![\"Photo:](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/72.jpg\")
Photo: Amelia King<\/p>\n Photo: Amelia King<\/p>\n
Homegrown Melbourne institu\u00adtion or international cult brand? Fashion label PAM (an acronym for \u201cPerks and Mini\u201d) is both. Started in 2000 by Misha Hollenbach (graffiti name: \u201cPerks\u201d) and Shauna Toohey (\u201cMini\u201d), the graphic streetwear label has created its own niche of exciting, slouchy sportswear that is instantly appealing. It\u2019s a look that has projected them into commercial collaborations with Carhartt and Nike, as well as providing a springboard for more creative collaborations with artist Mike Kelley and a book for the Shanghai Biennale in 2010. This creative flair, however, has had an interesting effect on a certain subsection of their hometown residents, one that borders on ab\u00adsolute devotion. These disciples have been labelled \u201cPamsters\u201d. It\u2019s a term that\u2019s come from outside the group itself, so you won\u2019t find any references to it in Melbourne\u2019s magazines, and the elusive crew don\u2019t congregate on the internet, in sharp contrast to so many of today\u2019s youth tribes. They don\u2019t even have a clear geo\u00adgraphical location within the city \u2013 Melbourne\u2019s small size means that Pamsters\u2019 turf might be lim\u00adited to a single corner. So who are the Pamsters? The clan, like the brand itself, prefer to remain mysterious, but no less dedicated to their cho\u00adsen cause. \u201cSemi-\u00adhigh-\u00adend, with a Japanese influ\u00adence\u201d, \u201cHarajuku girl throwback\u201d, \u201ckind of over the top, dropped crotch, with full yard\u00ad age prints\u201d: this is how Hugo Atkins, owner of Hugs & Kisses club (a common sighting point of Pamsters), describes the style signatures of a Pamster.
\nAs is so often the case with youth tribes, its fashion is inextrica\u00adbly linked to the music \u2013 in this case the club night Bamboo Music, which Misha \u201cPerks\u201d Hollenbach ran for five years with DJ pal Roman Wafers, had a lot to do with the prolifera\u00adtion of the Pamster. \u201cPAM have a huge influence over the younger kids and the party scene. You have a club night and you have clothes: it becomes clubwear,\u201d said Atkins. \u201cThese people iden\u00adtify as a tribe that wears PAM \u2013 Pamsters!\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"PAM,](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/41.jpg\")
PAM, AW 14 “Pro Active Mutation” Menswear Collection<\/p>\n
The sci-fi edge that is evident in Pamsters\u2019 geometric and Japanese style influences has a wider ef\u00adfect than solely for this tribe, however. The fluorescent and hi\u00ad-tech-\u00adinspired creations of Nixi Killick, fashion designer and styl\u00adist, look like they might not even come from this planet, let alone fit into this season\u2019s trends. Killick notes: \u201cMost countries have cultures that are so entrenched, which isn’t a bad thing, it just means there are a lot of things that won’t get to break out.\u201d In contrast, Melbourne\u2019s openness to new things allows its residents to create something entirely their own. And yet it’s undeniable that this “cultural shift” has created opportunities for more creative projects that have no precedent elsewhere to flourish. For example, the Centre for Style provides a space within the city for experimentation that doesn’t rely on steadfast traditions: \u201cI would like to think that CfS is helping to conjure a bourgeoning scene in Melbourne, for people who are experimental in their approach to fashion prac\u00adtice. Strangely enough, even the method of reworking preexisting garments [Susan Cianciolo, Rare Candy], making a collection out of bedsheets [H.B. peace], knit\u00adting plastics [Eckhaus Latta] or imaging a brand without product [Bernadette Corporation, Dolci & Kabana] is somehow still subver\u00adsive in fashion, but it’s this type of propositional approach I think CfS reflects.\u201d Photo: Amelia King Homegrown Melbourne institu\u00adtion or international cult brand? Fashion label PAM (an acronym for \u201cPerks and Mini\u201d) is both. Started in 2000 by Misha Hollenbach (graffiti name: \u201cPerks\u201d) and Shauna Toohey (\u201cMini\u201d), the graphic streetwear label has created its own niche of exciting, slouchy sportswear that is instantly appealing. It\u2019s a look that…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[1861,1516,21,1862,624,1646,1863,1864,1865,680,1866,1867,1868,1518,1869,1687],"class_list":["post-17098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fashion","tag-australia","tag-carhartt","tag-fashion","tag-hugo-atkins","tag-josie-thaddeus-johns","tag-matthew-linde","tag-melbourne","tag-mike-kelley","tag-misha-hollenbach","tag-nike","tag-nixi-killick","tag-pam","tag-pamsters","tag-perks-and-mini","tag-shauna-toohey","tag-sleek-43"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n
\nKillick\u2019s crazy \u201cco\u00adlour tribes\u201d are just one aspect of these things that get to break out in Melbourne like no\u00ad where else. Alongside PAM\u2019s internationally\u00ad renowned high-\u00adfashion streetwear, there is also space for brands like Di$count univer$e, whose slime\u00ad-slogan sequins have been spotted on Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry, and Witu, whose style approach is to make everything out of neo\u00adprene, especially in pastel hues.
\nDespite the ap\u00adparent contrast of the Pamsters\u2019 effortless cool with the fizzing experimentalism of other Melbourne\u00ad-based groups, there is a uni\u00adfying attitude in the fashion tribes of the city: to set new stan\u00addards for subcultures, instead of deferring to established tropes of Punks, Clubbers or Goths. \u201cThere is so much intermingling of different \u2018tribes\u2019. The idea of all those different chunks is so much more mashed,\u201d Killick ex\u00adplains. This mixing creates a sup\u00adportive atmosphere in the creative community, no matter what the particular style is. \u201cThere’s a lot of Melbourne\u00ad-made pride,\u201d Killick adds. \u201cEveryone’s trying to raise the creative bar together.\u201d
\nBut what are the reasons behind the city\u2019s creative hive mentality? For a start, Melbourne is something of an outlier, and, given that Australia itself is at a geographical distance from the traditional western axis of culture, the city is a hub for non\u00adconform\u00adists. \u201cAnyone who’s interested in art or fashion will come here. This is where you come to make your mark,\u201d explains Atkins. Matthew Linde, founder of the Centre for Style<\/a>, a retail space that is also a hub for experimen\u00adtal fashion practice, agrees with this assessment: \u201cIf you’re born in Australia and have artistic desires, 99% will leave their hometown to move to Melbourne. So, you have this smaller metropolis filled to the brim with galleries, music venues, studios, and so on. We have a horrible, disgusting white colonial genocidal past but in terms of cultural shifts, colonial Australia is quite young.Burdened by this history, we now have to try and change things for the better.\u201d
\nThis past is far from irrelevant to Melbourne’s youth subcultures with, widespread criticism of P.A.M., as well as protests at their exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria, for their T-shirts emblazoned with “The Natives Are Restless” and unmistakeably blackfaced cartoons. The question is: who has this “blank slate” come at the expense of?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Nixi](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/25.jpg\")
Nixi Killick. Photo: Amelia King<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe have this opportunity to create our own culture,\u201d Killick says, by way of a conclusion. When you start from scratch, every step is a chance for something new.
\nText by Josie Thaddeus-Johns<\/strong> \nTaken from\u00a0Sleek 43, Youth\/Truth<\/a><\/strong> \nSee more of our favourite Melbourne looks below<\/strong> \n
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