Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
We have the scoop: flying saucers have landed, and it happened right here in California, USA, at Area 7161 a few days ago. As announced on Japanese TV!
Background:
The topic of Unidentified Flying Objects has piqued public’s interest in the US starting in the 1930s…
Soon following America’s involvement in the WW2 conflict, US flyers on combat missions described unexplainable “fireballs” in the sky in both the European and Pacific Theaters. Those unexplained phenomena were coined as “Foo Fighters” at the time, origin of the term somewhat uncertain, maybe related to a popular 1940s comic strip.
In 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold’s alleged sighting of nine airborne shiny “boomerangs” helped seal the popular term “flying saucers” and sparked a “flying disc” sighting craze with Americans, not-only eager for exciting news after a draining world war, but reassessing their worldviews in the Atomic Age.
Another major event in ufology, well-publicized since, also happened in 1947. Known as the Roswell incident, this was an alleged UFO crash in a New Mexico desert ranch (Forster Ranch.) It was said that the crashed spaceship included its Alien pilots crew, who, interestingly, had been skilled-enough to travel through space from a distant planet, possessing the proper advanced technology, avoiding all kinds of meteors and space junk on the way, but failed to put on the breaks at the last minute! Go figure. For some, this was a mere weather balloon (or highly-classified surveillance balloon), for others a Russian secret weapon, an alien spaceship, a communist psychological warfare hoax aimed at destabilizing the USA, …, amongst the many interpretations. The event has also been considered as a mysterious military/CIA cover-up.
Some people even believe — to this day — that the crashed Roswell “UFO” spacecraft has been under reverse-engineering in a secret AREA 51 hangar for years, along with the bodies of its large-headed pilots…
It is generally accepted that most 1950s-60s UFO sightings in the USA were, in fact, shiny silver high altitude secret U-2 spy plane prototypes on test flights. But what do I know. My hunch is that the UFO pilots were distracted by all the cool music happening on Earth in the 1940s, and just missed their Roswell landing. Maybe they were staring at their cell phones and crashed?
For a serious historical timeline and much much broader background, Annie Jacobsen’s AREA 51 — a well-researched and fascinating book written in 2011 with an overwhelming amount of declassified intel — is a great read.
Full visuals/ramblings here.
Design inspiration:
We pulled out the old watercolors and brushes for the graphic. The original artwork was inspired by a blend of 1947 Roswell imagery, a twist of Giant Rock in the California High Desert, vintage UFO lore, a bit of imagination and a lot of artistic limitations, all that under the watchful eye of art director Joe Greene, also from another planet. For those interested, plenty making-of photos of the watercoloring process documented in the SS2024 preview.
The clumsy doodle was then translated by our friends and vintage “Aloha shirt” experts at Sun Surf® into a painstakingly-produced fabric print, for an authentic “Hawaiian shirt” feel.
Please note that some R&D/lookbook photos featured on this post show early prototypes (referred to Alpha & Bravo), with a slightly different graphic distribution on the front panels. These A & B protos are not what was produced. To better convey the initially-intended period traditional “vintage Hawaiian shirts” vibe with an authentic “Aloha” style graphic balance, final production (referred to as Charlie & Delta) has been adjusted to an off-set left/right front panel pattern.
Simply put, the desert landscape scene is intentionally out-of-synch on the shirt’s front panels, while it is presented in its uninterrupted glory on the back panel!
Of course, the fabric print of the single chest pocket is in perfect alignment with the body print, aka “matching pocket” in collectors’ jargon.
Fabric printing in Japan is done on traditional machines, using intricate printing procedures. As discussed on a recent CLUTCHMAN TV episode (RnR shirt convo starts at 03:00), a technique known as “overprinting” (necessitating 18 different screens!) had to be used to replicate the color gradation and shading of the original watercolor painting, instead of the somewhat faster “discharge printing” method. As Sugar Cane brand director Fukutomi Sensei mildly put it, “苦労しました” (kurō shimashita = it was not easy.)
For more visuals and heritage Aloha shirts knowledge — especially for one whose “flower shirt” expertise is limited to Magnum PI’s 80s red “Jungle Bird” pattern by Paradise Found — check out Sun Surf® well-documented reference books and current faithful vintage replicas of 1930s~1960s models. If you’re into the “From Here to Eternity” look, Sun Surf® has the goods!
Our friends at Sun Surf® deliver yearly collections under the guidance of Kobayashi San, Toyo Enterprise’s elusive current CEO, an avid and well-respected “aloha-shatsu” museum-quality collector. I tried to snap a current photo of Sacho San during our recent March 2024 mfsc show but he was gone the second I blinked!
On an industry-related note, even in the “slow fashion” world that MF® has opted to partake in since 2007, show samples are always cut/sewn under challenging pressure in order to meet a specific event (aka trade show) deadline. Things get even more challenging when a specific fabric has to be milled, or when a new original fabric print is a major part of the garment design! I’m always late with design directions/graphic submissions, and our friends at Toyo Enterprise will never cease to amaze me at pulling rabbits out of the hat to make things happen.
We started our Mister Freedom® x SUN SURF® collaboration back in 2015, kicking it off with the first of our “Rock & Roll” shirt, the “Action Packed” model, recently-released in black and white. Followed the boppin’ “Rocket 88” edition released during Spring 2016, available in all-cotton ivory, dark navy blue and mint green, a tribute to Rock & Roll’s early fifties roots. Randomly venturing to the burning Sahara sands, destination the French penal colonies of North Africa and their inked-up inmates, we then released the BIRIBI edition during Spring 2018, in white and dark navy.
To compliment our SS2019 mfsc “YUCATÁN” collection (story here), we then designed the “Yucatán Fiesta”, released in black and white.
Epic trips with the fam to Santa Catalina Island — and Dorothy and Otis Shepard — have inspired the Catalina model, in white and black.
In 2024, we are humbled again to have our latest doodle translated into a fancy 1940s-50s style rayon shirt!
The Mister freedom® x Sun Surf “Flying Saucers” Rock & Roll Shirt is designed in California by Mister Freedom® and manufactured in Japan by Sun Surf® and Sugar Cane Co, both divisions of Toyo Enterprise.
View additional photos and details on the blog
