X-Girl! Founded by daisy von furth (stylist, abovemost, leftmost) and kim gordon (sonic youth, same cell), c. 1993 (Johnson 2016). Pretty short-lived in original form: x-girl was sold to a japanese company in 1997 (it was popular in japan) where it continues to this day (!!) without von furth or gordon's involvement.

Its origin (and name) is borne out of von furth's-es connection to beastie boys-adjacent but not beastie boys-owned streetwear label X-LARGE. Says von furth / von furth says: "I had been working at the X-Large store here in New York, and they knew that Kim and I were good friends and that we did all of our shopping together, so they said why don't you and Kim do the girl's line?" (Clarke 1996).

One of the main drivers was gordon + von furth's desire to create clothes that fit them the right way. Says gordon in an interview with MTV, recorded during, or maybe after a runway show (the exact timeline is hard to pin down) that friends sofia coppola and spike jonze staged in 1994: "We're like desperate to find clothes that, you know, we like and that fit the right way. And, you know, it's sort of like your dream is always to wake up in the morning and be able to reach in your closet half asleep and just put on something that's going to, like, fit and look fabulous and you don't have to think about it" (MTV Vault 1994).

In practice, this meant basic items (think t-shirts, mini skirts, A-line or nearly A-line dresses) that were meant to be affordable, and easy to wear. Early on with a preppy angle and then, as 1994 turned into 1996 aiming for a slightly more europeanish glamour (Clarke 1996). Von furth also highlights a desire for more fitted, feminine styles and cuts in contrast to the baggy baggy skate clothes of X-LARGE: "X-Large was doing big oversized stuff because it was still in at the time, but girls were getting sick of that. So we didn't tie into their aesthetic" (Clarke 1996).

Gordon, in an interview published by the los angeles review of books, expressed confusion about ongoing interest in x-girl but highlights a fondness for the t-shirts in particular: "it just really surprised me that people were so interested in X-Girl, because the clothes weren’t that great. Actually, I shouldn’t say that because Mike Mills did graphic design for us, and the T-shirts were great." The four shown above are four of the x-girl t-shirts that we've acquired and photographed for the shop. At least one (the leftmost, burgundy, with a picture of a smoking horse and the word/phrase "GOODLUCK" OR "GOOD LUCK" underneath) was designed by said Mike Mills, in 1996.

The pink one with the blue bird on it is also for sale (or iswas at time of writing). It's unclear though whether mills did all or many of the t-shirt designs (at least some of them seem to be in a similar style), or just these ones. Perhaps von furth or gordon or mills or someone who just knows can some day provide an answer. Regardless, I like the t-shirts, too! The colours are frequently good, the t-shirts are branded but branded interestingly (here for example, the underwater-y x-girl logo is mostly hidden behind a dolphin and a submarine), and sometimes the graphics appear to promote events that one presumes don't really exist (is there actually an "x-girl ESPOSIZIONE DEL ARTE MODERNO" (exhibition of modern art))? Are the t-shirts the esposizione? Dunno.

After all that heavy reading, I thought it'd be fun to finish(ish) with the above video: an interview broadcast by MTV with von furth and gordon, but also with sofia coppola and spike jonze, who organised a fashion show for x-girl in 1994 on the streets of new york. Partly I thought this because there are few better, truer, or more satisfying ways to see a cloth than to see it in motion, and partly because, frankly, it's pretty funny. The interview starts with a reporter, producer, or camera operator saying to the assembled crowd: "Can we just keep it down a little bit? We're doing an interview right here. (woman chuckles) Anyone that doesn't need to talk, bring it down here. Thank you." Daisy von furth describes how the show came about: “They [coppola and jonze] came up to us and said, "We want to do a fashion show." And we were like, great, whatever. And then six months later they were really serious about it” [MTV Vault 1994]. Sofia coppola outlines a canny + clever logic: stage the show on the street, during new york fashion week, catch the crowds leaving marc jacobs' show, jonze offers “There's a certain word that describes, you know, doing it on the streets, and that is free. (Sofia chuckles)”. And so on (I'd argue for example that the picture of von furth and gordon below below is physical comedy).

You can have a look at filter store's collection of x-girl garments here.

References added soon!