The summer she was 15, Melanie discovered she was made of flesh and blood. Oh my America my new-found land…
For some reason I’ve always remembered the opening lines of Angela Carter’s The Magic Toyshop.
Anyway, the summer that I was 15, my parents went to the USA for the first time (Oh their America, their new-found land, etc). Going to the States was quite a big deal back then – it was the first time they’d left Europe and it used to cost a lot to fly transatlantic.
I asked them to bring me back any Culture Club records they could find because foreign versions had different artwork and different b-sides and mixes – imports were expensive in the 80s (there were always ads for exotic records in the NME).
I also asked for some clothes by Stüssy, a label I’d read about in The Face or i-D (I think).
When they came home, Mum presented me with a 7-inch of Time (Clock of the heart) by CC, which I was thrilled with as it had a different cover from the UK version. (I still love that song.)
She also gave me two Stüssy t-shirts and two pairs of Stüssy shorts. “You better like them – they cost a fortune,” she told me. I loved them. The oversized tees were made of really heavy cotton and the shorts were both skater-boy long.
Almost forty three years later I still have one of the tees and one pair of shorts. Not a bad investment after all, eh Mum.
I have several other Stüssy tees and pairs of shorts that I’ve bought over the years but they definitely use a thinner cotton now and the products don’t last as long.
A few months ago I saw a company on Instagram selling off cheap Stüssy so decided to treat myself. Money was duly taken from my account and a couple of days later I got an email from a company in China saying that my clothes would be with me in five to 12 weeks. Hmmmm. Think I’ve been scammed, I thought.
A few weeks later, though, I got tracking info for my package.
It arrived two days later – a wrapped-up postcard with a picture of a lotus on it informing me ‘You are blessed. Be happy’. Code for ‘You are a mug, go xuck yourself’.
I mailed the company that had sent the original notification but, to my amazement, never heard back.
Moral of the story: if something seems too good to be true…
Unperturbed, however, and with a Stüssy itch to scratch, a couple of months later I saw a different Stüssy sales site on Instagram and… ordered some more cheap tees. This one looks much more legit, I thought…
Yep, another postcard!
The Spanish have a saying that translates as ‘man is the only animal that trips over the same rock twice’. But not while wearing Stüssy, I bet!
😂😂