Fashion with suburban Philly roots
Submitted by jstudent on Tue, 2007-11-13 23:46.The Ghosticorn cometh
The search for a band name leads to a new T-shirt company
By Joe Student
Philly EDGE Editor
While there are only unconfirmed reports of the Yardley Yeti, the dog-like, bobcat-looking beast allegedly spotted near the Delaware River town, a Ghosticorn is being seen all over Bucks and Montgomery counties.
“We print shirts in Bucks (Warminster), and take them to Montgomery; It’s still a rare sight but, hopefully, that’s changing,” Ron Foligno, 34, of Ardmore said of the character that he and artist Todd Marrone, 33, of Narberth, created. The duo has been printing the image on T-shirts, which they are distributing through their Web site (www.ghosticorn.com) and at retailers in the suburbs (Spectrum Board Shop, Ardmore) and City (Jinxed Clothing, South 4th St.).
Marrone, who coined the sophomoric name and draws the creature, spent his formative years in Bristol, Levittown and Morrisville.
“Legend has it, the very first time I was given a crayon, I drew a face, totally bypassing the typical ‘juvenile scribbling stage,’” Marrone stated on a post on his Web site.
Now, he turns out stylings of the mythical Ghosticorn, including one depicting the best parts of it to eat, and another with its likeness as bling.
Like all good legends, however, the Ghosticorn has its roots in a quest.
Marrone and Foligno, along with five other friends, were conducting one of the most difficult debates an artistic enclave can discuss: choosing a band name for their pop-rock group.
“We needed a logo and a name…Todd had created this character and we thought we could kill two birds with this one stone,” Foligno said.
“Not everyone in the band was for it, though.”
Undeterred, Marrone and Foligno pressed on, determined to will the Ghosticorn to life. Meanwhile, the band decided on The Hulihees, a name inspired by a facial hair style.
“We couldn’t let it die. We’re smart-asses…what the Ghosticorn embodies to us is the silly fallacies that people believe in….It’s the TV news crews covering kids talking to ‘ghosts’ as a serious story. It’s ridiculous.”
Foligno, who works in screen printing, and Marrone, an artist, had been looking to do some sort of business together; the character provided the conduit for a partnership.
“We never had a push, a direction…the Ghosticorn gave us that.”
The men combined resources, purchased a large quantity of American Apparel T-shirts and began printing the garments late this summer. The first, “signature” series of shirts used Ghosticorn renditions of artists (Drive, Etherbrian and Jon Burgerman) other than Marrone.
“We reached out to them – we could only pay in T-shirts – and asked for their takes on the Ghosticorn and they all accepted.”
While the duo is still finding new ways to distribute and recoup their expenses on the endeavor, self-described “attention whores” Marrone and Foligno are already looking to the next step for the Ghosticorn.
Coffee mugs?; a YouTube video?; a breakfast cereal?
“We have lots of ideas….We’d like to incorporate other characters into the shirts, like the Pope of Mars… It’s all in fun; in the dispelling of myths. We know there are no such thing as ghosts or unicorns,” Foligno said, then paused.
“But, we could be wrong.”
Ghosticorn Apparel
Fair game: Villa & Hut brings eco-friendly home furnishings to Philly
By Deidre Wengen
phillyBurbs.com
With the eco-crazed, all-organic mania that is taking over Philadelphia, it is easy to assume that Jon and Tanya Spivak, co-owners of the new Villa & Hut homeware store located at 1105 Frankford Ave., are simply riding the coattails of an increasingly popular go-green trend. But one step into the 8,000 square-foot warehouse—beautifully decorated with hand-crafted stone Buddhas, elaborate rattan lamps and elegant mahogany bureaus—leaves no doubt that both the owners and the products are the real deal.
Villa & Hut began in Australia in 1999 and has expanded to include locations throughout Europe and Southeast Asia. The company’s objective is to seek out skilled craftsmen, usually from villages in the developing world, and work with them to ensure quality products and fair trade relationships. By opening the first U.S. store, the Spivaks hope to bring Villa & Hut’s environmentally conscious business practices stateside.
“Fair trade is looking at the individuals who are making the products,” said Tanya. “It is going into an already existing community and saying ‘I’m going to honor your work and your culture where it is.’ There’s no factory and there’s no issue of inappropriate labor.”
The arrival of Villa & Hut in Philly stems from happenstance.
Burned out after spending several years working in the food industry, Jon, a Bucks County native, was urged by Tanya, who was working in humanitarian aid, to take a trip around the world. He ended up on the Indonesian island of Lombok where he accidentally met Nigel Ames, co-founder of Villa & Hut.
“I sat down at a bar next to a guy who I thought was a fellow traveler,” he said. “We got to talking and he showed me pictures and opened up his whole portfolio. I followed him back to Bali and he showed me the [Villa & Hut] warehouse. I was hooked.”
The store’s products range from functional furniture such as television stands and dining room tables to decorative pieces such as hanging wooden masks and recycled wagon wheels. They even sell novelty items such as Indonesian drums and a wide variety of musical shakers. Everything sold in the store is hand-made from natural products and shipped in from various parts of the world including Indonesia, Africa and Thailand. Unlike some other furniture stores that use composite stock, Villa & Hut believes in using only natural and sustainable materials. The wood used for Villa & Hut’s products comes from reclaimed timber and timber plantations (sites specifically planted and cultivated for wholesale use), which means that no old-growth forests are destroyed for commercial or monetary gain.
“It’s hard not to be aware of what’s going on with the world,” said Jon. “Everybody’s got to do their own little part, and I’d like to think we are attempting to do ours.”
Villa & Hut
1105 Frankford Ave. Philadelphia
215.425.1014
