every tee tells a story…
in junk gypsy world, every tee tells a story. and the first ever JG tee started really, as an accident.
twas many, many moons ago at the famous round top/warrenton antiques week…we had been peddlin from show to show across texas for a couple of years buying and selling our junky wares. we had heard the legend and lore of round top antiques week but of course, could never have imagined the true motherload-junk-mecca that awaited. our maiden voyage to antiques week, we set up at marburger farms and then for the next show, 6 months later, we landed westward down the road a bit.
{rutersville, texas...just down the road from warrenton}
and then, 6 months later…fate intervened and we unpredictably set up camp at what would become our new junk home and our new junk family….zapp hall.
- {ZaPP hALL antique show in WARREnTON texas…good times and great friends}
amongst our piles and piles o’ junk, random roadside loot, and gypsy-fide decor, we unloaded a few boxes of tees amie had designed on a whim….and couldn’t believe our eyes…
the women flocked to the boxes like a macy’s 1-day sale. they were diggin through the neatly folded, freshly printed tees faster than we could unpack ‘em. we decided the most prudent thing for us to do was to step back and stay outta the way. tees were flyin through the air and by the end of that day, we had sold almost every single tee BEFORE the antiques show even began. and on the next day, we sold the tees off our backs. literally. dirty & sweaty…sold the very tees off our backs. they wanted those tees, and they wanted them baaaaad.
and that was when we realized…women connected with this tee. they got it. women felt the soul that was woven into the art of this tee. women WANTED to wear something that spoke to them as this tee did. and it was right then that we knew. we had to make more tees. we had to pour passion and soul into more tees. it was our art. our creative spirit. it was something unexplainable. it was our density (get it?? marty mcfly from back to the future…’you are my density’ :) great movie. buuuut i digress…)
it. was. junk gypsy.
so which tee was the first you ask? which tee started it all?
{the original "WeLL-behaved women rarely make history" tee}
so here’s what happened…amie & i have always been avid doodlers and collectors of quotes….and this particular quote “well-behaved women rarely make history” by laurel thatcher ulrich had been stuck to amie’s mirror since our college days.
she ran across this vintage image of old cowgirls arm-in-arm at the cowgirl museum & hall of fame. and to her, it signified a million different things. trailblazer, strength, aspiration, inspiration, independence, empowerment, sisterhood, beauty, STYLE.
amie’s mind is like a glittery tumbleweed spinnin’ through the universe…it sometimes touches the ground but stays a few feet off most of the time as it spins and twirls. it’s cluttered and messy and beautifully, whimsically chaotic and kinda like a roadside diner, it’s 24/7. so with no formal training in graphic design, amie gathered elements from her favorite things, an old cowgirl photo, an inspiring quote from one of history’s greatest wordsmiths, and a frame scanned from a fleamarket find – an old vintage photo album …. and the rest, as they say, is history.
so now ya know…the story of the first ever junk gypsy tee. but stick around, cuz as i said earlier, every jg tee tells a story…and there’s many stories left to tell.
***and just fer you…we’ve brought this oldie but goodie outta retirement in honor of our first edition of ‘every tee tells a story’. Pre-OrdER now on a super-comfy, heather gray, short-sleeve scoopneck tee OR on a wild n’ crazy LiME GREEN boatneck tee with bell sleeves.***
22 comments
I bought one of the first Junk Gypsy t-shirts at First Monday from Janie and Amie and still wear it! Love it!!!!!
[Reply]
Beeeeaauuutifuuuuul story! I just LUV it! Still waiting for that first Junk Gypsy store to open in a vicinity near me:)
[Reply]
I purchased one of those original T’s right out of the box……dug to the bottom!!! Still have it………washed it soooo many times the back is the front and the front is the back………its see thru… :) see yall soon!!!!
[Reply]
I got mine at Spice in Waco, TX!!! :)
[Reply]
This is such an awesome shirt. I want one!!! Are you going to do any in a plus size? Us ‘full-figured’ women are gypsies, too! :)
[Reply]
I love my tee shirt…….it’s jest like the one in the picture! Mine has been washed a gazillion times and still has lotza miles left in it…..like my junk gypsy buds. Those daze of long ago at Canton are a faint memory – now that we have all moved on to the Big Junk Heaven of RT/Warrenton. Alleluia! See you soon!!
[Reply]
Oh my goodness! This is the tee shirt I bought from y’all at Canton just days after being diagnosed with breast cancer eight years ago, and it was the one I wore so proudly (bald head and all!) to my last chemo treatment later that summer! I love this saying and practice it most every day! ;) Thanks for the great story of how it all came to be . . . and I’m so glad it is! Love you gypsies!! See y’all soon at Warrenton! xxxooos
[Reply]
Giddy Up!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Reply]
What a great story. Now, I sure hope there’s a book in the works because I’m sure you could fill up each chapter with so many adventures you all have taken.
[Reply]
YAY!! Any chance of the pink comin back or a Turquoise!! :)
[Reply]
WELL HOT DAMN, I STILL HAVE MY ORIGINAL JG TEE TOO………I”M WITH JOE PETE…..GIDDY GIDDY…..GIDDY UP! !!!!!!!!!!!
[Reply]
My shirt wore out, but we were there your 1st year in that tent….just out of Rutersville, then seems like you moved a little closer on the right side of the road the next year or so..and then down to the big show…
[Reply]
I still have one of those tees somewhere. I bought mine about 10yrs ago at Canton.
[Reply]
Does Junk Gypsy still have a spot at Canton?
[Reply]
Money has been tight around her but I do believe I will have to surrender some for one of those shirts. Absolutely love it!
[Reply]
Bought that bea-uty a few years back and i’m still wearing today, a little worse for wear but love it even more! I also found a sterling silver bracelet with those same words of wisdom and got a tattoo idea going on in the back of my Gypsy mind. Ya never know!!!
[Reply]
just randomly came across ur facebook page and love yer stuff can it be bought abywhere in ireland or over the net?? xx
[Reply]
And I was there to witness it all first hand! Y’all might have started with a tee…but you ended with a bang!
Deb
[Reply]
oh my…the shirt is fantastic, but the way a sweet sister writes about amie. makes my heart ache a little for the sister i never had! that is how i want people to know ME (“amie’s mind is like a glittery tumbleweed spinnin’ through the universe…it sometimes touches the ground but stays a few feet off most of the time as it spins and twirls. it’s cluttered and messy and beautifully, whimsically chaotic and kinda like a roadside diner, it’s 24/7.”) THANK YOU for sharing that! i LUUUURVE it. :)
[Reply]
I had a brown one years ago! I just don’t recall what happened to it, lol…..I started looking for it in my closet a few months back, I must have lost it in the marriage move….lol….I guess I need another!
[Reply]
Bought this tee yeeeeeeeeeeears ago at round top!!!! Just Love you Ladies and all of your “junky” ideas….in a good way!!!!
[Reply]
Would love to add the following names to the FIGHTER tee…
Barbara Mackey
Barbie Hardy
Amy Miller Hill
[Reply]
Leave a Comment