NO, THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOL'S JOKE! THE TIMING JUST WORKED OUT THAT WAY BECAUSE OUR ANNIVERSARY IS TDOV, WHICH WAS MARCH 31ST THIS YEAR. (ï¿£yâ–½,ï¿£)â•
In case you missed, it, yesterday, we officially launched The Cryptid Collection!
Since it was the weekend and a major holiday, we decided to put off talking much about it outside of our website. But now it's Monday, so it's time to talk cryptids (even though we everyone is distracted by boops).
The Cryptid Collection is a collaborative design project created by co-owners Eli and Krista (hi, it's us, we're the main contributors to this Tumblr) exclusively for Shapeshifters. The collection has four main components: binders and sports bras made with fabrics of our own design, the fabrics which you can purchase for your own projects through Spoonflower, the vintage style travel posters, and the couture fashion looks which you can see in person at fashion shows across New England this year which will be listed on our Events Page as we confirm them.
While the collection was inspired by cryptids in general, we decided to spotlight six in particular: Mothman, Champ, the Jackalope, the Squonk, the Jersey Devil, and the Fresno Nightcrawler.
We'll talk more about them and why we chose those cryptids in particular later in the week. Today, we want to talk about the who, what, where, when, why, and how of The Cryptid Collection and cryptids in general.
You may be asking: Why a fashion collection?
It was originally Eli's idea. It had been something they'd been fantasizing about for a few years now, almost as long as Shapeshifters has been in business. The realization that it was something we could potentially really do didn't come until Fall of 2023, though, when we started talking about how to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We wanted to do something special, something that we'd never done before, and Eli decided it was time for both of us to finally admit that, after ten years of making and designing clothing and and graphic art, we might actually be qualified to call ourselves and present ourselves as Designers.
"It’s wild. I decided this year that I was going to commit to being the person I’ve fantasized about becoming. Terrifying." —Eli
So, a themed fashion collection.
But while it was their first and only answer when Krista asked what they wanted the theme to be, Eli didn't come up with the cryptid idea entirely on their own. Anyone who's been following Krista's artblr, @3ofpents, has probably seen the vintage travel posters she's been designing since Summer of 2023. Originally inspired by a book of color palettes from print media through the 20th century, the posters started out as a personal challenge to get Krista drawing more often.
The very first poster she designed was for the New Jersey Pine Barrens and the Jersey Devil, inspired by the state she grew up in. But the one that Eli cites as the one that really got them thinking was for our home state: Burlington, VT's own Champ.
"The tagline for that one was You’ll never swim alone. The friendly, ominous, terrible, wonderful mystery embedded in those four words is a vibe I think about a lot." —Eli
Krista's choice of cryptids as a subject for her posters, and the well of inspiration she drew from in designing her parts of this collection, stemmed from her childhood in New Jersey. While the Jersey Devil isn't as popular and well-known as some other regional cryptids like Mothman and the Loch Ness Monster, it is a huge part of New Jersey culture. Every kid in the state grows up learning some version of the Jersey Devil's origin story; and the local indie, alt, underground, punk cultures slap Jersey Devil imagery on their posters, logos, and products the way some states use their state shapes.
"In New Jersey, the story of the Jersey Devil holds a similar kind of legendary local pride as the story of George Washington crossing the Delaware River on Christmas Eve to take the British soldiers camping on the other side by surprise." —Krista
Eli's inspiration is coming in a separate post; cryptids can't be anything but queer, as far as they're concerned.
In the coming days we've got much more to say about various individual cryptids! Stay tuned.
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