Greenstarfish: T-Shirts With Soul

101 -- Looks by Greenstarfish in New York on Friday, June 23, 2006




Fashion Wire Daily - New York - "I was fed up with the mindless, crude tees on the market," said Cecille Swayneson, the Jamaican-born, New York-based accessories editor/stylist behind Greenstarfish, the tactile, hand-crafted t-shirt line she launched in 2003. "Greenstarfish tees are emotional, they have a voice and it's up to each individual to get the impact of the symbols."

Greenstarfish's Moon and Stars design, for instance, is meant to invoke "our unconscious responding to what we really want to be, [which is] a part of nature," said Swayneson when we caught up with her at Lucy Barnes' boutique in the Meatpacking District. "I use images in our everyday life that we take for granted." Besides being thought-provoking, the tee also looks pretty damn cool, with a green silkscreened moon silhouette floating beneath rhinestone "stars" and beach pebble "planets."

In fact, Swayneson uses whitewashed beach stones in many of her designs, including Beloved (a romantic-looking gray floral pattern topped with broken stones affixed with thick yellow thread), and Rocky Road To The Cross, in which a cross fashioned from tiny white pebbles appears to rise up from the earth (or a grave, depending on the viewer's perception), perhaps symbolizing man's ongoing struggle for meaning and salvation.

"Fashion does not have to be superficial; that's a myth made up by someone who chooses to be empty," said Swayneson of the inspiration behind her $56 to $202 creations, which are made entirely by hand and sold at Lucy Barnes and Naga Yoga in New York, The Rockhouse in Negril, Jamaica, and online at www.greenstarfish.com. And when it comes to the shirts' images, she added, "You either get it or you don't."

The designer's longtime pal
Mick Jagger, who owns four Greenstarfish designs, obviously gets it, as does "Walk The Line" star Joaquin Phoenix, who ran up to Swayneson on a Los Angeles street when she was wearing Rocky Road To The Cross and began stroking her chest, transfixed by the tactile nature of the 3-D design.

Galloping Horse and Kaf (the Hebrew symbol) are two other popular Swayneson motifs and, like all Greenstarfish designs, they mean different things to different people.

"Not everyone wants to look like a 2006 Stepford Wife," said Swayneson when asked why she thinks her t-shirts are so popular. "People want new. They want emotion. They are crying out for it. Why do you think there are so many yoga centers and health food markets on every block? The times are changing, and we need to take care of ourselves inside and out. These images inspire an inward dialogue - and they are a reminder to get with it, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually."

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