Audio By Carbonatix
Bob Hoag runs Flying Blanket Recording in Mesa and has an enviable client list filled with bands like Dear and the Headlights, What Laura Says, and Kinch.
He also loves vintage fashion. And he likes to talk (and talk and talk) about it. Read on (and on and on) about what Mr. Hoag is wearing.
What are you wearing right now?
I’m wearing a 1940s short-sleeved gabardine striped sport shirt, and Korean War-era gabardine Marine dress slacks (which I own about twelve pair of, so odds are pretty good I’m wearing those on any given day that I’m not wearing a suit, actually). And reproduction Colchester Rubber Company hi-top sneakers. They’re supposed to be the world’s first basketball shoe from the 1800s or something but they look super 1930s or 40s to me. I know, they should be real vintage, but I can’t afford vintage sneakers (plus, the rubber on them is always bad).
What is the last item of clothing you bought?
I bought five or six vintage 50s cotton/rayon shirts at the mighty
Iguana Vintage Clothing in Hollywood. Nothing fancy. In fact, my goal
was to not buy anything that required dry cleaning. I have two kids,
and one is five months old, so I’m not wearing a lot of dry
cleaning-necessary clothing right now.
What is the item of clothing you most covet at the moment?
I’m really enjoying a 50s rayon bathing suit. I put it on as soon as I
get home because it really breathes. It’s white with a giant anchor on
it. My wife calls them the “gay interest” trunks because when I bought
them on eBay a few years ago, the description was “1950s RAYON SWIM
TRUNKS GAY INTEREST.” I don’t totally get the gay interest angle. Is it
the anchor? Is that, like, a thing? I guess they are really short, but
that really depends on how tall you are, right? And anyway, so what if
they are a bit short? I would suggest that both men and women should
appreciate the additional skin on display. I mean, if someone other
than me were wearing it.
Give us a childhood memory of you and clothes:
I was really into those shops you go into where you pick the iron-on
transfer out of a book (or like a rack on the wall, like the posters at
Spencer’s) and then they put it on whatever shirt you want. I had a lot
of the sparkly Star Wars ones.
And I wore a lot of costumes, especially over the summer, when I had time to cook them up.
One summer, I spent a few days pausing my Ghostbusters videotape and
trying to make as close of a replica as I could to a Ghostbuster suit
and a proton pack (which I fashioned out of cardboard and then
painted). We’re talking 1985, probably. So I was twelve. Anyway, I also
made the ghost traps and the whole thing. Then I went to my local
grocery store (The Food Gallery, in Mt. Lebanon, PA) and basically ran
through their store, trashing displays and trying to “trap” ghosts. I
tried to explain, as I was kicked out of the store, that most of the
damage had been caused by ghosts, not me . . . and if they’d just let me
really try to trap the ghosts, they wouldn’t have any more problems
with cereal boxes ending up all over the aisles. I failed to convince
them.
Name five items every man should have in his closet:
Hmmmm. This is tough because I’m kind of a weirdo, and what works for
me will sound insane to most folks. So maybe here are the five things I
could not live without in my closet:
– A suit (and we’ll just include all of the suit amenities like
appropriate dress shirt, tie, shoes and belt because otherwise I’m
never going to get it down to five).
– My coveted Korean War-era gabardine Marine dress slacks. I own so
many pairs because they’re pretty cheap and easy to come by, so they’re
sort of my all-purpose pant that I don’t have to worry about staining
or damaging in the course of a normal day, as they’re pretty pretty
easily replaceable.
– A short-sleeved sport shirt with some kind of design on the chest. I
would also need one was that messed up, with stains, holes, etc., for
me to do yardwork in.
– A long-sleeved 40s shirt made by Stradivari. They are the best
vintage shirts I’ve ever owned, and I have four or five of them. They
all have slanty pockets and are incredibly well-made. They also all
have different names (their gabardine is called the Strad-O-Gab, then
they have their typical 50s sort of nubby cotton one that’s called the
Strad-O-Nub, then there’s the Strad-O-Tropic, which is sort of a
lightweight twill, and the Strad-O-Flan, which is a heavy flannel
shirt). I pretty much buy them any time I find them. I also wear them a
lot with suits.
– Fedora hats that are from the 50s or older. Hat manufacturing sort of
started to go to hell from the 60s onward, but a hat from the
30s/40s/50s will last forever. If you wear them slanty on your head
(like Spencer Tracy), people will know you’re a real character who
conservatively thumbs his nose at the establishment. (Admittedly, this
effect would be greatly intensified if you lived in the 1940s.)
Name an item of clothing that’s best when it’s vintage:
There is nothing that’s not better when it’s vintage. But, as
mentioned, I’m a weirdo. I’m wearing boxer shorts that are 70 years
old. I feel like today’s clothes all look the same — the same cuts, the
same colors, the same designs. I guess it was that way back in the day, too, but I guess something about those colors, fits, and designs really
does something for me. A general rule in my life is: If I need to buy
something, can I find a vintage version of it, whatever it might be?
(Applies to everything, not just clothing, which is why we just got a
13-year-old cat, apparently.)
Name an item of clothing you should NEVER buy used:
I know the answer here is supposed to be underwear and stuff. All of my
vintage socks and boxers and undershirts were New Old Stock, and I was
the first one to wear em. So i guess that. But maybe shoes too. Yes, I
wear vintage shoes, but come on, they’re vintage, not used. Whatever
icky foot germs may have lived in my 40s Florsheims are long dead by
now. But used shoes? Well, those microbes and stuff are still partying.
No thanks.
What is your one piece of fashion advice for Phoenix?
You don’t want to wear sock garters for more than a few hours at a
time. Sometimes, you’ll have em on all day, then you get home, and you
realize they’re really cutting off the circulation in your legs, and
then you also realize that they might eventually contribute to getting
crazy and scary varicose veins when you’re fifty. That’s why I just
don’t wear them anymore, no matter how cool they look.
You know, actually, I may not be the best person to be giving fashion advice. I’m wearing wool trousers in July, man.
