You're pretty close to 47th St....IIRC, the shopping district around the el tracks were loaded down with these kind of pimpwear shops...
Yeah. Until the sneaker spot moved in, underneath the Metra over on 53rd there was this all this decades-old leftover signage alluding to "Big Jim Industries, Inc." and friend of mine says she remembers it as the kind of place you're talking about. I have a photo of the sign somewhere--I should get that shit silkscreened onto a blazer or something.
And while not strictly on-topic, this somehow seems pertinent:
Terry_Pluffmud told me a story one time about how Freddie Terrell's Soul Expedition got some leather, velvet-lined suits made, but the tailor messed up their order, leaving them instead with velvet suits with leather linings.
Classic Chitown store, no longer around, but this 1980 commercial is worth seeing.
I just now watched this. "Per-zazz" is my new shit.
Their seventies commercials were even wilder, with an announcer intoning "BUY IT TODAY! WEAR IT TONIGHT!" while "Roundabout" by Yes played in the background. I think the first place I heard (a) the expression "decked out", and (b) Django Reinhardt was in a National Clothes ad.
Terry_Pluffmud told me a story one time about how Freddie Terrell's Soul Expedition got some leather, velvet-lined suits made, but the tailor messed up their order, leaving them instead with velvet suits with leather linings.
When you think about it, that's pretty ill.
If they wore those things in concert, I'm sure they were sweating harder than usual.
Philly strutters - is Ben Krass' store still around? I think they must have outfitted every male act who were produced by Gamble & Huff in the seventies...
Krass Bros closed down years ago if i remember correctly... maybe close to ten years ago. Philly got a few nice pimp suit spots (and i've seen a few slick ass real life pimps walkin' around like it's still 1972 rockin' the loud-but-oh-so-coordinated vintage vines)... don't know if the Philly joints are messin' with that Seatown store though! LOL at these commercials, the vegetarian beans I'm eating right now almost came out my nose watching these schitts.
There's a spot in downtown Chicago called Roberto's, which is where the Chi-Lites and Herb Kent (local DJ and multi-decade R&B institution)get their vines. I've even bought the occasional shirt from that place.
Oh shit. I used to live next door to a dude who was a steady Roberto's customer, and he used to wear these fur-brimmed hats. Not full-on fur hats, mind you: these were just regular porkpie/fedora jernts that happened to have
fur brims. Enquiring minds want to know if the one pickwick33 has it like that.
In any event, I like to imagine pickwick hitting up Roberto's (a spot, by the way, that routinely tops lists of Chicago's Ugliest Buildings; until recently, the upper floor of their exterior had a massive color portrait of Roberto himself that the sun had roasted and peeled into straight ghoulishness, making it look kinda like a cross between a fallen Eddie Kane and one of those Visible Man kits) for a shirt, but getting upsold into a short set and some gators and walking out with a look of how-did-I-get-here? bewilderment.
There used to be a place out by here called Sophisticated Themes where steppers (and presumably pimps) got 'fitted, but I think it got replaced by some weird evangelical hair spot.
I may have talked about this previously, but a while back I saw on public-access tv a show consisting of a lengthy interview/conversation between the show's host and the proprietor of one of Chicago's bigger Leroy's-type operations, the name of which regrettably escapes me. I recognized the host as a dude who usually discusses numerology and colonics and sometimes appears on-air in only a loincloth and a turban, but for this occasion he was rocking a glowing white button up, a very involved brocade vest, and a fez whose admitted stylishness did not entirely mitigate the fact that it was like two feet tall. Towering as it was, though, I won't front: dude was wearing it. His guest, the owner dude, was lounging imperially in some undoubtedly top-of-the-line zoot, and was going on endlessly about how his shop was pushing the boundaries, not like the rest of these crumbs, and was the only place truly putting Chicago menswear on the world stage. "You have to understand: You have a lot of these places with their Super 700s, their Super 800s, but my shop is the only place in Chicago--the only place, brother--and one of very few in the country, even, where a man can get...[wait for it]...Super 5000s. That's right: a five-thousand thread count, brother..." Just ridiculous, over-the-top, vainglorious shit. After that went on for a while, he started trotting out dudes modelling his various marquee pieces, one of which had been designed by--and was being modelled by--this Wish Bone-looking guy named Boo-Boo. "And again, you have to understand: You see a lot of shops making suits that have, for example, seven groups of double buttons, maybe even five groups of triple buttons, but you will notice that this suit here has...[wait for it]...six groups of quadruple buttons. But you see, that's how we do it at my shop. That's...that's...[rolling his hands in the air in front of him, trying to conjure the right word for this kind of genius, finally exhaling and giving up]...Well, that's just Boo-Boo being Boo-Boo." And during the entire interview, at the bottom of the screen they kept flashing the words "THE GREAT MEETING OF THE MINDS HAS OCCURRED." Shit was like two hours long and I couldn't look away, not once.
Chicago's apparently got some shit. My man who knows about this kind of thing says that the only city that can hang with Chicago as far as this kind of gentleman's dressing is Atlanta. He says that Detroit used to could, but that they've fallen off a little, and now the only thing they're really excelling at is hair and shoes. I can neither confirm nor deny, though, as I stay busted, and thus have no horse in this race. I'm just telling you what he told me.
Philly strutters - is Ben Krass' store still around? I think they must have outfitted every male act who were produced by Gamble & Huff in the seventies...
Krass Bros closed down years ago if i remember correctly... maybe close to ten years ago. Philly got a few nice pimp suit spots (and i've seen a few slick ass real life pimps walkin' around like it's still 1972 rockin' the loud-but-oh-so-coordinated vintage vines)... don't know if the Philly joints are messin' with that Seatown store though! LOL at these commercials, the vegetarian beans I'm eating right now almost came out my nose watching these schitts.
Phill! It's hard out here for a pimp in Seattle! Pimpin' ain't easy but somebody got to do it!!!!!
Philly strutters - is Ben Krass' store still around? I think they must have outfitted every male act who were produced by Gamble & Huff in the seventies...
Krass Bros closed down years ago if i remember correctly... maybe close to ten years ago. Philly got a few nice pimp suit spots (and i've seen a few slick ass real life pimps walkin' around like it's still 1972 rockin' the loud-but-oh-so-coordinated vintage vines)... don't know if the Philly joints are messin' with that Seatown store though! LOL at these commercials, the vegetarian beans I'm eating right now almost came out my nose watching these schitts.
Phill! It's hard out here for a pimp in Seattle! Pimpin' ain't easy but somebody got to do it!!!!!
What up Big Pimp! Hey, have I ever told the story here on Soulstrut about how I was in an electric football league with some of the neighborhood pimps back when I was a kid? ROFL for dayz!!! Dudes would be playing their games then get dressed in their platform shoes and colorful suits to go out and get their pimp on all night!
Downtown Seattle has Leroy Men's Wear! This place is the most pimped out hood clothing store evar!!!! LOL. Check out their commercial below. Please to post stories, commercials and pictures from the pimp stores in your hood.
I was waiting to see supreme's cameo in this add. bi ol piiiyyymp.
Supreme and some fly ladies are in the uncut version.
uh huh... i dont doubt that.
"track stars" turn stilettos into flats real quick.
I can't find commercials for any of the spots in DC but one jont was called Cavalier Men's shop.
They had the clothes back in the day
I wish I could find one of the old school Madness Gilligan's Island bucket hat looking jont with my name written on it in different colors. Need to bring that ish back!
Comments
And while not strictly on-topic, this somehow seems pertinent:
Terry_Pluffmud told me a story one time about how Freddie Terrell's Soul Expedition got some leather, velvet-lined suits made, but the tailor messed up their order, leaving them instead with velvet suits with leather linings.
When you think about it, that's pretty ill.
Their seventies commercials were even wilder, with an announcer intoning "BUY IT TODAY! WEAR IT TONIGHT!" while "Roundabout" by Yes played in the background. I think the first place I heard (a) the expression "decked out", and (b) Django Reinhardt was in a National Clothes ad.
If they wore those things in concert, I'm sure they were sweating harder than usual.
Krass Bros closed down years ago if i remember correctly... maybe close to ten years ago. Philly got a few nice pimp suit spots (and i've seen a few slick ass real life pimps walkin' around like it's still 1972 rockin' the loud-but-oh-so-coordinated vintage vines)... don't know if the Philly joints are messin' with that Seatown store though! LOL at these commercials, the vegetarian beans I'm eating right now almost came out my nose watching these schitts.
Phill! It's hard out here for a pimp in Seattle! Pimpin' ain't easy but somebody got to do it!!!!!
What up Big Pimp! Hey, have I ever told the story here on Soulstrut about how I was in an electric football league with some of the neighborhood pimps back when I was a kid? ROFL for dayz!!! Dudes would be playing their games then get dressed in their platform shoes and colorful suits to go out and get their pimp on all night!
i celebrate dude's commitment to growing out that hair. the rest is nagl.
uh huh... i dont doubt that.
"track stars" turn stilettos into flats real quick.
They had the clothes back in the day
I wish I could find one of the old school Madness Gilligan's Island bucket hat looking jont with my name written on it in different colors. Need to bring that ish back!