In an era of fast fashion, Guilty Party moves slow. Champ Hammett and Heath Ladnier launched the Grant Park boutique in 2023 based on a shared belief that clothes should get better with time. That guiding principle underscores every aspect of the store’s inventory, especially its cornerstone good: selvedge denim, the heavyweight jean fabric largely produced in Japan and long revered in denim cult circles.

Woven on vintage shuttle looms to create a dense weave and a clean “selv-edge,” or self-finished edge, which resists fraying, selvedge denim captures the ethos of Guilty Party. Here, you’ll find a rugged but refined selection of apparel inspired by traditional workwear, in a chummy, come-as-you-are atmosphere that reflects the punk rock world where Hammett and Ladnier came of age.

Guilty Party reads as menswear at first glance—and, yes, most customers are men—but the boutique welcomes all fashion-minded comers. “It really doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman; we don’t call ourselves a menswear store,” Ladnier says. “Our store is for anybody. But it’s not for everybody.” Whisk yourself inside while en route to nearby Ria’s Bluebird or Little Tart Bakeshop, and you’ll be welcomed with open arms. Learn a litany about premium fabrics and apparel construction, then leave feeling like one of the initiated.

Hammett, a Georgia native, discovered selvedge while touring the United States with hardcore punk band Foundation in the early aughts, then sought every specialty shop he could find. (The name Guilty Party nods to a 2017 song by The National, and to Hammett’s guilt over dragging bandmates—and, later, his wife—to denim shops from city to city.) He met Ladnier, a fellow punk rocker hailing from Mississippi, through their real-estate careers, and the two eventually turned a mutual obsession into the selvedge-centric shop they felt Atlanta was missing.

The store carries several popular Japanese selvedge brands, including Iron Heart, which draws denim heads from around the region; Guilty Party is the only brick-and-mortar shop selling them in a roughly nine-hour radius. Selvedge jeans, manufactured with methods the mainstream industry abandoned decades ago, soften with wear, developing creases and fades unique to each owner. “The more you live your life in them, the better they get, and the more they look like you,” Hammett says. The store’s fitting process is individualized, and hemming is completed in-house using a chain-stitch machine, an old-school tool—and the only one of its kind in Georgia—that preserves a puckered texture and leads to uneven fading, both signature characteristics of well-altered denim.

Beyond jeans, the selection leans classic utility: twill pants in earth tones, railroad-stripe chore coats, organic-cotton flannels, and knits from Germany and Peru. Guilty Party is also the spot for hard-to-find footwear, such as Red Wing and Alden, the Massachusetts shoemaker that made the boots Harrison Ford was famously shod in for Indiana Jones. The goods on offer, Ladnier says, are built for everyday use, even if the day gets rugged.

“We tell people not to baby these clothes,” he says. “You can wear these pieces out to eat on Saturday night, but you can also go fix a carburetor.”

This article appears in our January 2026 issue.

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Don’t look now, but the Atlanta Hawks have won three games in a row and five of their last seven. They have been playing solid defense lately, and in their last two games, they have been missing Zaccharie Risacher and Kristaps Porzingis. Their next test will be tomorrow night in Los Angeles against the Lakers, and ahead of that game, Atlanta has revealed its injury report.

Zaccharie Risacher (left knee, bone contusion), Luke Kennard (neck sprain), and Asa Newell (right quad contusion) are questionable, while Kristaps Porzingis (left Achilles tendinitis) is out. It will be the third straight missed game for Porzingis. Risacher has missed the last two games.

Kennard and Newell were both banged up in last night’s win over the Warriors. Kennard in particular would be a big loss considering how well he is playing. He was 6-9 from three in yesterday’s game and has been shooting the ball very well.

How did McCollum and Kispert’s debuts go?

Last night marked the debut of recent acquisitions CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert for the Hawks, the two players Atlanta acquired in the deal that sent Young to Washington. How did they look in their debuts and what could it mean going forward?

McCollum was the one player that was assuredly going to get playing time for the Hawks. It was not clear though whether or not he was going to start, as he had not come off the bench since the 2014-2015 season. It made sense though that head coach Quin Snyder stuck with Nickeil Alexander-Walker since he had plenty of chemistry with this starting lineup.

The thing that should be encouraging to the Hawks is that they won convincingly on the road against a healthy Warriors team and McCollum did not shoot the ball particularly well.

That is not to say that McCollum was dreadful or anything, counting stats are not the best way to judge games at all, as he finished with a team best +19 in the win last night, but he was 5-14 from the field (including 2-8 in the second half) and was not great on defense, which was a given. Still, he had four assists in 24 minutes and gave the Hawks another ball handler on the court.

I think that McCollum should only improve with the Hawks going forward. He is going to figure out his role with the team and get used to playing with his new teammates. Not only that, but the Hawks were missing Zaccharie Risacher and Kristaps Porzingis. Those two should make McCollum’s life easier as well and I look forward to seeing how he continues to evolve.

McCollum had a role that was fairly easy to define, but Kispert’s was less clear.

Kispert played close to 14 minutes for the Hawks and was 0-4 from the field, including 0-3 from three.

The biggest question that I have going forward is how many minutes does Kispert see when Risacher returns? Kispert’s biggest asset is his three point shooting, but the Hawks are going to prioritize Risacher’s development (even if he does not close games). Vit Krejci has been one of the Hawks best shooters this season and Luke Kennard is playing his best basketball of the season, as evidenced by his 6-9 shooting day from three.

It was an interesting debut for Kispert and he will be a player to keep an eye on when Risacher does indeed return. He adds shooting to the Hawks and you can never have enough of that.

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