Fashion for the People!

“Beneath the paving stones — the beach!” went the rallying cry when artistic agitator Guy Debord and thousands of other leftist, avant-garde students took to the streets of Paris in 1968. Not only did they nearly take down the French government in their mop hair, loafers and form-fitting sweaters, but they looked great doing it. Now, that was fashion — and a far cry from the $24 circle-A t-shirts that pass for rebellion in today’s store-bought society.

Adam Tinnell and Kate Kershenstein are not advocating the throwing of paving stones — yet — but they are grade-A advocates of looking great without having to spend yourself your self into bankruptcy (or, worse, complacency.) Their Free Boutique — where costs are determined by the customer, not the price tag — has been about the only spot in Denver where fancy boys and girls can obtain their fashion-forward threads without having to sell their souls to the gods of mark-up. So thank Guy they are officially moving operations from far-flung Lakewood to the much more centralized Denver Art Gallery at 2516 East Colfax Avenue on March 20.

In celebration, Baily Rose of Illiterate Magazine is helping organize Make Total Destroy, a fashion march down Colfax to assist in breaking down the “increasing separation of aesthetics from the city’s cultural and geographic landscape.” Participants, dressed in their finest found fashion, will start off at the steps of the State Capitol building at 6 p.m., and may hand out Free Boutique wares to the raw Denver masses. Go to www.myspace.com/thefreeboutique for details.
Fri., March 20, 6 p.m., 2009