The Just Mystic Journal
An iconic apparel design gets a fresh drop in Mystic, Connecticut
An iconic apparel design gets a fresh drop in Mystic, Connecticut
2 min read
If you’ve been following streetwear for the last year, or simply had a pulse in your daily wanderings, it has been hard to miss the trend of arcing, university-style fonts on hoodies, crewnecks, tees, pants, and shorts.
Some of the brands we love have dropped numerous variations on this design. Market dropped a few variations to celebrate their re-branding. Powers Supply was relatively early in the game, dropping long-sleeve tees in March. And as Hypebeast reported back in 2018, icantdecideyet was really early to re-launch a decades-old design. We’re also seeing brands in Europe, like Harmony, dropping their own take.
(Drake wearing icantdecideyet. Photo credit: Hypebeast)
We love it. Of course we do. Our entire brand launch is centered on this design. And like the aforementioned brands, our design has its own uniqueness. This comes from the place that it represents: Mystic, Connecticut. And like all the places with magnetism and mystique, Mystic is more than a place on the map. It’s a spirit that drips with coastal vibes, deeply influenced by a heritage of sailing and shipbuilding. This spirit is best represented by our color palette. Navy to represent the sea and local U.S. Navy and Coast Guard bases; grey for the clouds that have always been signals to sailors; and a washed, heather red for the shipbuilders who were hardened by the salty air and daily toiling in shipyards. In this first drop, we also included Carolina blue, which is an icon itself, but more so because it symbolises the sky of our ideal coastal adventures.
That many brands can take this design and make it their own is part of our love for it. But we also love that it’s an icon with a history that can be traced back to the 1800s, just as Mystic has a rich history starting centuries earlier.
In 1865, Harvard’s baseball team started sewing old English “H” patches onto their uniforms, which were thick-knitted flannel pullovers. These soon became known as letterman sweaters, and as other teams and schools adopted this design, becoming a letterman, or lettering, was a new symbol of status and excellence. The design evolved from the pullover sweaters to cardigans and, by the 1930s, varsity jackets. In the 1950s, there was a further evolution, as universities discovered the advertising power of printing their names on crewneck sweaters. (It was also parodied by National Lampoon’s Animal House, with John Belushi wearing the now ubiquitous “COLLEGE” crewneck.) Soon after, the design moved from college campuses to city blocks, cycling through streetwear trends over the last half century.
With the design icon now reaching a new peak, it is the platform from which we’re launching Just Mystic and a new legacy. You can shop our take on the icon at Just Mystic and in-person at our pop-up in downtown Mystic. You can also follow @justmysticshop to see which icons we drop next.
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