ISSUE 3 / JANUARY 2014
// The T-shirt Issue // “T-shirt consumption and garnering is first examined with regard to recently introduced perspectives of consumer theorists. This artifact is uniquely qualified as a subject for study because of its tremendous meaning carrying capacity and unisex nature. The interest here is in clothing that has communication as a primary function. Czikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton (1982) find that
meaning, not material possessions is the ultimate goal of our lives. The T-shirt, as cultural artifact, serves as an illustrative example of our search for meaning. T-shirts have a very limited material value and rarely appreciate in economic value; however, they provide a unique symbol of self-definition.” despite elevated standards of living,
- T. Bettina Cornwell (1990) ,”T-Shirts As Wearable Diary: an Examination of Artifact Consumption and Garnering Related to Life Events”, in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 17, eds. Marvin E. Goldberg, Gerald Gorn, and Richard W. Pollay, Provo, UT
BADMASH is a Philadelphia based culture zine produced by Vinti Singh. The T-shirt issue seeks to explore that concept of the T-shirt as a canvas and as a platform for communication. Please visit www.badmashmag.com for exclusive online content, including a behind the scenes video from the Neo Daviso Fall Look Book photo shoot. Cover model - Nina Franco. Body paint and background cover art by Jon Loveless Artwork on Pages 8 & 9 by Mark Price. Markpriceisafactory.net
Get It On Your Chest //
“Contemporary North American culture has been described as having cultural categories which are more or less elective . This elective quality...means that the North American society ‘permits its members to declare, at their own discretion, the cultural categories they presently occupy’ . This self proclaiming is in contrast to other cultures where categories are more rigid and where belonging to a category is not a matter of choice.” - T. Bettina Cromwell
Four Philadelphia T-shirt brands create screenprinted designs for the identities we deem ourselves to be. Model: Kathleen Garvin Photographer: Deren Thach Stylist: Vinti Singh
The Kush Connoiseur // Dub Ceaser Apparel
This West Chester brand has collaborated with artists Freeway, Chill Moody, and Ground Up. “Our most popular T-shirt so far would easily be the Strains logo which has been running for a few years now. Plain and simply it says ‘Kush & Haze & Diesel & Trainwreck’. This is a great shirt because if you know what it pertains to then you get it and if you don’t then it’s meaningless to you. It’s blatant without being blatant, haha. Right behind that or possibly even more popular is the Promise Land collabo (pictured) with Ground Up. We just dropped this logo a few months ago but ever since then the demand’s been ridiculous.”Mark Giuliano, Co-Founder
The High on Lifer // Your Addiction Clothing
The prints for this Harrisburg brand are designed by Jessie Loboda, a nearby desginer. “That’s been the theme of our brand; an up and coming brand, working with an up and coming graphic designer, getting printed by an up and coming print company, and working with up and coming musicians. It’s nice when everyone is in the same place, trying to achieve the same goal. We are looking at a show to exhibit our summer line at the end of next spring, once we’re more established. We hope to be in store fronts by next Spring.” - Chris Sempeles, Co-Founder and CEO
The Young Mogul // Neo Daviso
The founder of the brand, Philadelphia native Nehemiah Davis, also heads up the Nehemiah Davis Foundation, which fed 300 homeless vets this past Thanksgiving. Davis, 26, is an entrepreneur as well. He operates a vitamin shop in West Philadelphia and a junk removal business. He runs networking events through the Neo Daviso brand to expose other like minded entrepreneurs to his network. His clothing brand is meant to inspire others to find their path to success. “People who wear Neo Daviso are persuing their dreams,” Davis said. “People who change th world are people who actually believe they can do it.”
The Super Fan // Geek Boy Press
The T-shirts from this Levittown brand have been worn by actors from television shows such as Battlestar Galactica and even one of the Hobbits. Creator Louie La Palombara doodles until a television/ movie reference emerges. When not designing small runs for other artists, he’s creating fun designs for his daughter’s soccer team.
“You can’t take somebody else’s style. Originality is key.”
JON LOVELESS // ABSTRACT ARTIST In a fashion era past, the now defunct Philadelphia clothing brand Miskeen Originals ruled the hip hop T-shirt game with its one of a kind hand painted tees. Founded in XX, Miskeen expanded into a worldwide brand coveted by Philadelphians and celebrities alike. Loveless was one of the cadre of artists who painted thousands of shirts over Miskeen’s lifetime. Performers Bun B and Wyclef Jean adorned his own designs, and he traveled alongside MC Jin for the company’s launch in Hong Kong. Loveless continues to create abstract art, although the canvas is no longer 100 percent cotton. His platform of choice these days is human flesh. He mostly works with professional models and photographers, but is known to lend his services to a night club or party. And he’s mulling over the idea of reuniting other former Miskeen artists and getting back into the t-shirt business. Whatever he does, his style will remain abstract. “Abstract is better than realism,” he said. “Because it comes out of your mind. To draw a cup in front of you, it’s nice, but it’s a cup. “ His Philadelphia t-shirt brand of choice: Freak Ugly. “There’s a whole lot of designers now,” he said. “People take something like the Chanel logo – I seen three different tshirts like that. I think people see an idea and say you can do that, so can I. But the only thing is I don’t know how far they can go on that. You can’t take somebody else’s style. Originality is key.”
“If you don’t invest
in
yourself, nobody else will.”
LANICE LONDON // MUSIC ARTIST I mean, what’s the purpose of a record if, when it’s over, you don’t really remember anything? It doesn’t teach you anything. It doesn’t make you feel better. You can’t relate to it. Then it’s just an instrumental. Nah mean? – Lanice London, Pound Cake remix London, 25, of West Philadelphia, has released two mixtapes: Words With Friends (2011) and Murphy’s Law (2012). She recently collaborated with Phildelphia rapper Gillie Da Kid on the song “Brand New” and headlined alongside him at the Theater of Living Arts in July. “It’s kind of surreal to work with this person that growing up you’ve seen under the bright lights,” London said.
Part of London’s lyrical subject matter is about her attraction to females, but she’s hesitant to be coined as an LGBT rapper. “I kind of want it both ways,” London said. “I do want to open the door for the LGBT community for other lesbian artists to make it that much easier for them, but I don’t want it put on me like, oh the lesbian rapper. Like, I just want to be Lanice London and that’s it. I don’t say because im a lesbian its this much harder for me. It’s a ton of reasons why its hard for me to get into the rap industry so I don’t just focus on that.” Her younger fans up to the mid-20s aren’t phased by her sexual identification, but anyone older tends to raise an eyebrow. “I even had a guy who told me he doesn’t condone the whole gay and lesbian thing, but he likes my music so he supports it.”
Elisa Roca in Liberace Nation stretch cape. Photographed by Asya Stepnova. Opposite page: Designers Nicole Vaunt & Najva Sol at their Mt. Airy studio.
NICOLE VAUNT & NAJVA SOL // FASHION DESIGNERS These best friends are launching a women’s clothing line, Vaunt & Sol, defined by quality and sustainability. It’s a grown up version of their first line, Liberace Nation. Najva: The name (for our clothing line) we’re working with right now is Vaunt & Sol. It’s just both of our last names. Nicole: Vaunt means to brag about. So it has this sort of bragging, center of attention vibe.You’re not trying to be crazy, but you want people to gravitate toward you. Na: But it’s not for the super showy. We are both super showy in our spare time. But those clothes are more costumey and we really tried to go away from that. Liberace Nation was our first attempt. It was basically a test run. Ni: It was almost a form of crowd sourcing. We invested time and money and we got feedback. Na: I design most of our silhouettes. T-shirts inspired some of the things we made. We have an oversize tank, which was actually based off of a sleeveless T-shirt I was wearing all the time. And I was like,
I love this silhuette, but if I’m going to anything nicer than a dive bar, I can’t just wear a T-shirt with the sleeves cut off and a bra showing. Nicole does a lot of the creative textile based things. So we’re painting silk for the upcoming season and that’s been all by hand. There’s a handpainted silk accent to many of our pieces so that means every single person who wears a piece is wearing an original piece of art. Sustainability is something we have been thinking about a lot, especially since we have been partnering with Manufacture New York. Manufacture New York is a fashion incubator for 15 designers in New York dedicated to sustainability and clothing and accessories that are made in New York. It’s part of the movement to commit the garment industry back to domestic manufacturing. Ni: It’s really hard to make handmade things in America. Na: It’s hard to make handmade things in volume. It’s a challenge we are excited about. Ni: And it also helps us support artists work we love and disseminate it and put it out there so everyone can have
wearable art. taking on. Ni: Both of us love going out, being out. Both of us loved the idea of performative elements. So when we initially started Liberace Nation, we were initially gearing ourselves toward something more performative. And the signature fabric we used had crazy glitter in it and that kind of thing. But the shapes themselves haven’t actually changed. A lot of shapes that we initially started with are with us now, just with refinement. Na: I think the biggest thing we learned between Liberace Nation and Vaunt & Sol is doing something as a hobby and doing something as a serious business. The garment industry is very very, very exclusive. It is very hard to break into. As a small business designer, you will only have access to certain places because you are not sure of what your orders are quite yet and also because your orders may not be large enough to demand 10,000 yards of something or even 4,000 yards of something. You’re going to go with the types of things that have lower minimums. For us, for our line, we are using four fabrics mainly, of which three are milled in the US. Our modal is made in LA as well as our lace,
A model poses in a garment from Vaunt & Sol’s debut line. and our Ponti di Roma is made in rockaway, NY. In an ideal world, all of our fabric would be domestic and it would be really exciting.
on it. For someone who hasn’t started a small business before, a year seems like a long time to work on a project and not have a lot to show for it.
We’ve been pouring so much time and energy into creating these perfect patterns. Getting the best fabrics we can have access to. Finding the best stitch.
Ni: I mean, I’m very glad we did the first line. I am really glad we went through it and we had that enthusiasm and we had that excitement and we will always have Liberace Nation on our website with V&S, but it will be as here is where we used to be. Here is where we started.
Ni: A lot of our time has been in prototyping. Casting, refitting, trying things out over and over again. Changing a seam a quarter of an inch. Na: We have come just so far since then and it’s only been a year since we’ve been working
Na: We started with spandex and we moved to silk and we’re hoping for a future of cashmere and suede.
Define your unique selling point. One of they key elements of miskeen was that every shirt was unique and hand painted. It wasnt copied from competitors, it stood out. It was a style that the market hadnt seen before. At the same time the brand around it was consistent and very recognisable. We did not advertise but we made noise. We had no customers, we had fans. - Jasmijn Rijcken, former head of marketng for Miskeen
Refracted Fantasies
Model Denzel Bryan is wearing vintage Miskeen Originals T-shirts. Photographed by Steve Celestin Styled by Vinti Singh