It Took Nine Years for the Master of Scumbro Tees to Make "Clothes"
At the end of October, Online Ceramics did something unprecedented: The label released a plain white T-shirt. This would be a non-event for most clothing brands, for whom dropping this kind of unadorned wardrobe staple is business as usual. However, for Online Ceramics, it’s the antithesis of every tee that the brand has released before.
Founded in 2016, the label has spent almost a decade tie-dyeing shirts in its Los Angeles studio and printing them with post-stoner graphics so vital that they're sold at Dover Street Market and formed a cornerstone of the movement once known as "scumbro." Online Ceramics built its name with these knowingly garish, tongue-in-cheek tees but there’s nothing tongue-in-cheek about a plain heavyweight 10.5 oz T-shirt made in LA using open-end American cotton. And that’s just the beginning.
Online Ceramics is expanding, and it's finally creating a wardrobe of uncharacteristically simple wearables. Monochromatic fuzzy pullovers, olive green cargos modelled after U.S. military paratrooper pants, and rustic socks knitted in America inform the new Online Ceramics' collection appropriately titled “Clothes.”
For this maker of hippy-trippy casualwear — once deeply inspired by the Grateful Deads’ famously hippy-trippy merch — releasing handsome unadorned wearables was… peculiar. I spoke with Online Ceramics cofounder Elijah Funk to investigate.
“Clothes” feels like a departure from everything Online Ceramics has done. Why is now the right time to create a larger cut-and-sew collection?
Elijah Funk: I’ve been making T-shirts for 25 years, which is about three-quarters of my life. I’m not sure why that is, but that’s what happened. My goal was to be a fine artist, not a clothing company, but opportunity struck this way, and I’m not one to make a fuss.
I had a slight revelation a while ago that a lot of folks who care about our brand have quite literally grown up beside us, and it’s a huge honor to keep people's attention for so long. The evolution is natural, if not a little tardy in my opinion. I feel like our job is to entertain and inspire, and the worst thing for either of those goals is stagnation.
Next year marks a decade in the business for Online Ceramics, quite the achievement.
I am humbled and grateful that anyone would care about what I enjoy doing with my time on this Earth for one minute, let alone 10 years. It has been one of the great miracles of my life so far.
Nothing about Online Ceramics has been calculated or normal. It has been a lot of “we’ll figure it out,” or calling someone who knows more than we do. It has always existed in a ragtag, do-it-yourself way. I can stand back and know what we are doing is from the heart, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
How did the process behind this newest collection differ from before? How did it come about?
The loose idea was: What do the people in our immediate world wear? What does Online Ceramics as a collective unit look like outside of graphics? A lot of us have spent the better part of eight to nine years working together, and some of us have been friends for much longer. With any sort of unit like that, you naturally start to bleed into each other's personalities, whether that be humor, music, or, in this case, style. There is a sort of collective “look” to us. If we were a (peaceful!) military unit, and could make our own uniform, rather than buy it somewhere else, what would that be?
The great thing about giving this about a year to develop is that we have gotten to live with these items to really test them and see what things the crew gravitates towards. It’s been great to finally have things that I want to wear. I generally feel a little strange picking up my own graphics and wearing them around.
“Clothes” is the perfect name for this new line — it's so literal that it's also pretty funny.
I think it is absolutely critical to Online Ceramics that we have to be a little funny; there has to be a little wink. We are very silly people, and we never want to be too austere or self-aggrandizing, because that’s simply not us. We always have to thumb our nose a little bit, because that’s the lineage we come from.
“Clothes” made perfect sense. It’s quite literally our clothes, and we felt it important to make a slight distinction, to show that this stuff will be made “as well as” our normal graphic tees and hoodies, not “rather than.” Online Ceramics, as it stands, is not going anywhere, we’re just widening the playing field.
What are your favorite “Clothes?” And what details might folks not have notice the first time they see them?
Hands down, it’s the recycled fleece pullover. The original inspiration for it was a vintage fleece jumper I’ve had for years. I loved how versatile it was in its simplicity. I also noticed it was an object my partner and I would fight over as soon as it came out of the wash. To be able to reimagine, reshape, and reconsider my favorite piece of clothing, specifically catered to our standards, has been really fun. It’s also great to see it sort of turn into a favorite shirt of everyone around me.
I’m excited for our denim to launch soon. That’s my next favorite. The details are extensive, from the buttons to the rivets to the fit to the screen-printed details. We’re hiding little secrets in every single object to make sure that the folks who receive these things understand visually, or sort of metaphysically, that real love and intention went into them.
Moving into denim is a pretty big step. What's up afterwards?
There are also lots of collaborations coming that I am so honored to get to work on, I almost can’t believe it.
I personally look forward to expanding my personal design language, but also jumping more into the fine art world and continuing our creative relationship with my friend (and owner of a Los Angeles art gallery) David Kordansky. I want to make art without limits, on all fronts.
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