Colfax designer Garth Meyer believes both that the Palouse deserves its own line of T-shirts and that he's the one to provide it.
“There’s been clothing companies that have celebrated the coastal parts of the U.S., for example the surf companies that celebrate the southern California surf culture,” Meyer said. “But there’s never really been one that’s depicted the American interior in this way.”
Meyer’s traditional white T-shirts showcase high-contrast black images of Palouse landmarks and figures, such as a railroad or barn, and are on sale at Tri-State in Moscow.
“I wanted to capture what is unique and universal in this area,” Meyer said. “We see a lot of country or rural images, but they can often be cliches at this point, such as covered bridges or tractors you see all the time. You don’t often see those images of fields and evergreens.”
While Meyer hadn’t seriously worked in the arts since high school, he decided to photograph scenes of Whitman County as a hobby.
“I had started taking these pictures around the Palouse and … I didn’t know what I was going to do with them. I had started Malheur Co., and originally it was just sayings and words on shirts,” said Meyer, who had named the clothing company after an Oregon national forest and wanted to feature photography on the shirts. “But it would have to be an original image. Then, I realized a way to create this half-tone look.”
Screenprinted by Pullman’s Prints Underground, the T-shirts are unisex and are made of 100-percent cotton.
“I showed this to a fair amount of places, but Tri-State was just the perfect spot because of what they carry,” Meyer said. “It’s not an outdoor brand per se, but it’s not a workwear, it’s kind of an in between. And it’s not a fashion thing, but TriState embodies that.”
T-shirts can be purchased at the Moscow location for $18.
Treffry can be contacted at (208) 883-4640 or ltreffry@inland360.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @LindseyTreffry.
->if you go: WHAT: Garth Meyer’s T-shirts for sale WHERE: Tri-State, 1104 Pullman Road, Moscow WHEN: 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday COST: $18 per shirt
