Undercover ‘Some Candy Talking’ Longsleeve Shirt SS2014

Undercover SS14 – Some Candy Talking and the Subversive Romance of Rebellion

In the Spring/Summer 2014 collection, Undercover unearthed the raw ache of romantic obsession with a deceptively simple striped longsleeve. Across the front reads a phrase that echoes through the lo-fi halls of alternative music history: Some Candy Talking.

The words reference a 1986 single by The Jesus and Mary Chain, the Scottish band credited with shaping the contours of shoegaze and noise pop in the 1980s. Formed by brothers Jim and William Reid, their sound fused melancholy, feedback, and emotional detachment—but this song in particular cut through with something more intimate.

“It was about desire. People assumed it was about drugs, but it was always about wanting something more than the surface.”
— Jim Reid, The Jesus and Mary Chain

The track’s narrator is entranced by a woman—likely a prostitute—not for a transactional escape, but for the connection he craves. He talks to her, not at her. Watches her walk. Obsesses over her presence. Fueled by drugs and infatuation, the boundaries between need and fantasy dissolve. Repetition of the phrase “give me some more” becomes a kind of prayer—at once erotic, desperate, and disarming.

The BBC banned the track from daytime rotation due to what they perceived as drug references, but Reid publicly challenged that interpretation, emphasizing the emotional core beneath the distortion.

Undercover, helmed by Jun Takahashi, has always walked the edge of beauty and rebellion. This shirt doesn't just reference a song—it aligns with it. It’s a wearable statement of misunderstood longing. Of craving connection in a world that mistakes intimacy for indulgence.