PLEASURES Shirts 8 Items

PLEASURES Shirts

PLEASURES is a relatively young street fashion label that’s rooted knee-deep in the punk, grunge, new wave and metal music of the 1980s and 1990s. This could also be one reason why the company, which was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 2015, does not shy away from controversy and sometimes breaks taboos if it’s necessary. For example, when PLEASURES printed Curt Cobain’s suicide note on one of their T-shirts, the brand attracted enormous attention – both positive and negative. Unlike many other streetwear brands that simply jump on the retro bandwagon and exploit subcultural themes of days gone by, founder Alex James is a true child of Generation X. He knows what he’s doing and can sing along to the songs that shaped his generation. Having grown up near New York, Alex James experienced the raw, primal atmosphere of a physically demanding punk gig at CBGB’s firsthand. This allows PLEASURES to not only reflect the aesthetics of this exciting time with the designs, but also to integrate a rarely seen level of authenticity, as many styles are based on the DIY ethos of the punk scene at the time. The boundary-pushing tolerance of the scene at the time, where everything from skaters and graffiti kids to starving artists and old hippies gathered and harmoniously celebrated the time of cultural change, is what inspired PLEASURES. It is also fitting that Alex James chose Los Angeles as the home base for PLEASURES, because there are few other places in the United States where you can recharge your batteries for future tasks in such a relaxed atmosphere.