This box stood out because, unlike the rest of the pieces in the collection that were carefully wrapped in tissue paper or neatly displayed on a hanger, the “Larry Clark stuff” included a few shirts just sitting in a white filing box (Figure 2). I remember the librarians saying that these items have not been formally processed and catalogued yet, but upon further research and thinking, it seems more than appropriate for its home to be in that quaint white box.

Fascinated by the early 1990s skateboard culture, Larry Clark wanted to learn more and understand young people that society deemed as delinquents (Figure 3). At age 50, he started learning how to skate with speed and precision while filming on a camera. He calls New York City a “concrete playground” where the young people were carefree while roaming around the city on skateboards (Clark, 2013). Aside from this freeing lifestyle, he was captivated by the unique silkscreened shirts that the youth would design themselves. From that point onwards, all his works revolved around the themes of skateboarding, drugs, and sex (Engdahl, Jesse, and Jim Honey, 1995).

Figure 2 – Box of Larry Clark stuff in Cornell University Rare and Manuscript Collections.

The T-shirt that caught my eye was a simple white 100% cotton shirt with the phrase “girls kick ass!” across the chest in black and a small heart with the word “Poot” under it (Figure 4). The phrase printed on it intrigued me because it makes a bold statement while simultaneously being a simple T-shirt. The shirt is a size small but fits oversize, and it gives a very carefree and upbeat look. Some might even say it is too simple to be called fashion, but it is an integral style that encapsulates skateboarding culture.

Figure 3 – Cast of “Kids.” Detrick, B. (2015). ‘Kids,’ Then and Now. The New York Times. Retrieved 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/fashion/kids-20th-anniversary-chloe-sevigny-rosario-dawson.html.

Figure 4 – “girls kick ass!” T-shirt from Cornell RMC.

Upon researching what “Poot” was, I learned that Poot is a brand created by Keva Marie Dine as one of the first girl skateboard brands in the world (Huston, 2020). Since this T-shirt was not sold by Larry Clark, I can only assume that this was a brand collaboration because both designers’ work focuses on bold statements about empowerment, freedom, and carefreeness. With that, I also believe that this would’ve been a limited collection because Larry Clark is keen on creating limited quantities of each design.

Expanding more on limited quantities, a big part of skateboarding is wearing whatever you feel comfortable in. Therefore, like other skateboarding brands back then, Clark would only produce limited quantities for each piece to allow for more individualism. Nowadays, skateboarding style has been boxed to a more restricted category called “skate clothes” (Clark, 2013). This shift in skateboarding clothes becoming mainstream is problematic because it is less about skateboarding and more about commercialism.

Larry Clark is quite the epitome of anti-corporate activism, where he sees through the audience and is often satirical about the consumers of his products. In “Larry Clark stuff,” he writes about his experience in creating a skateboard collection with Supreme, and the deal was for him to keep half of the decks created. While collectors paid hundreds to thousands of dollars to acquire these decks, Clark just “gave them to kids in the ghetto” for the skateboards to be used for their intended purposes (Clark, 2013). He now sees skateboarding as “co-opted by companies and commercialism” (Clark, 2013).

A quick search on eBay shows that the resell value of these decks range from $750 to upwards of $3500 (Figure 5). From these high prices, it is sad to see that the essence of skateboarding is being eroded and gentrified through capitalism.

Figure 5 – eBay resells of Larry Clark decks

As a piece of 90s history, the box of Larry Clark t-shirts is right where it should be: accessible publicly, and not for commercial purposes or art galleries or collector’s homes. While they were made to be used and worn, they are now preserved in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections where they mark a piece of history for students, faculty, and the public to learn and reflect upon. Still, I have an internal sense of struggle between the limitations of the “correct” use of his work. Should they be removed from circulation, preserved, and no longer worn? What would Larry Clark have wanted to happen with his works?