New York - October 13, 2004

Feeling Groovy

Braille T-shirts

Symbiosis is evolution at its smartest: two organisms working together for mutual yet separate benefits.

Take suckerfish. They use sharks for food and shelter; sharks use suckerfish to stay clean.

Turn off the Discovery Channel, open your closet, and do some do-gooding at home. It starts with a T-shirt.

NYC designer Stephen Kenney, inspired by a friend who suffered a stroke that left him temporarily blind, learned that most cases of blindness in Africa can be cured for $30. Thus, See NYC T-shirts were born. The men and women’s cotton tops are embossed with sayings like “Come Closer,” “I Love New York,” and “Brooklyn,” only they don’t say it with letters. They say it with fuzzy Braille circles. A clever, graphically lovely touch. (Pun intended.)

Profits raised are donated to charities that help the visually impaired, like Sight Savers International and Lions Club.

Style that has its own noble rewards.

You’re just so evolved.

Available at Lyd, 405 West 44th Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues (212-246-8041 or seenyc.org).