The past ten years have proved fortuitous for the New York independent apparel industry and in particular the underground (non mainstream) t-shirt scene. In recent times Japanese consumers have embraced certain small New York brands as something ‘culturally significant’ and worth a price premium. The New York art scene, beginning with Andy Warhol’s Factory and continued thru Keith Haring’s Pop Shop, laid the foundation for giving consumer products fine-art scrutiny. The ‘product-artist’ and the movement ‘commercial expressionism’ is therefore an established market. In 2000 a UK artist called JAK relocated from London to New York City. She spent the next seven years living in various neighborhoods in Manhattan, walking the length and breadth of the island, and immersing herself in the City’s rich social history. This period was also marked by shows, work that bought JAK into direct contact with small children and a collection of words and images that enabled her to create the series: ‘Baby Does … NYC’. Says JAK: “I discovered that every child – even children as young as 2 - had created their own map of a neighborhood, like where mom stops for groceries, what park they want to play in, their favorite restaurants and stores and the landmarks they look out for. Then I got it: every neighborhood was bursting with a story, so the idea of creating a narrative and a visual, mirroring the child’s perspective, suddenly hit me, and the line emerged almost fully developed. Time spent with parents, grandparents, retail owners and children, fine-tuned the product line of 15 initial neighborhood shirts.” FOR MORE ABOUT JAK: CLICK HERE	CLICK TO VISIT NEIGHBORHOODS