David Jon Acosta refuses to be referred to as a “fashion designer,” which is certainly queer for someone who spent their life savings starting a t-shirt company, Gold Saturn. Acosta explains, “I don’t consider myself a fashion designer. I love fashion, yes, but I’m not into construction. I don’t like to sew. I like graphic design, so I put my two loves together. I consider myself a graphic designer, because it’s the graphic that makes the shirt special.”
And judging by the graphics, you can be sure there’s more to the story…
First and foremost, Acosta’s a mere twenty-two years old and began Gold Saturn while still studying at the Art Institute in Miami: “I was an architect’s personal assistant, and he was always in Dubai, so I would sit at the office, bored, and doodle on photoshop. That’s when the whole pills thing came out.” By “the whole pills thing,” Acosta means “Prescription for Peace,” his first full-fledged fashion creation. The shirt became so popular on AIM’s campus that Acosta decided to throw in the architectural towel and start his own t-shirt company.
Acosta counts his hometown of Miami and the Super Mario Brothers, among other things, for influencing his “tongue in chic” aesthetic, which includes amicable mushrooms, marijuana leaves and the aforementioned pill-laden peace sign. Despite the implicit drug references, Acosta’s quick to point out that he’s not pushing an agenda. Or even a message: “I don’t think about the message when creating the tees. Once the designs are made, people tend to interpret them in their own way, which is a beautiful thing.” More than anything else, however, Acosta credits his first car, a gold Saturn, for inspiring his fledging design house: “I had the best times of my life in that car, so I wanted my t-shirts to reflect that free spirit attitude.”
A self-described “modern hippie” intent on self-determination, Acosta refused to take investors on for his start-up. It would be his business and his alone: “I haven’t had any help from anybody, I haven’t had any investors, which is really hard, but I had offers, but my whole thing is that if it’s a success, I want it to be on my end and, if it’s a failure, I don’t want anyone to have to deal with it. I want it to be my success or my failure. No one else’s.” Though he won’t specify the numbers, Acosta maintains his lines consistently sell-out and hopes to start designing accessories. Whatever happens, Acosta’s sure of one thing: “My t-shirts are conversation starters.”
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Mike
Haha, Justin Conner?
Ana, baby
I am totally obsessed with this line!!!! It is tre-cool, chic, and fashion forward. This genius boy’s t-shirts definitely say more than I could with words..and leave people guessing at the same time..I LOVE ME SOME GOLD SATURN!
Butterpantz
Pretty pedestrian if you ask me…looks like a sale rack at hot topic. Especially the D-bag necklines.
Okaaaaayyyyyy
Oh please, he pasted some dumb ass pictures on American Apparel V necks.
P.A.T.H.E.T.I.C.
josh
i think they are actually really cute. i like the deep vnecks. i just bought like 3 of them!
JAYYYYYY
i think i saw these on peter davis’ blog on paper magazine… i dig it.
BUTTERLIPS
ummmmm butterpantz… of course you dont like the d-bag necklines! cuz your fat ass doesnt look good in them
seitan-on-a-stick
It’s gotta be better than the offal being sold at Universal Gear. Maybe he can incorporate the image of Heath Ledger as The Joker in Dark Knight as some sort of Crystal parallel. Hey, if Andy Warhol can make us buy a can of crappy soup, there’s still fashion hope…with a message!
IDNY
eh, there are a couple fun ones but mostly unoriginal iron-on-transfers.
They are made for hipsters by a hipster so if you don’t wear the hipster “uniform” then its probably not going to work for you.
John
when are those Douche-Neck shirts going to go out of style? the only guys who wear them are muscle-meat heads who are desperate to show off their man cleavage, hence the term Douche-Neck shirt.
And why is it that every 2 years someone has to put pictures on a tshirt and charge tons of money for it? it’s a tshirt….with crappy art on it…calm down Versache you didn’t just reinvent the wheel.
HATERAID
WOW SOME PEOPLE ARE DRINKING SOME OF THAT HATERAID… I DONT SEE ANY OF YOU LOSERS DOING ANYTHING? I THINK THEYRE FUN AND NOT HIPSTER WHY DO I KNOW THIS BECAUSE IM NOT A HIPSTER AND BOUGHT A FEW! I THINK INSTEAD OF HATING PEOPLE SHOULD BE HAPPY THAT A YOUNG GAY GUY CAN ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ON HIS OWN AND BE SUCESSFUL!
catcher cat
GOLD SATURN FOUND ME A BOYFRIEND! i had originally seen them on papermag.com and bought the prescription for peace, not only is the tee shirt good quality not some shittty shit made in china and the screen prints are awsome! I wore it out thats when my now sexy bf approached me and we started talking about my shirt! Now im getting a nightly dose of ass while some of you are jerking off to your computer monitors.
whoopi goldberg
THESE T-SHIRTS ARE SICKKKK MOTHA FUCKASSSS