My Favorite Shirt - Joey Kappel
The problem with shirts like this is they can’t be too Hawaiian for me or, in the case of this shirt, can’t look too much like Unionbay shirts found at Kohl’s in the ‘90s.
Joey Kappel and I have been friends for a long time. He got me into hardcore back in high school. He burned CDs for me, drove me to Record Breakers, ditched track practice with me to go see Tower of Rome. If it weren’t for him, who knows where I’d have ended up. Probably in some corner office, surrounded by sycophants and money. Thanks a lot, Joey.
Joey is relentlessly creative. He’s played on a ton of records, put on a ton of shows, launched a great
podcast
, and so on. Currently, he plays in the band,
Eyelash
, and lives in Tokyo with his wife, Heather. Here’s what he had to say about his favorite shirt.
When Pat asked me to write about my favorite shirt, it was easy to narrow it down to the top two. Over the past few months (sorry, Pat), I’ve debated which shirt I wanted to write about: an extra large NY Mets shirt from 1993 or a blue and pink Hawaiian-adjacent shirt. Around the time I turned thirty, I decided to start incorporating color into my wardrobe. For the majority of my twenties, I almost exclusively wore black band t-shirts, and those still make up the majority of what I wear when I am not at work. After all, I am still an aging punk.
As you can probably tell from the pictures, I decided to go with the blue and pink Hawaiian-adjacent shirt. I chose it mostly because of what it reminds me of, a time when I faced the biggest contradiction I have ever encountered: vegan Nazi cupcakes. Or is it Nazi vegan cupcakes? More on that in a minute.
I found this shirt in the summer of 2019. My wife is from England, and we were going to visit her parents who live in a small seaside town about an hour and a half southeast of London. I had been there before, but this was my first time in summer, so I was excited to check out all of the places I had heard so much about—this time without the miserable winter rain.
One of the places I had wanted to visit was Margate, a weekend getaway spot for many in the area and a lot of folks who come all the way down from London. As with a lot of seaside towns in England, Margate was a little rundown and economically depressed, but it has made a bit of a resurgence this past decade.
We started our day by taking a 45 minute bus ride from Herne Bay to downtown Margate. The bus dropped us off in front of our main destination: an art museum called the Turner Contemporary. We arrived before it opened, so we walked around and found a little coffee shop where we listened to some women speak in strong Kentish accents, a hard-to-describe accent in which almost everything sounds like a question. Not quite cockney, but similar. And people speak very fast, omitting seemingly important letters. Very fascinating to midwestern folks like me.
After a decent cup of coffee, we walked over to the museum and saw the main exhibit: old photos of young people hanging out at the beach. Most of them were from a time when Margate was the place many English tourists would go before cheap flights made it possible for British travelers to visit nicer beaches in Spain and France.
We walked around the quaint downtown area filled with small independent shops. One of the first stores we stopped in was a resale shop that was owned and run by a decent bloke who looked like he didn’t own any clothing made after 1960.
A few months before the trip, I found a Hawaiian-adjacent shirt at a resale shop in Tokyo. I decided that this would be part of my new style, so I was on the lookout for something similar. It didn’t take long to find the bright blue shirt. I picked it up and saw the design with pink squares and dark blue diamonds and a pattern of zig-zagging lines.
The problem with shirts like this is they can’t be too Hawaiian for me or, in the case of this shirt, can’t look too much like Unionbay shirts found at Kohl’s in the ‘90s. This one treads that line perfectly. I often find really cool shirts like this one, but they’re never in my size. Luckily, when I tried it on, mister hipster store owner and my wife both said it looked good. And it felt good. Most of the button-up shirts I wear are from Uniqlo and made of cheap cloth. Definitely not made to last. This shirt, however, is thick and 100% cotton.
I walked out of the store feeling great. My day in Margate had been a success, and I hadn’t even eaten lunch yet. Our friend recommended a vegan restaurant in the area, so we made our way there, hitting up a few more shops along the way.
Arriving at the restaurant, we took a seat by another couple and had a look at the menu. Heather and I both got burgers, but we’d heard they were known for desserts and baked goods, so I was more excited for the cupcakes and cinnamon buns I saw in the display case.
The waiter came to take our order. Up until this point, I hadn’t really paid attention to anything but the food. As I looked down at the menu to point out what I wanted, the waiter’s stick-and-poke “Oi” tattoo on his hand grabbed my attention. I looked up to see a big white dude with a shaved head and chops (big sideburns).
I immediately felt uneasy. I know there are non-racist skinheads, but I don’t get why you would choose to look like racists if they’ve successfully co-opted your style. Notice how no one wears the black and yellow Fred Perry shirt anymore since it’s now part of the Proud Boys uniform.
Anyways, I didn’t want to rush to judgment, but he was wearing a shirt that looked pretty fascistic. There was a drawing of an eagle in red on the back, and it didn’t do anything to calm my uneasiness.
Heather noticed that something was up. I didn’t want to alarm her or cause a scene, so I told her everything was fine. We got our food and I ate quickly, telling Heather that I didn’t feel like dessert anymore.
After leaving, I immediately looked up the restaurant. On the first page of Google, I saw the headline: “Margate’s Nazi Cupcakes.” Apparently, the proprietor of this restaurant had owned a bakery in London, got run out of town, and opened this new spot in Margate.
I told my friend who recommended the restaurant, and she brought it up on a local vegan Facebook group. Apparently the owner posted in the group saying that she used to have a boyfriend who was a just soccer hooligan, a non-racist one. People gave my friend shit and kicked her out of the group for bringing it up because she wasn’t buying the excuse.
All-in-all, it was a pretty good day and I got an excellent summer-time shirt. I can’t wait until it is warm enough to feel a cool breeze blow through the loose-fitting, airy shirt.