Electrifying Facts About The Mighty Squirm!!
Looking for dark, delicately illustrated, and historically relevant designs to add to your wardrobe?? Well your search ends here my friends!! If you haven't been introduced yet, The Might Squirm is here to make your tee selection infinitely more interesting! From dancing skeletons to Mary Shelley and Honest Abe, The Mighty Squirm's hand illustrated designs are printed in a way that highlights their work. Want to know more about this dynamic duo (Thea & Daniel)? Well here you go!
Tell us about The Mighty Squirm, how was it first started?
We originally started out making kids' T-shirts, but our sensibility has always been edgy and chilly; so although some parents loved our designs (which included a "goth chick"--a baby chick wearing a tight black corset--and a kid's skeleton riding a pterodactyl skeleton), we quickly realized that we'd be better off designing for adults. When we turned to adult designs, we started with a horse-drawn hearse, a mermaid skeleton, a dead Southern belle sitting in front of an Antebellum mansion, and a Tudor-era executioner; soon we realized that our dark-themed designs tended to have elements of history and folklore, so we focused even more on historical themes.
How do you choose the items you want to illustrate?
Our personal favorites are always the starting point, and researching them often leads to other ideas. I've been an Oscar Wilde fan for a long time, so I chose him; and he personally knew Sarah Bernhardt, so we learned more about her as well, and now we have two shirts that feature her. Our Danse Macabre tee for women was inspired by medieval art, which we love. Our "smoking skeletons" dolman top was inspired by our favorite 1930s movies. Sometimes topics that are popular in current media give us ideas too; our Abe Lincoln shirt came about when movies about Lincoln were released. Our Frederick Douglass design followed soon after because researching Lincoln led us to Douglass, who was from the same time period.
Is there something you'd like to put on a tee but haven't yet?
Eventually we'd like our collection of historical figures to include more people of color and be more culturally diverse. We'd also like to use more medieval themes.
What should people know about you that they may not?
We're a family business. My husband Daniel and I run it together, and our daughter and my brother often weigh in with ideas. Daniel and I both show our art in Los Angeles-area galleries, and sometimes we work on pieces together.
Photo Credits:
Photographer, Flip Cassidy; Photo Editor, Topher Adam
