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January 16, 2015
"Pretty Green × Mick Rock" David Bowie T-Shirt Collection | Pretty Green
Pretty Green
Limited Edition Set with T-shirt, Special Cloth Bag, and Special Pin Badge
The "Pretty Green × Mick Rock" David Bowie T-shirt Collection
The long-awaited collaboration items, highly desired by fans, have finally arrived in Japan! Mick Rock, the renowned photographer who captured the most vibrant era of the UK music scene. Pretty Green is releasing original T-shirts featuring his iconic photographs of David Bowie from the 70s. The collection will launch at the Aoyama, Tokyo flagship store, followed by releases at the Sapporo, Fukuoka, Osaka, and Nagoya Parco stores starting Saturday, December 6th. An online shop will also be available.
Text by KAJII Makoto (OPENERS)
Five Designs in Total. Japan-Exclusive Items Also Available.
This T-shirt collection features a total of five designs, with the "Low" model being exclusive to Japan. Among them, the T-shirt showcasing Bowie in an outfit by Kansai Yamamoto, a leading Japanese designer, is particularly striking. Each T-shirt will be sold as a limited edition set, including a special cloth bag and pin badge.
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"Spiders from Mars"[/caption][caption id="attachment_814311" align="alignnone" width="215"]
"Hunky Dory"[/caption][caption id="attachment_814312" align="alignnone" width="215"]
"Hunky Dory"[/caption]Mick Rock Explains the Five Images
Mick Rock offers his insights into the featured images. "The original shot was taken in June 1973, during the very last Ziggy Stardust tour date in the UK. David's costume was by Kansai Yamamoto, his favorite Japanese costume designer at the time. In this T-shirt design, it's overlapped and not clearly visible, but you can see what looks like a tear running down David's right cheek – it was actually sweat. In the late 80s, I started experimenting with processing some of my work into sepia tones, and this T-shirt design is based on that kind of photo art," he explains.
Regarding "Heroes," Mick Rock states, "This photo was taken in August 1973 during a sax session for the album package sleeve and back cover of 'Pinups.' I was the art director for the album. The saxophone was symbolic for David; it was the first instrument his mother bought him when he was 13." He adds, "'Diamond Dogs' is a photograph from the final show of David's first-ever US tour in December 1972. This live footage was also used in the 'Jean Genie' music video, which I directed."
"Hunky Dory" is based on "art I produced in the early 1990s. It's derived from the now-classic sax session image. This artwork was inspired by Andy Warhol's iconic piece featuring Elvis Presley holding a pistol, with multiple layers. Warhol has always been my favorite artist!" Furthermore, the image used for the Japan-exclusive "Low" model is based on "a photo taken in the summer of 1973. Again, the costume was by Kansai Yamamoto, but it had a lot of Japanese writing on it, and at the time, neither David nor anyone else understood what it meant. It wasn't until years later that I learned it actually said 'David Bowie,'" he reveals.
To commemorate the launch of the T-shirt collection, Pretty Green's Aoyama store will offer a limited edition of 50 signed photobooks by Mick Rock for ¥3,780. Concurrently, a photo exhibition by Masayoshi Sukita, who has photographed David Bowie for over 40 years,David Bowie Photo Exhibition "TIME - David Bowie by Masayoshi Sukita"will be held at Spiral Garden in Aoyama, Tokyo, from Thursday, December 4th to Tuesday, December 9th.
"Pretty Green × Mick Rock"
David Bowie T-shirt Collection
Price: ¥16,200
Limited Edition Set Contents: Special Cloth Bag + Special Pin Badge
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