Self-Soother Shirt

REVERSED FRONT PRINT FOR BATHROOM MIRROR VIEWING

Self-Soother Shirt
by Martha Hviid & Granular

A few summers ago I came across a sort of inspirational poster in my friend Nick’s bathroom in Vancouver, B.C.  At a glance it was clearly not one of these perennial works of affirmational slogan based kitsch.  This text was long, meditative, thorough, and wasn’t overly focused on universality (it would seem).  I stood there and read the whole thing while I was brushing my teeth, and I felt edified by its scope and specificity and resolve.  I loved it.  I asked Nick about it and he said “Oh, Martha made that!  I bet she has more”.  I ended up getting her to ship me one from where she lives and works in Copenhagen, and it turned out that she had so many that she joked about using them as wrapping paper and packing material.  But I learned there was also a T-shirt which had sold out multiple times over.  We came up with a new color way and sleeve tag, true to the original but a bit more deluxe.  These were heavy and soft 100% cotton shirts made here in the USA, and we settled on a metallic mauve ink for the print.  The result was subtle and shimmery, low key but shining, private but inviting.  Like the original mirror friendly front print devised by Martha, the low contrast prioritized the wearer over serving as a billboard for others.  In truth, I did very little except to pick out some colors and I’m just happy I get to keep one of these!