MAVI JEANS + LEMON TWIST

MAVI JEANS is a brand of denim and jeans-wear founded in 1991, based in Istanbul, Turkey. The company's name derives from the fact that Mavi is a Turkish word for blue.

MAVI JEANS’ Art Director Andrew Paine was visiting San Francisco from New York and stumbled into our store in Hayes Valley. At the time, I had several proof prints of stencils I had done on newsprint hanging in the store - see the Lemon Twist Mens’ logo shown below is a good example. Subsequently he reached out and wondered if I would be interested in doing a T-Shirt collaboration! The theme was “Brazil” and over the course of a few months, I generated several story boards, and with Andrews’ art direction, we headed into an animal- themed collection. 10 designs: 6 mens - 4 womens. It was a smash at MAVI, which brought along the Converse shoe design campaign with the theme of “Istanbul/Constantinople.”

Two of the Converse designs for MAVI were inspired by the thriving metropolis of Istanbul and its history. The crush of people and the old world colliding were my first thoughts. Laundry hanging between the buildings was an instant vision. Another was about being a youth coming of age, not wanting to do anything - drawing on his or her sneakers like a pair of favorite jeans wasting time in class: “ense yapmak” which translates “to indulge oneself in doing no work” and “oglum” which translates to “my friend.” These designs also were a favorite at MAVI JEANS.

BRAZIL

ISTANBUL/CONSTANTINOPLE

A few in progress shots of the sample T-shirts.