In our first t-shirt collection, we wanted to convey the feeling of being an amateur starting something and figuring it out on the way. Contrary to its commonly used meaning, the French word “amateur” meant “lover of something”. An amateur is someone who does something because they enjoy doing it.

We believe that being an amateur is underrated. Not knowing something may be the most crucial part of our process as it shapes our designs and how we do things in the first place.

As Alt Üst, we always feel the urge to experiment and learn, and the production of this collection taught us a lot in the process. We had to develop our own ways of doing it as upcycling often differs from conventional production methods.

The fabrics used in this collection are sourced in bulk from a factory selling large manufacturers’ textile remains. These remains arrive in large sacks, and each of them contains random colors. We produced four different screen-printed t-shirts with black and dark tones. We used the remainder colorful fabrics to create one-off t-shirts.

All the graphics featured on the t-shirts refer to the theme of the “Amateur”. One of the graphics features our first sketches while working on the collection; the other features the picture of a makeshift softbox we made some time ago. One has some lines about our feelings on the process; one is dedicated to the relentless spirit of an amateur.

One-off t-shirts also feature graphics inspired by amateurs that we feature in our collection video. And some summer imagery as we also wanted to welcome summer in a way.