Brothers to debut clothing line
Many teenagers like going to the mall to buy clothing. For two local teenage brothers, it’s even more fun to design it themselves.
And now they get to show off their creations.
“Anthony & Brandon Tankard Apparel” debuts Saturday night in a runway show at Greensboro Day School, where Brandon Lee Tankard, 19, is about to graduate. The show is his senior project.
Anthony Tankard, 17, is a junior at Southeast Guilford High School. Together, with the help of their mother, the brothers appear to have germinated the roots of an apparel empire.
Their clothing incorporates neck ties, denim, knit accessories — a little bit of everything, really, including camouflage and hemp jewelry. They draw the designs while their mother, Margaret Elaine Gladney, works the sewing machines.
“A lot of (the clothing designs) were inspired from experiences around us,” said Brandon Lee Tankard, who has spent the past month interning with VF/Wrangler in Greensboro.
The teens’ trademark: “oobboo,” an acronym for “Out of Bondage Because of Opportunity.” The logo is featured on T-shirts the brothers designed last year and on the labels attached to their garments.
The teens acknowledge the label sounds much like the FUBU apparel line, which started in a Queens, N.Y., home in the early 1990s. But Brandon Lee Tankard said the two clothing lines have nothing in common, other than perhaps the target audience.
The teens put together designs they hope will appeal to young adults, with an urban twist to some of their clothing and a message of self-motivation — breaking free of conditions that oppress children and young adults.
The fashion show is a first for Greensboro Day. About 80 students from the private school, Page High School and Southeast Guilford High School are modeling the clothes.
“It’s really amazing that a teenager would start a clothing line all on his own,” said Dana Lowell, Tankard’s project adviser and the technical director for the school’s theater. “We’re going to try to create a flashy event.”
In their prepared biographical sketches, Brandon Lee Tankard indicates an array of career goals, from psychology to acting to apparel design. Anthony Tankard expressed interest in becoming a veterinarian or working in apparel design.
“We’re big into fashion, but it’s not something I’m going to study in school,” Brandon Lee Tankard said. “You can pursue more than one passion. I’m the kind of person who loves to have options and use creativity in different avenues.”
By Eric J.S. Townsend
Contact Eric J.S. Townsend at 373-7008 or etownsend@news-record.com
