Junk Food, Donald Robertson to launch capsule collection
“Be a warrior, not a worrier,” Donald Robertson proclaims in his Instagram bio. It’s that lighthearted kick bursting from his Instagram profile and his illustrations — sometimes funny, sometimes whimsical and always full of color — that will now be on T-shirts, onesies, tanks and hoodies in an upcoming capsule collection with Junk Food named Donald: Junk Food Made Me Do It. The capsule is set for release Nov. 10 online and in-store. Plans also call for an event timed the same day as the launch at the Junk Food store on Abbot Kinney Boulevard.
“I try to come up with fun, weird ways to market this stuff,” he said. “Everybody’s so bombarded by product launches, so I try to blur it so it seems like an art show and a product launch.”
The capsule consists of women’s tanks, long- and short-sleeve T-shirts and baseball-style shirts. There are also T-shirts for men, girls and boys, along with onesies.
“I have a lot of things that I do on my Instagram that are kind of fun that I don’t use on my art site because my art site is dedicated more to my serious pieces. On Instagram, those are the more fun ones that Junk Food grabbed and put on shirts,” said the Estée Lauder creative director.
That includes one piece of art his Instagram followers know well, which is based off a game he plays with his kids in which they tick off words that contain the word “poo.” This led to onesies and shirts for the Junk Food capsule, listing out poodle, shampoo, carpool and so on.
“These are the things that kids inspire you to do,” Robertson said of the painting.
It certainly struck a chord. The piece, when he first posted it on Instagram, generated interest of all kinds from Robertson’s followers putting in requests for their T-shirt sizes.
Robertson moved to L.A. about a year and a half ago, relocating to the West Coast for his job at Estée Lauder. He, along with Amber Rose launched the digital beauty brand Flirt Cosmetics in August. He had reached out to Junk Food about T-shirts for the Flirt launch, familiar with the apparel company since it has its offices in Culver City, where Estée Lauder’s Smashbox and Glamgow also have offices. That became the sprouts on which this capsule was born.
Up next for the artist are in-store events for Flirt at Forty Five Ten in Houston Dec. 1 followed by events at the boutique’s Dallas store from Dec. 7 to 9.
