August 29, 2019 |
Ever since Vivienne Westwood and Katharine Hamnett began using T-shirts as objects in delivering a message to their audience, the ideas of slogan tees became part of everyday style. But while the silhouettes and materials barely changed since the 1970s, their content expanded greatly. You now can’t swing a bat without hitting a person that’s not wearing a tee with some banal writing on it. Perhaps one of the “My xxx went to London and the only thing I got was…”? Or “I <3 NY”? The possibilities are endless and often pointless, but that doesn’t mean a T-shirt can’t help change the world anymore.
Based out of East London, Everpress are a merchandise platform working in a unique way to battle excess production and high costs for young creatives wanting to create their own merch. “If retail doesn’t change, we will have even more mountains of waste, fewer choices, less originality, and only lower quality,” their website says. Everpress tackle these issues with a simple process that anyone can take part in – by simply allowing to upload your own artwork, choose the kind of garment you want it printed on, then set your own profit margin and therefore decide on the price of the garment. Your merch is then available for pre-order for a limited amount of time and is only produced in the exact amounts it was ordered in. By tricking the system and slowing down the process while also opening it up to anyone with a (good) idea, the company creates a risk-free process for everyone involved.
The positive community-oriented enterprise they lead isn’t just limited to the process though. For the last two years, they have been raising awareness for positive causes including non-profit organisation Amnesty International and young adult cancer support service Trekstock. Today, they are launching the third edition of the annual 50/ 50 campaign, as they team up with 50 diverse creatives on 50 different T-shirt designs, profits of which will go to Justice4Grenfell. The organisation, launched just a few days after the West London residential block suffered a severe fire in June 2017, raises money for the bereaved families, survivors, and wider local community of Grenfell. The list of this year’s artists includes Liam Hodges-approved illustrator Alfie Kungu, designer Claire Yurika Davis of Hanger and the team behind Gal-Dem magazine. The tees go on sale today via the Everpress website, and will be able to purchase until the end of September, with a one-day exhibition coming up at London’s Protein Studios on September 26th. Just in time for the post-summer wardrobe reset – and for a good cause too. Now, put that on a T-shirt…
