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Citizens of Humanity has released the latest installment of Just Like You, the philanthropic film series they launched in fall 2012. And their latest star is three-time Oscar winning costume designer Colleen Atwood, who also designed a charitable limited-edition T-shirt to coincide with the film.
“From one experience something ultimately ends up applying in another place,” Atwood says in the short film, while sketching costumes recently worn by the San Francisco Ballet and embroidering and distressing medieval-looking leather garments.
Atwood joins other cultural luminaries including Mikhail Baryshnikov and Michelin-starred chef Héléne Darozze as subjects of the L.A.-denim brand’s charity initiative, which has them each appearing in short branded videos and designing a T-shirt to benefit the foundation of their choice.
“We found real indigo, which is an incredibly beautiful color, but very difficult to use because it’s an art dye, not a commercial dye,” Atwood tells THR of her design, which has proceeds going to children’s charity The Art of Elysium. Its slight, almost wood-grain effect was inspired by a piece of primitively-patterned, Mexican retablo folk art that she loved.
“It’s more like a texture really, like the top of a snake. We burned a screening and then used that as a batik, but with chemicals. When you screen and dye, it leaves the screen in the natural color, which in this case is white.”
Each cotton shirt is dyed and printed by hand, and retails for $78 on Citizens of Humanity’s website. View the video, below.
Colleen Atwood: Just Like You from Citizens of Humanity on Vimeo.
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