Madie Shaver set up shop at a table with tailor’s chalk, a ruler and a pair of sharp Singer scissors.
It took a few minutes to attract customers. “We had an example hanging up, and I was wearing one, but people were still confused,” she said. “But then one person did it, and everyone wanted them.” She estimated she cropped 15 shirts throughout the evening.
Ms. Shaver was running a cropping station for a live taping of “Celebrity Book Club With Steven & Lily,” a podcast that dissects celebrity memoirs, at the Bowery Ballroom in early June. She worked at the merchandise table, where fans could buy T-shirts promoting the podcast — and then immediately customize them.
Ms. Shaver, a friend of the hosts, works in marketing for the clothing brand Eckhaus Latta and has a degree in fiber with a concentration in experimental fashion from Maryland Institute College of Art.
“I would have them hold up the T-shirt and tell me where they wanted it to hit,” she said of the customers. “Then I would lay it down flat, use a ruler to make a superstraight line, and then just cut it.” The secret sauce was the tug she placed on the freshly cut part, making the item curl at the edges. “It looks a little nicer that way,” she added.
In fashion, what goes around comes around, and crop tops are no exception. Cropping stations have become a new event activity, offering participants a chance to customize merchandise they either received on the spot or brought from home.
We are in a big merch moment, said Chantal Fernandez, a fashion writer for The Cut. “Clothing as a souvenir or a way to remember a special experience is very trendy right now,” she added. “Having the cropping station makes people want to get that souvenir even more as a way to remember a party or event.”
Cropping stations vary in levels of sophistication.
Lauren Suiter, 31, was on the planning committee for the New York City Dyke March, an annual march that took place on June 29. Before the event, the organizers handed out T-shirts to the hundreds of volunteer marshals and set up a table with scissors so they could crop the shirts.
“A lot of people like to crop the shirts short or take the sleeves off, especially since it can be really hot,” she said. She added that because the lesbian community, “who have such varying styles, it can be really important to feel confident in what they are wearing, especially on a day where you are supposed to feel empowered.”
Aaron Shannon, 31, a co-owner of New Gen Fitness in Regina, Saskatchewan, hosted a Pride party in June where, in addition to a D.J. and running games, he set up a cropping station for people to customize shirts they bought on the spot or brought from home.
“I have rotary cutters that you will see in any fabric store,” he said. “It’s like a pizza cutter. You just slice it down the line.” Although he said the cutters are easy to use, he asked a friend who is a seamstress to help supervise the station. “We want people to be in good hands.”
He believes crop tops are good for physical and mental health. “It can either be that someone can wear one to show off their hard work, or they can wear one to gain a sense of freedom,” he said. “In the recent past it was sort of a faux pas for someone of a larger size to wear something more revealing, but now it’s an opportunity to take that power back and say, ‘This style is for everyone.’”
Sandi Zager, an event planner based in Manhattan and Westchester, says customization stations that offer cropping have become high-end activities at bar and bat mitzvahs. “We have some parties where everyone is getting the same design, and we are just bringing in people who know how to cut fabric.” She said the vendor fee was about $2,500.
“But then sometimes we set up these full-blown stations with storefronts, multiple types of apparel from tees to tank tops, graphics the kids can choose from, and then cropping,” she added. “That can be $10 to $15,000.”
“We did one at Capitale downtown this year that was super, super fun because every kid got to go home with their own piece,” she said. “I like it because these kids make their items themselves the way they want them, and that has a little bit more lasting value.”
Because these are teenagers, she instructs the employees doing the cropping not to cut anything too short. “We are cropping it at waist length,” she said.
But the trend is not just for teens: “The moms are knocking the kids over to get the cropped shirts,” Ms. Zager added. “They want them, too.”
How to crop your own shirt
The post I Love This T-Shirt. Now, Would You Please Cut It? appeared first on New York Times.
