Philadelphia Street Style: Garrett, Walnut St

I think of the 1990s as the heyday of the ironic T-shirt. We searched painstakingly through thrift store bins for any reference we could find to small town little leagues, larger-than-life hair bands, and misguided anti-drug campaigns. I had a salmon-colored ringer "just say no" T-shirt, for example, complete with a smiling policeman with a billy club. But then these T-shirts got expensive. Vintage shops realized their value, and Urban Outfitters and the Gap started mass producing their own fake ones. Irony, as it is wont to do, got old, just like that friend of yours who never stops telling jokes no matter what the situation. By the end of the 1990s there was a new goldmine for authentic experience. We retreated to our urban farms and locavore diners, traded in our Poison T-shirts for those of bands we actually like. But fear not. Irony is coming back. And going away. And also coming back. Case in point: this "Where's the beef?" T-shirt Garrett is wearing in these shots. I had almost forgotten the adorable old lady of those ads in the '80s, and I'm guessing most people who see Garrett's shirt have no idea whatsoever what it is in reference to. Casts the term "ironic T-shirt" in a new light, doesn't it? 

That camera man reflected in the store window is obviously me. I blurred it out in Photoshop, but it looked too fakey to me, so here's the image, minus my alterations. I've decided on a better route to getting better background blur ("bokeh" for you camera geeks): getting a better camera and lens. It's ordered. Stay tuned for better images. Maybe.