🇸🇬WEARABLE STORIES/VINTAGE POP CULTURE

Eight years is a long time to watch the world change. We have seen people come and go. Friends with similar dreams open their doors, then close them again. Shoutout DT, RG. We miss you. When we started Loop Garms, all we wanted was to add colour to the scene. To show that there could be more. More variety, more stories, more ways of seeing. We wanted to prove to our own people that what we have here on home ground can stand alongside the things we admire overseas. The things we place on a pedestal without hesitation, yet struggle to show the same love when they are made in Singapore. We built a space for that, and we loved every moment of it. Maybe we are the foolish ones for still holding on. Running a business in Singapore has never been easy. The market is small, the fight is constant, and sometimes it feels like shouting into a void, hoping to be heard, hoping to be understood, hoping to be loved. We started this store in our mid twenties with big dreams and endless energy. Eight years later, we are at a very different stage of life. The dreams have changed shape. Smaller, more humble. The reality has grown heavier. But we are still here. To those who have walked through our doors, spent time in this space, shared conversations, trusted our taste, and allowed us to be part of your lives, thank you for letting this place be your home, your anchor, your safe haven. And to those who have interacted with us personally, you know we are all heart. Thank you for seeing that in us. Loop Garms. Eight years on, still the same pop culture vintage clothing store, specialising in pieces from the 70s to 00s. Love, Isaac, FJ See you Wednesday to Sunday, 1pm to 6.30pm, as always 🤙

In 2018, it was just the two of us - long hours, short breaks, and a stubborn kind of love for the work. Now we’re back to that same rhythm: fewer hands, fuller days, and the quiet satisfaction of building something slow and steady. We’re now 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝗪𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝟏𝐩𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝟔.𝟑𝟎𝐩𝐦. 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝, but if you’d like to swing by, just drop us a DM to make an appointment. We’ve also got a 𝟐𝟒/𝟕 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞 at loopgarms.sg if the itch hits after hours. And for everything else that’s not listed, whether it’s about a piece you saw on our IG, or just to tell us that chicken rice spot we recommended slapped - DM us. We’ll be around 🙏❤️🌻

It'sssss Serving You Loops! In this episode, we chat about t-shirt blends, stitching, copyrighting/licensing, and tags/textile tags, and shared some tips and guides on how to identify true vintage more accurately and confidently.⁣ ⁣ Though a lengthy one, our heart was poured into this and we really hope the video is valuable in providing you helpful information on your journey to discovering and appreciating vintage clothing.⁣ ⁣ There's definitely more factors and things to chat about, but we feel that these are some good starting points to begin with :)⁣ ⁣ PLEASE PLEASE DO LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS WHAT YOU'D LIKE TO SEE FROM US IN FUTURE EPISODES!⁣ ⁣ Credits at the end of the video. Shoutouts to our brother @vyndicate_ for the tunes used in this video ❤️⁣ ⁣ With love,⁣ Loop Garms

You know how some horror games make you feel tense? Dead Space 2 makes you feel like your nervous system has been personally subscribed to a premium anxiety package. So you play as Isaac Clarke, who is literally just an engineer. Not a super soldier. Not some chosen one with magic blood and a six-pack carved by war. Just a guy whose coping mechanism is weaponised construction tools. After surviving the absolute nightmare of the first game, he wakes up on this giant space station called The Sprawl orbiting Titan, only to discover, somehow, things have gotten even worse. And by worse, I mean mutant flesh monsters in hospitals, schools, apartment blocks, shopping centres. Basically every normal place becomes somewhere you would rather immediately resign from existence. Also the game teaches you very quickly that shooting enemies in the head is useless. No no. You take the limbs off. Surgical. Efficient. Slightly concerning how quickly you get used to it. But that’s why it rules. It’s not just gore for the sake of gore, it’s this insane mix of action, horror, and Isaac slowly losing his mind because he’s being haunted by Nicole, his dead girlfriend, while this evil alien artifact called the Marker is basically microwaving everyone’s brains. One minute you’re feeling like an action hero, next minute you’re walking through a nursery at half speed because every instinct in your body is screaming “absolutely not.” It’s one of those rare sequels that genuinely goes bigger without losing what made the original so good. If the first Dead Space was trapped-in-space dread, Dead Space 2 is that same dread except now it can sprint directly at your face. 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝟎𝟎𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝟐 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨 𝐓𝐞𝐞

Naruto episode 126/127 Gaara vs Kimimaro. Peak. 00𝒔 𝑵𝒂𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒐 ‘𝑮𝒂𝒂𝒓𝒂’ 𝑻𝒆𝒆

KITE (1998) is what happens when late-90s anime decided subtlety was for cowards. A 2-episode OVA directed by Yasuomi Umetsu, it follows Sawa, a schoolgirl assassin caught in a brutal spiral of corruption, revenge, and some deeply disturbing manipulation at the hands of the adults around her. It’s stylish, grimy, controversial as hell, and absolutely not for everyone, which probably explains why it became such a cult title. What people do agree on: the animation still goes hard. Hyper-violent action sequences, razor-sharp character designs, and that unmistakable neo-noir urban rot that made certain 90s anime feel like they smelled faintly of cigarettes and bad decisions. Fun fact: Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino reportedly recommended it to Chiaki Kuriyama during prep, and even No Doubt’s “Ex-Girlfriend” music video borrowed from its visual language. A difficult watch. A cult artifact. The kind of anime recommendation that comes with a disclaimer and a long pause after “trust me.” 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝟵𝟬𝘀/𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝟬𝟬𝘀 ‘𝗞𝗶𝘁𝗲’ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼 𝗧𝗲𝗲

Next up, introducing our favourite neighbours from Tanjong Pagar, @arkive___store , along with the friendliest folks who kickstarted Singapore’s post-millennial second-hand fashion revolution, @stakeoutstakeout & @loopgarms . Fun fact: this is their very first out-of-home pop-up after nearly a decade of operations! SWIPE TO LEARN MORE! @seeseelooklook.market 👀🛍️ Supper House 37 Keppel Rd, Unit 04-02, S089064 Sat, 6 - Sun, 7 June 2026 12-8PM #archivefashion #visitsingapore #wheretogo #sgevents #singaporeshopping

Somewhere in 1996, at the peak of the HIStory era, Michael Jackson decided the logical next move after redefining pop music was… hydration. Enter Mystery: an officially licensed Michael Jackson isotonic drink sold in parts of Europe, loaded with vitamins, minerals, fruit extracts, and the kind of branding that suggests if you drank enough of it, you might spontaneously nail the Dangerous choreography in your kitchen. What makes Mystery so compelling is how perfectly it fits into the strange architecture of Michael Jackson mythology. Not because it was extravagant, but because it was oddly specific. A tour-tied sports drink called Mystery feels less like merchandise and more like a forgotten artefact from some parallel 90s pop culture dimension. The documented facts are straightforward: it was real, officially licensed, and linked to the HIStory World Tour. Beyond that, the haze rolls in, which somehow makes it even better. An unopened can today reads more like evidence than it does beverage. And now, with Jaafar Jackson portraying Michael in the new biopic, these strange little relics feel newly relevant. Because the Michael Jackson story was never just a timeline of albums and performances. It was spectacle, mythmaking, hyper-commercialisation, fascination at a scale few artists have ever touched. Even something as mundane as a sports drink gets absorbed into the legend and comes back decades later looking impossibly cool. That’s the thing about cultural phenomena this large. Even the footnotes have lore. 𝟗𝟎𝐬 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐨𝐧 “𝐌𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐲” 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨 𝐓𝐞𝐞 (𝐈𝐧 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝗪𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐫)

Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, originally serialized from 1999 to 2006, begins with the kind of childhood nonsense everyone had. friends invent a secret symbol, make up apocalyptic scenarios, probably feel very clever for an afternoon. then adulthood arrives and someone appears to be using those exact fantasies as an actual blueprint for global collapse. what follows is conspiracy thriller, cult horror, political paranoia, and generational trauma all folded into one giant slow-burn panic attack. at the centre is Kenji, a failed musician turned convenience store owner, forced into a war against a mysterious cult leader known only as Friend. if you’ve ever trusted someone from primary school, congratulations. unfortunate. the live-action trilogy dropped fast: 2008 (Beginning of the End), 2009 (The Last Hope), and 2009 (Redemption), which is frankly insane pacing for adapting one of manga’s most sprawling puzzle boxes. critics were mixed, mostly because compressing Urasawa paranoia and emotional whiplash into theatrical runtimes is like trying to fit an existential crisis into a carry-on. but even sceptics gave credit to the scale and ambition, while fans appreciated how faithfully the films recreated Urasawa’s iconography. Friend remains deeply cursed in live action. the manga still hits harder because paranoia needs time to ferment, but these promo tees come from one of the boldest manga adaptations Japan ever attempted. if that symbol means something to you, your trust issues probably started early.

The Bonez Tour (2004 to 2005) was Avril Lavigne’s Under My Skin era in full black eyeliner parliament mode. If Let Go was the mall-friendly “complicated” adolescence of ties over tank tops and saying “ugh” at boys, Under My Skin was the sequel where the diary got a lock on it and the handwriting became more aggressive. This was Avril at peak “don’t look at me, but also everyone look at me immediately.” The tour kicked off in Europe before sprawling across North America, Asia, Australia, and beyond, with stage visuals that leaned into gothic-lite teen catharsis: giant skull motifs, moody lighting, enough hot topic energy to power a suburban district. The title itself, Bonez, sounds exactly like something a 19-year-old would think was both edgy and profound, which is precisely why it worked. This was also the era where Avril’s image sharpened from pop-punk brat to full emotionally exhausted mall poet laureate. Her live delivery in this era had that specific early-2000s quality where sincerity was only acceptable if delivered with at least 15 percent visible annoyance. And yes, teenage listeners worldwide absolutely internalised this as the highest form of emotional literacy. Why process your feelings quietly when you could stare out of a bus window imagining a music video? What makes the Bonez Tour oddly enduring is how perfectly it bottled a very specific cultural flavour of teenage suffering that felt enormous at the time. Not actual adult horrors like tax audits or lower back pain from sleeping incorrectly, but the spiritually catastrophic pain of someone not texting back on MSN Messenger. Avril occupied that sweet spot where the angst felt authentic enough to matter, but polished enough to sell out arenas. Plenty of artists did heartbreak. Avril made it feel like a constitutional identity crisis in striped arm warmers. 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟓 𝐀𝐯𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝐋𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐳 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐞 (𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐋𝐞𝐠 𝟐)

Six episodes of suburban boredom detonated by flying guitars, speeding Vespas, giant irons, and emotions nobody knows how to explain properly. The series never slows down long enough to spell itself out, which is exactly why it still works. Beneath the noise sits a story about adolescence that feels strangely honest. Growing up in FLCL isn’t inspirational or poetic. It’s awkward, frustrating, embarrassing, and loud. Adults posture like they have all the answers while the kids quietly realize they absolutely do not. A massive part of the anime’s identity comes from the pillows. Not just the soundtrack, but the entire soul of the series. Ride on Shooting Star, Little Busters, Hybrid Rainbow, the rough guitar tones, the restless pacing, the slightly melancholic energy — remove the pillows and FLCL immediately loses half its personality. Their music gives the chaos momentum and gives the quieter moments weight. The anime moves to the rhythm of the band. Even today, it’s almost impossible to talk about FLCL without talking about the pillows in the same breath. What made FLCL stand out was how comfortable it was with being messy. Scenes switch animation styles without warning, jokes arrive in rapid fire bursts, and emotional moments crash directly into absurd comedy. Somehow it all holds together. There are anime with bigger stories, deeper lore, and cleaner narratives, but very few capture the confusion of youth with this much style and sincerity. FLCL understood that growing up rarely feels graceful. Sometimes it just feels like noise turned all the way up. 𝟎𝟎𝐬 𝐅𝐋𝐂𝐋 𝐓𝐞𝐞

In 2011, Stüssy and Marvel linked up like two kids in the same classroom who absolutely should not be sitting together. Stüssy went digging through comic conventions, forgotten backrooms and deep eBay rabbit holes to pull vintage Marvel artwork straight from the 60s to the 90s, scanning original covers and posters directly into the collection. Suddenly Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Punisher, Silver Surfer, Doctor Octopus and Doctor Doom all looked like they’d spent a summer skating through Venice Beach and smoking outside a record store. Two pop culture giants colliding headfirst and somehow making each other cooler in the process. Then Series 2 arrived and got even stranger. Stüssy handed Marvel’s characters over to artists like David Shrigley, Gary Panter, Todd James, James Jarvis and Bill Plympton, who promptly bent them into weird little alternate dimensions. Every tee also came with collectible trading cards, because real ones understood that just owning the shirt wasn’t enough, you also needed side quests. And honestly, Doctor Doom might’ve aged the best out of all of them. Especially now, with the entire internet spiralling over the upcoming Doomsday film and Marvel pulling the most comic-book move imaginable by bringing back Robert Downey Jr. for a major MCU role. So he IS Doom? Is he a variant? Is Tony Stark about to suffer the world’s most expensive identity crisis? Nobody knows. Answers only land at the end of the year. Until then, Doom remains undefeated at making grown adults turn into conspiracy theorists with Reddit tabs open at 3am. 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟏 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐲 𝐱 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐃𝐫. 𝐃𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐓𝐞𝐞