Starting off as an anonymous part of a standardized blue-collar worker type of clothing, the T-shirt has ascended shelf by shelf to one of the top positions in today’s wardrobe. Since the 1950’s the t-shaped piece of fabric has represented various aspects of our culture. There is no movement or genre that hasn’t got a characteristic style of T-shirt art, or a specific way of wearing them. A t-shirt speaks for you, whether you consider it a banal piece of attire or an absolute piece of art. Prior to this project, no one has approached the story of the T-shirt as a filmed documentary. The evolution, the artwork, the collectors, the business…
Dimitri Pailhe and Julien Potart, together with artistic director Arthur Estienne, aim to tell ”classic modern-day tales” using the T-shirt as a narrative key. It’s a brilliant idea since the T-shirt is transparent in our culture, yet reflect so much about us. “T-shirt Stories” presents a mosaic of emblematic figures, movements, minds and supporters behind the most popular fashion item in the world.
Featured in the film are for example Dov Charney (creator of American Apparel), Tony Alva (first ever World Champion skater), Earsnot (founder of the IRAK crew – a group of graffiti writers from downtown New York), VERBAL (Japanese rapper, member of Teriyaki Boyz) and Pedro Winter a.k.a Busy P (founder of Ed Banger records).
June 29th the documentary will be broadcasted on French CANAL+ at 10.40pm, for those of you who are in the country or got a flossy range of satellite channels. The film will also be available on DVD at Colette from July 2011.
