FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Vice Blog

PAM CAN'T WAIT UNTIL WE'RE ALL JUST FLOATING HEADS

I first found out about the Melbourne-based fashion label

PAM

a few years ago when the editor of (sorry)

i-D

gave me one of their shirts with a picture of the guys from

DAF

on the front. I'm sorry I don't have a picture of it, but the PAM and DAF logos were sort of blended together over a picture of the group. I am an admitted streetwear nerd, but I can do without the embarrassing, closeted man-child connotations that you see on half the stuff on Highsnobiety, and the aforementioned t-shirt (like a lot of PAM stuff) was all about international hypermodernity. The label is officially known as Perks and Mini, the two designers' old graffiti tags. The pair are married and go by the real-life names of Shauna and Mischa Hollenbach. I recently caught up with Mischa, the husband of the duo, for an interview.

Advertisement

Vice: How much is PAM a fashion label, and how much is PAM a sort of an art project? Mischa Hollenbach:

PAM is the name we put to everything we make. PAM truly is Perks and Mini, although the Perks part has become more about psychedelics or perpetual motion or psychic energies, and the Mini part means not mass, not massive, not misdirected. PAM is what Shauna and I do together, and the world we want to make happen, grow in, and share with others.

That's a tall order. A lot of streetwear brands are now starting to branch off from clothes. Why is that?

We don't think of ourselves as a brand and our thinking doesn't extend into what type of brand we want to be. PAM's magic seed was planted when Shauna and I met each other and wanted to do something together, and now the sapling's roots are growing deeper and deeper. Maybe one day the PAM tree will be big and strong enough to hold a tree house, and go beyond the clouds.

So what you're saying is PAM is less about a buying into style X and more a way of getting people to think about the new X, right?

We're driven by what we see and feel. This season's theme is washing machines—washing in the Ganges, washing powder, and dirty laundry. That's the entire brief. We know we have to make clothes, and pants have to have legs, and we wouldn't want anyone to wear flares, for instance. And Mr. Fingers has a an

EP

with song titles "Washing Machine" and "Beyond the Clouds". This is the extent of our market research, trend spotting, and financial plan. Obviously, we actually have to generate funds to continue to create things. Not that we think about sales—that would be too much like having a job.

Advertisement

You're always going on about the Memphis Group and post-modernism—when people thought liking patterns and color meant your mind was free. Why's that?

If we reference it, that means it talks to and inspires us. Memphis, for instance, is beautiful and horrible at the same time. It speaks of its time, but of the future too. It talks about freedom from minimalism and it's Italian and we love everything Italian. It's also punk and looks beautiful in your home. The associated flyers, like the Buddhist monk smoking opium and the airbrushed shark, were wonderful too. More than many other movements, Memphis had a spirit of fun, which is an unequivocally good thing. PAM is about the same stuff as Memphis, or Dada, or punk for that matter. We have to help keep these fires burning. Now neo-romantic is where it's at—you know, harmony with nature and the inner self. We take what we want from these movements, evolve the ideas, or acknowledge them by referencing the visuals. Of course, that can look lazy, but it can also be a doorway to a cultural movement like Chicago house, Animism, or Memphis. A Fornasetti reference on a t-shirt acknowledges his work as a triumph of design, and hopefully jolts the wearer into doing some research and fuzzy feelings about his Arpie series.

When fashion designers do the occult it's usually a bit corny. Why do you guys reference it?

I'm interested in the possibilities the occult opens to transcending our human world. Aleister Crowley's "dark arts" teachings don't interest me in the same way as the mystery of the occult does. Occult religions still have all the negative energies of organized religions. Whereas voodoo is beautiful because it's free. PAM rejects all preconceived teachings and rules set forth by occultists, art theorists, university lecturers, and the powers that be. Actually, far more wonderful than the occult, when talking spirituality, are the many, many forms of pagan worship and man's spiritual relationship with nature.

Advertisement

PAM sort of equals pyramids. Oh great, now I'm talking like that too. Since anyone fashionable will be bored of pyramids by the time they read this, what's the new pyramid?

Pyramids stand for Egypt, which stands for an ancient culture that set its eyes on the future, exciting gods, spiritual and technological advances, cool hairstyles and eye makeup, scandals,

sandals

, and, of course, UFOs. The new pyramid is the Tokyo tower, a sort of Japanese red edition of the Eiffel Tower. It's a transmission mast, complete with wax museum replicas of Manuel Gottsching, Mount Rushmore, Faust, and Brad Pitt dressed as a cave man—a role that he's never played—all with

E2-E4

on loop. There's a vending machine that engraves your photo on a keychain and the Masonic club of Japan is in the basement. The Tokyo tower is a true feat of the idiosyncrasy and idiocy of humankind these past 50 years.

Tell me about PAMbooks.

Publishing is a dream come true. We love books and love publication as art. We've made and make various zines, artists' publications and books. PAMbooks is a way of working with other artists and photographers. The books are edited, published, and mostly designed by us, and feature artists that make work we love. I love finding a low-run, low-budget book of some famous or unknown artist or photographer way more so than the fuckoff, big-name monograph. Making little books, which might be found by some future person, rules.

Advertisement

A lot of streetwear brands try and do art or books or whatever, but it almost always seems as if the guys behind it are too stoned to do anything that might innovate on any level. You do some interesting stuff, so congratulations to you. You're not a high fashion label either though. Should I be confused?

We're not a streetwear brand and high fashion is pretty limited. Yes, we make clothes that can be worn on the street, at home, to raves, to art galleries, or riding a bike, because we believe in a healthy, exciting indoors-and-outdoors lifestyle. We are also not conservative in any sense, but we don't have to be loud and avant-garde just for the sake of it. Our clothes are meant to subtly show that the wearer is somewhat different to the normals. As in, the actual normals, but also the usual skateboarder, the stereotypical raver, goth, and even that loudly dressed avant-garde arty kid. It seems like an artist who doesn't work 24/7 won't make it, so working with your wife sounds like a great way to have your cake and eat it. I hate calling art work. Work is something that sucks. Art is something that happens when you live it. I'm trying to live my life in a way that the lines between practice and work, life and love are all blurred to the point that they are one thick superhighway line. That includes being married, working, living and loving together, rearing a child, sharing a house and studio and office, all in the same space. I'd love it if everything we ever do inspires PAM, and vice versa.

Advertisement

This quote of yours—"New forms, new people, new races, the people we haven't seen yet"—is a really exciting way of summing up fashion. What's new at the moment?

We had a kid lately, so the most exciting new person is Odette, and so far she loves Detroit techno. We try not to refer to her as a girl; her clothes aren't gender specific, nor will she have a religion, so hopefully she'll really have an understanding of the cosmos. I really want to give her the haircut from

Lone Wolf and Cub

. I also can't wait to see her draw. Starting afresh and forming your own way is an exciting prospect. History holds us back. Breaking down tradition, religion, and social customs holds possibilities for the evolution of the human race. Of course society needs some controls, but what if it was controlled in a positive, new way that celebrates life, love, and creativity—a way which perhaps linked us closer to loving nature, didn't mean excluding your fellow human, a life which isn't full of news of pain and torment? Growing up in a "new" country such as Australia, a promised land of immigrants, makes the idea of starting anew seem really possible.

New people? Does that equal transhumanism?

If transhumanism is possible, we'll all just be floating heads, full of information and communication, therefore the only fashion we'll actually require will be hats. We won't need bodies or the internet, so online stores won't exist. There won't be any high street shops either, as floating heads don't need cars. Only malls full of hat shops, and food shops, because heads have mouths. INTERVIEW BY DARYOUSH HAJ-NAJAFI