WHY PAULINE
Pauline is ground breaking.
The singer, grown up in Coventry (UK), voice of the multiracial band the Selecter, is a talented, sophisticated and elegant artist, able to impose her stage presence. This happened  at the beginning in a specific composite environment, related both to the British working class’ milieu – white and predominantly male – and to the youth cultural ferments that were stirring the consciences at the end of the 70s-early 80s.
Choosing the 2-Tone as a means of artistic expression, the singer is the spokesperson of messages related to equality and political consciousness, associated with a good dose of pure entertainment. She represents not only the urban subculture, but has become an authentic British pop icon – watch the BBC interview. 

2-TONE SOUND
In several regional British cities, the distinct late 1970s combination of economic turmoil, unemployment benefits (effectively an arts subsidy), and art school punks resulted in a generation of eccentric talent. In Coventry, the southernmost centre of Britain’s Midlands engineering belt, the outcome was 2-Tone (or “second wave”) a mostly white take on ska, the music brought to Britain by Jamaican immigrants and favoured by English mods of the period, whose two-tone Tonik suits gave the latter-day movement its name. 2-Tone became the name of the music label grounded by the Specials, a self-consciously multiracial group—both in composition and rhetoric. It identifies a thin and sharp sound, dominated by whiny vocals and the kerchunk-kerchunk of the rhythm guitar.

SKA MUSIC
Jamaica’s first indigenous urban pop style. Pioneered by the operators of powerful mobile discos called sound systems, ska evolved in the late 50s from an early form of rhythm and blues that emulated American rhythm and blues.

www.britannica.com

POLO AND SUBCULTURE
The polo is a style statement. Original adopted by the British working class youth in the 60s, the polo has been associated to the Mod movement, and the Jamaican rude boy subculture that identified strongly with music such as ska, rocksteady, reggae, soul, rhythm and blues and funk.

 

THE PAULINE SHIRT
Pauline is a wearable design object dedicated to Pauline Black, singer and spokeswoman of the British Ska music band the Selecter. The hand-made shirt has been created on the occasion of the band’s 40th anniversary.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE
Although it is a hand-sewed garment, Pauline Shirt complies with the replicability principle. In its implementation the original creative idea has been simplified and standardized along the lines of the widely known polo shirt with the addition of an unconventional collar.

THE COLLAR
The asymmetric side button collar, worn fully buttoned or left open, makes Pauline Shirt’s style versatile and unique.

THE PAULINE COLLECTION
Pauline Shirt is a piece of a capsule collection inspired by the visual of “Celebrate the Bullet”, the album released by the band the Selecter in 1981. – Learn more about the collection.

Collar prototyping: Karin Nolte – write to Karin: ginger6899@googlemail.com
Shirt prototyping, from idea to reality: Johanna Bereuter  – visit Johanna’s atelier
Photography: Nada Safari – see Nada’sWork: instagram.com/nadasafari

Contact: hello@zzu-apparel.com