A few months ago I was sitting at the computer, doing the same thing I usually do, spending time on Gchat instead of actually getting any work done. My boyfriend sent me a photo of woman with a walker and a cute dog wearing a “Putin is my sex slave” shirt. I think I was so into the dog/shirt combo that I didn’t really look at the person wearing it but I did say something along the lines of “I wish I could find this woman and make shirts with her.”
Okay, so here is the part where I am an idiot: a week later, I received an email from my father with the subject line “Photos of aunt Lorraine in NY.” I open the email and lo and behold:
Putin is my sex slave.
The bad news was that I am an asshole and didn’t realize it was my aunt, but the good news — which I would say outweighs the bad– was that I could in fact call the amazing Putin shirt woman up and get some of her t-shirts made. Not only that, but I could also ask her what inspired her get the shirt made and walk all around NYC in it, which I did. And the story is below. x
TRV: The Putin shirt is pretty perfect. Have you made any other shirts in the past?
AL: I first started making the shirts in the late 90s. I decided to make the first one after I had read an article about NYU making promises and not keeping them in my community [Greenwich Village]. They kept saying they weren’t going to do things and then did them anyways and they were putting up NYU buildings everywhere. I have lived in the Village since 1978, and it was getting to the point where I didn’t think I could handle living there much longer because it was turning into NYU-ville. Just for fun, I made a shirt that said “I live in NYU Village, formerly known as Greewich Village” and started wearing it all around and people really enjoyed it. I had one 90-year-old man laughing so hard I thought he was going to have a heart attack.
A few years later, I had read another article that made me really mad. Most of the shirt ideas come from articles that get me really worked up. This article was about
Donald Trump deciding to build the Trump Soho. The article said “this project will completely change the landscape of the Village,” and all I could think was ‘what if the people who live here like the landscape? Who does he think he is to come in here and change it?’
“I live in Trump City, formerly known ad New York City.”
So I made the shirt (seen above) and started wearing it everywhere. People really enjoyed it and asked to take my photo, etc. I also wore it to a community meeting where I said we don’t want him here and got a great response from that.
TRV: Okay, so we’ve got that you get the t-shirts from somewhat political issues, but where did the sex slave part come in?
AL: This was also due to Donald Trump. He was saying some really ridiculous things about Obama that weren’t even political, they were just personal attacks. So I thought that someone should say something ridiculous about Trump. His wives kept getting younger and I remembered hearing once that many powerful men have fantasies about being…well, spanked. And being dominated. I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be funny to have a fat old woman spanking Trump?’ And Donald Trump is my sex slave was born. I wore it out and people were laughing and I felt so special. I also go to meet a lot of people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.
The next sex slave tee came during the 2012 election. I was anxiously awaiting to see who the republicans were choosing to run against Obama and once it was announced that it was Romney, I had a Romney is my sex slave shirt made which people really enjoyed. A lot of people had even said “God bless you” just for wearing the shirt. After Romney had lost, I retired the shirt for good.
TRV: He’s obviously a bad dude, but what made you decide to do one for Putin?
AL: I had once again read an article that made me mad, this one was about the anti-gay laws in Russia. I thought, ‘Who the hell is he to tell people who to love? That’s crazy!’ I also thought it was wrong that he just went into another country and bullied his way around. I have a thing about bullies. That is how the Putin shirt was born.
TRV: What kind of reactions do you get when you’re wearing the shirt?
AL: Most of it has been positive. I did have one woman who said to me “Oh, you don’t like Putin?” and said that it was all Obama’s fault but most people just want to take photos and enjoy the shirt. More than once, someone has seen me walking down the street and I can tell they are being judgmental and I say “you love it” and they reply with, “yeah, you’re right I do.” There is a famous restaurant across the street from my apartment where a lot of famous people eat and one day I walked by and the paparazzi started taking photos of me. Everyone looked to see who they were taking photos of and it was a fat old lady in a Putin shirt.
Photo via http://gothamist.com/
TRV: Do you have any shirt ideas for the future?
AL: My newest shirt is a little different, it says “The louder the motorcycle, the smaller the peepee.” I had walked by a biker the other day and doubled back past him to make sure he saw it. He didn’t really understand it, but after I explained it he decided to inform me that he’s “got 8 inches.”
TRV: How did you feel when you saw that the photo of you in the Putin shirt was making its rounds on the Internet?
AL: It really amazes the hell out of me that they know about it everywhere. I’m really just doing this as a way to pass the time and shake things up.
You can follow Lorraine on twitter as @lorbo255 and you can grab a tee here. She is the original creator and she actually gets money when we sell ’em, so you should get them from us. Duh.
Total Recall Vintage 