CALIFORNIA CHRISTMAS


Vintage jacket, shirt, and boots, Cheap Monday jeans

It seems like I've opened every blog post in recent history by apologizing for my lack of posting and overall absence of internet presense, and this post will be no exception. I'm sorry! Working retail to save for college eats up inordinate amounts of time during the holiday season, and when I'm not at work I've been out with friends. It has been a seasonal roller coaster of boredom and pleasure. But I did manage to find some time this week to stop by one of my favorite vintage stores, Out of Vogue, and pick up this cool vintage nylon jacket.





It's been raining non-stop here lately, so it was a good time to come across it. I put together this outfit inspired by California wintertime rain storms and the irony of wearing a tropical shirt in the thick of them.


Y-3, Elvis, Palm Trees, Henri Rousseau, back issues of Arena Homme +, the way a red light looks reflected off the wet concrete...



Happy Holidays everyone! Here's a picture I snapped with my phone of some cool stuff I got...



Thanks for stopping by - posting should return to normal after my life returns to normal as it slowly slides into 2011.

-Cruz

LOOSE THREADS

Sorry I fell off the internet there for a while. The fact that one of my most recent posts was themed around something that happens at the beginning of November makes this post, on the last day of November, even more shameful. I was going to do a Long Beach flea market post last weekend, but it got rained out! And throughout my fun-filled Thanksgiving Break I never found time to sit down and commit to a blog post... until now!


Wearing Triple Five Soul Jacket, Vintage red coral necklace, tunic, Levis, and boots.
It would have been Jimi Hendrix's 68th birthday last Saturday, which lead to the outpour of many stylish photos of Jimi from photoblogs and tumblrs the world over, which needless to say got my styling gears turning. I gladly welcome Jimi Hendrix into my computer monitor and out my speakers on a daily basis. Also I wanted to debut the latest installment in dumpster denim here at Denim on Denim: a ratty pair of faded black Levis with the seams ripped! Here's a mood board I made while dickin around in photoshop today that gets what I was goin for...







I picked this bracelet up for my dad, on the occasion of his birthday, last year at a farmer's market in Silver Lake and I steal it on a regular basis. I'm not one to declare such bold fashion statements like the following, but the design of this bracelet is pretty flawless. Even the string is the perfect shade of muted white! I know some people buy gifts for other people with themselves in mind, but I didn't this time I swear!


Close up of the ripped seams. I find the loose threads to be very delicate and beautiful on torn garments. That idea is firmly rooted in my personal aesthetic, which works out for me since I'm constantly on a shoe string budget. When I can afford some 800 dollar boots to make these jeans look like a million bucks, you guys will be the first to know! Sorry if the flash looks too harsh since darkness sort of snuck up on my dad and I, "Fall Back" is the bane of the existence for most blogger folk. If you drink enough antifreeze, it kind of looks like a Juergen Teller photo.

Until next time - thanks for stopping by!

-Cruz

ROADHOUSE BLUES


I picked this dollar t-shirt up on one of my flea market excursions. I love the blues, despite being a walking antithesis of the genre. At least I can express myself with this T-shirt.


Thought I'd pair American roots music with American roots fabric (I know denim originated from France, but c'mon it's pretty much an American thing).


I know I just wore this alligator tooth necklace (the fact I have a very small pool of clothes and accessories to choose from my closet aside), but I've always considered alligators to be my personal mascot of the delta blues.


I'll leave you with one of my favorite Chicago blues musicians, Holwin Wolf, breaking down the blues for us.

-Cruz

EL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS


Vintage shirt, jacket, bracelets, and boots, Cheap Monday jeans, my own alligator tooth necklace


This is my idea of a "California Casual" tribute to the Mexican holiday. I pretty much look like walking dead most days since I regularly have bones strung around my neck and cow parts around my feet and wrists, but I wanted the focus to be on the beauty and inspiration of the Day of the Dead. I guess the Mexican influences I've thrown in aren't exactly obvious, I suppose they're what they mean to me or at least what they are after having traveled through my universe (but hey the boots were hecho en Mexico). I'm deeply inspired by Mexican culture, the Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada is known for his Day of the Dead cartoons and is one of my favorites...


“The word death is not spoken aloud in New York, in Paris, in London, because it burns the lips. The Mexican, in contrast, is familiar with death, chases after it, mocks it, courts it, hugs it, sleeps with it; it is his favorite toy and his most lasting love.”
-Octavio Paz


Found these bracelets on me and my friends' annual group trip to Big Bear Lake about a year ago, we all bought them as friendship bracelets. I love the way these two look stacked together.


One of the random bands of leather I've picked up from a flea market.


This pewter octopus brooch from Ebay mostly chills on this denim jacket.

-Cruz

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL


Vintage scarf, sweater from American Apparel, Levi's jacket and jeans, and vintage calf hair boots.


Going back to basics again with some denim on denim and Keith Richards fueled inspiration. Like I've mentioned before, just because the blog's called 'Denim on Denim' it doesn't mean that it's a blog about denim on denim styles, but it always winds up on the blog one way or another. I didn't even have a denim shirt when I first started the blog! Not that I'm complainin, jussayin.

I guess it's apt that I churn out a Keith inspired post today because his memoir, Life, comes out tomorrow. I honestly can't wait to get a hold of it for a blast of second-hand sin to span several lifetimes.

Music always comes first though, then the style. Keith Richards and Brian Jones have always been two of my biggest style inspirations. Mick Jagger may be more glamorous and in the spotlight, but I personally feel like he's tried to hard to be trendy with his past sartorial choices, and thus doesn't appeal to me as much. Keith has pretty much looked the same since the Stones shed away their "Beatle-a-like" looks (And, not to mention, has become synonymous with skull rings, prayer rug scarves, handcuff bracelets and Johnny Depp's character from Pirates.).

Here's some of my favorite Keith looks I've got on hand. They've probably turned up on Left Hand already (or are going to), but they go along well with the post.








Obligatory shot of the calf hairs - one of the first things I'd grab in a house fire.

-Cruz

SOME FAVORITES



Vintage coat, lucite necklace, shirt, and python boots, Cheap Monday Jeans.

Wearin some of my favorite things. Not a lot of folks consider snakeskin and shamy leather to be wardrobe staples, but I certainly do.

I have a deep sartorial love for the jacket I'm wearing. Its cultural and referential ambiguity, combined with its overall strangeness, has kept me just as enamored with it today as the day I first pulled it out of an overcrowded rack of vintage coats. It was also the star of my first outfit post during the humble genesis of this blog, so my obsession may be tinged with a bit of sentiment. I just think it's a really cool, one-of-a-kind vintage piece that deserves respect. Here's the link to a very early post I did about the jacket, IN CASE YOU WANTED TO READ EVEN MORE ABOUT IT.


I think it's funny that I often reach for this necklace as a finishing touch to most outfits, because as accessories come, lucite is barely there (You know, with it being clear and all). Or so you'd think, but in actuality it adds so much more!


One last peak at the jacket...


I still pray at the alter of the shoe gods daily for throwing a poor kid a bone and letting me haphazardly come across these beauties. Decided to incorporate my love of B-movie-monsters in a mash up with my shoes. October means monster movie marathons!


-Cruz

LEOPARD ON LEATHER


Vintage leopard skin cap, shirt, and boots, sweater and scarf from Forever 21, & Gap leather pants.

Would've posted earlier this week but every attempt to tiptoe outside and take outfit shots has been rained out. Sometime between leaving my lights on and having to jump start my car, the rain let up, so I decided to jump on that chance and drag my dad outside to take the pictures.

Not much to say about this outfit, other than it's what I'm into pretty much all the time. You got your boots, leather, leopard print, baggy sweater, vintage tee, and sloppy layers. I very much enjoy gallivanting around town in sloppy layers and dirty cowboy boots as Davy Faggot & His Leopard Skin Cap.


LOUSY picture but I loved the color of my dad's necklace with his Levi's jacket.


I took this picture of our dogs, Ricky & Rosie, begging my dad for food the other day. It was pretty impromptu, so the quality isn't all that great, but I had to immortalize their synchronized begging!

P.S. A pox has been lifted from this humble blog: there is no longer two "m"s in the URL! We are now

http://denimondenimblog.blogspot.com/

P.P.S. For the record, I only had the initial domain name because I was desperate to start blogging, and since some Johnny fuck-face decided to take denimondenim.blogspot.com and not even use it, I was left with no other seizeable options at the time.

-Cruz

STAX SUMMER


All Vintage

Record breaking hot weather calls for bat winged sleeves and baggy jeans (oops, rhyming). I know it's not Summer anymore but it certainly feels like it here. Got this tunic about a year ago with weather like this in mind. Reminds me of something someone might have worn to Wattstax (One of my favorite documentaries and definitely one of the most stylish ever) or what one might wear "on holiday" in Morocco.


It's no secret I'm attracted to dumpster denim, so I was very excited to find a pair with a patch. This particular patch makes me think of it as a scab on these jeans.



Found this vintage bracelet for two bucks the other day. It is also no secret I don't deal with fussy bracelets, thankfully the handy velcro strap keeps it in line. At first I thought you could unzip the bracelet and put coins in it, but upon further inspection it appeared that the zipper leads to nowhere.


I always try to take picture of my cat, because she has the most amazing eyes, but she's super fidgety. She's a good sport for dealing with this weather, since she has a fur coat sewn to her skin.


-Cruz

FURRY DISCO


All Vintage


Wearing some finds from the dollar-vintage-heap. I love these vintage Lee jeans so much! They can make me look sorta tall with the right pair of shoes (which for 18 years old at 5'8, is always a good thing) and evoke images of 70s disco dads and hippy scum.



I was inspired to try some brooches on fur recently. I also recently came to the conclusion that I want my style to be 'Classically Strange", which basically means that in 50 years any outfit will be just as strange as it was the day it was on my body. I feel like pairing my smelly vintage fur pieces together fits that criteria and more than fits the "I DON'T EVEN" criteria as well. It makes me smile to know that I'll have my furry dog brooch long after I've outgrown and lost most of my clothes.



I don't really wear bracelets other than on the blog, despite the fact that I have tons, because they tend to get in my way when I'm taking part in activities involving the use of my wrist. I do, however, wear this bracelet most often because it doesn't slip, slide, jingle and jangle as much as other bracelets.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately! I've been somewhere stuck between busy and lazy these days. I know I always say this but I do update Left Hand whenever possible so if you check there once and a while for new stuff it will mostly likely be there to greet you! It's just a lot easier to update a photo blog than it is to update a dress up blog - I'm sure my fellow bloggers will understand that. ;p

-Cruz

SURF & SOUL


Vintage shirt, shorts, and cuff and Stacey Adams shoes

Thought I'd try to squeeze in one last summer themed post while it was still August. Although, and anyone else from Orange County knows & would say the same, that 90 degree weather rears its ugly head round these parts throughout September. These shorts were my dads; it's hard for me to translate my inspiration from surf music into my clothes that's not in Hawaiian shirt form (not my style), but I feel like these shorts do the job.

My "Gotta Have Sax Drive Shirt" always reminds me of something someone might wear on Soul Train. I love watching old episodes and clips of Soul Train or any other 70s dance shows. The dance lines on Soul Train are way cooler than any runway show today, and the soundtrack just makes it even better.











Calfskin cuff I got at a flea market a while back. Perfect finishing Western-esque touch or vomit enducing factor to any outfit.


-Cruz

LONG BEACH FLEA MARKET AUGUST 2010

Denim on Denim: Looking through piles of dirty vintage clothes so you don't have to since 2009

Okay onto the pictures. Remember it's pretty much the wild west of picture quality from this point forward; prepare yourself for an onslaught of blurry pictures up the ying yang. The picture quality can be squarely attributed to my severe socially-awkwardness because I mostly take the pictures as fast as possible when the person running the booth isn't looking. I'm not about to take my time to snap a picture when the owner is staring you down with the stink eye. But I digress...



NEW IMAGE BLOG

Because I can't put together decent outfit posts as much as I'd like to, what with life in the way and all, I decided to add an image blog so you guys won't have to wait a week for something new to look at! It should be updated next to daily; it's pretty much a Tumblr, but I wanted it to be closer to Denim on Denim. Just high-five the hand silhouette to your left with your mouse to see it! If you wanna come back to Denim on Denim, just grab hold of the cattle horns and you'll be right back here (because I never got the hang of figuring out a way to just add a page with an image feed)! By the way, "Left Hand" is when you politely reach in to shake someone's hand with your left hand instead of your right and you say "EYYY LEFFFT HANNDD", just clearin that up.








-Cruz

ON HIGHWAY 395

Every year my family and I go camping in Tioga Pass, just outside of the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park. To me, the Sierras are the most beautiful place in the world. On the way, you go through the Mojave desert and the 395 Highway. I've always been profoundly inspired by the landscape and the sun-beaten towns you pass through along the way. A hobby of mine is collecting shirts from those towns and other paraphernalia, so I thought I'd style some looks inspired by some photos I snapped this time around. I didn't go nuts taking pictures on my trip, since my camera's not the best, but I think some of the pictures I got are really cool.


L E E V I N I N G












Everything I had on was vintage LOL

You guys have seen the Lee Vining shirt before. Lee Vining is the town right outside of the pass and overlooks the stunning Mono Basin. You can go in to town to enjoy some modern day luxuries (like take a shower) if you're camping. There's no downtown because IT'S ALL TOWN. I guess this look was inspired by the hippie, free-spirit types that come to the Sierras. I didn't see any fire trucks but I did see this truck...




B O D I E




My uncle took this picture with his camera. It's one of my favorites!








Levi's jacket and courds, shirt from Bodie, and vintage snakeskin boots.

Further north of Lee Vining is the ghost town of Bodie. My swell dad got me this shirt at a giftshop this time around. This outfit is really just something I'd just wear around town while representing my favorite ghost town. I really like the graphic for some reason, I guess because it's very simple and not stupid like most souvenir shirts. Here's a close-up of the graphic...



B I S H O P



Everything I had on was vintage... AGAIN

Bishop is one of the larger towns on the 395. Bishop is known as the "Mule Captial of the World" because of its annual "Bishop Mule Days", which celebrates the contributions of pack mules to the area. My inspiration for this look was all the ranches and cows you see along the way. Close up of the shirt....


I got the shirt at a vintage store in Fullerton.



I'm on the cusp of launching an image blog! Should be up tomorrow! I'll post more pictures from my trip there! Stay tuned! ;)


-Cruz