Body Positivity Through A Tee

This week we have a tee shirt brand that is sending out a positive image of women bodies in all forms. Through this ,medium a voice is given to those whom may not want to be out protesting or vocal about their views but to rather have their shirt speak for them. Here I am going to let the creators introduce themselves and their brand.

Both myself and Jazy work together in a clinical research facility where we share an office. We would always exchange random funny comments with one another and thought that it would be a good idea to collate these sayings and put them on t-shirts. Though this seemed funny, we didn’t see any real use for it. So we started to think further and asked ourselves how we can connect more people through fashion rather than it just being a fun symbol for our own personal connections.

We are both very sociable people – we love to talk. We found that in superficial settings, people don’t often get to talk about the deeper level stuff – the things which make us tick because we tend to hide beneath other topics which may appear easier to speak of when first encountering an individual. This then led us to embark on this journey of constructing a clothing brand where we create designs with statements which invoke conversation in the hope that we can create connections through our garments.

Neither of us had any experience with regards to creating and launching a brand so we had to learn everything. We spent any of the free time we had outside of our day jobs to learn and create. Luckily, Jazy can draw well and had been embroidering for more than ten years so the technicalities of making our products we felt, was covered. This then left a lot of our energy going into marketing our brand and ensuring that our message was translated the way we had intended.

Q: What inspired you to make shirts that spread a message and not just shirts with a subtle design?

A: We are currently living in a time where individuals are becoming increasingly aware, passionate and vocal. We want to give people a medium for demonstration without being shunned for holding a sign or crowding streets with paper. We want to advocate these conversations and statements so that together we can stand as little warriors for change. Change comes from having open conversations and willingness to understand – we want our garments to be the catalyst for these conversations. Our designs have been curated to not only look nice but to also make you feel something. We wanted to have purpose and not be another brand polluting the industry.

Q: Is your style of clothing a way you express yourself?

Both myself and Jazy have different styles of clothing. I like to wear plain t-shirts and/or sweatshirts with either baggy jeans or tailored trousers. Jazy on the other hand likes to wear bold prints and a lot more colour.

A: I definitely think that my style of clothing is a way that I express myself. I like to think of myself as an easy going person who likes to be functional. I believe that this is reflected through wearing plain comfortable clothes. Jazys choice of colours is her way of being bold and vocal in a way which differentiates her from the crowd. Her choice of prints is more of a reflection of her mood at any given moment. Marrying both of our clothing styles have resulted in the garments that we have created for our brand.

Q: With the new generation being vocal about their views do you think your shirts are a tool for people to express how they feel about equality?

A: Fashion has the capabilities to represent an individual’s character and we hope to facilitate this through our designs. It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words and we aspire to stay true to this through every piece in every collection. We feel that equality is such a broad term which depicts a wide spectrum of issues therefore we plan to dedicate a whole collection to equality.

Q: What is the message you want your clothes to send to the people that wear and see it?

A: Each collection will have unique focus on a topic area worthy of conversation. Every individual has a voice and is passionate about something. We want to represent these voices.

Our current collection - ‘This is not sexual’ focusses on celebrating women’s bodies as more of an art form rather than a sexualised item which it is often portrayed and used as in modern day media. Most of the designs featured in this collection are based on live sketches of our some of our friends. We have asked for them to pose in their most confident form and this can be seen through the posture and stances of the bodies featured in this collection. We want the message to be that your body is an art and a miracle. A lot of processes have gone into creating that body therefore we should all embrace, celebrate, showcase and be proud of it. We appreciate that with only a small number of designs in this collection, it is nowhere near to being representative of women’s bodies. This is why we also customise the art work we embroider to be reflective of other individuals who wish to have their bodies drawn and embroidered.

We want to design further collections which will embark on other topic areas including sustainability, equality, access to information and many more.

Q: Any collaborations in the future you are open to working on?

A: We would love to work with other artists for future collections! Anyone with an artistic flare in design!