No you can't wear 2 pairs of jeans at once

Plus banger new ACG sneakers, handmade denim excellence, sick shorts, sweatshirts & more

Blackbird Spyplane, back with you once again.

ICYMI this coming Saturday June 17 we’re throwing a little party in Oakland with our Mach 3+ neighborhood friends Understory, Snail Bar, and Setsunai Snack.

The party’s at Understory in Temescal Alley from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., with food, drinks & music. We also ran up some limited edition tees for the event. And if you’re a Cla$$ified Spyfriend, show the badge at the bottom of today’s sletter for a homie rate at the shop during the party.

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MEANWHILE —

Today we’ve got:

• A dope weird early-‘00s ACG reissue perfect for the SUMMER MONTHS

• Ill vintage-workwear-inspired clothes, handmade under the radar in the UK

• Sick sweatshirts, pleated shorts, & striped button-ups from earth’s swaggiest skater

• And some beautiful music !!

BUT FIRST —

The other day we got an audacious Personal Spyplane question on IG from a Spyfriend in a commendably adventurous mood:

“I’ve been ruminating about the idea of layering pants. Like, I have 501s I’ve been breaking in, and the current color looks kind of dope in contrast to my other pair of jeans, which are Orslow raw-denim bois. But I’m not sure if it’s too chunky, and I’m still playing with the interface near the ankles. Either I’m insane or there’s a cool way to do this?” — @dannyredmohler

Two pairs of jeans at once?? We’re a non-doctrinaire, pro-experimentation newsletter, and we’ve recommended all kinds of unconventional styling routes — such as “Tuck All Tops,” go “Hat Over Hoodie Mode,” and “Stack Yr Cuffs King.” So please believe that we respect the spirit behind this question, even as we deem the idea unfeasible and deranged!!!

With the standard (but in this case whisper-thin) caveat that anything can be theoretically freaked: You can’t wear two pairs of jeans at once. First there’s the issue of bulk, discomfort, impracticality, chafing. Certain designers, like Margiela, have put out different faux double pants, where, e.g., a darker denim front panel is affixed to a lighter-denim back panel, or a denim waistband is sewn into a lower-slung pair of trousers. With all due respect, these are … not very cool. The double-top jeans Rihanna put out and has rocked in pics ?? Not her best work! (That would be “B**ch Better Have My Money” tied with “Stay” ft. Mikky Ekko 😉.) Alexander McQueen played around with a related idea for the denim-skirt-denim-shorts combo, and that works a lot better, because it reads as a modified skort rather than some weird, stunty sight gag…

Leggings under shorts can definitely be a great look, as we’ve written about before — mostly in the context of 1992-era photos of Pearl Jam and, like, sick Japanese street style. And in cold weather I could see a tight fit where big baggy chinos are cuffed up a few times, revealing an inch or two of colorful Capilene longjohns underneath, maybe going into a chunky sock, going in turn into the top of a boot — a nice S.Y.C.K.-style ankle stack.

But beyond that, if you want a cool denim layering effect near your waistband?? Tie a denim jacket around the waist of some jeans waist on some ‘80s s**t. Maybe f**k around with denim patching on some boro / sashiko energy. And if you want a nice stack at the ankle, remember that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel: you can just focus on socks!!

NOW LET’S GET INTO A RECON-RICH SWARM OF SLAPPERS —