The summer this year for me has been full of change, fun times, and unforgiving temperatures- making it one of the most memorable as of late. With the peak of summer coming to a close, I’d like to share some items I’ve acquired for the months of July and August that feature cool clothes and accessories, video games, books, trinkets and much more! Hope everyone’s summer has treated them well and thank you for reading as always!
👕👔Comme Des Garçons Shirt
The mainstay brand Comme Des Garçons, who encompasses many sub labels under their umbrella, has been around for decades- innovating in countless areas of fashion, accessories, fragrances and much much more! my first encounters of discovering Comme Des Garçons have been with collaborations with Supreme, Converse and Nike to name a few, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve always loved what Comme Des Garçons Shirt does with the clothing staple everyone has worn in their life time- the button-up shirt! Seeing CDG Shirt playing with patterns, texture and shape has made me an avid fan and I finally got the opportunity to purchase this shirt at a great price from a vendor at the Sacramento Antique Market that happens every month!
This shirt come in all black and features this raised textured pattern through out with a black panel on the chest that gives a break to the pattern in an interesting way! It Also features iridescent buttons on the front and cuffs that adds another cool touch. Overall, it’s a plain black button up with cool nuances that make it all the more sweeter to look at up close that’ll be paired in dozens of different ways!
⌚️🏎️Trinkets: Vintage Watch and Hot Wheel
Here are a couple of small trinkets that I also acquired at the Sacramento Antique Market that were some cool finds!
First up is this cool vintage watch that I found that had a square bezel with a gunmetal finish and brown strap. It illustrates a bag of gold and money with some Japanese text that i’m not sure what it translates to, but I’d like to imagine it’s along the lines of “time is money”- real bag chasers only. If any readers may know what it says, please comment down below :). Last thing I got was this Hot Wheel of Johnny Tran’s Honda S2000 from The Fast and The Furious franchise! I love the first 3 movies from the series so much and I wanna collect all my favorites from them, so this will be added to the collection and I hope I can find the rest!
🎮🌸🚀Pikmin 4
A series like this doesn’t come very often- having 3 games prior that didn’t gain the most popularity due to the niche genre it helms. Some might see it as just an unapproachable “Real Time Strategy” game, but it’s so much more! I’ve loved playing each game in the series since the beginning and after almost 10 years since Pikmin 3, we finally have Pikmin 4.
This time around, it’s the custom character of your choice yet again crash landing onto PNF 404- trying to find your space colleagues and rescue the remaining members who’ve been stranded on the planet. The emphasis is trying to find Pikmin veteran Olimar who has gone missing. In between all of this, you’re set out to explore different areas and use the cute and adorable Pikmin to aid in your missions. This time, there’s a new companion in the series, Oatchi- a cute space dog who makes this game SO much more enjoyable due to the extra control he provides. He can be used to travel areas much faster, be commanded to pick up items, stand guard, and makes battling enemies a breeze. With all these quality of life improvements making the game far more fun and accessible to everyone, you might think they’ve dumbed down the game to appeal to the general audience, but there’s still a lot of challenge the farther you get. With the cave dungeons returning from Pikmin 2, they’ve brought back some grueling memories of being stuck in some difficult situations as a kid trying to beat cave after cave. On top of that, there’s a new night section of the game that introduces a tower defense mode that I found a lot of challenge and fun with! This mode has you go up against a frenzy of enemies big and small as you try to defend your Luminol tower or towers- aided by your glow Pikmin that only come out at night or in caves.
I’ve sunken 40+ hours collecting every treasure, rescuing every member and seeing all the cool things Pikmin 4 has to offer! PLEASE if you love cute things, exploration, creatures and fun, give the game a shot (there’s even a demo if you’re on the fence about buying!)
👖🧢Cool Jeans and A Funny Hat
It isn’t a Caveman Corner pickups if I haven’t talked about pants or hats! I got two pair of jeans with cool details and baggy fits, and a cool cord hat in this faded red/pink color that I’ve never styled before. The first pair of jeans is from “Go Up”, which I could not find listings for the brand on most sites, so I’m not sure if they’re still around. Still, they fit so damn good and got the shoe/pant interaction I so desperately love. Next pair of jeans is an old reliable pair of Levi’s, but I’ve never came across this model! I believe it’s a reissue of one of the first models released due to the single pocket and the placement of it. What separates it from the OG model is the ankle cuff that comes in a unique almost wave pattern and even the paneling from the thigh up is non traditional- making these something special!
Lastly, this hat is something I’d thought I would never wear and found myself liking how it looked! This paperboy ass hat comes in a dusty pink corduroy and features a short brim and beret-type fit that I’m somewhat familiar with- having a leather beret I wear often. Every time I wear it, I feel like Mario’s distance relative- especially in some jeans.
🎶Persona 25th Anniversary Vinyl Boxset
The Persona series had just celebrated its 25th anniversary last year- as Atlus showcased cool items they’ll be releasing during the year that featured small trinkets like keychains, acrylic stands, pencil cases, stickers, art cards and much more. One of the biggest items featured had to be this Persona Vinyl Boxset that features music from each main title in the series! When a Persona fan tries to pitch the series to a newcomer, chances are the music will be mentioned and for good reason. Each game had it‘s own sound that ranged from electronic, hip-hop, jazz, rock, and pop to name a few. Persona 3 is definitely my favorite soundtrack out of them all because of the hip-hop/rap influence coming from Lotus Juice- especially the main battle and dorm room themes!
The Vinyl boxset itself is beautifully packaged and presented with all the school crests from each game and has all the MC’s and their respective color schemes. Every vinyl set features it’s own cover- including the sleeves for each vinyl that illustrate key points in each game in gorgeous colors and designs! Even the vinyl’s themselves are all differently colored to match the games color schemes- such a great touch to the overall package! Unfortunately this boxset was only available for pre order way back- only recently getting it after waiting a year and a half for its arrival. If you really want to listen to the music, please listen to it on your streaming platform of choice or to all of my physical lovers, you can buy the CD versions for WAY cheaper!
📚UNDERCOVER JUN TAKAHASHI Book
This book was a gift from Mel for our 4 year anniversary, so thank you! ❤️ To add to the book collection of my favorite designers comes “Jun Takahashi’s Undercover”. A designer label full of history and innovation deserves to be documented and studied for everyone to see. This book goes from Jun’s humble beginnings co-owning the NOWHERE shop with Nigo as well as his first runway show in 1994. From there, we are shown Undercover collections from 1995 all the way to 2016 such as “Paper Doll”, “Melting Pot”, SCAB, LANGUID and more. Seeing these beautiful, inventive and groundbreaking collections page by page is great to look back at for inspiration from the great Jun Takahashi!
🎮PlayStation 5
PlayStation has been around for 25+ years and I’ve kept up with each system since the hand-me-down PS1 system I received from an uncle and since then, I have so many memories with each console- shaping me to the video game loving person I am today! From Crash and Spyro platforming, to old arcade game compilations my dad loved, and the first online gaming experience I had with the Call of Duty franchise. PlayStation set me up with loads of fun times!
Enter the PlayStation 5- the latest and greatest from Sony. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t In a big rush to acquire the PS5 due to no heavy hitter games in the future- until recently with exclusives like Spider-Man 2, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2, Final Fantasy 16 and third-party games like Street Fighter 6, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Persona 3 Remake, and Metaphor: ReFantazio to name a few. Another big factor that made me want one is that I can play my backlog of PS4 games with the backwards compatibility it provides and it even improves the frame rate and resolution to most PS4 games- finally seeing most games run at a stable 60 FPS! I even love the controller- how it feels in hand and the cool features such as dynamic triggers and HD rumble that make games even more immersive. I do have a gripe with the console design and how big it is- coming from the perfectly sized PS4 and slim iterations of the rest, but I do get that they needed to keep cooling, air-flow and power in mind. Overall, I’m quite happy to finally complete the trinity of modern gaming systems I truly need for exclusives and multi-plats- being the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and PC! I can’t wait to create more gaming memories for the years to come.