Can we use the news of Neneh Cherry dropping a new album with Four Tet as an excuse to put pictures of her in the late 1980s and early 1990s up here? My crush on her was colossal and her personal style put me onto some serious shoes — she looked incredible in those Air Delta Force Hi makeups and the adidas Attitudes with the pattern on the upper. Around 1992, when she was recording with DJ Premier she broke out those Jordan IVs (I’ve put up the picture here before), which seemed like a blast from the past back then before the reissues. Neneh has more swagger than any of your male sartorial role models.
I’ll repeat myself on another matter too — what was so wrong with the intimidating shopping experience? Now there’s competition from the internet and stores take strange, cuddly social media forms to keep you in the loop, but I’ll always cherish those memories of coming to Soho and feeling intimidated wandering into the stores I spotted as stockists in The Face. It wasn’t that you got scowled or growled at, it was just that you seemed to be completely transparent when you entered those doors. My younger self always found complements on a record or item of clothing from those staffers to be something to cherish and the experience made me appreciate an object more. It was a rite of passage of sorts and to get conversational was even more of an accomplishment — some of the best staffers over the years seemed to act as a filter against stupidity. Without them the floodgates are open.
Half the moaners who complain about poor service are liable to enter a shop with a storm cloud expression anyway. I’ll miss The Hideout for the chats about esoteric documentaries and the labels I couldn’t get anywhere else. Remember their Probe account days or taking the wrong turn to find Hit & Run? Michael Kopelman has gone beyond the call of duty to help me out over the years and Richard is one of the ultimate raconteurs. That store had the Post Overalls account at least half a decade before workwear hit hard and they got Jim Lambie on a shoe collaboration (among other things) — the industry has dumbed down since. Farewell to another London institution.
GWARIZM 