WORDS: ROBERT FOSTER

Yeah, we know everyone’s covered T-Shirt Party already, but that’s because we almost never do stuff on fledgling clothing labels, especially T-shirt labels, cos it’s usually just some guy’s vanity project and they always expect you to pay £40 for one of their cheap T-shirts — just cos they got their girlfriend to rip out the Fruit of the Loom tag and sew on some girly little embroidered labels in its place.

Also, I love Supreme as much as the permanent teenager who’s finally got his hands on a little disposable cash, but calling that stuff “streetwear” like it’s bought by anyone but graphic designers and other people who are really good with Macs is fucking ridiculous. I love it, but I call bullshit on it too.

Another guy who calls bullshit on that stuff is the faceless svengali behind T-Shirt Party. The deal behind his little enterprise is that each week (for the past 26 weeks; he’s doing a year, so we’re half way) he releases a new T-shirt over his website with a video along the theme of the T-shirt. The T-shirts’ themes are usually something to do with rap culture and togetherness, but not always. And they’re not corny either, it’s just an image and some Times New Roman, all understated like.

You wanna know the best bits though? He doesn’t make them limited edition (you can order the first one and he’ll print one up in his living room, he doesn’t care), he doesn’t even take the Fruit of the Loom labels out, and he only charges a tenner for each one.

I went to see him because he’s my pal but he wants to stay anon cos he reckons “it’s all about the T-shirts,” or something honorable like that. I guess my home visit makes up for the fact we left it so fucking late to cover this guy. Our bad.

Here’s a bit of a selection he had laying around.

These pictures ain’t fascinating, but bare bear [good looks, Anonymous] with me. Anyone who knows eBay knows these bad boys. That’s right, pound shop envelopes! Charging 4 quid for postage when it only costs £1.50 is a great feeling! (I should point out T-Shirt Party’s postage rates are very reasonable and include the price of his labor. Support small businesses, etc!)

This is how he does it: First he gets a 3-year-old Macbook and makes the picture on Photoshop.

Then he prints it out on special extra big T-shirt paper.

Then he plays a few games of keepy uppy to pass the time while his £300 printing press warms up.

Or, if he’s feeling lazy, he’ll watch a grime DVD from five years ago to remind him of when grime was still good.

Then he puts the T-shirt and the paper in the special hot press, locks it down and hopes for the best.

And there’s the finished product, ready to be stuffed in an envelope and sent off to some lucky chap (that’s this week’s T-shirt, BTW).

Look! I tricked him into unwittingly doing a limited edition shirt! Pity the top of it fucked up when I impatiently pulled at it while it was still in the press thing. Now I s’pose it’s just a factory second.

He was being really tricksy about me taking a photo of his face, so I took some shots of his personal affects. Here’s his weed, keys, money and Rolex. Apparently you shouldn’t leave home without those things.

One of his favorite magazines is F.E.D.S., which stands for “FINALLY EVERY DIMENSION OF THE STREETS.” It’s basically a thugged out True Crime Weekly, and it’s got ads for prison pen pals.

This proves he likes cool movies.

This proves he lives with his girlfriend.
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Go buy his shirts! They’re cheap and ingenious, and I’ve heard they’re all the rage. Here’s a few of his videos to whet your appetite:

Word!

-PLATFORM

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