Worn Free: Tees Inspired by Lennon and Zappa
Steve Coe proved his friends wrong when they told him the wealthy and the famous would scoff at the idea of doing business with a new manufacturer.
In Coe’s case, he wanted to do business with Yoko Ono and the estate of the Beatles’ John Lennon. In his native England, Coe had been reproducing a T-shirt Lennon wore in 1972 bearing the logo of the now-defunct Home restaurant, a favorite Lennon hangout in New York.
Coe was working as a graphic designer and hoped the T-shirt company he started with his brother Pete Coe in 2000, Ambush Ltd., would do some of its business in America. He now produces the T-shirts in California and hopes eventually to move his business headquarters to Los Angeles.
But his first trans-Atlantic step was cold-calling Peter Shukat. The legendary music-industry attorney was the lawyer for the Lennon estate. Friends told Coe that he was crazy. But he contacted the lawyer anyway. To his friends’ surprise—and Coe’s—Shukat took the call.
Even better for Coe, the lawyer approved the 31-year-old Englishman’s request to use Lennon’s image on the T-shirt’s hangtags. Shukat also introduced Coe to the family of the man who drew the shirt’s logo in the 1970s. The family, who coincidentally owns a clothing store called Home in Encinitas, Calif., granted him the license.
Coe’s circle of business contacts with roots in 1960s and ’70s rock kept growing. He got the licensing rights to some of Frank Zappa’s T-shirts. He also signed contracts to print T-shirt graphics from Los Angeles artist John Van Hamersveld, who designed some record album covers for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Coe calls this line of T-shirts Worn Free. He debuted the label at the MAGIC Marketplace in Las Vegas in August. Boutiques such as Madison in Los Angeles, Wolf in Los Angeles’ Venice neighborhood and Dari in Studio City will carryWorn Free. Retail price point for a T-shirt will be $40.
Licensing makes up 20 percent of Coe’s wholesale costs. Although these costs take a bite out of his profits, he believes it’s worth it. He said his T-shirts offer rock fans an alternative to shirts bearing logos of bands. “If it’s cool enough for John Lennon to wear,” Coe said, “it’s cool enough for anyone.” For more information, contact Steve Coe at (323) 275-4082 or wornfree@gmail.com. The label website is www.wornfree.com —Andrew Asch
