Designer Spotlight : Hard-Core Punks Plunk Down Bucks for Freak Show Attractions
As a graphic arts student at Orange Coast College five years ago, Shawn Peterson decided to take the groovy ghoulies living in his head and turn them into fashion for the perpetually punk masses.
“It was purely by accident,” the Westminster-based designer quips, on the origins of his clothing line Freak Show by Bone Bagg.
“I was painting skulls on T-shirts,” he recalls. “Then I started to screen them on button (dress) shirts my friend’s mom made and selling them to London Exchange (at the time the only punk gear shop in Orange County). That just snowballed into a line.”
From shirts, Peterson went on to produce plaid bondage pants decorated with straps and hardware hooks, thereby supplying old and new punks alike with a line of hard-to-find hard-core pieces. The pants firmly established the new company’s name among alternative apparel boutiques.
Within two years the line grew into a full collection, and with it grew sales. So Peterson decided to buckle down and increase distribution nationally and abroad. Freak Show has since gone to Japan, Australia and New Zealand; soon Germany will be added to the list. At that time, his girlfriend, Seana Zimmer, became a partner. Zimmer took over the financial end, enabling Peterson to concentrate fully on design.
The bondage pants are no longer made, but Peterson still uses hardware such as dog clips for strap hooks on his oversized overalls--which have become a staple basic in recent collections.
And Scottish plaids continue to show up every season, although they are less prevalent than before. Bestsellers such as baggy, plaid flannel pants with an elastic waist “could sell forever,” Peterson says, but he has taken to limited runs to maintain customer interest. Other plaid pieces appear seasonally, such as the latest heavyweight cotton denim shorts, as a “little, wild contrast to the solids in the line.”
Tees, a large part of the 40-piece collection, feature Peterson’s comically creepy art: flowers breaking a vampire-tooth smile; a cartoonish, bony character with sunken eyes; or a cat chasing a dog who’s chasing a floating bone. This upside down world also has a superhero (the Avenger) and bad guy (the World Controller) who appear in a series of world-in-jeopardy scenes. Some graphics glow in the dark via special ink.
In tune with the current oversized street wear trend, Freak Show has its own “jumbo” pants and shirts, including a “plumber butt” pant that, as the name suggests, hangs way low. Cotton twill, long-sleeved shirts in roomy cuts and boxy, dyed solid denim jackets, pants and shorts appear this season in dark, rich hues such as pumpkin, navy, khaki, oyster and burgundy.
Solids, as well as simple silhouettes, have become a main focus for Peterson who finds that the down economy means “that no one has tons of money, so they’re going to buy the basic over the real funky thing.” That includes the alternative clothing market, which traditionally forks out the cash for unusual fashion.
With that customer in mind, Peterson avoids “safe orders” by store buyers by shipping assorted colors, believing that neutrals are not always the way to go.
Items in the line retail for $16-$80. Accessories, including leather belts and bracelets, biker wallets, beanies and caps sell for $4-$28.
The line is still available at punkish boutiques such as Zac Attac in Huntington Beach, Hard Times in Orange, Restyle Too in Redondo Beach and Villains in San Francisco. But Freak Show has also moved into mall stores catering to funky youth such as Sun Diego Surf & Sport in the Westminster Mall and Hot Topic in Lakewood Mall.
“We still try to keep the edge even though we’re getting into the mall scene,” Peterson says. “We’re not going to sell out. We’ll always have that hard-core edge.”
