Dope mysterious sandals, trippy hand-drawn tees...

And more CUSTOM RECON from "Personal Spyplane"

Human beings… we cruise thru this world alone… cold… confused … but sometimes, on the far horizon, we glimpse a warm & comforting glow and move towards it … Is it the North Star, guiding us home? A lighthouse beckoning us to safety? NO: It’s an iphone screen open to the latest installment of PERSONAL SPYPLANE, the Blackbird Spyplane series where every now and then we do an open call for u 2 submit profound questions about life, love & jawns — and we pick the best ones & ILLUMINATE yr path with bright-burning custom recon…

“What are the best shirts with cool graphics to look at when tripping on L$D?” — @rosty_for_fnf

We answered a similar version of this question a few weeks ago, but here at Blackbird Spyplane H.Q. we have a firm pro-psychedelics stance, so we are stoked to blast off yet again, especially because we’ve got something super different in mind this time….

The t-shirt on the right looks like tie-dye but was actually hand-drawn, goddamn… !!

In addition to “trippy vibes” we also have a special soft-spot for dope under-the-radar garments that a human being drew on, skillfully & lovingly, by hand — and both of these PASSIONS converge in artist Tony Tafuro’s one-of-one t-shirts…

Tafuro was born in Long Island & is based in NYC, where his work besides t-shirts includes painting, sculpture & photography. Some of his shirts r funny… some are spooky… some look like DEMONIC COOGI SWEATERS if u squint?? All are obsessively detailed. And no less a young L$D authority than A$AP Rocky — who once saw “a rainbow shoot out of my dick” during a trip — has given Tafuro his signature “Golden Babushka of Approval.”

Tony Tafuro’s on Instagram here and his webstore is here.

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“Favorite up-and-coming japanese designers?” —@p0cketman

There’s a beautiful line out of Okayama called Cottle that makes dope “basics” so exquisite that yr “basic”-ass American jawn-head is 100% not checking for them. We caught wind of Cottle thru BBSP homey Jonathan Lukacek, who just collaborated with them on a pair of sashiko-fabric “easy pants,” pictured above right, that are open for pre-order till Aug. 31.

We also f**k MEGA HEAVY with their “Sunset” pile fleece jackets, especially the one above left, woven from Supima cotton and Yak wool (!) & dyed using a “fermented persimmon juice” known as Kakishibu.

Left is a paint-spattered artist’s smock; at right is a persimmon-dyed t-shirt…

Left is a hoodie DYED WITH PULVERIZED HINOKI-WOOD; at right is a fleece of non-yak origin…

U may have already guessed correctly that Cottle’s stuff is extremely not-cheap, which is a testament 1) to the craftsmanship, 2) to the dumb-high import duties that any U.S.-based Japanese-jawn admirer knows all too well, and 3) to the fact THAT THE DAMN DYE CAME FROM A GOURMET FARMERS MARKET & THEY GOT THIS FLEECE OFF THE BACK OF A YAK!

Cottle’s full webstore is here.

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“Love your newsletter. Random Q: Any idea where the sandals (above left) are from? Camper, possibly?” — @natalie_so

Above is a screenshot from our epic investigation into How Pants Should Fit Now, which this reader sent over along with a question about ID-ing the chill-ass sandals on display. First off: Natalie, thank you for allowing yr life to be improved by the No. 1 newsletter for “unbeatable recon,” and also thank you for reading BBSP closely enough to notice one of the many “easter eggs” we scatter thru each post to intrigue & delight eagle-eyed jawnspotters such as yrself…

These sandals are indeed fly as f**k and no they are not Camper — we are 99.999% sure that they are Montbell’s killer “Sock-On” sandal, which sells for $32 and comes in a few different colors; there’s also a $39 “Lock-On” variant where they put a heel strap on the back to hold yr s**t in position when u need 2 go turbo mode on the pavement…

Share this newsletter with an elite tranche of 50-75 of yr wisest / most-respected friends, and brush up on our GAME-CHANGING RECON at BlackbirdSpyplane.com.

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