Gus loved Ed Hardy’s style.  One of his favorite shirts for a long time was one he bought on one of those rare trips to the mall with Emma.  I remember the day he came home with that t-shirt.  For some reason, I feel like I remember him giving a couple of shirts to his friends too.  That Ed Hardy t-shirt was definitely his favorite.  It even went with him to meet Schemaposse for his first performance—in February, 2016. 

JGrxxn took a picture of Gus in it by the side of the road on their drive home to Pasadena from Tucson.  Anyway, Gus loved the shirt, the picture, and the designer.
 

I asked Emma to tell me what she remembered about that Ed Hardy t-shirt. This is what she told me:

“…the story about the Ed Hardy shirt, so Gus didn’t like going shopping at all but I convinced him to go to the mall one day. On the way there we made a trip to Jeans for Less in Rockville Centre, which was a place where they had discounted Levi’s and just a bunch of stuff that other stores had stopped selling--dead stock stuff--and there was a bunch of dead stock Ed Hardy. Gus was so excited. There was a man there named Angel who liked me because I was going there all the time.  He ended up giving us all the shirts for like 20 bucks and there were something like four Ed Hardy shirts and there was a band shirt that he got that day too, but that Ed Hardy shirt was the one that he liked the best.”

Sometime later, Gus also bought himself an Ed Hardy ashtray.

And then, in June, 2017, when he was in London, Gus went to the tattoo parlor to get a tattoo on his skull. (He had just shaved his head.) 

He decided on an original Ed Hardy design.

He posted that design on his Instagram page to let the rest of us know what was about to happen. 

I remember seeing that, and thinking, "Oh man. Well, that is his style."

When Gus was at the parlor he noticed a picture of Ed Hardy’s California Girls design. He snapped a pic of that one, too.

And then posted that one on his page as well.

When some of Gus's belongings were sent back to us after Gus died, I found this cashmere sweater among the smelly t-shirts, odd socks, and cut off pants.

So, knowing Gus’s love for the Ed Hardy style, Oskar and I knew it would be awesome to try to collaborate with Ed Hardy to celebrate the re-release of the California Girls EP with a classic Ed Hardy design on a classic and very current t-shirt and hoody.  We think this is very special.