He was attracted to fashion through the Jersey post-punk and skate scenes but had little aptitude for either. Schlossman is a self-described “enlightened bro” from North Jersey. Neither host ever expected to find himself in such an influential position in the fashion world. Four years, one name change, and more than a hundred and fifty episodes later, they have gone from navigating the Zeitgeist to defining it. and are planning to embark on a national tour of live shows, when it’s safe to travel again. Guests have included Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig Nylon’s editorial director, Alyssa Vingan Klein and the actor and director Jonah Hill, whose voice introduces each episode with the phrase “You’re listening to the only podcast that matters.” In the show’s description on iTunes, Harris and Schlossman bill themselves as “two grown dirtbags just tryna navigate the millennial male zeitgeist,” but in May they signed a representation deal with W.M.E. These fans form a devoted community around “Throwing Fits” called the Throw Gang, which the hosts jokingly describe as “fourteen-year-old virgins with Mom’s credit card.”īeyond eager teen-agers seeking jawnz advice, “Throwing Fits” has developed a following among media insiders and a certain kind of fashion-conscious celebrity. “It sounds like a Sisyphusean fucking task-a jawnz enthusiast’s work is never done, like, he’s gonna be copping till he dies, but I’d like to think that it’s for the right reasons-this idea of the pursuit of personal style, the pursuit of knowing thyself.” The podcast has been downloaded millions of times since it started four years ago, and almost three thousand people pay Schlossman and Harris on Patreon for extra content and perks. On the other hand, jawnz enthusiasts are not “blindly being slaves to consumerism, without having any kind of discerning taste of their own.” They can be motivated by something more individual and quixotic, and it is the job of “Throwing Fits” to help fans along their style journeys. That’s what fucking releases the serotonin in the brain,” he said. That’s just what fucking moves their dick. “A jawnz enthusiast lives and dies by copping stuff. “This is some late-stage-capitalism fuck shit,” Schlossman told me via FaceTime.
The pair are what Schlossman calls “jawnz” enthusiasts, a subculture of men whose primary passion is clothes-researching, buying, and discussing them online, and photographing themselves wearing their duds with friends. The show is an audio-only experience devoted to a visual and tactile medium, helmed by two average-looking dudes who have never sewn a garment or walked a runway-whose chief fashion expertise comes from obsessing over clothes. “Have some fucking respect for the process,” Schlossman said to himself.Īt first glance, “Throwing Fits” and its creators seem absurd. Harris, also thirty-three, shorter, with thick black hair, was wearing beater New Balances, Our Legacy jeans, and a cropped charcoal puffer coat, with a zipper that extended to the top of the hood.Ī security guard interrupted us to explain that the elevator we were waiting for was, in fact, a stairwell.
Schlossman, who is thirty-three, had on black Blundstone Chelsea boots, black Supreme jeans, a Rancid T-shirt, and a vintage green Patagonia fleece that, combined with his beard and slight hunch, made him look like Oscar the Grouch. While we waited for the elevator, we did a “fit check,” a what-are-you-wearing rundown that the hosts do at the start of each episode. They were taking the first step toward opening “new revenue streams” by designing a pair of boots. The podcasters were on top of the world then, heading into an appointment with a representative from Diemme, an Italian luxury-shoe manufacturer. We shook hands on a wet day in early March in the lobby of an office building in downtown Manhattan, before the COVID-19 lockdowns or the murder of George Floyd.
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When I first met Lawrence Schlossman and James Harris, better known as Larry and Jimmy of the fashion podcast “Throwing Fits,” they were leaving their jobs to focus on the show full time, which is to say, to talk about clothes, music, and memes to mock each other’s appearance and to pry into their guests’ finances and sex lives.