Even the strongest detergent isn’t going to make this white white. The inspiration for this t-shirt by BustedTees seems to be the finger graffiti associated with the back of a dirty van. If you decide to invest in this t-shirt, you might consider whether people going to think you’re just plain dirty. Fortunately this concern is avoided by the bright white shade of the rest of the shirt. Make sure that the surrounding fabric stays gleaming white and it’ll all be fine. Saying this, I can’t guarantee you’re not going to get a little old lady coming at you with a handkerchief to try and clean you up, most likely your Grandmother, so keep your guard up. For this design, dirty seems to be the new clean, and according to BustedTees: ‘Avoiding doing your laundry will only make this shirt better’, or smellier I would add.
The white teeth help carry this look off
This isn’t the first example of dirty design, as last September at the Nuuanu Gallery in Honolulu there was a whole exhibition dedicated to ‘Dirty Laundry’. ‘The art of the stain in modern t-shirt design’ encouraged creatives to shift perceptions that things can be ruined, or deemed valueless by a stain. Or, as they suggest, it simply offered an edgy solution to some dropped spaghetti. Showing that a stain on your t-shirt can be art, some of the stains were created by grass, fish guts and Popsicles. So if you’re feeling a bit arty, get a white tee and a bottle of red wine, I’ll leave the rest to your own artistic vision.
Roanne Adams' process photos for the Dirty Laundry exhibition