I recently caught up with Travis Greenwood ’01, kitschy shirt connoisseur, to get the scoop on his efforts to collect and document Olde Reed t-shirts.
Please give us your vision for this project?
This project mixes personal and professional interests. I’ve always had collector tendencies, progressing from comic books to records and then, later, bicycles. These days, it’s all of the above, plus t-shirts, which is convenient because I write and edit a blog, “It Goes to 11,” for my employer. It’s focused (somewhat loosely) on t-shirts, t-shirts from the reel world, t-shirt trends, movie memes, the overlap there between and whatever else I stumble across on the web. Combine all of that with extremely fond memories of my Reed experience (I majored in history and managed KRRC) and here you have it, my contribution to the college’s collective history. Don’t say I never gave anything back to the community!
Seriously though, it dawned on me that the typical Reed experience was accompanied by several t-shirt traditions (experiential mile markers if you will), namely O-Week, Renn Fayre, and Beer Nation, but also encompassing several smaller events and tropes. Following from that, it seemed that someone–namely, me–should consolidate and archive material of this type online. If the Internet has room for LOL Cats, defamatory weekly newspapers (zinger!), and second-tier social networking sites, then certainly we can carve out a niche for our humble t-shirts, which when taken collectively, constitute an enormous and revealing trove of Reed minutia.
Does it have a catchy name?
I haven’t given much thought to the moniker, but a simple bit of brainstorming yields this bastardized gem:
“Atheism, Communism & Tee Love: A Pictorial History of Reed T-Shirts”
(groan…)
A secondary objective of this project is to give voice to the individuals that designed and printed these shirts; they could lend some insight on how these pieces came into being and under what circumstances they did so.
Finally, I’ve also come to realize that this will likely morph into a project that we update periodically (as new submissions, both past and present, permit). The immediate goal is have something online in time for Reunions, where, not so coincidentally, I’m also hoping to photo, along with my partner and fellow alumnus, Josh Elliott ’98, any shirts that alumni bring with (details to be determined as we get closer), and my larger hope is that this will trigger other alumni to return home and dig through their closets for additional submissions.
The response thus far has been very strong, and I estimate that we’ll launch with at least 50 images drawn from the last four decades. We’ll also try to leave this open-ended, such that future classes can upload their contributions.
In the last issue of ReediEnews, your call-out stated “All class years are encouraged to submit; the more sensational and transgressive, the better.” How do you define “transgressive” and how does it relate to apparel?
Transgressive is probably something of a misnomer here. I’m using it as a catchall for designs that are sensational, controversial, offensive, sexual, political, copyright challenged, and the like. Shirts, in other words, with bold content and subversive messages.
More generally, though, I’m looking for anything that gives expression to Reed memes, myths, holidays, traditions, issues of their day, folklore and anti-history, examples of which include, but are not limited to:
• Renn Fayre
• Nitrogen Day
• Beer Nation
• Karma Patrol
• Border Patrol
• O-Week
• Reed Bands
• Political Campaigns/Protests
• Student Groups
• Student Activities
• Canyon Day
• Bike Gangs
• Secret Societies
• KRRC, 104.1 FM
One-of-a-kind, homemade designs with an axe to grind are also of great interest.
What would be the holy grail of Reed t-shirts to receive?
Currently on my list of top tees to track down:
• The Renn Fayre design (year unknown), in which the letters are spelled out across knuckles.
• The Nitrogen Day tee from 1994/95 that features Garfield and Snoopy in a compromising, non-copyright position. I absentmindedly wore it home during summer break, much to my mother’s disappointment (quite possibly the only time in my adult life that she ever rebuked me for my sartorial selections). Sadly, it was misplaced a long time ago and hasn’t been seen since.
• The O-Week tee from 1997/98 (give or take a year or two). It’s organized around an academy-under-siege motif, complete with coolies clad in nerds specs on the top rampart of what I think was supposed to be ODB or Eliot Hall. (Robin: Ooh, ooh, I had that one! But I sent it to Natalie Troxel ’07, who was creating a quilt of Reed t-shirts a couple of years ago. Natalie, are you out there?)
• Any O-Week design prior to the year 2000. Thanks to Kristen Holmberg, director of student activities, we have photographed every t-shirt in this decade!) I have a sneaky feeling that shirts of this type will turn up much less frequently than their Renn Fayre and Beer Nation counterparts.
Which is your personal favorite?
My favorite submission thus far is this great “40 Yard Dash” tee from Renn Fayre 1997 (see photo at left ), which s
peaks to the popularity of the 40-ounce bottle (PBR or otherwise) during that era. (A cap tip to Graham Jones ’97 for sending this one!)
I’m prepared to donate my O-Week shirt; can you guess what it is?
I have no idea. Do tell!
Artwork based on “The Scream,” an Expressionist painting by Edvard Munch. Anybody remember that one? My idea for a keen O-Week tee for this year is a design based on the British wartime slogan, “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Perfect, right? Maybe Kristen Holmberg is reading this and will let me enter the contest?!
Okay, that is enough nostalgia for one day… Got a shirt that you’d like to submit?
Send your snaps, ideally of the t-shirt laid flat on an even surface, to Travis at travis@founditemclothing.com. Detailed close-ups of the design are also encouraged. If your shirt is particularly awesome, we might want to have it shot professionally here in Portland.
Keep that tee love flowing…
