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| Inside Volume 7 of My Freedamn! |
Slaves to fashion, sociology and pop culture live by the
My Freedamn! series, a growing anthology of oversized books painstakingly chronicling the clothes, ephemera and other visual references of revolutionary chapters in Americana life.
A seventh volume is now out, spotlighting Aloha shirts from the 1930s-1950s, as is another book devoted to Harley Davidson branded style from 1910-1950. And the man behind them all, Rin Tanaka, will be on hand this Saturday, Dec. 13, from 5-7 p.m., signing copies of his two new books and talking pop at the funky landmark Surfing Cowboys in Venice, Calif.
Rin’s a hard cat to catch. A nomad with a camera, he spends much of his time on the road researching and documenting Americana culture. The books are choc-a-block with colorful images and contextual essays and captions. Rin’s obsessive care in archiving leather jackets, cowboy shirts, Levi’s, rock T-shirts, surfwear and other usually rare-to-find modes of bona fide Americana style makes these books required reading for anyone interested in fashion or culture. If clothes make the era, then Rin’s encyclopedic books make sure we don’t forget every vivid, groundbreaking and creative flourish that contributed to forging a moment in time we still, today, can’t get enough of and continue to lift from in our contemporary dress.
The first three volumes of
My Freedamn! are becoming harder to find, and in some cases going for inflated sums. So this is an opportunity to not only score a copy, but one handled and signed by the mad historian himself.
Book Signing with My Freedamn!’s Rin Tanaka at Surfing Cowboys, 1624 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA. Signing is from 5-7 p.m. (You can also buy copies of Volumes 3-7 and the Harley Davidson book online at Surfing Cowboys).
