From Tagging Buses to Tagging T-Shirts
DEAR HOT SHOPPERS: Get ready for Civies Planetary Street Culture. That’s the name of a new line of sportswear created by some of L.A.’s finest graffiti artists, a group called AIM(Art in Motion).
Instead of wantonly tagging perfectly plain buses and buildings, AIM members have their designs screen-printed on T-shirts and mock turtlenecks, with more garments and accessories coming soon.
Explains Barbara Fowkes, the Silver Lake-based designer/manufacturer who convinced AIM they could profit from the clothing biz: “I found some really wonderful young artists who needed a start. I found them not to be criminals or gang members, as most people believe, but artistic, unemployed, uneducated youth in search of a medium. Our objective is to remove the graffiti from the streets of Los Angeles by working with these artists.”
Fowkes has about half a dozen street artists working with her, some of whom produce fine art as well as graffiti.
Shirts such as the mock turtleneck designed by Roy Cabral (pictured) can be ordered for $22, including tax and shipping, from Civies, 4470-107 Sunset Blvd., Suite 504, Hollywood, Calif. 90027. The shirts are available in white or black cotton with the AIM logo in mauve, teal and green. They come in sizes S, M, L and XL.
Makes you wonder if Chaka will come out with his own line of shirts soon.
STREISAND NEED NOT APPLY: Short, soft-colored nails may have replaced long red talons on the most fashionable hands these days. But nails that look as if they’ve been gnawed by weasels are still as declasse as ever, except perhaps in the Lander Stop Biting Your Nails Club.
Members join by writing a letter outlining why they bite their nails, why they want to stop, when they bite their nails and the ways they’ve tried to stop. In return, they receive an advice-filled newsletter from the maker of Lander’s Hand and Nail Care Lotion. The 10 best letters mailed by Feb. 15 will receive nail make-overs in salons specializing in corrective treatment for nail-biters.
