Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Project Cubbins: Hat 332 -- Star on a Stingy Brim Edition

Day 332 / Hat 332: Khaki-colored stingy brim fedora with black hatband detail and screen printing on wearer's left side that consists of a military-like five-point star, skull and wreath design in white, black, red and gray.

There are two interior tags. The top one reads: "Youth, 4-16, shell: 100% cotton, made in China" on obverse, and: "spot clean" on reverse. Second tag reads: "Target, 202070089, F16847579, Q3/09."

Pulled for today's installment of the Project from the MRBOH, this swanky kid lid, in all likelihood, belongs to her son Javier. And based on my reading of made-for-Target tags, I'm going to hazard a guess this originally hit store shelves for the back-to-school season of 2009.

The provenance of the design is a bit more problematic as there is no indication on the hat of a brand, collaboration or even private label designation. As it uses many of the same motifs as artist Shephard Fairey and his Obey Clothing brand, I'm going to guess that the design is meant to captitalize on the anti-establishment  success of that brand.

I say that because I don't recall - and my cursory search of the interwebs did not reveal - evidence of any kind of past deal between that brand and Target. If there was such a creature, this could well be a perfectly preserved specimen -- plucked from the amber of a tween boy's closet.

So the hat-tip goes to Marilyn Ruiz, the assist to her son Javier.

Related:
PC 331: Lucky Steampunk
PC 330: Monster High
PC 329: Ears to You

Q: OK, nice hat -- but what exactly is Project Cubbins, anyway?

A: One man's homage to Dr. Seuss and his second book, "The 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins," which celebrated the 75th anniversary of its publication in 2013, Project Cubbins is an attempt to document the wearing of a different hat or piece of headgear every day for 500 consecutive days. No do-aheads, no banking of hats, no retroactive entries. PC started on May 27, 2013 with Hat 1

(You can e-mail me at: adam at adamtschorn.com)

No comments: