Simeon Farrar is the creative mind behind contemporary T-shirt brand Black Score. After studying fine art, Farrar moved from canvas to material and went on to win the New Generation Award at London Fashion Week three times. He produces a self-titled Ready To Wear collection for both men and women, but his latest venture into slogan T-shirts was especially eye-catching. The humourous brand is known for its fashionable one-liners. Twin caught up with the man who invented the slogan “give us a cuddle, Susie Bubble.”

You have a fine art background, so how did you end up designing T-shirts?

I started painting and screenprinting on T-shirts mainly as another surface and out of boredom with canvas. The images seemed to have a different kind of life when they were on a garment than restricted on a canvas. It soon became a business and I’ve never looked back.

How is Black Score different to your self-titled line?

I always used to squeeze strange and quirky comical drawings into the Simeon Farrar line so I wanted to start something that just focused on that bizarre part of my brain. I also wanted a very simple T-shirt brand that had the freedom to reference whatever it wanted. We have such diverse cultural reference points in Black Score, from skateboarders to top models to dogs with socks on their rude bits. How many other brands can boast that mix? It’s totally free to comment on anything, nobody is safe.

What is it about fashion, and those famous faces within it, that inspires your subject matter?

I really wanted to make glib slogan tees that referenced the fashion industry, mainly because Black Score assumes a position slightly outside of that industry and more as an onlooker. From that we got some great support from people like Jourdan Dunn and Cara Delevingne. Both these girls are so current and it would be wrong for Black Score not to acknowledge that with a T-shirt for each.

You previously mentioned that you are influenced by the city and that it is a metaphor for this reality. What is it about the metropolitan life that inspires you?

It’s the diversity and anonymity of a city that has always inspired my art. Within this environment you can experience a type of freedom that is rarely experienced anywhere else. It’s all about limitlessness and being able to be whoever and do whatever you want.

As an artist first, do you find the process of printing slogan t-shirts limiting?

No, not at all. I think it’s incredibly creative. There’s not much space on a T-shirt so a good slogan has to act like a haiku poem. It has to say exactly the right thing in such a brief window of opportunity. I can’t believe I’ve just made the slogan T-shirt sound so high brow. Sorry.

You have collaborated with Grazia and also made a T-shirt for Glamour‘s anniversary. If you were to make a Twin T-shirt, what would it be?

Who knows, I don’t know what these things are going to look like until the last minute. It would rule though. I know that much.

Models Cara Delevingne and Jordan Dunn have both worn your designs. Who else would you like to see in your tees? 

Mick Jagger in the Georgia May tee would be nice, and Karl in the Choupette tee is inevitable.

Who can we expect to see featured in the next collection?

I’ve got a hip hop dog crew drawing on the go plus a nice series called Mutts With Butts planned. But don’t tell anyone.

blackscore.co.uk