THE MAGIC QUARTER — When I stopped in the Lollapalooza pop-up shop last week to see if the ridiculous revival of fanny packs were sized to fit a fat guy, I got distracted by a middle-aged man with a handlebar mustache.
Dan O’Conor slyly smiled as we talked about his accidental transformation into a purveyor of a one-of-a-kind clothing line — a collection of thrift store finds decorated with spray-painted designs — on sale at Lolla’s general store.
“Nope, I’m not an artist. Never had any art training,” he said. “I just liked the look and made my own thing.”
The former Spin Magazine ad man stumbled into his second life as fashion designer when he stenciled a few shirts for a 2004 South By Southwest concert.
“Spin threw a great party that The Hives, The Von Bondies and then a small band called The Killers played. I wanted to amplify it so I made some shirts and everybody loved them,” O’Conor said.
Ever since, he’s hunted thrift store racks for quirky clothes — Boy Scout uniforms, hippie robes, T-shirts and booty shorts, among other things — to decorate with festival-specific stencils to hawk at Pitchfork, Lollapalooza and Riot Fest.
The makeshift fashion production operation is headquartered at O’Conor’s family home in the “Magic Quarter,” a cute nickname some folks call the sliver of a neighborhood north of Lincoln Square.
“It’s where the magic shops are and the first ground stop on the Brown Line,” he said. “It’s not Lincoln Square. It’s the Magic Quarter.”
It's also where detox magic happens except for one very important part of the operation.
“My wife won’t let me wash the clothes at home … and probably for good reason. But she lets me use the dryer so it’s not that bad,” the 47-year-old father of three said.
“Then I take old boxes of cereal my kids eat and cut stencils. I go to Evanston to get spray paint — because you can’t buy it in Chicago — and make one at a time.”
When Lollapalooza organizers offered to hawk O’Conor’s “wearable art,” he realized his side project became a business that needed a name.
“Eh, my neighbor came up with the name, Dtox Designs. It’s a play off my initials,” he said. “And we came up with a pretty cool logo with my mustache.”
O’Conor shrugged. “That’s it. It’s a side gig but it’s pretty cool.”
If you want to score a one-of-a-kind Dtox outfit — and I recommend the sleeveless, floor-length vests for skinny hipsters going for the Zola Jesus look — you can only find them at the State Street Block 37 shop … where the fanny packs aren’t meant for guys with big butts.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
