Plastering China on T-shirts

• Source: Global Times
• [18:22 September 24 2009]
• Comments

Inspired by a souvenir T-shirt of the Great Wall, Johnson-Hill opened a store in 2006 called Plastered selling T-shirts he designed himself using city images.

He said all his designs are from his experiences in China. He put old coupons which people used to buy food in the canteen on his T-shirts to remember the old days. Chinese people's favorite number 8 which sounds like “fortune” in Chinese was also “plastered” by him with different backgrounds like blue and white porcelain and images used during Spring Festival.

Other Beijing images, like the bus stop sign, old subway map and the iconic Beijing Hotel, are all put on Johnson-Hill's T-shirts.

Currently, 80 percent of Plastered's customers are young Chinese who like to follow fashion trends. Johnson-Hill's designs are successful in invoking nostalgia with their cool motifs, reminding many of the wearers of their childhood.

“He brought many old images into fashion. We used to be familiar with those things, but we are too familiar to find the beauty of them,” said a young female customer who browsed around Plastered which is decorated with stuff like old thermos bottles with a red metal shell, and yellowing city images on the wall.

Johnson-Hill said he is community focused as he hired retired women in the neighborhood as salespeople and several young Chinese people to do administration and accounting for him.

Opening shop and settling his home in Nanluoguxiang, Johnson-Hill attends community meetings regularly, voicing his ideas on how the street could be further developed. He also organizes street festivals in the neighborhood. Last November, the local government awarded him a cash prize for his efforts, the first business prize in Nanluoguxiang.

As his T-shirts are becoming more popular to more young hip Chinese, Johnson-Hill has made his business from his original investment of 40,000 yuan to a turnover of over 5 million yuan in 2008. Last year he was awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year” by the British Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.

Nowadays, Johnson-Hill and his family feel more connected to society. And as he said, China is his second hometown.

“My daughters go to Chinese schools, make friends with Chinese kids, and they can speak very fluent Chinese like their pals. They're more like Chinese than Britons because their Chinese is better than their English,” Johnson-Hill said while talking to the Global Times in Chinese.

“Last August, when my wife and I watched the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympic Games, we both burst into tears. We were moved by the moment that verified China's great achievements during the past decades. We felt so proud of the county where I spend half of my life,” he said with a smile.