2K By Gingham Apparel 0 Items

2K By Gingham Apparel

2K by Gingham has a strong history and is responsible for giving the t-shirt a new meaning in Japan. Japan is a country with a class-free and category-free society. It is the land of Gucci or Prada-bag-toting high school girls and convenience stores equipped with every product essential to survival in this intense, urban arena. The t-shirt is, without exception, one of the bountiful fashion items readily discovered. In the early 90s, many museum and popular art design tees began to be displayed in fashion boutiques in Japan. Playing upon this fashion movement, the 2K founders were prompted to travel to research museums throughout the world. This, in turn, led ‘em to a trip to the United States in 1995 to visit various museum stores in order to export and distribute their t- shirts in Japan. At that time, their favorite design was The Gilbert and George t-shirt from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It soon became readily apparent that the majority of museum t-shirts were too mainstream for their liking as the task of finding contemporary, cutting- edge designs would prove itself difficult. Needless to say, frustration mounted as the 2K guys could find only a few new images that they really liked. Meanwhile, they felt that the genre of contemporary art and the phenomena of sub-culture were merging. These feelings brought them to start working with a variety of “new” artists and design sources to produce 2K’s own art and sub-culture image t-shirt line. Since 1998, 2K’s travels to find interesting artworks and images throughout the US, Europe, and Japan have preoccupied more than one third of those years. By working with various artists and designers there was newfound respect for our emerging t-shirt line and it had created a “buzz”. At that time, availability had been limited to Japan but inquiries as to where the 2K t-shirt line was available began pouring in from all over the world. 2K, a small company whose name was bestowed by Experimental Jetset, is stridently anti-mass marketing. Instead of spreading the name 2K, the founders aim to gain recognition through their vision of presenting the unique work of the artists they represent. Also, they carefully research garment fabrics, cuts, and details to create their own custom merchandise.