T shirt printing London. Where did it all begin? In terms of graphic style, slogan and message based T shirt printing was an early starter, with some of the first ideas appearing in Mr Freedom in the 60’s, a shop on the King’s Road, not so far from our Lotts Road office in Chelsea, London.
T shirt printing London, three words that have long been closely associated
Mr Freedom was the brainchild of visionaries Tommy Roberts and Trevor Myles, and early work was based on Disney designs featuring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
Then came the 70’s, and we all know what happened next, when T shirt printing London meant one thing, the shock tactics of a certain Vivien Westwood and Malcom McLaren, with T-shirts acquiring a political undercurrent, and flying out the door of their famous London shop. How far can we push T shirt printing? How about a swastika and an upside down crucifix next to the word DESTROY. If there was ever a T-shirt synonymous with Punk Rock, this was it.
As kids without a bus ticket to Chelsea, yes we’re that old, we would make paper stencils and try and re create these classics on the kitchen table…more T shirt printing Nottingham than T shirt printing London, but it was our best effort, and the fact that they were pretty ropey, with the odd unintentional splat of ink here and there, merely fuelled the Punk DIY ethos. It also guaranteed you a good smack round the head when your Mum got home to find you’d washed your screen out in the bath.
More T shirt printing Nottingham than T shirt printing London
Katherine Hamnett hammered the T shirt printing London association together completely in the 80’s, with like the ‘58% don’t want Pershing’ that she wore when meeting Margaret Thatcher during London fashion week in 1984. It wasn’t long before Wham jumped on the slogan bandwagon with ‘Number One’ and ‘Choose Life’, with Frankie Goes To Hollywood right behind them if you’ll pardon the expression, and that oh so famous ‘RELAX’ T shirt.
To round off this fascinating history lesson, let’s remember Henry Holland and bring us up to 2006, with his pop at the fashion industry, with “Do Me Daily Christopher Bailey”, “Cause Me Pain Hedi Slimane” and “Get Your Freak On Giles Deacon”. Agyness Deyn his model friend was kind enough to sport these for him, and they were worn by the designers Gareth Pugh and Deacon when they waltzed down the catwalk. Allegedly, his designs were copied by Top Shop and New Look; no not copied, more inspired by, to go on and produce something of that genre.
