House Jugular
Fashion in cold places
Fashion in cold places
House Jugular began in 1991 originating as a label for screen printed and ultimately rave clothing. I was able to teach myself to sew with my friend Pam and had access to fabrics from the thrift stores to start making hats and T-shirts. We started burning screens for T-shirt printing and developed a screen an ink that we could flavor and it would hold its lick-ability. Moved out of Pam's parents basement and worked out of my parents garage for a while, then ultimately opening the studio above the HUB Bar in downtown Idaho Falls. I was in the unheated ballroom of two drag queens making giant hats, and bouncing frocks in the sub-zero temperature. Assembling orders to ship across the country to the stores required serious determination.
Small town Idaho Falls Idaho in the snow. Looking down the street in front of my house... into the white.
House Jugular Clothing
Basement photoshoot with friends. We would make a ton of clothes for raves or to tour with Lollapalooza. Before we would head out, we would try and photograph everything. As most of the group was one of a kind due to vintage fabrics or screenprint variations, the photos are really the only record of these garments.
Photos with friends in the drag queens ballroom. lots of love. Some of my earliest sewing attempts. Mostly drapes and fake fur.
House Jugular Clothing
at Hub Bar Studio space in Idaho Falls
at Hub Bar Studio space in Idaho Falls
House Jugular labels and hang tags
Hang tag for items destined for Blue Boutique. I have always had a penchant for something a bit brutal in nature. Shows up once in a while.
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Original House Jugular Label. Hand-screen printed on polyesther ribbon or grosgrain, we would fold under the two raw edges, and topstitch into place nice and flat. All labels were printed with Jugular's top-secret flavored screen-printing ink. You could lick the label. It drove people crazy.
Hang tag for the Rhonda Thunderclap collection. Consisting mostly of color blocked sports mesh and ironed on lettering don at the mall store. Made for Cahoots, Galaxina and Blue Boutique in Salt Lake City. the velvet ironed-on letters would say things like "Coma", "Kill", "Destroy", and "Knife."
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House Jugular Runway Events
This is the invite to one of my first event style fashion shows. I was really focused on making sure there was something ro remember at the event. One of the models rode a scooter to the runway, and was unable to stop, thus crashing off the ramp and into the crowd spilling gasoline. OF course we never rehearsed anything.
Photos and stills from various runway events in my early years designing as Jugular in Salt Lake City. I learned early on the there was no end to the demand for crazier and crazier. I was selling my collection at Blue Boutique, Cahoots, and Galaxina, and occupying the basement of the Bennet Paint and Glass building. Hard winters in a dungeon-like workroom produced bright colors and larger-than-life characters.
Church of Santa Clause
My friend Richard Couch was working on very abstracted outsider art. It was beautiful and compelling in a way that all of the people around us including people at the raves in San Francisco would like to buy. Richard and I would spend hours writing the names of garments and hats for each of my Jugular pieces. We would try to make them as surreal as possible and sitting there naming the articles was very serious business. IT seemed that since the items were constructed of mostly vintage materials, a unique name was necessary for each.
Eventually Richard (St. Thella) would start hand painting tiny cereal boxes with a new brand called "Pickel-Os" They were dehydrated pickle chips, and dehydrated marshmallows that have been soaked in pickle brine. The boxes were each a work of art, when unsuspecting ravers would purchase the Pickel-Os they were always very disappointed, alarmed, puzzled.
The Church of Santa Clause was an organization headed by St. Thella and could be considered a complex obtuse offshoot of Jugular. It had a very religious / art humor. Two Mormons working on something very dark and remote in its meanings. There is a coloring book we produced as a zine. Scan is upcoming.
Of the enormous amounts of painting produced by St. Thella, most of the colectors, or people in the little scene, still have their pieces. Beautifully framed as a memento of these days.
Eventually Richard (St. Thella) would start hand painting tiny cereal boxes with a new brand called "Pickel-Os" They were dehydrated pickle chips, and dehydrated marshmallows that have been soaked in pickle brine. The boxes were each a work of art, when unsuspecting ravers would purchase the Pickel-Os they were always very disappointed, alarmed, puzzled.
The Church of Santa Clause was an organization headed by St. Thella and could be considered a complex obtuse offshoot of Jugular. It had a very religious / art humor. Two Mormons working on something very dark and remote in its meanings. There is a coloring book we produced as a zine. Scan is upcoming.
Of the enormous amounts of painting produced by St. Thella, most of the colectors, or people in the little scene, still have their pieces. Beautifully framed as a memento of these days.
Saint Thella business card from the Church of Santa Clause. He was so cheap he would go around and collect other business cards, and turn them into his own. Each one is a sweet little masterpiece. He would have piles of these just handing them out.
House Jugular Raves and Clubs
After figuring out how to sew clothing, I needed to get it sold somehow. We started throwing rave parties that were actually thinly veiled marketing devices to sell clothing. When you are the only show in town, you are the only show in town. The parties built immediate, large followings. Attendees would develop larger, crazier and more elaborate costumes. It had its own type of pageantry that would probably be considered as a regional thing. It was totally positive, and centered around making things. Whether it be screen printing t-shirts or building party decor on an art crew for over a month. The Jugular rave scene in Idaho Falls united gays and straights and allowed for the first time total acceptance of people.
Planet Horton
The first rave in Idaho Falls was really an elaborate set promotion and hype to get it started. People were completely uneducated about what it was, but in end, ,that didn't really matter. In Idaho, if there is something going on, anything...you HAVE to go. This rave was not completely formulated. The locals really needed to go through their first party, in order to see how we danced and behaved-- then return to the following party, much more organized.
Photos from Planet Horton. The first House Jugular rave party. Held at the "nightclub" Galleria in Rexburg Idaho. Friends from Sacramento Dj the party.
Mr Pesto, our headlining dj was a guy from Sacramento living in the dormitories at BYU Idaho. He had a few techno records, why not. He later becomes a well respected DJ in Salt Lake City and beyond.
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I consider the content of the flier to mostly fiction. The idea was not to really give people everything, but to really craft a mystique based in a carnival crier-like manner. IT went quite well. At 3$ a head, an evening of feverish mind shattering rave...we delivered.
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Yes! Local Press!
Local news drummed up to get the party started. I love the font work! Thank you to Jesse Walker for the scan.
Candy Genie
This rave was such an ambitious project , we were really supporting the raves with the clothing sales at this point. We had met many friends raving and selling our clothing in San Francisco and wanted to bring as many of them to Idaho Falls as we could to help us put on the party. It turned into a very magical time. Pam's parents were out of town and everyone stayed with her in the countryside. The city bound kids from San Francisco had to deal with snow and animals and entertaining yourself. We ended up driving a huge group of people back from San Francisco for the party. The rest of the people flew into Slat Lake City and had to be retrieved all the way up to Idaho. The party was amazing. so happy and creative. The after party was really a two day dress fest. Yes, the angry debutante's ball, which had become yearly tradition.
Candy Genie Flier, made on a photocopier at the grocery store. I saved up to buy the astrobright. I really wanted to make sure I could deliver everything I could that I put on the flier this time. Yes, we had a go-go with a flamethrower. Everyone needed a logo for some reason now.
When the San Francisco kids came to Idaho Falls. We made clothes for most of them, threw parties, fed them, and had the best time when they play that perfect San Francisco House. World fasmous DJ Destructo plays his first gig in Idaho Falls at Candy Genie.
Universe New Year's Eve
I wanted to be sure we had 4 distinct fliers for this event. The images scanned below belonged to Larva. She explained to me that she would lie in bed staring at the fliers. Turning them over and over reading them over and over. Getting lost in the mysterious glamour. She also drew on these fliers. Love. No photos have surfaced of this event. I remember the sound being incredibly loud thanks to Lovechild Entertainment. (Matthew, my friend had nice speakers.)
I wanted to be sure we had 4 distinct fliers for this event. The images scanned below belonged to Larva. She explained to me that she would lie in bed staring at the fliers. Turning them over and over reading them over and over. Getting lost in the mysterious glamour. She also drew on these fliers. Love. No photos have surfaced of this event. I remember the sound being incredibly loud thanks to Lovechild Entertainment. (Matthew, my friend had nice speakers.)
Steel Rhonda-gate
Jesse, the rave promoter, and I wrote this flier over the phone one evening. The parents of Idaho Falls were NOT amused. Jesse's sense of identity for the parties always seemed to require a slightly foreboding, but seriously thrilling flier. The cops were called, ON THE FLIER. Perfect. Oh you better believe Rhonda happened...she was brief, but FIERCE.
Forbidden Planet
This party was held in a de-accessioned mormon church. The owners said that if me and my friends came out and moved all of the benches out, we could have a party. We spent two evenings moving benches and wore ourselves to hell. We started preparing the art direction by printing acres of lick-able wallpaper that we were planning to cover the entier inside of the entry to the hall. Once inside, St. Thella from the Church of Santa Clause had painted enormous murals of animals in outer space. Most of the paintings were 6' long or larger. All with his characteristic style of a very crudely hewn, vigorously abstracted animals with giant diamond rings. By the time the police arrived the team of Dj's and friends from Slat Lake City arrived to witness our version of a rave. All the dark and abstract art direction, relatively low-tech everything, and a room packed with eager beavers who are completely sober save a bit of weed and a wine cooler or two. It was really about the live Church of Santa Clause performance with St. Thella playing an amplified accordian on a ladder as the police enter. Rave.
The officers recounted the multiple incidences in which the police department had been contacted with complaints of Satan worship in the neighborhood. They were required by law to inspect the building. They saw people licking the wallpaper, deafening obtuse accordian, and a full black light treatment, they new they had arrived. The officer actually pointed at one of St. Thella's painted and asked "What's that supposed to be?" I told him it was art. He scoffed and said "not to me." We had to move the party to a hotel by the river. We left all our art behind in the church, and it was gorgeous.
My only party using a map-point to get people around. No cell, or internet, just fliers, and an answering machine. Instructions to meet by the giant indian, and purchase tickets there. You get a map to the pulsing, solid stone and stained glass behemoth situated on a lonely plain behind a windbreak of cotton wood...totally black Idaho skies swirling disco lighting. Photos are still surfacing.
The officers recounted the multiple incidences in which the police department had been contacted with complaints of Satan worship in the neighborhood. They were required by law to inspect the building. They saw people licking the wallpaper, deafening obtuse accordian, and a full black light treatment, they new they had arrived. The officer actually pointed at one of St. Thella's painted and asked "What's that supposed to be?" I told him it was art. He scoffed and said "not to me." We had to move the party to a hotel by the river. We left all our art behind in the church, and it was gorgeous.
My only party using a map-point to get people around. No cell, or internet, just fliers, and an answering machine. Instructions to meet by the giant indian, and purchase tickets there. You get a map to the pulsing, solid stone and stained glass behemoth situated on a lonely plain behind a windbreak of cotton wood...totally black Idaho skies swirling disco lighting. Photos are still surfacing.
Servo Crush
The largest rave production in Idaho Falls for me, the largest party required enormous art direction that absorbed up to 10 people over a couple months of work out the elaborate sets and props.. Stealing large cardboard boxes, sculpting and painting set pieces, roving characters, giant koo-koo clocks, 2 story rolling house of cards. It was a beautiful party of painstakingly hand-made art. All painted cardboard done through the dead of winter in the unheated dancehall of the drag queens that was our workroom. I managed to organize quite a few sponsors for the event including the humane society, limousine service, pagers, intelligent lighting and really heavy sound equipment shipped up to Idaho Falls from Salt Lake City. There were drag queens, a team of Dj's imported from San Francisco. We were shuttled around all evening by a limousine service. I believe I had a carload of friends and we went by a girls house to help her sneak out and climb into the limo to come to the rave. A huge team of helpers built all the props and sets, images are still surfacing of this event. As soon as we opened the doors, all of the t-shirts and Jugular clothing were sold out. The smart bar was literally processing trash bags of money. It all started when my dad had to rig the sound system directly into the hot-leg circuit of the building with car jumper cables. Hillbilly style.
The fliers were produced by Pioneer Printing in Shelly Idaho. They printed them for free if they would allow us to print them on any paper they had available. The colors were insane and the quality was hell. I designed it on the Mac at my piano teachers house. She let me use her computer.
The appearance of the Church of Santa and the live accordion performance at the Forbidden Planet Rave showed the first full tilt art direction at a party to achieve a full environment. Servo Crush was an enormous space to be filled with enormous sets. A wide open space with a half mezzanine was a perfect place for the fur lined Barbarella's Tiki Wonderlounge chill out pit.
The fliers were produced by Pioneer Printing in Shelly Idaho. They printed them for free if they would allow us to print them on any paper they had available. The colors were insane and the quality was hell. I designed it on the Mac at my piano teachers house. She let me use her computer.
The appearance of the Church of Santa and the live accordion performance at the Forbidden Planet Rave showed the first full tilt art direction at a party to achieve a full environment. Servo Crush was an enormous space to be filled with enormous sets. A wide open space with a half mezzanine was a perfect place for the fur lined Barbarella's Tiki Wonderlounge chill out pit.
The pre-requisite item for every Idaho rave was the security pass. This was was quite special. On clear jelly cord, the names of the staff were handwritten on the back and authenticated with a rainbow holigram star.
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Regarding the color theory of the printed materials. It was beautiful. Very propaganda style. I had very limited layout abilities...but hammered you with text as usual. The printer would run the job for free as long as she could choose the paper. I marched all over town top secure our sponsors. I think they thought," why not?" Everyone was really nice.
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Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza was a yearly tour for House Jugular for three years. During this time I would make friends and build accounts across America. It was really a free for all for making clothing and objects to simply thrill people. I was working from the directive of being more toy-like and less clothing-like.
I just LOVE the pull quote. "I.F. team scrounges to design odd clothes." That's how you sell it. Learning how to sew in a small town becomes something newsworthy. I just love everything about this. Community.
A life changing trip to San Francisco. Moontribe beach party, Enrique Calendar signing, first rave at the Russian River Amusement park and my first break-in party with Dj Carlos in San Francisco. My first eye opening. The experiences that inspired House Jugular.