Full English is pleased and excited to announce in this week’s post that we have sufficiently mastered the art of mechanical t-shirt-printing to produce our very own punk-rock-DIY-style Extremely Limited Edition KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON Full English t-shirts! Made from best quality recycled second-hand t-shirts, (we are planning a line using brand new t-shirts next, now that we have built up the necessary confidence), they will be available in random different sizes and colours, from our stall at tomorrow’s Sunset Valley Farmer’s Market, and any leftovers will be posted here.

The KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON poster has become very popular recently all over the world- the New York Times even wrote an article about it last week- so you may already know that it was designed in 1939, at the beginning of WWII. According to Wikipedia, the poster was intended as a “last case scenario” to be used only should the Nazis succeed in invading Great Britain, in order to stiffen resolve. (Don’t you love that old-style expression, “to stiffen resolve”? This particular wikipedia page seems to have been written by Winston Churchill himself!)

As the Nazi invasion only included the entire rest of Europe, and never actually succeeded in making it into Britain, very few people had even heard of the KEEP CALM poster when it was rediscovered in a second-hand bookshop in 2000. The extremely British nature of the sentiment, perhaps even more enjoyable with a small dose of irony added, is really lots of fun, and has inspired many spin-offs. One theory for its popularity is that our hard-struck recessionary times inspire the same kind of “stiff upper lip” morale-boosting as the terrifying Nazi threat of WWII, but we find that sort of comparison a bit pathetic really. The most sobering thing about this poster is that it was never needed- because the idea of a nation of courageous old-fashioned Britons facing the invading storm troopers armed with nothing but calm and carrying-on-ness is so poignant, it makes you want to cry. But instead of crying, why not simply thank God and Mr Churchill, and come to SVFM tomorrow morning for a Cornish pastie, some delicious flapjacks and a super-cool new item of clothing (see above)!

Just look for the British flag.

Update: We’re really pleased to say that the shirts are going so well that after three reprints, we’re now working on getting them done in bigger numbers (while keeping it all hand-made, DIY & real). We’d really like to make some available for mail order, as a couple of people have asked. And we’re thinking about trying some of the design ideas people have suggested at the market, eg. Union Jacks and Texas-customisations of Brit-ideas. All of which is right up our street/ just our cup of tea

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 9:30 pm and is filed under news & business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.