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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 1987)
Arts & Entertainment Ancient clothing creates modem fashions Top Drawer has more than 100 years of style By Micki Haller Staff Reporter Cop Drawer smells like old clothes, but they’re not just old clothes, one of the own ers said. “This is a vintage clothing store,” C. J. Rice said of her shop at 27th and Vine streets. She said the vintage clothing store is different from a thrift shop. Rice owns Top Drawer together with her sister, Pat Rice. “We buy everything,” Rice said. She said the store’s stock is “selected pieces,” which are usually collect ibles. Thrift stores usually take what is donated to them, she said. Although it sells mostly clothes and accessories, Top Drawer’s stock is eclectic, Rice said. The store also sells pictures, sheet music and other items the Rice sisters pick up at auc tions and estate sales. The oldest items in the store arc from the mid-1800s, Rice said. Vin tage clothing is as new as the 1960s, and the store also carries a line of original designs by Sherman Gepherd, a designer in New York. “It’s an unique style of clothing, so it blends,” Rice said. Gepherd’s de signs include balloon skirts and bubble shorts in metallic fabrics. Rice said she likes to see how looks change through the years and hbw people combine different eras to get an entirely different look. “Maybe they’ll put ’50s spikes with a ’20sdress, or ’60s jewelry with a ’40s-stylc outfit,” she said. Rice said people come in looking for different things. A high-school '> girl may be trying to find a short,’60s- ' style skirt or a leather vest for a U2 1 concert. I ■ ■■ IN- - —— ■ " Andrea Hoy/Daily Nebraskan Rice wears some of the fashions sold at her store Top Drawer keeps a mai I i ng I i st for people who didn’t find what they wanted. Mood rings, sweater clips, black and gold cuff links, vintage baseball jackets or even a bowler hat (size 7 1/4) arc things customers ask for. Sometimes it can be hard to part with an item, Rice said. “I like everything in the store,” she said. “There’s a 1920s si Ik kimono,” she ;aid. “I’m in love with that.” However, most of the customers ippreciatc vintage clothing, and “you snow you’ll always find something jlse,” she said. Rice said running a vintage cloth ing store was a “natural choice” for her and her sister. “My sister and I arc both collectors to begin with,” she said. “It gives us license to buy everything we like.” When Blondie’s closed and Fringe and Tassel Costume shop stopped selling vintage clothing, Rice said they saw the need for another shop. They opened Top Drawer in April and did business on the weekends through the summer. In August the store began operating full-time. Rice was a manager at Fringe and Tassel before she began working full time at her store. “It was a frightening step toquil my job and do this,” she said. Rice’s sister is in photography, Rice said. Rice said shortly after Top Drawer opened, two other vintage clothing stores opened: Archibald/Blondie’s and Second Wind. She said she doesn’t feel any com petition with the other stores because everything in her store is unique. “I’ve sent other people to other thrift shops and clothing shops, and they’ve done the same for me,” she said. The store’s prices are varied, but reasonable. “It’sa lot less than you’d pay for the same quality in a newer store,” Rice said. At $117, a silk dress with glass beads from the 1920s is the store’s most expensive item, Rice said. She said few dresses of this style have survived because the beadwork tears the fragile silk. Most dresses, however, are priced from $7 to $40, depending on style, fabric and condition. Men’s suits arc $50 to $60, and women’s suits are $15 to $30. Coals start at $ 15 and go up to $60 for furs. Jewelry sells for $3 to $10. Top Drawer is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays. Two thumbs up for Mellencamp, Brandos .jonn cougar ivieiieniamp, “ I he Lone some Jubilee.” When John Mellcncamp adopted the nom-de-gucrrc “Cougar,” he was supposed to be just another pretty-boy pop icon. For several years he was content with that role. But when he hit national stardom with “American Fool” there were hints that his ambitions were growing. And by the time he made the darkly topical “Scarecrow” album it was crystal clear that John no-longcr Cougar expected to be taken seriously as a musician. At that time few took his bid for respecta bility seriously. Sure, “Scarecrow” was a solid album, but once a popster, always a popster. Not this time. By any standard “The Lonesome Jubilee” is a masterpiece of American rock V roll. As everyone who saw Mcllcncamp’s excruciatingly short FarmAid appearance can testify, the biggest, best change in Mellcncamp’s style comes from his new band — two amazing backing vocalists and six brilliant multi-instrumentalists. Using steel guitars, autoharps, dobros, dulcimers, congas and other neglected bits of musical Americana, all centered on Lisa Germano’s electrifying, possessed fiddle playing, the band produces a sound not even remotely like anything ever heard before on a rock and roll album. The sound is more than rich and expressive enough to commu nicate the many moods and styles Mcllcn camp uses on the album. From the first cut, “Paper In Fire,” a masterpiece of musical texturing, to the last, “Rooty Tool Toot.” a hopeful idyll, "The Lonesome Jubilee” maintains a remarkable unity of theme, while avoiding the contriv ances of most “concept albums.” Mellencamp’s message is that, yeah, things are a real mess, but that we, as indi viduals going about our mundane business, can not only survive, but ultimately con quer. At least we hope we can, because nobody else is going to conquer for us. It’s a familiar theme, but one that stands up under repetition. Mcllcncamp is not a great lyricist, and he probably never will be. Simplicity is a vir tue, but Mcllencamphas trouble drawing the fine line between simple and simplistic. But on “The Lonesome Jubilee,” sup ported b> the strongly textured instrumen tals and Mcllcncamp’s own ever richer, more expressive vocals, his simple songs have a moving sincerity and the ring of real life truth. 1 don’t know if Mcllencamp will be this John Bruce/Daily Nebraskan good again. Bui even if he never again approaches this level of excellence “The Lonesome Jubilee” has guaranteed him a place in America’s rock n’ roll pantheon. As Mellencamp say s at the end of the album; “Sometimes you’re golden, man. Thai’s all I got to say.” — Chris McCubbin The Brandos, “Honor Among Thieves,” (Relativity Records.) The phrase, “bands ol the new sincerity" keeps cropping up. Almost every time it’s heard, someone is apologizing for using it. But as long as we’re making the list, the Brandos may as well be on it. Even the jacket and liner notes breathe sincerity. Nothing tricky, fancy or smirk ingly clever here. There’s almost the eerie feeling of walking into a room fullofsinccr ity—it’s awful sincere inhere. ..almost too sincere. All is not lost, however. The lead track, “Gettysburg,” lives up to any and all expectations, coming at you like one of Johnny Cash’s trains wailing through the misty, fog-shrouded night. With its churning, rhythmic crunch, lurching lead guitar lunges, and especially Dave Kincaid’s howling vocals, “Gettysburg” wakes up the echoes of Crcedencc Clearwa ter Revival, even as its surrealistic, dream like lyrics arc waking up the ghosts of an almost long-forgotten war. One of the four or five best singles of the year. Speaking of CCR, over the course of the album the Dave Kincaid-John Fogerty comparison comes up repeatedly. Obvi ously, someone in this band has spent a lot of time listening to CCR. They even cover Fogcrty’s “Walking On The Water,” Crcedencc circa 1968. Unfortunately, most of the album doesn’t have the same level of quiet intensity that tingles through the spine of “Gettysburg." Throughout, Kincaid’s vocals remain as taut as barbed wire screeching in the wind, but the music occasionally seems forced and uninspired. Thai’s too bad, because the album has its moments of both lyrical and musical inspi ration, even after “Gettysburg.” At the moment the band—guitars/vocals Kincaid, drums/vocals Larry Mason, bass/vocals Ernie Mcndillo, guitars/harmonica Ed Rup prccht — sounds tom between being the most powerful musical force since Led Zeppelin or filling someone’s slot in the record company’s Sincere New American Alternative Band scries. Two cautious thumbs up. — Geoff McMurtry