A SLICE OF FASHION
Pizza is a lifestyle brand for House of Shroom
Fans of the Mellow Mushroom restaurant franchise have new styles with which to show off their pizza love.
The House of Shroom, created in 2015 to complement the more than 200 restaurants across the country, has a new spring/summer line of T-shirts, sweats and hoodies, as well as hats and kids’ tees. Small items such as stemware, stickers, a luggage tag and even a wooden engraved pizza cutter round out the collection. These are not ordinary logo items; each is designed by a professional artist for a creative, colorful and unique feel.
“We wanted to create something that was an extension of the Mellow Mushroom brand and really represented the Mellow Mushroom lifestyle and mindset,” says Elizabeth Brasch, brand manager for Mellow Mushroom who also oversees House of Shroom. “Our brand is very much about self-expression, and fashion, architecture and artwork are key components of that brand.”
The current crop of artists coming up with designs is from Atlanta and Knoxville, Tenn., where House of Shroom’s parent company, Threds Inc., is based. The new collection of goods fits into three “capsules” or design concepts:
Rainbow Trip is a “trip” back to the early 1970s when the first Mellow Mushroom opened on Spring Street in Midtown. (The restaurant near Emory University, which opened in 1978, is the oldest continuously operating store. The first franchise operation opened in 1982, also in Atlanta.) The T-shirts and crew neck long-sleeved shirts feature signature symbols such as peace signs, flowers and rainbows.
Good Pizza features images that connect pizza to everything from space to patriotism. Long and short sleeved tops also include whimsical prints emblazoned with “Let Them Eat Pie” and “It Was All A Dream.”
The Roots collection celebrates the psychedelic art of 1974 with bright colors and cartoon-like images from Mellow Mushroom’s first printed shirts.
Many of the individual Mellow Mushroom restaurants also sell wares through the House of Shroom’s Locally Cultivated program that features shirts with local artists’ designs, says Brasch. “Our brand is very fun and curious and imaginative,” she adds, “so naturally our products reflect that.”
Items are available online, and a portion of the collection is available at each of the restaurants, says Brasch. For $1.95, you can own a United We Shroom or Mel O. Mushroom character sticker. For about $5, take a shot from your own mushroom-branded shot glass. Ten dollars buys you a T-shirt in an older design, and shirts in the new collection start at about $20. Really want to show your pizza love? Drop $300 on an artificial leather jacket with a wool liner, embellished with vintage patches and artwork.
STORY: Melanie Lasoff Levs
