It was a lovely early spring day in the mid-naughts when Alexis and I set off on our first thrifting adventure. I only learned later that it was her first time. If I had known I would have been gentler.
Awash in anticipation we headed upstate, deciding to bomb straight to Poughkeepsie, then make our slowly way downstate. All the long day we laughed and thrifted, using maps and our own sense of direction in these, the days before iPhones. As the sun inched nearer to the horizon and our energy began to wane we settled on one final stop at the Salvation Army in Peekskill before boarding our Manhattan-bound train. Entering the door to a familiar musty waft Alexis and I quickly set off in our own directions. I began flipping through a rack of suits and then I saw him.
At first all I saw was his pattern. I’d never seen anything like him. Completely formed of white denim, covered in scribbles of black, purple, green yellow and glorious fluorescent pink. I pulled him from the rack to decipher his folds, unfurling the denim to discover a beautifully constructed pair of jeans with matching jacket. I choked out a sound halfway between a gasp and a laugh and began to inspect him further. I noticed that the already elaborate pattern of scribbles and fluorescence was additionally adorned with random smudges of black paint, and large reflective silver Helvetica letters spelling out “PJ UK.” The candy-apple red flannel lining which coordinated with the red embroidery of his label “Pepe Jeans London” pulled his whole look together.
As I realized exactly what I was looking at I remained frozen in place. It was wrong, this outfit, it had to be. Yet, why did something about him feel so right? I couldn’t think, I could barely breathe, I couldn’t speak, and I could not put him back on the rack. Without even glancing at the price tag, I let my heart drag me to the counter and hurriedly paid. Pepe was mine.
I continued to look at him, confounded by the miraculousness of his fabulosity and that was when I knew that sometimes something can be so wrong that it’s right.
This is Pepe:
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