20 T-Shirts Made by Highsnobiety’s 20 Best Friends
“Your 20s are a time to explore everything, figure out what’s you and what’s not,” and to “make mistakes.” So says Eugene Whang, DJ and founder of Public Release, one of the many brands Highsnobiety has covered over the years.
Whang’s advice is well taken on this, the week of Highsnobiety’s 20th birthday. (That’s right; we’ve officially been around since 2005.) To celebrate this milestone, we called up 20 of our closest friends and collaborators — the people we’ve reported on, created products alongside, and partied with — and asked them each to submit a design.
Together, we created a limited-edition capsule collection: 20 T-shirts, with 20 different brands, celebrating 20 years of cultural curation. Participants range from Café de Flore, the Parisian institution that’s been fundamental in our ongoing Not In Paris project, to the Dutch royal family of fashion, Patta, to Whang’s Public Release.
The shirts drop on the Highsnobiety Shop July 11, with early access to the goods available through the Highsnobiety iOS app. They’re also available at our Berlin store, where customers purchasing a shirt or our new book, The Incomplete Vol. 2: A Guide to Creative Collaborations, out Friday, will receive an XL EXTRALIGHT® bag — itself a special collaboration with Highsnobiety.
Check out the designs below, along with each designer’s thoughts on tees and reaching your 20s.
What advice would you give yourself at age 20?
Carne Bollente: Enjoy being gay! (I was still in the closet back then.)
032c: I would have most likely not listened to myself.
Eugene Whang: Trust your heart and don’t be overly influenced by others’ advice. Your twenties are a time to explore everything, figure out what's you and what’s not you. You need to make your own mistakes for that to happen. And the sooner you can learn from those, the better.
Teile: Putting a “pinch” of salt in the pasta water does nothing. Make it taste like the ocean or don’t bother.
Dime: Shoe+sock brand synergy is a social capitalist construct. Wear whatever shoe with whatever sock you want.
APC: Be more cautious than you think you need to be. Things won’t always go your way so it helps to prepare for disappointment. Believing in your direction is important, but so is accepting that mistakes and failures are part of the process. Insecurity can be paralyzing — try to move through it with willpower and focus. And above all, don’t wait for approval. Just start.
What makes a good T-shirt?
Paperboy: A Paperboy logo ;)
Bar Basso: The message.
Simon Fujiwara: Design them messy — paint, scribbles, spots. I’m a messy eater so this way the stains don’t show as much.
Colette: Wittiness.
Le Monde: One that reflects a piece of your personality and might be understood only by you. Above all, it’s still in your closet after 10-plus years and a part of your rotation.
aNYthing: There are too many T-shirt designs out there in the world. Sometimes, it’s just a waste and they get lost. So I think it’s important to really try to tell a story and immortalize your community or your concepts with the shirt design.
