Adam Goldberg
Actor, Photographer, Musician and All round Creative
You might recognise Adam Goldberg for his acting roles in Saving Private Ryan, Friends, Dazed & Confused, Two Days in Paris and more recently The Equalizer. What you might not know is Adam is also a talented musician, photographer and lover of clothes, especially vintage, US and Japanese repro. We caught up with Adam to discuss his interesting journey in menswear.
Hey Adam, what's going on in your life at the moment? Work, creative outflows, family life... Any special projects this year?
Well, I started recording again. I’ve made a few albums under the moniker 'The Goldberg Sisters' but the well ran dry and my time has been short since having kids. But suddenly I found myself recording some demos towards the end of the year. I’ve generally recorded at home with some engineering help, playing the majority of instruments, but this time I’m trying to do it al myself — all the recording and mixing. And in addition to taking some sweet ass time I’ve gone down the inevitable gear wormhole — not helped by the fact that I’ve concurrently gone down the modular myth wormhole — which will hopefully find some place on the new album. The upside is that my clothes habit has taken a bit of a backseat. Like my kids. And my job...
Your journey in clothing has gone from buying and wearing original vintage to repro. How do you see this type of clothing becoming future vintage? A sort of juxtaposition of vintage reproduction becoming reproduction vintage.
Ha, yeah I think a lot about that actually — how I used to wear my dad’s old denim shirt jacket and how my kids will be wearing their dad’s repro of their grandfather’s shirt jacket! It is strange and I’m not a hundred percent sure why I now prefer the stitch for stitch repro than an actual vintage piece. I think partly — if not primarily — because you get to make it your own.
Your love of the brands such as The Real McCoy's and Kapital is well known, however you have spoken of the many smaller brands creating special things, whether in Japan or the US. Who are the brands and what do you go to them for?
Left Field NYC (and now LA!) for all things from socks to tops, but especially for chinos
Indigofera for their unique take on western wear
Mister Freedom — there’s a passion and humour and excitement to every release, love Christophe and Co, their lot 64 denims are a go to
Rogue Territory — Speaking of shirt jackets but with a decidedly Karl / mod touch
Iron Heart — flannels and jeans
ONI Denim — secret denim, delicious
Kelly Cole — most comfortable t-shirts on earth
Ship John — bags, denim, collabs with Wesco
Good Art Hollywood — bling
Whirlinglog and Arrow — contemporary Native American bling
Freenote Cloth — in addtion to jeans and tops, their outwear is stellar
Himel Bros — Dave has made me two extraordinary leather jackets (the second, a leather / sashiko number)
Clinch / Brass Tokyo — I’ll stuff my sausages into his engineers and jodhpurs no matter the fit
Accessories — Ewing Dry Goods, Hawkmoth Leather Co, Pigeon Tree, VEB Leather, Tenjin Works, Duke Mantee, Leather Works Brother Co...
Eyewear — Jacques Marie Mage from the wonderful Gogogsha Optique
And I’d be remiss not to shout out my good pals at Snake Oil Provisions...
Like many, once you discover the world of Japanese heritage repro, it’s an easy rabbit hole to go down. I think it’s a path of discovery and inevitably you collect along the way. Where are you with the scene now — still discovering or settled on knowing what you like and sticking with it?
Good question. I think I'm finally settling down. I had to go too far and then come back to what brought me there in the first place — the 50s, 60s, 70s styles that have always appealed to me. I’ll go a little out there on TV (I dress myself on The Equalizer show I’m on) and wear some Kapital Boro with Black Sashiko Overalls (and have to wash my hands after every take from the indigo bleed). I’ll wear versions of what I’ve been wearing my whole life, but, er, a more expensive version.
You’ve sold with MARRKT before and this is your second batch. For us — reselling well made, designed to last brands that get better with age is the ethos of what we do. What would you say to our customers buying your pre-owned pieces? How was the process of downsizing your wardrobe?
It’s pretty simple. I buy too much. The pandemic really tipped me over the edge. I remember when it began I thought, I'll either buy nothing because there’s nowhere to go or buy everything because there’s nowhere to go. I actually think the social media world — which arguably introduced so many brands to me (would I ever have discovered Brian the Bookmaker’s “Role Club” engineers back in 2015 and sought out his small shop in downtown LA were it not for Instagram?) also lends itself to purchasing not only for the sake of purchasing — but for the sake of posting. My goal is to wear more and buy less. Let’s see if that sticks.
You style your characters yourself such as Harry in the Equalizer and Jack in Two Days in Paris. A quick Google search shows you wearing iconic pieces from Kapital, Visvim and RRL in your roles. It must be pretty cool to be able to do that. How does it shape you playing the role? Are you able to push the boundaries of what you’d wear in real life?
Ahhh, well I may have answered this. Between you and me, I’ll say “oh this hacker…..oh this detective….oh this hitman…really should be wearing_____.” Laughing emoji. I mean much like the character work I do, there is often a blur between what I may bring to a character and what it brings to me — and I’ve certainly made a point over the years of bringing my wardrobe to a character. But playing someone else also gives me the opportunity to experiment and express a different side of myself or a part of myself maybe undiscovered — and this goes for clothes as well.
It’s been great to feature you as a MARRKT seller, thank you for taking the time...!
Great working with you guys, hope the kids enjoy the latest haul!
Shop Adam's pre-owned pieces from the likes of The Real McCoy's, Mister Freedom, RRL, Kapital and more...
Photography Daniel Silbert.
