Published Nov 11, 2021 by Rick Cundiff
A little quiz: how many of you have ever waited in line (on line for you New Yorkers out there) behind a velvet rope to get into a club with a doorman?
How did it go? Did you get in? Once? Every time?
Me, I never bothered. There aren’t a whole lot of places I’m willing to stand in line to get into, especially if a bouncer might choose not to let me in.
Oh, I could have tried, back in the Dark Ages of dinosaurs and discos, i.e., the 1970s. There was a certain club in my little corner of Appalachia that liked to pretend it was in New York.
Somehow I never managed to get there. I had friends who went, clad in the proper (and highly flammable) polyester. There might have even been a leisure suit or two involved.
Denim was always more my style, in those prehistoric times when it wasn’t possible to pay $100 or more for a pair of jeans, even if you wanted to. Fashion was never my strong point.
That particular club is long gone, along with polyester leisure suits. But bouncers and doormen live on in New York and other cities. A recent New York magazine profile of one famous bouncer – actually named “Disco” – points out some useful tips.
Here, from the magazine, is one way Disco decides whether to let someone into an elite club.
"It’s a matter of who can provide positive energy in the club," he notes. Oh, and if your claim to fame is “Instagram celebrity,” you might as well pack it up and go home.
“A bunch of nerds who sit in front of computers look at you,” he told the magazine. “You’re not a celeb. I’m sorry.”
Of course, fashion still plays a major role, too.
“You know what I do? I look at someone, and I look at the clothing they’re wearing,” he says of his vetting process. “That’s how I know.”
Um, yeah. I guess my Hawaiian shirt, no-name jeans and Velcro®-strap sneakers probably won’t cut it any more today than they would have way back when in West Virginia. But we can boost your squad's cool factor with custom patches.
Now we can’t promise a cool custom patch on black leather and properly distressed designer jeans will get you past Disco to mingle with New York’s elite. But what the hey, it can’t hurt, right? The right patch, the proper retro-punk (but with style) flair and a friendly attitude could take you a long way.
If that doesn’t work, just tell Disco we sent you.
