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Shopping With... Jason Hill and Brian Karscig of Louis XIV
Lauren David Peden Fri Jul 8, 5:40 PM ET
Fashion Wire Daily - New York: Pssst. Wanna know a secret? Promise not to tell? Okay then, here goes: The boys of preeningly macho rock band Louis XIV like to wear women's clothing.
Indeed, like their 1970s glam rock predecessors David Bowie, T. Rex, Mott the Hoople and The New York Dolls (all of whom they resemble musically and visually), the San Diego-based quartet are not shy about their love of the ladies - or ladies' clothing.
"You know, it's funny, but I don't even know my size in men's," confided lead singer Jason Hill when Fashion Wire Daily met he and guitarist Brian Karscig at Beacon's Closet in Williamsburg one recent afternoon. (Drummer Mark Maigaard and bassist James Armbrust where scheduled to join them later that evening for their gig at the nearby club, Warsaw.) "I'm a size 6 in women's."
So why the cross-dressing tendencies?
"Have you checked out a regular pair of men's jeans?" queried Hill. "You can literally wrap yourself up in them! I always wear women's pants and have everything tailored to fit."
Decked out in his signature gray pinstripe pants, shirt and "waistcoat" (all vintage), offset by stacked-heel boots and a pink-and-black striped tie from Saks Fifth Avenue, Hill was the very picture of a rock and roll dandy. Ditto Karscig, who sported black pinstriped pants, a sparkly "Mustang Ranch" tee, white dinner jacket and - in a nod to his sartorial idol, Keith Richards - black eyeliner ("The $2 kind from Savon") that accentuated his big brown peepers.
Hill told us he had his shoes custom made in Mexico because they "have good heels."
"I don't think I could play onstage in tennis shoes," he added. "I would just feel lazy. I need to sweat for it, you know? Be a little bit uncomfortable."
Karscig nodded in agreement but said he was not happy with the uber-pointy, high-heeled white boots he was currently wearing.
"I have a favorite pair that I wear every day - I never take them off," he said. "But I was reaching for something on the [tour] bus earlier and the whole heel just blew out. These are a little..." He stopped, threw his hands up in the air and stomped his feet while clapping and whistling, flamenco-style. "I feel very mariachi in them."
The twentysomething duo - whose debut album "The Best Little Secrets Are Kept" is one of the most buzzed-about releases of the year thanks to the hit single "Finding Out True Love Is Blind" - described their style as "gentlemanly at all times."
During our shopping excursion, Hill and Karscig were also gentlemanly at all times, which came as a bit of a surprise as we weren't sure what to expect after watching their nudity-laden "God Killed the Queen" video and listening to their CD, which is awash in winkingly naughty, quasi-sexist lyrics. (Sample: "Sing, sing me a song/And bang me like the girls in Hong Kong/And I know I'm not correct/But politics are so much better when there's sex" - all delivered over some of the hookiest riffs we've heard in a long, long time.)
"We didn't set out to make a glam '70s record," explained Karscig as we entered the three-room vintage mecca that is Beacon's Closet. "That just comes out in some of the things we do. It was more like an artistic thing. We didn't want to do anything commercial."
The band, which formed in 2003, recorded their first eponymous EP in a friend's flat in Paris over a two-week period, and took the process very seriously, right down to the clothes they wore while writing and rehearsing.
"We dressed really nice every time we went [into the studio]," said Hill. "We were really proper about the way we approached it because we were just really excited about everything we were making and what the sound was."
The rest of the world clearly shared their excitement about Louis XIV's sound, as witnessed by the radio airplay (here and in the UK), media buzz (laudatory articles in "Esquire," "EW," "Stuff" and "Rolling Stone"), and invites to tour with The Killers and play this summer's Lollapalooza - all of which began even before they released their full-length Atlantic debut in March. (You can find the band's complete bio and tour info at www.louisxiv.net.)
They stopped at the top of the staircase and paused to take in the acres of vintage treasures laid out before them.
"I want something purple real bad," announced Karscig, who added that black and white was his favorite color combo.
"I tend to wear a lot of pink, but you know, now that spring's coming around I think I want to get into yellow; it's sort of uncharted territory for me," countered Hill. "God, I feel like such a girl for saying that."
So did they ever buy new clothes?
"Well, what can we afford?" laughed Hill before asking Karscig about a jacket the guitarist had fallen in love with at one of their recent video shoots.
"[It was] Christian Dior," explained Karscig as they entered the men's department on the left hand side of the store. "The wardrobe lady was like, 'that's a $3,000 suit' and I was like, okay, never mind..."
He headed over to a rack of $3 ties, while Hill began scouring a rounder of dress shirts. He tried on three shirts - all yellow - one of which (Yves St. Laurent, $16.95) fit to his liking.
Karscig, meanwhile had picked out a royal blue button-down ($17.95) and several ties (including a $7 patterned clip-on for their bassist, who they claimed did not know how to tie a tie), then headed into the women's department.
We trailed along and asked him how he got into music.
"I don't know," Karscig replied, looking thoughtful. "It's just what I do. I played piano until I was about 13, but once you get to that age, the kids are cruel. I got a lot of ridicule in the world of becoming a man, going to piano recitals on the weekends while everyone else was getting into fights or whatever boys do. Then when I was 15, I saw the Rolling Stones live and saw Keith Richards play guitar, and I knew I wanted to play guitar. Now I like to play both [piano and guitar] and sing."
We left him to browse and went over to see what Hill, who was now on the other side of the women's section, had scored: The YSL shirt, a brown striped vest, and several ties, one of which was either a bow tie or an ascot (it was hard to tell).
"Oh, I grabbed that by mistake," he said. "I don't think I even know how to tie a bow tie."
Hill unfurled the tie, which was comprised of two pieces of yellow satin fabric held together with a metal fastener, and held it up to his neck, puzzled.
"I don't know how it works but there is something interesting about it," he said. "I want to figure it out." He tossed the bow tie-ascot-whatever onto his pile of loot, which he had draped over a rack of dresses, and briefly paused to consider a pair of (gray pinstriped) pants and try on a (gray pinstriped) jacket. He nixed them both.
"I need a belt," he said, leading us to the belt display near the front door. He grabbed a thick pink belt with brass studs and rhinestones ($5.95), which fit perfectly. (Clearly, Hill was not yet ready to kick his pink habit, despite his earlier announcement.)
He was joined by Karscig, who was now wearing a bright red corduroy jacket with gold buttons and a new pair of sunglasses, having just broken the pair he had bought the day before in Montreal ("I had 'em in my pocket and they snagged on one of these clothing racks").
"I don't have time for the hunt anymore," said Karscig of his love of thrift shopping. "But I dig this; it's fun. I love looking around."
Hill was equally enthused by the Williamsburg hipster hotspot ("It's beautiful and packed with stuff!")
Karscig laughed and proceeded to try on several ill-fitting hats, much to Hill's amusement. Hill wandered off, and Karscig turned his attention to the wall of bags.
"I always look for good women's purses because you can always put a new strap on it," he explained.
So was there a particular style he preferred?
"Something with room," he replied. "I have a really big phone, a camera, and I like to have my iPod everywhere I go...."
Hill reappeared in a green satin bomber jacket embroidered with dragons and tigers ($29.95).
"I have to get this," he crowed.
"It would be sacrilege if I didn't get these for sure," Karscig countered, holding up a pair of kitschy black socks emblazoned with white musical notes.
He threw two pair of the socks next to the register and, $195.44 later, the two headed over to Warsaw to r-o-c-k like the cross-dressing macho men they are.