Once upon a time, for those of you not old enough to remember 50 years or more ago, we ate what was local; shopped at corner markets able to brag that they had more than one brand of bread; yearned for reachable restaurants that mimicked the menu (if not the actual fare) from Italy or France; savored the freshness of frozen peas and beans; waited for Idaho or Long Island potatoes to reach the markets for Labor Day, corn to be pickable for the Fourth of July; hoped the freezer stayed below freezing (just) so the vanilla or chocolate ice cream would not be liquid; agonized over the array of 10 to 15 types of candy; got sick of coleslaw by summer’s end; watched the deli slice freshly cooked ham or pastrami laid onto plain white bread or rye wrapped in wax paper; bought one of a dozen soda pop brands (only one each from Coke and Pepsi); gobbled Wise Owl or Lay’s potato chips; ate slices of Tony’s pizza (“Topping? What the heck is a topping?”); stuffed hot dogs only at ball games, Coney Island or Papaya King on 86th Street; gorged on strawberries and cherries for the brief two weeks they were around; hoped that relative would send oranges from Florida at Christmas; and — rarely — ventured into Chinese eateries usually ordering the American creation chow mein.There was a time when the nation’s cultural and social ethic was guided, forged, by politicians and the great and good, actors and actresses dubbed “star” only after years of acclaim (not the moment they get their name in lights). Nowadays, the nation’s ethic seems to be governed by gastronomy in all its guises: celebrity chefs, cooking competitions, restaurateurs, cookery magazines, morning news presenters posing as rabid tasters, cook books and, of course, supermarkets with hundreds of brands of bread, butter and everyday essentials, all vying for the consumers’ awakening into a new trend. “New and improved” are the bywords in this newly formed gastronomic nation, promoted by television advertising, brightly colored coupons, bombardment of every website with foodstuffs and television producers convincing the couch-potatoes glued to the small screen that they too can make a 2,000-calorie dessert with “just the most flavorful, sustainably produced, new chocolate,” or that those off-the-street contestants can cook themselves into 15 minutes of perfectly cooked fame.You can always judge the efficacy of a regime change, in this case cultural and social, by its ability to completely overwhelm the spending budget of most homes. In the last 12 years, the proportion of “spend” from wage earners take home pay has grown steadily. The numbers employed in the service industry, comprising restaurants, fast-food chains, supermarkets and the supply of food to the market, has grown in exact proportion to that “spend.” We’re eating ourselves into a new America all while we stay glued to the gastronomy and overindulgence on TV or wander through the malls, trying to decide which of more than a dozen eateries we feel matched who we are. We are becoming the food we eat.Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now lives in New Mexico.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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