Known as “commemorative T-shirts, or “R.I.P. Even Supreme tapped Phade for a series of graphics for the streetwear brands summer tees in SS14 (the chucky style was recently parodied by Ye) helping further cement their status as original streetwear purveyors.īeyond Hip Hop, airbrushed T-shirts have been adopted among African American communities as a momento to the deceased. His client list hasn’t gone down either, counting commissions from influential names like YG, Dipset, and A$AP Rocky. Today, Shirt King Phade continues to honour the style he laid down some 40 years ago. In fact, Hip Hop became so prominent in the late 80’s and early 90’s that companies like Disney and Warner Brothers, brands that the Shirt Kings parodied, created an urban version of their characters to sell their own merchandise. “Back in the 80s, Hip Hop had an edge and it was a language spoken in the art, the dance, the music, and the lyrics.”Īs the Shirt Kings’ business took off their style was copied across the Northeast and they themselves expanded and covered Miami. “Back in the days, as hot as Hip Hop was, it was still of the people and it was grounded in the art form itself it has not yet gone pop, had not yet hit the suburbs, or transformed into an international powerhouse,” she says. Īccording to Miss Rosen, Jam Master Jay, a personal friend of Kasheme, came through to the opening with a crew of at least fifty. “The style of clothing they pioneered is so iconic that it has become synonymous with the place and the time from which it sprang, a zeitgeist in the making as no one could have ever predicted, not even the artists themselves,” says Miss Rosen. Some state that the Shirt Kings did for hip-hop what Vivienne Westwood’s SEX in London did for punk back in the 70’s. It was the Shirt Kings who took this form to its highest heights, by becoming the first black clothing line straight from the streets. Customized jackets, jeans, sweatshirts, and t-shirts, became the means to express yourself. Known as The Shirt Kings, founders Edwin “Phade” Sacasa, Rafael “Kasheme” Avery, and Clyde “Nike” Harewood, took airbrush art to a whole new level by adapting the graffiti skills they had learnt on the streets and expressing it in new ways.Īirbrush was just the thing to allow for a smooth transition to a new kind of surface. It wouldn’t be until the 1980s that airbrush art caught its second wave in counterculture when a group of graffiti artists in New York City moved from the walls to t-shirts. The lesser-known Rendina Studios of Detroit and Mad Mac of Cleveland also joined in on the monster "Weirdo" shirt craze, helping build the subculture into a wider art movement that has since been exhibited in major art institutions around the globe. "Stanley Mouse", began advertising his own shirts in the pages of Car Craft in January 1961. Inspired by Roth and Barris Kustoms (whose shirts were airbrushed by Dean Jeffries), Detroit native Stanley Miller, a.k.a. Famed for his custom pinstripe jobs on hot rod’s during the 1950s, the California artist helped shape the style and culture of Kustom Kar building with his trademark flying eyeball, flames and his own signature script. Legendary automotive artist Kenny Howard aka Von Dutch is credited as one of the first to apply airbrushing techniques to t-shirts. While silk screening or screen printing has been one of the most effective ways for individuals to get their messages out there, some have looked to more creative methods to apply their art. Bands began selling branded T-shirts to their fans at concerts, and young people began wearing band T-shirts as a symbol of their personal identities. Back then, plain white t-shirts transformed into tie works of art proclaiming the rise of “flower power” and urging society to “Make love, not war.” Soon, messages began appearing on T-shirts using silk screening or screen printing. Beginning in the 50s, t-shirts became a canvas for people to express their individuality and authentic selves. The t-shirt might be one of the most simple and modest garments in our wardrobes, but equipped with the right message or visual cue it can become one of the most powerful forms of self expression.
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