Credits

NOTES ON THE PAC SUN AVANT GARDE, by Jamal.

© 2026 Normalism. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Normali(s)m. Los Angeles, CA. normalism.neocities.org. Printed in the United States of America.

First edition. 99 pp. Six chapters and a eulogy. Fifty endnotes.

Type set in Archivo and Source Serif 4. Plates rendered as poor images, after Steyerl. Published online as a static zine.

DISCLAIMER & NOTICE OF NON-AFFILIATION.

Notes on the Pac Sun Avant Garde is a work of literary nonfiction, criticism, and ambient cultural observation produced by one (1) private individual operating under the mononym Jamal (hereinafter, "the Author"), publishing through a personal static zine titled Normali(s)m hosted, at time of writing, on a neocities.org subdomain commensurate with the dignity of the operation.

The Author is not, and has never been, an employee, officer, director, contractor, sub-contractor, sub-sub-contractor, intern, summer associate, brand ambassador, micro-influencer, "creator partner," capsule collaborator, licensee, sub-licensee, franchisee, affiliate, agent, attorney-in-fact, fiduciary, spokesperson, mascot, body double, or sentient marketing surface of Pacific Sunwear of California, LLC ("PacSun®"), nor of its present or former parent companies, holding companies, sister companies, cousin companies, or any private-equity vehicle that has at any point acquired, divested, restructured, recapitalized, taken private, taken public, or merely thought fondly about the foregoing.

To the extent that the phrase "Pac Sun Avant Garde" appears on every page of this work, the reader is asked to internalize that this phrase is a literary-theoretical figure of speech describing a hypothetical individual in metropolitan San Diego and is not a product, sub-brand, capsule, drop, collaboration, lookbook, mood-board, runway concept, or in-store display affiliated with PacSun® or any party whomsoever.

APOLOGY, TO PACIFIC SUNWEAR OF CALIFORNIA, LLC.

The Author wishes to extend his sincerest and entirely non-admission-of-liability apology to PacSun®, its merchandising team, its e-commerce vertical, the multi-person creative-direction Slack channel, and in particular to the chief merchandising officer whose press-release language has been reproduced herein for purposes of cultural commentary, criticism, scholarship, and the four other categories of fair use under 17 U.S.C. § 107.

The Author concedes that the act of titling a long-form essay Notes on the Pac Sun Avant Garde may, to a particularly motivated trademark counsel, generate the sensation of being trolled. This was not the intention. The intention was that the store, in the Author's lived experience, has become a noun for a structural condition, and the language followed the experience. The Author wishes everyone involved a relaxing weekend.

The Author wishes to make clear, with the clarity of a bolded H&M® signage, that nothing in this work should be construed as suggesting that PacSun®, the Metropolitan Museum of Art®, Yohji Yamamoto®, Wildside Yohji Yamamoto®, or Formula 1® endorse, sponsor, license, are aware of, or have ever heard of the Author, this essay, the website it is hosted on,the figure described herein, or each other in any combination not explicitly announced via official press release.

II.

NOTICE OF NON-AFFILIATION, NON-ENDORSEMENT, AND GENERAL NON-STANDING.

The following entities, products, places, and culturally specific objects appear, in passing or otherwise, in the body of Notes on the Pac Sun Avant Garde and its accompanying endnotes. Each is, to the best of the Author's belief, a registered trademark, service mark, trade dress, copyrighted work, geographic indication, or otherwise legally cherished asset of its respective owner. The Author claims no ownership, partnership, joint venture, equity stake, common-law spouse relationship, or stake of any kind in any of them, and any reference is for purposes of cultural commentary, satire, scholarship, criticism, and the documentation of an ordinary American Friday. The Author does not, and has never, represented any of the foregoing in any capacity, and does not speak for them when crossing the street, in dreams, on dating apps, at deposition, or under hypnosis.

III.

SCHEDULE A — INVENTORY OF MARKS, PROPERTIES, AND CULTURAL OBJECTS CITED.

All marks listed below are the property of their respective owners and appear here for editorial purposes only. Punctuation of marks reflects house style and is not intended to imply, modify, abbreviate, parody, or otherwise prejudice any registered form. ®, ™, and © are deployed throughout in approximate, decorative, and emotionally accurate rather than legally exhaustive fashion.

Retail, apparel, and mall tenants. PacSun®. Pacific Sunwear of California, LLC®. Macy's®. Sun + Stone™ (a Macy's house brand). JCPenney®. Best Buy®. Home Depot®. Bed Bath & Beyond®. Ross Dress for Less®. TJ Maxx®. Office Depot®. Westfield®. On the Byas™. Brandy Melville®. John Galt®. LA Hearts®. Quiksilver®. Billabong®. Hurley®. Volcom®. Roxy®. Thrasher®. Playboy®. Levi's®. Champion®. Pendleton®. Dockers®. American Eagle®. Cole Haan®. Issey Miyake®. Yohji Yamamoto®. Wildside Yohji Yamamoto®. Saint Laurent®. Allbirds®. Vogue®. Hypebeast®. GQ®. H&M®.

Grocery, food and beverage, and adjacent caloric infrastructure. Ralphs®. The Kroger Co.®. Whole Foods Market®. Trader Joe's®. Aldi®. Food 4 Less®. 99 Ranch Market®. Trader Ming's™. Trader José's™. Hormel®. Stouffer's®. Oscar Mayer®. Ruffles®. Yoo-hoo®. StarKist®. Toblerone®. Quaker® (Maple & Brown Sugar). Yoplait®. V8 Splash®. Irish Spring®. Glade®. Brawny®. Bath & Body Works®. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!®. 7-Eleven®. 7-Select™. Slurpee®. Strauss® A2 Organic Grass Milk. Hershey's®. Ovaltine®. M&M's®. Fritos® Chili Cheese. Pepsi®. Bic® Round Stic®.

Restaurants, drive-thrus, and dining establishments. Del Taco®. Double Del Cheeseburger®. Jersey Mike's®. The Cheesecake Factory®. Applebee's®. Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar®. Buffalo Wild Wings®. Islands Fine Burgers and Fries®. Souplantation®. IHOP®. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store®. Burger King®. Baskin-Robbins®. Wetzel's Pretzels®. Subway®. Starbucks®. Target®. Roberto's®. Rigoberto's®.

Technology, platforms, and software. Netflix®. Instagram®. Facebook®. Yahoo!® Mail. Opera® (browser). X® (formerly Twitter®). YouTube®. Postmates®. Amazon®. CVS®. Grindr®. Waze®. Vizio®. Cisco®. Dell®. IKEA®. Mr. Coffee®. REI®.

Games, characters, studios, and anthropomorphic foxes. Nintendo®. Switch™. Mario™. Link™. Fox McCloud™ (Star Fox®). Tails™ (Sonic the Hedgehog®). Renamon™ (Digimon®). Sly Cooper™. PlayStation®. PlayStation 3®. Jak & Daxter™. Beastars™. Nick Wilde™ (Zootopia®, © Disney). Small Soldiers™ (© DreamWorks / Universal). Cheaper by the Dozen™ (© 20th Century / Disney). The Office™. General Hospital®. Judge Judy®. Wheel of Fortune®. American Idol®.

Music, artists, and audio. Avicii® ("Wake Me Up"). Alice DJ® ("Better Off Alone"). Calvin Harris®. David Archuleta®. Budweiser®. Anheuser-Busch®.

Vehicles, logistics, and sundry hard goods. Toyota®. Yaris®. Cole Haan®. Ellen DeGeneres®. 24 Hour Fitness®. Home Chef®. CookWell®.

Pharmaceuticals, biotech, defense, and other adult realities. Humira® (AbbVie®). Illumina®. Pfizer®. Takeda Pharmaceuticals®. The United States Department of the Navy. Hotel del Coronado®. Hyatt® (by inference). Verizon®. Supercuts®. Jiffy Lube®.

Institutions, estates, and cultural properties. The Metropolitan Museum of Art®. The Met Cloisters®. CNN®. National Geographic®. Beanstalk® (licensing agency). AT&T®. The estate of Bob Ross®. The estate of Pelé®. The estate of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (public domain, but cited respectfully). The estate of Katsushika Hokusai (public domain, see above). Stuart Collection® (UC San Diego). Do Ho Suh (Fallen Star). Jenny Holzer (Truisms / Green Table). Agnes Martin (estate).

Geographies and real estate. The Las Vegas Grand Prix™. Consortium Holdings® (the Lafayette Hotel, Polite Provisions, Born and Raised, Morning Glory, Part Time Lover, False Idol, et al.).

If a mark, work, person, place, restaurant, drive-thru, drink, snack, garment, vehicle, philosopher, video-game character, anthropomorphic fox, or otherwise legally protected entity has been omitted from Schedule A, said omission is non-substantive and does not constitute (i) a claim of ownership over the omitted item, (ii) a denial of its existence, or (iii) any expression of taste, preference, or affiliation by the Author. The list is illustrative; the universe of trademarks is, by current count, larger than the list.

IV.

STATEMENT OF FICTIONALITY.

The figure referred to throughout this work as "the Pac Sun Avant Garde" is a literary composite. He is not a real person. To the extent that he resembles any real person, that resemblance is structural (he is, in the Author's argument, a category of contemporary American consumer behavior) and not biographical. He is not the Author nor is he the Author's roommate.

FAIR USE, QUOTATION, AND COMMENTARY.

Where third-party language is reproduced — notably, two (2) sentences of corporate-communications prose attributed to a chief merchandising officer of PacSun® — such reproduction is for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research, in conformity with 17 U.S.C. § 107, and the corresponding provisions of any jurisdiction in which a reader happens to be sitting. The quoted text is brief, transformative, non-substitutive of the original, and frankly, complimentary in the sense that the Author was paying attention.

Images deployed throughout Notes on the Pac Sun Avant Garde have been processed as a gesture toward de-commercializing the source material to the extent technically possible without removing the referent altogether. Where any plate constitutes a substantial portion of a copyrighted work, the Author claims fair use for purposes of criticism and commentary; where it does not, no claim is necessary; where the reader believes a claim ought to be necessary, the contact channel below is operational.

VI.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY, SUCH AS IT IS.

The Author is one person with a laptop. The publisher, "Normali(s)m," is the same person, with the same laptop, wearing a slightly different hat. There is no marketing budget. There is no PR firm or boardroom. This is not a for-profit work. The Author has in fact lost money while publishing this work. The Author respectfully suggests that this be taken into account by anyone evaluating the cost-benefit of legal action.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Author disclaims all warranties, express or implied, regarding this work, including without limitation any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness, non-infringement, or pleasantness of tone.

VII.

STANDING OFFER OF REMOVAL AND CORRECTION.

If you are a rights-holder of any property cited herein, and you find the citation, the framing, the tone, the typography, or the simple fact of being mentioned to be unwelcome, the Author will entertain a polite request for redaction, correction, or attribution adjustment, sent to the contact channel listed at normalism.neocities.org.

This essay is a love letter pretending to be a diagnosis. The brands cited herein are the language in which the love is written. The Author thanks them for the loan of the words.

© 2026 Jamal · Normali(s)m. All marks, names, and properties referenced are the property of their respective owners. No affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement is claimed or implied. This is a work of fiction and criticism. Where it is not fiction, it is fair use. Where it is not fair use, it is an honest mistake, and the Author would like to hear about it before anyone else does.