Preppy In Pink

interview by amy kellner If you are a young female person in New York in 1994 and you are not wearing X-Girl, you are not cool. Does that hurt your feelings? Sorry, but it’s just a fact, and facts can hurt.

So if you are living in a fashionless cave of some sort and you don’t know what I’m talking about, X-Girl is the sister clothing line to the Beastie Boys’ X-Large streetwear brand. It’s designed by Daisy von Furth and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. Together they have created the teeniest t-shirts you could ever hope to squeeze yourself into. In just one year, they’ve opened stores in New York and LA and become the official uniform of hip chicks from Ludlow to Lafayette Street. That’s a lot of blocks!

Stills from the upcoming as-yet-untitled X-Girl movie

During last season’s Fashion Week, they staged a guerrilla show on a sidewalk in SoHo, right across the street from where Marc Jacobs was having his own show. Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze produced the event and were darting around with walkie-talkies. Indie celebrities like Juliana Hatfield, Cristina Martinez of Boss Hog, J Mascis, Zoe Cassavetes, Donovan Leitch, Ione Skye, and Thurston Moore crowded around the sidewalk, and the newly dubbed “It Girl,” Chloë Sevigny, walked the runway in an X-Girl wedding dress, then sprayed the crowd with champagne. Is that a lot of name-dropping? You bet it is! And here’s one more: Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill wears an X-Girl baseball tee in Sonic Youth’s video for “Bull in the Heather.” It seems like even Riot Grrrls, who generally hate everything (and especially anything having to do with sexists like the Beastie Boys!), are down with the brand.

I sat down for a talk with Daisy von Furth at Buffa’s, a diner on Prince and Lafayette that she tells me is a really cool hangout. I believe her. Vice: Tell me how X-Girl came to be.
Daisy von Furth: Did you have previous fashion experience?
Sassy Mirabella Dirt, Sassy Which music videos did you style?
I heard that when you were at Sassy two years ago, in 1992, everyone thought you had the craziest style.
How do you know Chloë? She’s everywhere now, it seems.
Sassy Did you see the article that gushing Jay McInerney just wrote about her in the New Yorker? He says she’s the new It Girl.
Chloë is your fit model, right?
What’s the film about?
Chloë Sevigny, Daisy von Furth, Pumpkin Wentzel, and Rita Ackermann on the set of the X-Girl movie Mike Mills designed the X-Girl logo and your store and some of your shirts and posters. Where did he come from?
Tennis Magazine Is there a scene of contemporary designers in New York that you feel like you’re a part of?
Are there any trends that you hate and are trying to counteract with your designs?
What about grunge fashion? You guys have basically killed that.
Spin What is the ideal look for girls in ’94?
And teeny-tiny t-shirts, right?
What kind of stuff are you planning for ’95?
Contempt