The Past Presents the Future: T-Shirt Art.

The Past Presents the Future: T-Shirt Art.
By: Benjy Jay of Noise Apparel

Originality in the independent clothing industry is an interesting subject. What, exactly, qualifies something as original, interesting, or something different? There are so many people out there trying to be different, that many independent clothing lines end up looking very similar.

Taking a look at I AM THE TREND”S article “Why T-Shirts Are So Awesome!” you can clearly see the thumbnails of seemingly original shirts. What is odd, however, is two thirds of them end up looking like Iron Maiden Reign of Blood tour shirts, and the other half end up looking like some sort of cartoon in-between the Rugrats and Ren and Stimpy. Johnny Cupcakes cake and bones shirt is the exception, due to its inherent simplicity which allows it to stand out from the sea of business.

Having been an artist and oil painter for nearly ten years, and having grown up in the music scene which has certainly shaped Independent Clothing, I feel that a lot more than just the shirt needs to be looked at. In a day where graphic art and photoshop techniques are so easy to create that half the shirts on the market are just photochops with whack contrasts and witty typography. There is no real art in these shirts, just a hackjob rendition of a collage screenprinted on to a shirt filled with trendy colors and something stupid enough written on it to make a teenager’s parents hate it. Many of these shirts will end up looking very similar. Some lines end up looking strictly like this.

The influx of zombies, corpses, the dead, and anything else is very big right now. I don’t know if it came from Tim Burton or the metal scene, but it’s been done and redone and sold and sold. Yes, it is a cash cow to the younger age group, but is it really anything new or interesting? Over the past few years the music scene has become far more commercialized as many individuals pick up on the ease of coercion of its younger show going audience.

Andy Warhol once said “You have to hang on in periods when your style isn’t popular, because if it’s good, it’ll come back, and you’ll be a recognized beauty once again.” He also said, “Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” These current t-shirt styles have certainly been popular over the past 15 minutes, but only time will tell if they will ever come back when they fade out. Being original is a lot harder than just being different from the mainstream.

Don’t treat your clothing as a walking billboard or advertisement of what you want to look like. Treat your clothing as you treat yourself, wear what you love, and love what you wear. My favorite suit coat cost a dollar. I’ll find far better clothing in any thrift shop for a dollar than I will on some trendy indie clothing line website trying to charge $25 or $30 dollars for a shirt. For the love of god, some of these companies are charging over $35 for a t-shirt from an INDIE clothing line!

When Urban Outfitters cuts the cost of your t-shirts in half, you know you’re gouging the market. I remember when shirts cost $15 and even someone charging twenty dollars was expensive. Now, we have this. That’s all I really need to say right now. Let’s make some changes in this world. <3

Benjy Jay
Noise Apparel
www.noiseapparel.com