DISCO DEMOLISHED Luxury Skybox Baseball Sweatshirt

Using fashion as art to describe a moment in the history of baseball and popular music. It is the night that disco died.

Thursday, July 12, 1979 was a date that changed a genre of music forever. It was ‘Disco Demolition’ night at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The White Sox were playing the Detroit Tigers in a doubleheader.

Radio DJ Shock Jock Steve Dahl headed the promotion for 97.9 WLUP offering 98 cent admittance to anyone turning in their disco record(s). White Sox officials hoped for a crowd of 20,000 (5k more than usual). Instead, 50,000 packed the stadium with thousands continuing to sneak in after the gates were closed.

For the promotion, a crate full of disco records was set to detonate between the games of the double header. After the explosion, many of the fans stormed the field and a riot ensued. Chicago Police were brought in force to control the situation which lasted well into the late evening causing the White Sox to forfeit the second game to the Tigers.

Sales of Disco music severely declined post DD night, almost single handedly bringing an end to its own stylistic revolution. And the age of Rock continued its course while giving birth to the synthesizer sounds of the 80s.

I was a little boy back then living in Chicago, not knowing the context of why people were so against a genre and lifestyle such as Disco. Most often we are looking for revolution in our lives and which then we displace it into an outside force rather than to go within.

The canvas to this ‘art piece’, which highlights the night disco died, is a premium, luxury thick sweatshirt. On the front is my fashion label homage to the professional South Side team that hosted the event. I decided to pay homage to their '83 winning season uniform which is often thought as one of the ugliest uniforms in all of sports. To me, it's one of the best ever. On the back is a reflective statement of that night which became unplayable for baseball and disco music.

—Joe