{"id":721,"date":"2018-08-17T13:18:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T11:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/?p=721"},"modified":"2020-05-29T01:54:01","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T23:54:01","slug":"pl100-blog-vol-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/","title":{"rendered":"#PL100 BLOG Vol.7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From its films<\/span><\/span> to its music<\/span><\/a> and distinct regions<\/span><\/a>, Poland is rich with cultural traditions. This might sound somewhat clich\u00e9, but \u2013 in all honesty \u2013 it\u2019s pretty difficult to avoid coming face-to-face with a wide array of Polish traditional culture as you walk through the country\u2019s towns. Neon signs still light up old-school train stations and shopping centres; commercial posters for art exhibitions, film screenings and music festivals are still rooted in the avant-garde aesthetics of the Polish School of Posters. In fact, part of what makes contemporary Poland so exciting is the re-imagining of old traditions with new creative forms. This is particularly evident in two young fashion retailers: Pan tu nie sta\u0142 and Gryfnie.<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Pan tu nie sta\u0142 \u2013 textiles and irony in central Poland<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u0141\u00f3d\u017a is a curious city. It has a diacritic-heavy name that leaves it mostly mispronounced by English speakers. The etymology of its name is unknown, but means \u2018boat\u2019 in modern Polish, which is innocent enough until you realise that \u0141\u00f3d\u017a is landlocked, right in the centre of Poland, without any rivers or lakes in sight. It\u2019s home to Poland\u2019s national film school and boasts a number of famous connections \u2013 Maksymilian Faktorowicz (otherwise known from your lipstick as \u2018Max Factor\u2019) grew up nearby and apprenticed in the city; the author of The Witcher<\/i> fantasy book series, Andrzej Sapkowski, was born, studied and resides there; director David Lynch has a long-term relationship with Poland<\/span><\/span>, but first fell in love with \u0141\u00f3d\u017a\u2019s post-industrial decay.<\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

If \u2018post-industrial decay\u2019 doesn\u2019t sound like the kind of thing you\u2019d<\/i> fall in love with, you\u2019re not alone: the first time I visited \u0141\u00f3d\u017a, the locals insisted on telling me that it really was a very ugly city and that I\u2019d be better off in Pozna\u0144. Nonetheless, \u0141\u00f3d\u017a\u2019s industrial past plays an important role in its cultural fabric. Under the Russian partition in the early-19th century, German and Jewish economic migrants flocked to the city and contributed to its growing textile industry. By the time Poland regained independence in 1918, industrialised \u0141\u00f3d\u017a had swelled to a multicultural population of around half a million. Fast forward to the post-communist 90s and the former \u2018promised land\u2019 was in decline, largely neglected by successive governments.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

In 2006, Justyna and Maciek \u2013 two locals born around the early-80s \u2013 decided to spread their passion for \u0141\u00f3d\u017a\u2019s textile heritage and Poland\u2019s inventive design to a wider audience. They already had a large collection of posters, magazine covers and labels from the 60s onwards, and started to upload these to a blog. They soon began printing T-shirts featuring archaic yet nostalgic words, set against a background of Poland\u2019s colourful design past. The popularity of these T-shirts snowballed into opening a store, Pan tu nie sta\u0142<\/span><\/span>, first in \u0141\u00f3d\u017a and subsequently in Warsaw and Krak\u00f3w. The name literally means \u2018you weren\u2019t standing here\u2019 \u2013 an obscure phrase for English ears, but one that evokes fond memories of queueing for food at the delikatesy<\/i> for the generation that remember the communist era.<\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

If their shop\u2019s name evokes the Polish People\u2019s Republic, its owners are keen to emphasise that their designs are inspired by what happened before, during and after communism. One of their most popular designs simply features the common greeting cze\u015b\u0107<\/span><\/i><\/span> (\u2018hey\u2019) in various typographies. Clothing often depicts iconic Polish personalities, such as 80s film franchise headteacher Pan Kleks<\/span><\/a> or sci-fi author Stanis\u0142aw Lem<\/span><\/a>. There\u2019s T-shirts mimicking the design of a 90s disco polo pop music cassette<\/span><\/a> and leggings emblazoned with home-grown Polish mustard jars<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

For me, Pan tu nie sta\u0142 represents the best of the traditional design that inspires it \u2013 it\u2019s bold, with a touch of irony, and is 100% manufactured in \u0141\u00f3d\u017a.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Gryfnie \u2013 Silesian modernity and beauty<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

At first sight, Gryfnie<\/span><\/span> bears a lot of resemblance to Pan tu nie sta\u0142 \u2013 it sells a range of clothing and home items, with a clear focus on distinct design and prominent words. But that\u2019s where the similarities end. While Pan tu nie sta\u0142 was conceived out of a love for past and present Polish iconography, Gryfnie was born of an altogether different cause: the Upper Silesia region. If you\u2019ve read my previous blog post<\/span><\/a> about the town Katowice, you\u2019ll know all about Silesia\u2019s mining history and linguistic dialect. If you haven\u2019t, it\u2019s enough to say that this southern region of Poland has historically been the country\u2019s coal mining centre and \u2013 as a result of belonging to both Poland and Germany across its lifetime \u2013 has developed a Silesian dialect that is indecipherable to the rest of Poland.<\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The Silesian dialect was what first inspired Gryfnie co-founder Klaudia Roksela to initially launch a Facebook page, soon followed by a website. Klaudia, a Silesia native, was frustrated by the typical media depiction of her region\u2019s culture as an historical artefact, where locals were depicted as sombre aliens, and only people wearing outdated traditional dress would speak the dialect. Along with her husband Krzysztof, she decided to show Silesia in all its modern cultural glory. They designed a website showcasing Silesian food recipes and music, as well as featuring a Polish-Silesian glossary and interviews with the new generation of culturally-influential Silesians.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The website\u2019s popularity soon blossomed into a webshop and physical store in Katowice, and so exists the Gryfnie brand as we know it today. Gryfnie, which means \u2018beautiful\u2019 in Silesian, has a strong focus on using the dialect across all of its designs. They include words such as szmaterlok<\/span><\/i><\/span> (\u2018butterfly\u2019) and phrases like dej kusika<\/span><\/i><\/a> (\u2018give me a kiss\u2019), accompanied by playful images that serve as a translation for the wider Polish public. Given the region\u2019s mining history, a solid proportion of designs are dedicated to Silesia\u2019s industrial culture, whether it\u2019s a miner couple lovingly surveying the factory-rich horizon<\/span><\/a> with the word grfynie<\/i> beneath, or a large chunk of jagged coal alongside its Silesian equivalent, wongiel<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

By drawing on the region\u2019s unique linguistic and cultural traditions, the founders of Gryfnie have created a beautiful fashion archive that opens a stylish window to modern Silesia.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From its films to its music and distinct regions, Poland is rich with cultural traditions. This might sound somewhat clich\u00e9, but \u2013 in all honesty \u2013 it\u2019s pretty difficult to avoid coming face-to-face with a wide array of Polish traditional culture as you walk through the country\u2019s towns. Neon signs still light up old-school train stations and shopping centres; commercial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-100-2","category-blogs"],"yoast_head":"\n#PL100 BLOG Vol.7 - Instytut Polski w Londynie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pl_PL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"#PL100 BLOG Vol.7 - Instytut Polski w Londynie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From its films to its music and distinct regions, Poland is rich with cultural traditions. This might sound somewhat clich\u00e9, but \u2013 in all honesty \u2013 it\u2019s pretty difficult to avoid coming face-to-face with a wide array of Polish traditional culture as you walk through the country\u2019s towns. Neon signs still light up old-school train stations and shopping centres; commercial […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Instytut Polski w Londynie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-17T11:18:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-28T23:54:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"364\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ochamanskij\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Napisane przez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ochamanskij\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Szacowany czas czytania\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minut\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"event\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/\",\"name\":\"#PL100 BLOG Vol.7\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8.png\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8-273x300.png\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8.png\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8.png\"],\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-17T11:18:00+02:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-28T23:54:01+02:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/#\/schema\/person\/53963c4c768e79692e296cb2619bf9f9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/\"]}],\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"startDate\":\"2018-11-11\",\"endDate\":\"2018-11-11\",\"eventStatus\":\"EventScheduled\",\"eventAttendanceMode\":\"OfflineEventAttendanceMode\",\"location\":{\"@type\":\"place\",\"name\":\"\",\"address\":\"\",\"geo\":{\"@type\":\"GeoCoordinates\",\"latitude\":\"\",\"longitude\":\"\"}},\"description\":\"From its films to its music and distinct regions, Poland is rich with cultural traditions. This might sound somewhat clich\u00e9, but \u2013 in all honesty \u2013 it\u2019s pretty difficult to avoid coming face-to-face with a wide array of Polish traditional culture as you walk through the country\u2019s towns. Neon signs still light up old-school train stations and shopping centres; commercial posters for art exhibitions, film screenings and music festivals are still rooted in the avant-garde aesthetics of the Polish School of Posters. In fact, part of what makes contemporary Poland so exciting is the re-imagining of old traditions with new creative forms. This is particularly evident in two young fashion retailers: Pan tu nie sta\u0142 and Gryfnie.\\n \\nPan tu nie sta\u0142 \u2013 textiles and irony in central Poland\\n \\n\u0141\u00f3d\u017a is a curious city. It has a diacritic-heavy name that leaves it mostly mispronounced by English speakers. The etymology of its name is unknown, but means \u2018boat\u2019 in modern Polish, which is innocent enough until you realise that \u0141\u00f3d\u017a is landlocked, right in the centre of Poland, without any rivers or lakes in sight. It\u2019s home to Poland\u2019s national film school and boasts a number of famous connections \u2013 Maksymilian Faktorowicz (otherwise known from your lipstick as \u2018Max Factor\u2019) grew up nearby and apprenticed in the city; the author of The Witcher fantasy book series, Andrzej Sapkowski, was born, studied and resides there; director David Lynch has a long-term relationship with Poland, but first fell in love with \u0141\u00f3d\u017a\u2019s post-industrial decay.\\n \\nIf \u2018post-industrial decay\u2019 doesn\u2019t sound like the kind of thing you\u2019d fall in love with, you\u2019re not alone: the first time I visited \u0141\u00f3d\u017a, the locals insisted on telling me that it really was a very ugly city and that I\u2019d be better off in Pozna\u0144. Nonetheless, \u0141\u00f3d\u017a\u2019s industrial past plays an important role in its cultural fabric. Under the Russian partition in the early-19th century, German and Jewish economic migrants flocked to the city and contributed to its growing textile industry. By the time Poland regained independence in 1918, industrialised \u0141\u00f3d\u017a had swelled to a multicultural population of around half a million. Fast forward to the post-communist 90s and the former \u2018promised land\u2019 was in decline, largely neglected by successive governments.\\n \\nIn 2006, Justyna and Maciek \u2013 two locals born around the early-80s \u2013 decided to spread their passion for \u0141\u00f3d\u017a\u2019s textile heritage and Poland\u2019s inventive design to a wider audience. They already had a large collection of posters, magazine covers and labels from the 60s onwards, and started to upload these to a blog. They soon began printing T-shirts featuring archaic yet nostalgic words, set against a background of Poland\u2019s colourful design past. The popularity of these T-shirts snowballed into opening a store, Pan tu nie sta\u0142, first in \u0141\u00f3d\u017a and subsequently in Warsaw and Krak\u00f3w. The name literally means \u2018you weren\u2019t standing here\u2019 \u2013 an obscure phrase for English ears, but one that evokes fond memories of queueing for food at the delikatesy for the generation that remember the communist era.\\n \\nIf their shop\u2019s name evokes the Polish People\u2019s Republic, its owners are keen to emphasise that their designs are inspired by what happened before, during and after communism. One of their most popular designs simply features the common greeting cze\u015b\u0107 (\u2018hey\u2019) in various typographies. Clothing often depicts iconic Polish personalities, such as 80s film franchise headteacher Pan Kleks or sci-fi author Stanis\u0142aw Lem. There\u2019s T-shirts mimicking the design of a 90s disco polo pop music cassette and leggings emblazoned with home-grown Polish mustard jars.\\n \\nFor me, Pan tu nie sta\u0142 represents the best of the traditional design that inspires it \u2013 it\u2019s bold, with a touch of irony, and is 100% manufactured in \u0141\u00f3d\u017a.\\n \\nGryfnie \u2013 Silesian modernity and beauty\\n \\nAt first sight, Gryfnie bears a lot of resemblance to Pan tu nie sta\u0142 \u2013 it sells a range of clothing and home items, with a clear focus on distinct design and prominent words. But that\u2019s where the similarities end. While Pan tu nie sta\u0142 was conceived out of a love for past and present Polish iconography, Gryfnie was born of an altogether different cause: the Upper Silesia region. If you\u2019ve read my previous blog post about the town Katowice, you\u2019ll know all about Silesia\u2019s mining history and linguistic dialect. 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They designed a website showcasing Silesian food recipes and music, as well as featuring a Polish-Silesian glossary and interviews with the new generation of culturally-influential Silesians.\\n \\nThe website\u2019s popularity soon blossomed into a webshop and physical store in Katowice, and so exists the Gryfnie brand as we know it today. Gryfnie, which means \u2018beautiful\u2019 in Silesian, has a strong focus on using the dialect across all of its designs. They include words such as szmaterlok (\u2018butterfly\u2019) and phrases like dej kusika (\u2018give me a kiss\u2019), accompanied by playful images that serve as a translation for the wider Polish public. 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This might sound somewhat clich\u00e9, but \u2013 in all honesty \u2013 it\u2019s pretty difficult to avoid coming face-to-face with a wide array of Polish traditional culture as you walk through the country\u2019s towns. Neon signs still light up old-school train stations and shopping centres; commercial […]","og_url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/","og_site_name":"Instytut Polski w Londynie","article_published_time":"2018-08-17T11:18:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-05-28T23:54:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":364,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"ochamanskij","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Napisane przez":"ochamanskij","Szacowany czas czytania":"5 minut"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"event","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/","name":"#PL100 BLOG Vol.7","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/#primaryimage"},"image":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8.png","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8-273x300.png","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8.png","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8.png"],"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8.png","datePublished":"2018-08-17T11:18:00+02:00","dateModified":"2020-05-28T23:54:01+02:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/#\/schema\/person\/53963c4c768e79692e296cb2619bf9f9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"pl-PL","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/"]}],"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","startDate":"2018-11-11","endDate":"2018-11-11","eventStatus":"EventScheduled","eventAttendanceMode":"OfflineEventAttendanceMode","location":{"@type":"place","name":"","address":"","geo":{"@type":"GeoCoordinates","latitude":"","longitude":""}},"description":"From its films to its music and distinct regions, Poland is rich with cultural traditions. This might sound somewhat clich\u00e9, but \u2013 in all honesty \u2013 it\u2019s pretty difficult to avoid coming face-to-face with a wide array of Polish traditional culture as you walk through the country\u2019s towns. Neon signs still light up old-school train stations and shopping centres; commercial posters for art exhibitions, film screenings and music festivals are still rooted in the avant-garde aesthetics of the Polish School of Posters. In fact, part of what makes contemporary Poland so exciting is the re-imagining of old traditions with new creative forms. This is particularly evident in two young fashion retailers: Pan tu nie sta\u0142 and Gryfnie.\n \nPan tu nie sta\u0142 \u2013 textiles and irony in central Poland\n \n\u0141\u00f3d\u017a is a curious city. It has a diacritic-heavy name that leaves it mostly mispronounced by English speakers. The etymology of its name is unknown, but means \u2018boat\u2019 in modern Polish, which is innocent enough until you realise that \u0141\u00f3d\u017a is landlocked, right in the centre of Poland, without any rivers or lakes in sight. It\u2019s home to Poland\u2019s national film school and boasts a number of famous connections \u2013 Maksymilian Faktorowicz (otherwise known from your lipstick as \u2018Max Factor\u2019) grew up nearby and apprenticed in the city; the author of The Witcher fantasy book series, Andrzej Sapkowski, was born, studied and resides there; director David Lynch has a long-term relationship with Poland, but first fell in love with \u0141\u00f3d\u017a\u2019s post-industrial decay.\n \nIf \u2018post-industrial decay\u2019 doesn\u2019t sound like the kind of thing you\u2019d fall in love with, you\u2019re not alone: the first time I visited \u0141\u00f3d\u017a, the locals insisted on telling me that it really was a very ugly city and that I\u2019d be better off in Pozna\u0144. Nonetheless, \u0141\u00f3d\u017a\u2019s industrial past plays an important role in its cultural fabric. Under the Russian partition in the early-19th century, German and Jewish economic migrants flocked to the city and contributed to its growing textile industry. By the time Poland regained independence in 1918, industrialised \u0141\u00f3d\u017a had swelled to a multicultural population of around half a million. Fast forward to the post-communist 90s and the former \u2018promised land\u2019 was in decline, largely neglected by successive governments.\n \nIn 2006, Justyna and Maciek \u2013 two locals born around the early-80s \u2013 decided to spread their passion for \u0141\u00f3d\u017a\u2019s textile heritage and Poland\u2019s inventive design to a wider audience. They already had a large collection of posters, magazine covers and labels from the 60s onwards, and started to upload these to a blog. They soon began printing T-shirts featuring archaic yet nostalgic words, set against a background of Poland\u2019s colourful design past. The popularity of these T-shirts snowballed into opening a store, Pan tu nie sta\u0142, first in \u0141\u00f3d\u017a and subsequently in Warsaw and Krak\u00f3w. The name literally means \u2018you weren\u2019t standing here\u2019 \u2013 an obscure phrase for English ears, but one that evokes fond memories of queueing for food at the delikatesy for the generation that remember the communist era.\n \nIf their shop\u2019s name evokes the Polish People\u2019s Republic, its owners are keen to emphasise that their designs are inspired by what happened before, during and after communism. One of their most popular designs simply features the common greeting cze\u015b\u0107 (\u2018hey\u2019) in various typographies. Clothing often depicts iconic Polish personalities, such as 80s film franchise headteacher Pan Kleks or sci-fi author Stanis\u0142aw Lem. There\u2019s T-shirts mimicking the design of a 90s disco polo pop music cassette and leggings emblazoned with home-grown Polish mustard jars.\n \nFor me, Pan tu nie sta\u0142 represents the best of the traditional design that inspires it \u2013 it\u2019s bold, with a touch of irony, and is 100% manufactured in \u0141\u00f3d\u017a.\n \nGryfnie \u2013 Silesian modernity and beauty\n \nAt first sight, Gryfnie bears a lot of resemblance to Pan tu nie sta\u0142 \u2013 it sells a range of clothing and home items, with a clear focus on distinct design and prominent words. But that\u2019s where the similarities end. While Pan tu nie sta\u0142 was conceived out of a love for past and present Polish iconography, Gryfnie was born of an altogether different cause: the Upper Silesia region. If you\u2019ve read my previous blog post about the town Katowice, you\u2019ll know all about Silesia\u2019s mining history and linguistic dialect. If you haven\u2019t, it\u2019s enough to say that this southern region of Poland has historically been the country\u2019s coal mining centre and \u2013 as a result of belonging to both Poland and Germany across its lifetime \u2013 has developed a Silesian dialect that is indecipherable to the rest of Poland.\n \nThe Silesian dialect was what first inspired Gryfnie co-founder Klaudia Roksela to initially launch a Facebook page, soon followed by a website. Klaudia, a Silesia native, was frustrated by the typical media depiction of her region\u2019s culture as an historical artefact, where locals were depicted as sombre aliens, and only people wearing outdated traditional dress would speak the dialect. Along with her husband Krzysztof, she decided to show Silesia in all its modern cultural glory. They designed a website showcasing Silesian food recipes and music, as well as featuring a Polish-Silesian glossary and interviews with the new generation of culturally-influential Silesians.\n \nThe website\u2019s popularity soon blossomed into a webshop and physical store in Katowice, and so exists the Gryfnie brand as we know it today. Gryfnie, which means \u2018beautiful\u2019 in Silesian, has a strong focus on using the dialect across all of its designs. They include words such as szmaterlok (\u2018butterfly\u2019) and phrases like dej kusika (\u2018give me a kiss\u2019), accompanied by playful images that serve as a translation for the wider Polish public. Given the region\u2019s mining history, a solid proportion of designs are dedicated to Silesia\u2019s industrial culture, whether it\u2019s a miner couple lovingly surveying the factory-rich horizon with the word grfynie beneath, or a large chunk of jagged coal alongside its Silesian equivalent, wongiel.\n \nBy drawing on the region\u2019s unique linguistic and cultural traditions, the founders of Gryfnie have created a beautiful fashion archive that opens a stylish window to modern Silesia."},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/csm_Screen_Shot_2018-07-31_at_13.28.54_d0e0f88da8.png","width":364,"height":400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/2018\/08\/17\/pl100-blog-vol-7\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"#PL100 BLOG Vol.7"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/#website","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/","name":"Instytut Polski w Londynie","description":"Instytuty Polskie","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"pl-PL"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/#\/schema\/person\/53963c4c768e79692e296cb2619bf9f9","name":"ochamanskij","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b2ff67cc6eab38d2d3a7c1c5d354ef25?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b2ff67cc6eab38d2d3a7c1c5d354ef25?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ochamanskij"},"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/author\/ochamanskij\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1779,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions\/1779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}