DESIGNER T-SHIRTS

Art no longer limited
to the living room

“TOILET PAPER is fashion,”’ a
woman close to the pulse of the
fashion industry recently said.

By ELIZABETH COLLINGS
* News Reporter

A somewhat unconventional

definition, but one which aptly il-
lustrates the point: people are will-
ing to pay extra for something that
is functional, yet out of the ordi-
nary.
So, if designer toilet paper is
fashion, then designer t-shirts, or
more precisely, hand painted or
silkscreened T-shirts, can easily be
accommodated under the moniker
of wearable art.

And the North Shore is a good
place to start in one’s quest for
these functionally distinctive items.

*Collectable Clothes on Lons-
dale carries a wide selection of
women’s and kids’ clothing. Nine-
ty per cent of the stock is hand-
painted with a smattering of
silkscreened zebra-striped tops, the
store’s logo.

Owner Lynda Baker orders the

clothes without designs and then
gives them to local artists to paint
on. This way Baker said the
clothes can be mixed and matched.
Almost all stock is Canadian made
and B.C. designed.

\ The styles range from casual to
dressy outfits with shoulder pads.
Almost anything that can be
painted on — from canvas shoes to
earrings — can be found.

Flowers, animals and abstract
faces are the order of the day for
Collectable Clothes. Baker carries
artists such as Keira Zaslave-Silva
and Teresa Swansburg, both from
North Vancouver, and West Van-
couver’s Peter Kiss.

For a different twist, people can
bring in a picture they would like
painted on a shirt or top, Baker,
an artist herself, said she will paint
“basically anything but trains,
planes and automobiles.”

Collectable Clothes is so new,
it’s not in the phone book. Try
983-3411.

*Initially Diane. Pollock was not
looking to sell her handpainted

S.
The Nosth Vancouver artist was
in Granville Island wearing her
shirt, when someone stopped her,
suggesting she show it to Granville
Isfand Graphics.

She did and the stere immediate-
ly ordered some shirts from
Pollock.

The primitive abstract faces are
painted with a thick, shiny paint
squeezed through a nozzle.

Pollock wants to experiment
with airbrushing the paint and
move into sweat shirts for the fall.

°For more commercial wear,

re Mtn - ~ “
NEWS photo Tom Burley

LOCAL ARTIST Diane Pollock (eft) and Chery! Pearson are wearing
Pollovk’s hand painted T-shirts. Pollock squeezes the paint straight out

of the tube on to the cotton shirts.

look for Nitman Surfwear. These
three graduates from the graphic
design program at Capilano Col-
lege are on to something hot.

Mike Downs, Mark Fancher and
Jim Skipp aren’t quite ready to
give up their day jobs but think
their fledgling business will make
competition for biggies such as
Ocean Pacific and Epic.

Starting with the name Nitman,
the line is based on a concept
which targets ‘‘board heads.”

Nitman stands for ‘100 per cent

double kait cotton, man,’ (or lingo .

to that effect).
The cartoon character Grim,
(like ‘bad’, the word means good),

is the motivating force behind the
team, according to Downs. Grim
sits on the front pocket of the t-
shirts and also manifests himself
on the back of some shirts as
Grims dog, the Grim Surfer or, of
course, the Hydrogrimic.

The concept is completed by an
Ask Mom care label listing the
dos and don’ts of the shirts.

The Nitman designs are
silkscreened on extra large t-shirts,
tanks and sweats. They wil! be in-
troducing their new line at the An-
nual Western Market and Rep
Show at B.C. Place Stadium in
September.

For more information,
Jackscn Marketing at 946-4579.

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