SUÐR BACKPIECES: Why the motifs have numbers and not names
A large back print is nothing new. Band shirts have been doing it for fifty years, as have skate brands. What we're starting now is still something different – and the difference lies in a word we borrowed from tattooing.
What a backpiece means in tattooing
A backpiece is a large work covering the entire back. No one gets something like that done in an afternoon. You come back, multiple times, over months. It's the decision not to fill a surface with many small things, but to dedicate it to a single motif.
That's exactly why the line is called that. Not because the print is large, but because it's conceived as a single work rather than a graphic that coincidentally ends up on a shirt.
The back is the surface you never see yourself
That's the most honest part about it. You see a print on your chest in the mirror, you control it, you decide every morning if it fits today. Your back eludes you. You know what's there, but you never see it in everyday life – the people walking behind you see it.
That changes what you put there. Something that needs to be explained doesn't work. It has to make an impact the moment someone looks up and you've already passed by.
Why the motifs have numbers instead of names
The first is called 0701, the second 0702. No title, no season, no theme.
Numbers force something that is important to us: a motif is completed, not diluted. When a design is finished, it gets a number and stays as it is. The next idea isn't squeezed into the same print until nothing is left of it – it becomes the next number.
That's also why there are no restocks in twelve variations. A number stands for one work, and a work is finished at some point.
What the motifs have in common
If you put 0701 and 0702 side by side, you'll see the same signature: the curved lettering above the head, the portrait with the bar over the eyes, roses, a lightning bolt, a tear in the halftone screen, the zero and seven hidden as dice in the image.
What primarily changes is the color. 0701 comes in red, 0702 in violet. This is intentional – you should recognize that they belong together without one being a copy of the other.
When to wear something like this
Not as a statement for going out and not as an item you save for special days. A heavy oversized shirt with a back motif is just right when the rest remains simple: dark pants, sneakers, done. It needs nothing else next to it, otherwise it competes for attention.
That's why the front either remains blank or only has a small 07. What you see when you get dressed is a simple shirt. What others see is the whole work.
Why there aren't many of them
Each motif gets its own shooting and is printed as a completed number – not as a permanent item that sits on the shelf for three years. Once a number is done, it's done, and the next one is a different work.
If you want to know when a number is coming, you can sign up on the page for it. Then you'll get a notification about that specific motif – not about everything else.
Designed by SUÐR. Finished in Germany.