'A Museum of Fashion Is More Than a Clothes Bag’ - LIVE HEAVY, TRAVEL LIGHT

'A Museum of Fashion Is More Than a Clothes Bag’  - LIVE HEAVY, TRAVEL LIGHT

I have been asked to write about an item of clothing a friend of mine owns, for this I have chosen a Volume 4 T-Shirt my friend Cole owns. Using the methodology Valrie Steele discusses in her article ‘A Museum ofFashion is more than a Clothes-Bag’, I am going to break this t-shirt down in three stages.

First I am going to describe the garment. The style of the garment is a men’s short sleeve t-shirt. It’s a size large, and it is a yellow colour, and made out of cotton. On the chest it has a motif that has been screen printed on it, “LIVE HEAVY, TRAVEL LIGHT”, which is in black. The font used for the text is what seems to be a hand drawn font.

Secondly I am going to describe what it would be like to wear the garment. As it’s simply a t-shirt I would imagine that it would feel like the one I am wearing right now. The t-shirt is fairly thin, therefore it would feel light on the body, giving the feeling of freedom to easily move about whilst wearing it. The yellow colour may evoke feelings of happiness as it’s a warm colour and is a colour of summer.

Thirdly I am going to speculate about the garment and its origins. A brief history of the t-shirt as garment itself is that it’s the evolution of the union suit, a popular underwear garment of the 1890’s/1900’s. Its original purpose was to be an undergarment and stay hidden, such as when used in 1913 as an undershirt in the American Navy uniform. However, as it evolved graphic’s started to appear on them, around the early 1940’s the US army printed locations and mascots on them for various base camps. In 1939 a printed graphic on a t-shirt was first seen on screen in the original Wizard of OZ film, with the word ‘OZ’ printed of the scarecrow maker’s t-shirts.

As Gary Warnett writes in An Idea Book About T-shirts by Stüssy, a design on a t-shirt can; provoke, signify, or assimilate ideas, that are bigger than a simple fashion statement. Furthermore, Warnett also speaks about how the wearers attitude/appearance can decontextualize the brand and give the t-shirt the wearers own message, as well as speaking on the power a garment can have when you wear it when you travel wearing it as you amount memories with that garment. Expanding upon this further in context with the t-shirt I have chosen to write about I find that these points reign true. Volume 4 is a brand founded by Don "Nuge" Nguyen and Sammy Baca.

“Volume 4 is: old records, faded denim, a sleeping bag tied to the sissy-bar, slappies, sludge, home-made tattoos, barely making your flight, and raising a glass to doing it all again tomorrow.

Live Heavy, Travel Light.”(Baker Boys Distribution LaunchesVolume 4, Transworld)

This was there statement when launching the brand in 2013, and it tells us the ethos of the brand. It is the DIY ethos, which I wrote in Skateboardings Effect on Style , which is at the core of skateboarding. This resonates with Cole who wears this t-shirt as he is fully amerced in the culture. Therefore I can make the conclusion that this t-shirt would be worn by skaters, either when skating, traveling or just hanging out. It’s a symbol of a mindset, “Live Heavy, Travel Light”, which is about embracing everything in life that comes your way and make the best out of it, and don’t care for material possessions as they come and go, create a wealth of memories, rather than a collection of material goods.