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Bootleg T-Shirts/Fashion/Culture

By Peggy Roalf   Wednesday January 10, 2018

Tracking a trend, 2010-2018

May 22, 2010 10:03 PM
Question: I saw Pearl Jam the other night in Boston (incredible show!), and as we spent 45 minutes waiting to get out of the garage, we saw the bootleg shirt sellers drop prices to the point that one guy just gave them away. It got me wondering about the actual process and distribution system of these shirts. Like start to finish, how does it work?

Who designs them? Who puts up the money? Are they local or do they follow the band (which seems unlikely since they are literally giving shirts away sometimes)? Is there like a bootleg shirt distributor that people order from?

Printed Matter has worked with 8 artists to produce limited edition bootleg t-shirt designs, each design is sold as a run of 10 and only available at the store when the show opens on Saturday 18th August. Artists include; Peter Sutherland, Matt Connors, Benjamin Critton, Mungo Thomson, Chris Castillo, Shannon Michael Cane, Eliza Koch and Marc Hundley.

 

Printed Matter’s Bootleg T-Shirt Show III, currently in stock here

Backstory [bootlegged text from Hypebeast]
Started in 2012 by Printed Matter’s curator Shannon Michael Cane, who passed away earlier this year, the event commemorates his transformative contributions to book fairs. Of Cane, his colleague Nasser notes:

Shannon’s interest in bootlegging, as well as that of the community around Printed Matter, comes from the joy of sharing cultural references, appropriating visuals, and putting funny or subversive spins on them—there’s a really weird variety here.

Giving 20 artists unlimited creative freedom, this year’s installment features politically-charged designs while others are simply arbitrary, such as Abloh’s reframed ARRI logo or Cali’s “PURDUE” tee. Book-aficionados and the fashion-conscious will rejoice at designs such as Aaliyah vs. Emily Dickson pitting lyrics against novel quotes and a provocative Patagonia design that reads “LesBian.” Printed Matter, 231 11th Avenue, NY, NY Info

  

T-shirts from Items: Is Fashion Modern at MoMA

January 20, 2018

For its upcoming PopRally, in conjunction with the exhibition Items: Is Fashion Modern Info, MoMA will feature commissioned bootlegs of its iconic logo on selected objects represented in the exhibition, by artists Kamoni Chandler aka A$AP K, Awol Erizku, Ava Nirui, and Mackenzie Younger. The event takes place Saturday, January 20, starting 8pm. Info Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, NY, NY Visitors are encouraged to wear items from the show—read the checklist here.


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