Graeme Gaughan introduces his new T-shirt label and talks to us about the accompanying shoot, inspired by 'The Road'
"Anyone can wear a tee and create a statement, that’s the beauty of it as a format," says Graeme Gaughan, the man behind t-shirt line Tourne de Transmission. "I grew up in a small town, there wasn’t much going on but music and clothing were a way to express your personality for better – or worse in some cases."
Moving to London to study music technology, he crossed over into fashion professionally to pay the bills, an opportunity that came about as fashion fell in love with music throughout the 00's, particularly in London. Now a PR in the capital, he keeps things fresh with projects such as TDT. Dazed Digital caught up with Gaughan to find out more.
Dazed Digital: Can you tell us about the project?
Graeme Gaughan: I started Tourne de Transmission in 2010, as a vehicle for me to express certain creative urges and messages through fashion or clothing. Its name a literal or lose translation of “rotating transmission”. I never really studied art or had any close proximity to the art world, but was always fascinated by how certain artists combined two visual elements that have nothing in common to create one statement that can be interpreted in many ways depending on the individual and their state of mind at that moment. I now work in fashion so it became the most obvious medium for me to see if I could develop this idea.
DD: Do you have a big collection of t-shirts?
Graeme Gaughan: I would say I have a fair collection of T-shirts, but I am not an anorak in this area or collector. I was skateboarding through my early teens and T-shirts were a huge part of the identity. They worked hand in hand with the board graphics, which were constantly changing in a seasonal format but completely unrelated to fashion. I still have some tees from that period knocking around somewhere.
My favorite however is my wife’s vintage Chanel T-shirt from the 80’s, pure classicism but completely OTT at the same time. Branding was still quite a new dimension to clothing back then and I love how unsubtle it is. Very non-French when you think about it.
DD: Can you tell us about the images you shot?
Graeme Gaughan: I loved the starkness and loneliness of films like The Road and I wanted to create a year 1 feeling to the mood of the images, a new world born out of the ruins. It fitted perfectly to what is communicated through the graphics. Especially given recent events. The location was perfect; everything was either ruins from a recent generation or pure natural landscape. And that’s all that was left.
DD: What's the next project?
Graeme Gaughan: As well as developing the fashion side of TDT, I would like to move it forward into other product areas that can still transmit statements. I would still love to make skateboards for example. I don’t see TDT as a one-man band and I would very much like it to develop as a collective so who knows…
Tourne De Transmission is exclusively available from Coggles
