‘Laundry and Dry Cleaners’ Tee
Birds x Neil MacCormick
These tees are a collaboration between Birds of North America and artist Neil MacCormick. Neil has painted full time since 1984 and co-owns Birds of North America with his partner, designer Hayley Gibson. The two have shared a studio since meeting in 2006.
‘Laundry and Dry Cleaners’
This painting of Neil’s has always stood out to me because of what a New York feeling it has. I didn’t know that city at all until I met him, and have since come to know and love it deeply. It’s probably a very common experience, but after my first visit, I felt like I was suddenly able to recognize it everywhere - in movies, books and pictures - almost like a friend who had been there all along, waiting to be discovered. I love New York!
Before I actually visited, I had expected that NYC would feel totally impersonal - that everything would be large in size and that I would feel totally overwhelmed by the sheer scale of it all. Instead I discovered a city that greeted me at street level - everything was surprisingly human sized, and full of unpretentious, everyday people, and businesses with modest storefronts. Something about the image of this humble laundry and dry cleaners really drops me mentally right in the middle of that incredible city.
Neil took the source photo for this painting on one of his first trips down there to show his paintings to OK Harris gallery in Soho, in 2003, and the finished painting would have been in his first show in New York in 2004. He can’t remember exactly where this launderette was situated, but thinks it was likely on one of the smaller streets - possibly Thompson - between the gallery in Soho, and Chelsea, where he was staying. He liked that it didn’t really have a sign and was so generic looking. I think that’s why I like it, too - pure New York via one of its totally unremarkable small businesses!
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These tees are made in a Toronto factory out of locally milled, medium weight, 100% organic cotton jersey. These tees can be machine washed and tumble dried. The classic tees will shrink 1" total in length with a wash and dry, and the cropped tees will shrink just 1/2" total. We haven't found there to be any width shrinkage with washing and drying.
In these images, Hayley is 5'7" and wears our size XXS Cropped Black tee, and Neil is 6'1" and wears our size L Classic White tee. These tees fit on the larger side of the Birds size chart, but for your everyday classic T-shirt, that fits a bit more generously, they fit 'normally', or as you would expect them to.
If you're going by your regular size in the Birds size chart, we recommend that you take a full size down. If you normally take a S in Birds, the XS will work for you in this. If you normally take a 3X in Birds, the 2X will work for you.
A tip for fit - if you have a favourite classic tee at home, and you'd like the same fit, just lay it flat and measure across the chest to find the closest equivalent in the charts below!
Cropped Tee
Classic Tee
Everything at Birds of North America is vegan and has been made ethically in Canada since we began in 2007. We have a strong focus on sustainability, and strive to create high-quality garments that last a long time. You can browse vintage Birds styles that we've gathered back as part of our buyback program in our ReNesting section!
