“And it was with the industrial revolution that popular good taste disappeared. They had destroyed the craft and with it the standards and traditions built up over the centuries, and the craftsman was left, bewildered and defenceless, in an age that had no place for him.
“Time brings its revenges. Today we are consciously, painstakingly, with infinite effort, trying to regain some of the good that was lost when the machine took over.”
— Charles Hayward, The Woodworker, June 1951
The latest T-shirt from Lost Art Press is a little different than the five generations before it. Emblazoned on the front of the shirt is the silhouette of the English square in the shape of an “A” – the motif throughout “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” book that resembles the symbol used by anarchists. This “A,” however, has 19th-century style.
The rear of the shirt is printed with the title of the book, which I made with one of those crappy plastic label-making gizmos popular in the 1970s. I scanned the labels at a high resolution, then enlarged and distorted them in Photoshop.
All in all (and I rarely say this), I am pleased with this design.
So here’s the bad news. You know we won’t lie to you. For this run, we switched back to the 50-percent cotton, 50-percent polyester shirts made in Central America. It didn’t have to do with money -- we are happy to pay for quality. It had to do with customer feedback. Customers were split on whether they liked the American-made shirts, which were more lightweight, or the Central American ones, which are beefier.
In the end, I made the call. I like the way the foreign-made shirts feel and age. My design, my choice. I am continuing to look for a good domestic supplier and have a line on a company that even grows its own cotton. I have high hopes.
As always, we have to charge an extra $2 for the XXL size. If we do another run of these shirts, we will be sure to get a few medium and small sizes – another customer request.
