On Friday the majority of us went to the big day out. Good things too, cos apparently we angered the Maori Language Commission people over the 'Whakapapa – you Mum did' t-shirt. Joe designed it, and he’s Maori.
Haydens Nips - causing quite the stir.
But seriously, it’s just a cheeky little pun and everyone loves a good pun. Before we released it we asked everyone on facebook about the design, and the feedback was well positive – and to be fair we’ve only received two complaints since the story was covered.It's Cool To Kōrero. Oh yeah, and we asked our fans on facebook if they found the t-shirt offensive and this one lady hit us with this. I found it funny. what a crazy chick - I reckon she'd be no fun to hang out with.
Q: Hey guys. Do you think our Whakapapa tee is culturally insensitive?
A: No. I believe your gross commitment to Colonizing bastardization of Indigenous Language and Cultural heritage is though. As a Kuia and a Mother of Kohanga reo and Kura Kaupapa Maori tamariki I find your embicilic self serving racist ignorance enhancing passive aggressive Ostrich with butt in the air theft, rape, pillage and plunder approach ...all too sad and predictable for European exiles.You are a credit to Colonial Schooling ...it not only failed the Indigenous peoples it succeeded in transmitting massified ignorance of which YOU are a classic example Mr V.Your willingness to slam anyone who challenges your right to steal, pillage and plunder Indigenous Intellectual and Cultural property while you trivialize, hypersexualize and shaft it's Sacred lineage perfectly sums you up. YOU do not own this language. YOU do not walk in respect with this culture. YOU are an outsider making insider claims for which YOU do not have any Tribalz permission. YOU are a classic Colonizing racist ignoramus ...do not pull the ...oh I'm just kidding and its only a bit a fun rubbish here ...I have to raise children in the aftermath of your stupidity for the cheap and nasty thrill of your cash register ego arrogance. YOU do not simply impact a language ...YOU impact a whole Web of Existence for which YOU take no responsibility. I also have European Ancestors. So don't pull that bull on me that this is acceptable to all Europeans either. It is irresponsible, blatantly commercial gangsta prostitution of Indigenous Peoples heritage ...for a buck. Well done to your Christopher Columbus curse.
Subject: idiot From: peter l*&^ard
Enquiry date: 2009-09-13 18:35
your coments on tv are ignorent and shocking. im an aussi here in auckland running a buisness as kiwis are to stupid to. aussie are in control of most buisnesses in new zealand as you are ten years behind us. if you want to call australians lazy say it to there faces. the kiwis i have working for me are the worst people i have ever been in control off .you are an idiot and i will relay this back to your aussie opostion and make sure that it gets harder for you. this is part of the world is forgotten as you have nothing to offer the world.
He thinks we’re idiots. Here’s 12 reasons why we’re smarter than him.
12. We use Capital letters at the start of sentences as well as for names of countries and people. 11. ‘Coments’ has two m’s. Comments.
10. ‘Ignorent’ is spelt ignorant. 9. im. I'm. It's like saying I am. That's a good way to remember it. 8. There’s an ‘e’ on the end of ‘Aussi’
7. Business. B-u-s-i-n-e-s-s. Not that hard. 6. This is a comma “,”. Try it some time. 5. To and too. Different words. 4. Say it to their faces Peter, not 'there faces'.
3. Have you been in control off them? Have you? nah. 2. ‘Oposition’. You mean opposition mate.
1. Just consider revising that last sentence.
Oh, and Peter. Please don't "make sure that it gets harder" for us. Please. Anything but that.
Check out this sweet picture that Mel spotted in the NZ Women’s Weekly. She claims she was just browsing and never reads the magazine, but we know she loves shows like Gossip Girl and Ugly Betty. Back to the photo though, there’s David Beckham’s little boy Brooklyn wearing our ‘Goodnight Kiwi Sketch’ t-shirt. Whoever has my dream job of writing the captions for NZ Women’s Weekly has speculated that David may have picked it up while on his last trip to NZ, but we know the inside scoop…. We gave a bunch of t-shirts to Becks’ family and the rest of the LA Galaxy team when they were over last year for their exhibition match against the Wellington Phoenix. How did we get them to Mr Beckham? I think Andy and Rob met him at the ‘Pony Club’ one night out; they were pretty much part of the furniture around that place back then. lol
Brooklyn's a Kiwi Kid. Well he's not but he's got one of our 'GNK Sketch' tees.
So it turns out that Paul Henry is a fan of Mr Vintage! Which is neat, cos we're fans of his too. Mutual feelings are so great.He said: "Social commentary on T-shirts is quite brilliant and it's a modern way of getting a message across. I went in and bought a few. I like them." Check out the entire article here. And he did come in to get some. I was too scared to talk to him though... I thought he might say something about my lack of facial hair or something.
So by now everyone’s seen the Paul Henry ‘Moustache-gate’ video. Quality. For those of you who haven’t and those of you who just want to have another laugh – here it is.
I love how concerned Alison is when she realises Paul is about to read the letters. She’s such a cutie in this video. It took me about 5 watches to get over Pauls antics, and then I realised that I would gladly marry her and live happily ever after. Blast you Simon. Blast you. Now, I’m Pippa Wetzells biggest fan, don’t get me wrong. But Alison is doing a bangin job of filling in. I hope she knows we appreciate her. Because we really do. Anyway, we’ve made the Paul Henry ‘Moustache-gate’ t-shirt – and I’m happy to report, we’ve not received one email telling us how much they detest Paul Henry or the fact that we’ve made the t-shirt. And I know a few people don’t like our friend Paul. We do – even though he wasn’t particularly as blunt on the David Bain t-shirt fiasco. Every good boy deserves a second chance. And my how you’ve taken yours with aplomb Paul.
A moustache on a lady. Stephanie the Greenpeace chick. Not Sarah. She's a friend who has no moustache at all.
On the actual incident, it’s clear that she did have a moustache. And that’s not really cool. Good on her for taking a stand and having a bit a hair on the upper lip – Lord knows that if I could, I would (gosh darn puberty has just forgotten about my face). But I don’t think people can get angry when others talk about said moustache. If it’s not the norm, people will notice. She was on National TV, so it’s to be expected that people notice and comment. Time to shoot the elephant in the corner me thinks.
So the fanfare around the Bain tees has started to ease, but not before every person with an opinion shared their thoughts on it. The majority was positive feedback from people who saw the light-hearted funny side.
We had others who swore they would do their best to bring us down. One person even called us imbeciles. That’s not nice at all – maybe it’s her that should be locked up. One lady went a step further and worded her entire spiel using witty sarcasm. That one confused us all and we weren’t sure if we were receiving praise or criticism.
We’re simple folk here at Mr Vintage. But the press really got hold of the story and ran with it, to the point that Rob was interviewed for a piece on TV3. Celebrity much? One week it’s the cover of the Parnell Darling, next it’s TV.... We’ve even been featured in at least five Australian news websites (blah, blah, blah). That’s a different country yo! Neat-o gang!
I guess just to re-cap, we’re pretty happy with how we might look after this incident, and – contrary to what a few people think – we’re confident that the majority of people weren’t offended by what were pretty harmless t-shirts. If we’ve lost a few customers or supporters, that sucks, but that's life and hopefully they can find it in their hearts to forgive us for our sins. Moving forward, we’ve got some really wicked designs coming up, and if you’ve managed to stick by us through this whole saga you won’t be disappointed. I promise - they'll definitely be better than the Chicken and Avocado sandwich I had for lunch. There was barely any avocado in it. There'll be heaps of avocado in our t-shirts.
Basically the press were saying that the tees are in bad taste. They also decided for some strange reason to seek the opinions of some crappy art-house designers. They of course felt it was tasteless. Meh. The writers had a field day as well. They used some aggressive words like “unrepentant”, and “slammed” – which was nice work.
Here’s some highlights:
World fashion label founder Denise L'Estrange-Corbet said people should remember that the trial was about "the murder of his family... it's a cheap way for a brand to lever publicity off something which so shocked New Zealanders". Zambesi founder Liz Findlay agreed. "I feel that this is in bad taste...
That chick with the weird name from ‘World’ should shut up. I mean seriously, she made kids t-shirts with the text: “future porn star”. If anyone’s trying to lever publicity from scandal then it’s surely that freaky lady.
That Zambesi lady reckons it’s in bad taste. She should take a second look at her Air NZ uniforms that she designed. Now that’s a fashion crime. Put a bit more effort in lady.
Paul Henry felt it was bad taste. That's a shame, I really like Paul Henry. I had no idea he was so PC.
Oliver Driver said on Sunrise that the tees were fine, and people should get over it. Good man Oliver you tall drink of water.
Haydens Nips - causing quite the stir.
Haydens Nips - causing quite the stir.
