Still around. But I found this shirt vintage at, um, Brown Elephant, I believe?

I just, this kinda brings me back a little bit to my childhood, I guess. The early 80s, or the late 80s, 90s.

Are they from here?

Uh, no no, they're from California.

Is that where you're from?

No, I'm born and raised in Chicago.

But have you seen them live?

No, not live. I've seen them - I've seen, like, footage of them on TV. I mean, they were an exciting band at the time. They were one of those bands that you couldn't really pigeonhole because they just had so many different styles but like the Chili Peppers were down with them and um, a lot of metal bands, too. Primus, I know they toured with them, so. And it glows in the dark!

Nice.

And it's very appropriate because I work in the fish market. So, you know.

You wear it to work a lot?

I wear it out and about. I do get comments from the old-timers, they see it, they're like, "Yeah, Fishbone, yeah!"

The New Theater, St. Louis

NAME: Kate
LOCATION: house party, Roscoe Village

You can't pretend that you don't know where that shirt comes from.

I actually don't, I swear to God. I mean, seriously, I have three older brothers, I have two parents. And like, one day it was in my house and I was like, "I like red." And it says "theater" on it. And I do theater. So I was like, "This shirt should be mine." So I just took it. I don't even know what "The New Theater, St. Louis" is. But it's a nice t-shirt. It's like stretched out and old. So it's like really really comfortable. And it's red.

Fluorescent Fruit

NAME: Kelly
LOCATION: Farragut's, Andersonville

I'm not usually interested in these kind of patterned shirts for the blog, but you seem really excited about this.

Yeah. Yeah! I'm so excited about this shirt. So many reasons. And the first reason is that, well, first of all, the fruit is fluorescent. And basically food that is artificially colored is my favorite food.

To eat, or to have on your shirt?

To eat. Especially Cheetos. And I was a Cheeto for Halloween, and so, um, fluorescent lemons are probably what I'm gonna eat when I get home and I'm hoping to acquire some more artifically-colored food clothing slash costumes slash food for dinner.

Do you have other items of clothing that display your favorite food like this?

My Cheeto costume for Halloween!

How did you pull that off?

Um, I had orange fishnets that were nice and textured like a Cheeto. I had this tarry cloth skirt which also had a nice Cheeto-like texture. I had an orange cardigan and orange hairspray and orange facepaint and yellow rainboots with anchors on them.

I [steve frost] SF

NAME: Amy
LOCATION: Chipotle, Belmont & Kenmore

My shirt, which says "I [heart] SF" was made at the going away party for my friend Steve Frost - you can see his face in the heart - Steve is an artist who lived in DC and he just moved to Chicago in ... August? Sometime in the summer. To start art school. So he lives here now. Um, and at the party, this DC artist who makes t-shirts had everyone at the party silkscreen the design onto the t-shirts.

Did people silkscreen them themselves?

Um, well, the artist who does it had, like, you know, had the design and we just - I did my own. Like, I picked my t-shirt color and I picked the color - because it was a red ink and I knew that the red color would come out kind of purply and pretty. So I picked it for that but there were all different colors.

And this was done at the party?

This was done at the party.

That's cool.

Yeah.

So "SF" stands for "Steve Frost".

Yes.

And it's a picture of Steve Frost.

Yes.

So the shirt says: "I [steve] Steve Frost".

More or less.

That doesn't really make any sense.

But it's cute, isn't it?