Photo of Sofia Coppola and Kim Gordon via The Vinyl Club.
Recently I've been so intrigued with X-Girl, the 1990s indie fashion label started by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and stylist Daisy Von Furth (Remember this video? Von Furth styled it). There's not much on offer about the now-defuct brand online (although it is still going strong in Japan), but luckily I was able to convince Haydee Sentianin of the style blog Happenstance to give a first-person account of the trend.
I honestly don't think there has ever been a brand since X-Girl that has been surrounded and endorsed by such a major cast of cool kids. We're talking about designers Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Daisy Von Furth, and active endorsements by Sofia Coppola, Chloe Sevigny, Ione Skye and Kathleen Hanna of the band Bikini Kill—all stylish talented tomboys in their own right. The idea behind X-Girl was to feminize designs for the skater girl/riot grrrl while maintaining a tomboy edge. My friends and I could not get enough of this line, it truly became our identity. Whenever we had the chance, we would head up from Long Beach to the X-Large store (of which X-Girl was an offshoot) on Vermont Avenue where they sold the line exclusively in Los Angeles. Our favorite pieces were the Dickies-inspired pants, A-line dresses, and of course the quintessential X-Girl item: the ringer tee. Anything with the X-Girl logo made me feel as if I was part of an underground, ultra-hip movement. The feeling of exclusivity X-Girl bestowed on us is something I have yet to experience again. It was an incredible time. Luckily there is video footage of the very first X-Girl fashion show (organized by Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze) which took place on the streets of Soho in 1994—not sure if it gets any more tomboy than that. —Haydee Sentianin
Do you have any X-Girl memories?
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