Just north of the fake designer label hawkers on Canal Street, a small bookstore is proudly putting their own bootleg T-shirts on display today. Cult indie shop Printed Matter is presenting its latest exhibition of specially designed logo tees, a “mostly annual” tradition that has been going on since 2012. The outpost’s curator of fairs and editions Shannon Michael Cane, who sadly passed away this year, originally masterminded the project. His colleagues Jordan Nassar and Christopher Schultz wanted the show to go on and honor their dear friend, who was a bootlegger and bootleg fan for many years. Thus, the T-shirts will be revealed for the first time at the show’s opening reception at Printed Matter, with a few select designs available for sale. Before his passing, Cane, along with Nassar and Schultz, enlisted the help of artists like Andrew Kuo and Tabboo!, as well as Off-White’s Virgil Abloh. Designs range from cheeky reinterpretations of the No Fear and Patagonia labels to mash-ups of Aaliyah lyrics and quotes from Emily Dickinson.
As Nassar explains, “Shannon’s interest in bootlegging, as well as that of the community around Printed Matter, comes from the joy of sharing cultural references, appropriating visuals, and putting funny or subversive spins on them—there’s a really weird variety here.” According to Nassar, each artist that they chose was given carte blanche to create whatever came into their brains. “These shows explore the bootleg T-shirt as a print edition,” Schulz adds. “It presents that T-shirt as a vehicle for dissemination, like walking billboards. There is a kind of magic in mobilizing images this way.” While some of the artists got political, others, like Abloh, were totally random. “Virgil’s design is a rip on a film-gear equipment brand,” Nassar says. “It’s a really cool design.”
The team has not tapped into the surge of bootleg culture that has infiltrated the high fashion world as of late; instead, they’re dedicated to their five-year-old show and its creative spirit. “People in our community are constantly making things,” Nassar notes. “Being creative, they see a lot of art and design and are inspired by it. They’re also socially conscious and politically opinionated—they’re aware of the world we’re in, and I think bootlegs are a natural product of those things.”
Above, a first look at Printed Matter’s coolest, funniest, and most provocative bootleg T-shirts.