Photos: Courtesy of Wang Yue
Funky and creative shirts are not hard to find in this cosmopolitan city, but Bad Taste, the new T-shirt brand by former Hang on the Box frontwoman Gia, aka Wang Yue, is setting out to stir up the fashion scene with something less blandly "cool" and more brashly punk rock.
Leader of Beijing punk
"Devastating visual aesthetics, almost pricking your eyes, the worst taste, but the best Ts," said Wang of the style she's chasing. Unsurprising words for the woman who dropped out of college in her first year to perform with Hang on the Box, the only Chinese band to ever grace the cover of Newsweek (she was pictured along with Mao Zedong and President Nixon). "Anyone who likes Lady Gaga has his or her particular taste, and all who love punk has a 'bad taste' in heart."
Express yourself
Wang says punk is in the fashion design, cartoons, online games and art she's also interested in. To her, fashion and music communicate. Last summer she staged an exhibition entitled, "I am a bad girl" at the Beijing Center for the Arts that incorporated music, fashion, videos and even the British tea bags she drinks.
"I need to show my talents besides being a punk musician," she said. "I have different expressions in all different forms of art or design, and I will show it off as long as I can do it."
Wang produces the T-shirts with help from her 24-year-old boyfriend A Dong, who works in the garment industry. While Wang admits she has no idea of a business model or marketing plan for her T-shirts, she says she really wants the website to be an exchange platform for all artists.
"I am not a very expressive person in words, I do not know how to define the style in details. Some say it is quite rebellious, but not entirely, I think it is a reverse creation," Wang said. To come up with the graphics, Bad Taste invited lots of art professionals, including tattoo artists, cartoonists and painters, to submit their works. The most shocking ones will be printed on Bad Taste's T-shirts. Wang says the artists chosen are all under contract and they do get paid for their illustrations, but she's keeping mum on just how much.
Wang's favorite of the shirts pictures a shaggy-haired girl sticking her tongue out over the words "I'm not sexy!" - Wang's personal catchphrase (along with "No more nice girls"). That one is by 31-year-old Xiao Yun. Another image by tattoo artist Wang Ke pictures a colorful, Sailor Jerry-style mermaid sitting on an octopus, with a skull in the middle of her body. And 27-year-old graphic designer Cha Zhuxi came up with "Mei Zhi," a girl in a sailor suit up to her waist in water.
For sale
The T-shirts are sold in unisex sizes XS, S, M, L and XL, and they might roll out some "super large" editions later. They currently sell for the surprisingly up-market 180 yuan ($28) apiece, but Wang says the price might go up once the website launches in September. According to Wang, the materials are imported from the US, and with the quality shirts with their unique illustrations, she says the price is fair for the quality.
" I do not the T-shirts to make money, but sell the creation," Wang asserts.
Wang shrugs off doubts that her edgy style and self-professed "bad taste" will be widely accepted. "I don't care if the public will accept it, it is not my business," she said. "It is not aimed at popular brands like Uniqlo or Vancle at first, I just want to spread this culture out."
"There must be someone to explore a new type of fashion, and I am doing the job just as I led Beijing punk about 10 years ago," Wang said.
The Bad Taste T-shirt starts presale Monday at the Spoon House, No.211 Guloudong Dajie
The official website at www.the-badtaste.com will be launched in September