Earlier this year, we saw a wave of streetwear brands and fashion designers use their skills to support charities and social movements doing meaningful work. Supreme teamed up with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami for a limited-edition box logo tee to help homelessness relief. Palace Skateboards did a similar thing. And when the Black Lives Matter movement came to the forefront of the cultural conversation, brands like Brain Dead and The Hundreds sold shirts to raise money in support. Now, the beloved retailer Dover Street Market has teamed up with some of the most prominent designers in the game for another collection of graphic tees, with 100% of the proceeds going to charities supporting healthcare workers across the globe.
This isn’t a one-off t-shirt; there are a whopping 31 tees in total. And DSM tapped a wide variety of red-hot designers, labels, and artists: Raf Simons, Marine Serre, Off-White, Noah, Wes Lang, Online Ceramics, and many more are among the represented. Dubbed the “Fearless Initiative,” the common theme among the collection is optimism and hope. But seeing how each designer interpreted that theme is the fun part. Brain Dead designer Kyle Ng went with a tongue-in-cheek slogan (“Ignore Reality, Let’s Dance!!!”). In contrast, artist (and GQ Columnist) Wes Lang went with a more cutting design: a loosely sketched grim reaper with the text “We Can All Do Better.” The Raf Simons-designed tee features a simple quote about the future being romantic. Noah’s offering features a bold “PMA!” graphic, a term coined by the legendary hardcore outfit Bad Brains that stands for Positive Mental Attitude. The full range of t-shirts is now available for purchase on the DSM website.
In the United States, Dover Street Market will donate proceeds to Give Directly, a nonprofit organization that delivers funds to families living in poverty. The pandemic appears to be sticking around for the foreseeable future—so we might as well get some wicked tees (and support a great cause) in the process.
