Tace Chalfa, sneaker
pimp extraordinaire, is the 26-year-old, candy apple-haired
vamp smartypants behind the Red Light Clothing Exchange, a
store that specializes in highly collectable retro-wear. She
recently relocated from Seattle to Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard,
opening her seventh buy-sell-trade emporium in as many years.
The 10,000-square-foot store is more likely to be taken for
a museum of kitsch than a million-dollar business.
Willamette Week: You have an export business
in Asian markets--what's hot there now?
Tace Chalfa: Hige, which means "kitty whiskers"--the
line marks that came from wearing jeans too tight in the
'80s. They're crazy for them. When they decide what the
thing is, that is it. When it's over, it's over.
Last year it was letter sweaters; now you can't sell any
of them.
Why are Japanese women, especially teens, so driven
by fashion trends?
For a long time, Japanese women were obsessed with American
fashion. Ten years ago, every Japanese girl you saw had
on a Mickey Mouse T-shirt and Levi's; now they have their
own look. Most of the cool clothing in the U.S. now has
a strong Japanese influence. It's funny, Japanese kids are
taking all these weird old-school fashions and putting them
together in cool ways and then American kids are copying
that. Right now early-'80s Patagonia polar fleece jackets
are hot.
What attracted you to Portland in terms of fashion?
It's an emerging fashion city. It's not that in tune with
the New York or L.A. scene, but right now the hippie-romantic-Stevie
Nicks thing is going to be huge--a funky look that Portlanders
have been doing for years. But we're much more laid back;
I hope we don't get too Stevie Nicks.
You have three pairs of the original shoes of Bill Bowerman,
the U of O track coach who helped create Nike. How much
do you think they are worth?
I have one original waffle trainer--that's the shoe Steve
Prefontaine wore and really launched Nike as a company.
I'd really like them to be a record-breaker. The record
is $25,000, for Air Jordans from 1985. That was the first
year they came out, and the only thing that was special
about this pair was the non-issue color--black with a gold
Swoosh, almost patent leather--they made maybe three or
four pairs of them.
Supposedly, there were 10 pairs of the waffle trainers
made for testing. Phil Knight has one pair, and I bought
mine from one of the original runners, Ron Wayne, two years
ago. I also bought $30,000 worth of other shoes from him!
The other Bowerman sneakers were made a few years later,
and I could probably get $5,000-$8,000 each.
Knight doesn't want them?
I wrote him a letter asking if he wanted to buy the waffles,
but he wasn't interested. He wrote me a really nice letter.
I think Nike is an amazing company. What they did was so
amazing: They got smart and made it about fashion. Nobody
had thought about sneakers as fashion before. I mean, the
Beatles wore Adidas, and in the '70s, sneakers got kind
of cool, but Nike had disco parties and gave away sneakers
at Rolling Stones concerts. Everything before that was either
plain white or with some black, blue or red. They were a
bunch of hippie guys in Eugene and were like, "Hey, orange
and black! Look at this!" They made shoes that had "Eat
Me" on the back; they made shoes for Alice Cooper and Heart.
I mean, people think it was the Beastie Boys who made sneakers
cool!
Vintage and retro fashion has been huge in Portland
throughout the past decade. Do you see that changing at
all?
No, not really. Since I've been doing this, people have
been saying, "Oh, vintage is out." And they're always saying
that, but it won't disappear, because it's practical. Just
this morning a friend asked me what would happen to my business
if there were a recession. I said, 'You know what? The best
thing that could happen right now would be a recession,
because people want cheap clothes.' That's how I make my
money: It's all about buying a T-shirt for $5 and reselling
it for $10.
What did you wear to your wedding?
I ended up getting married in a neon green square-dancing
outfit; my husband wore a matching outfit. We got them like
the day before for $3 and got married in Vegas.
How do you dress your 2-year-old daughter, Palace?
Yesterday she was wearing a pair of Double-X Levi's--they're
worth about $500 or $1,000.
Do you ever get sick of kitsch?
Yes. Last year I was on a 'futon-and-a-fork' campaign,
my Martha Stewart phase--clean and simple. But I go back
and forth with the clutter. I get sentimental.
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Willamette Week | originally
published January 12,
1999
|
