Minnesota designers fueling feminist T-shirt craze – Bend Bulletin

By Jenna RossStar Tribune (Minneapolis) Published May 23, 2017 at 12:02AM

MINNEAPOLIS The messages are strong and sometimes funny. One is feisty; another is in French. But always, theyre wearable.

Matriarch

She persisted

Anarchy is female

Solidarit fminine

Feminism: Back by popular demand

The feminist T-shirt is having a moment. Fueled by people who want to express their support for womens rights at marches but also at work, out for dinner, on Instagram the shirts are growing in popularity and power. Sure, luxury brand Dior is selling a $700 feminist tee, but the trend is rooted in a $30 unisex shirt from the Los Angeles shop Otherwild. The Future Is Female, the shirt declares.

Minnesota artists and designers are creating some of the more popular designs, using the T-shirts to raise money for nonprofits focused on womens health and equality. Theyre also gathering around the messages, hosting printing workshops and discussions.

I think this activism zeitgeist just overlapped with a renewed interest in graphic tees as a medium for artists and designers, said Minneapolis designer Maddy Nye. Of course its only a T-shirt, but its contributing to a larger paradigm shift in awareness and action.

Protest art and imagery hangs from the walls of Nyes sunny home studio. For her Matriarch shirt, Nye used a bulbous typeface that had its heyday during the environmental and womens movements in the 1970s, she said, but I like to use it in a contemporary context.

So with just one word, the design asks questions about whats changed since then and what hasnt. Some people have bought Nyes tees for their mothers, women who fought earlier battles.

Angie Toner is not shy about being a feminist. But working in the beauty industry a few years back, she had conversation after conversation with women who eschewed that label. It got her thinking about the backlash against the word, the movement. Then she came across a photograph of a woman holding a sign: Feminism: Back by popular demand.

I need a sign like that, she decided, if only to hang on her wall.

Toner asked local sign painter Phil Vandervaart to draw the design. The drawing was so great, she said, that I was like, you know what? Id like to move this around.

So she printed it onto T-shirts and bags at Gee Teez, a screen printing shop in south Minneapolis, and put them on Etsy in 2015: A Grassroots Feminist Fashion Action, she calls it. Orders poured in. Since then, Toner has tried to quit the project a few times, to move on to new things. But Ive kept it going because anytime I try to let it fade out, someone will reach out, she said.

The day after President Donald Trump was elected, Toner gave the shirts away on the street.

Politics and protests are inspiring big retailers to print Feminist on cheap totes and plastic jewelry. But its also fueling local artists and small companies longer-standing projects. My Sister, a Minneapolis-based company that uses sweatshop-free clothing to help fight sex trafficking, has been around for two years, raising $93,000 over that time.

Beyond the money, the messages themselves tackle gender inequality, one of traffickings root causes, said Mandy Multerer, the companys co-founder and CEO. Stop Traffick is the benefit corporations bestseller, she said, but in recent months, a tank is trending. Its my body, the shirt reads on one side, outlining the shape of a breast. Its my choice.

Its all correct

The image came to Crystal Quinn one night as she was falling asleep.

The Minneapolis-based artist had been reading The Dispossessed, a 1974 science-fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, turning over one of its ideas in her head: Because our culture is a patriarchy, run by men, then the opposition, inherently, must be female.

That night, the idea merged with a classic protest sign: the abortion-rights slogan Keep Abortion Legal, in bold typeface, within a circle.

I just put those two together in a very natural way, said Quinn.

She got out of bed and started drawing. The result: Anarchy is female, in 70s script, pushing up against the black circle containing it.

Putting it on T-shirts was the first thought I had, said Quinn, partly because she appreciates how, like those sold at concerts, they reference a specific moment. The design has since landed on mugs, buttons and protest signs. In January, Quinn co-hosted a workshop for protesters to print the image.

When I came up with the design, it had nothing to do with politics, at all, or Hillary Clinton, said Quinn, a multidisciplinary artist who has designed and made shoes, pompoms and posters.

While some sketched their designs before last years election, others were spurred by it: A peach T-shirt for sale at Mille, a south Minneapolis boutique with an online following, grew out of a postelection conversation between owner Michelle LeBlanc and designer Nye.

After the election, we were kind of devastated, LeBlanc said. What can we do to be more active? What can we do to give back more?

Half the proceeds from the Solidarit fminine shirt, which translates to women solidarity, goes to Planned Parenthood. Already, the shop has donated $2,000 to the health care nonprofit. Money from a second T-shirt which quotes Michelle Obamas Go high in bubbly typeface goes to DonorsChoose, a nonprofit that allows donors to pick projects in public schools.

She persisted

For Chelsea Brink, the donations made the difference.

The freelance designer and art director had supplied the hand-lettering a fancier version of my own handwriting for a She persisted tattoo party that accidentally went public, then viral. In February, more than 100 women and a couple of men lined up at a Minneapolis tattoo shop to get the quote, referencing an attempt to silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren, inked on their bodies. Women worldwide followed suit, turning Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells words into protest.

But when one of her friends requested a less-than-permanent version of the design, Brink hesitated.

I have mixed feelings about the whole T-shirt-message culture, she said. What are we really doing here and what kind of difference are we actually making?

But the ability to donate convinced her. Profits from her She persisted shirt have gone to the Malala Fund, She Should Run and the National Womens Law Center. Brink chose organizations focused on equality but that arent aligned with a particular political party, she said.

In the end, Brink has appreciated that a little lettering has caused people to think about big issues: tolerance, inclusion, equality. If one person sees it and is affected by it, she said, that makes a huge difference to me.

Fashion Revolution MN hosted 'upcycling' your clothing, an event where guests picked an old tee to bring in and have it live screenprinted with a feminist design made specially for the event at Twin Spirits Distillery on April 29, 2017, in Minneapolis. Here, silkscreen artist Emma Johnson, of Minneapolis, prints a shirt with her design at the event. (David Joles/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

From left, Maddy Nye, Chelsea Brink, Crystal Quinn, and Mandy Multerer show off their feminist T-shirts in Minneapolis. There has been a recent explosion of feminist T-shirts designed in Minnesota. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

Maddy Nye, designer and Yours Madly stationer, on May 3, 2017, in Minneapolis. There has been an explosion of feminist T-shirts designed in Minnesota. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

Crystal Quinn, multi-disciplined artist, on May 3, 2017, in Minneapolis. There has been an explosion of feminist T-shirts designed in Minnesota. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

Chelsea Brink, "She persisted" shirt a designer, on May 3, 2017, in Minneapolis. There has been an explosion of feminist T-shirts designed in Minnesota. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

Mandy Multerer, co-founder and CEO of My Sister, on May 3, 2017, in Minneapolis. There has been an explosion of feminist T-shirts designed in Minnesota. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

Silkscreen artists Emma Johnson, right, and Sarah Mering, both of Minneapolis, prepare to print shirts at an upcycling event, in which people take in their old T-shirts and get them reprinted with feminist designs. (David Joles/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

There has been an explosion of feminist T-shirts designed in Minnesota. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

Fashion Revolution MN hosted 'upcycling' your clothing, an event where guests picked an old tee to bring in and have it live screenprinted with a feminist design made specially for the event at Twin Spirits Distillery on April 29, 2017, in Minneapolis. Here, silkscreen artists Emma Johnson, right, and Sarah Mering, both of Minneapolis, print shirts at the event as Riveter Magazine co-founder Kaylen Ralph, left, looks on. (David Joles/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

Fashion Revolution MN hosted 'upcycling' your clothing, an event where guests picked an old tee to bring in and have it live screenprinted with a feminist design made specially for the event at Twin Spirits Distillery on April 29, 2017, in Minneapolis. Here, silkscreen artist Sarah Mering, of Minneapolis, with a freshly printed shirt and her design at the event. (David Joles/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

Fashion Revolution MN hosted 'upcycling' your clothing, an event where guests picked an old tee to bring in and have it live screenprinted with a feminist design made specially for the event at Twin Spirits Distillery on April 29, 2017, in Minneapolis. Here, silkscreen artist Sarah Mering, of Minneapolis, with a freshly printed shirt and her design at the event. (David Joles/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

Hilal Abraham, CEO of Henna & Hijabs, on May 3, 2017, in Minneapolis. There has been an explosion of feminist T-shirts designed in Minnesota. (Carlos Gonzalez/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)

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Minnesota designers fueling feminist T-shirt craze - Bend Bulletin