Kansas City News Blog

By NADIA PFLAUM

John Sebelius, the 23-year-old son of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, is following up the creation of his controversial board game, “Don’t Drop the Soap,” with a new clothing line called Gillius Inc. It sells at Hobbs at 700 Massachusetts in Lawrence, Kansas, and debuts at the Legends at Deegie’s Carma on May 17. He answered my questions recently in Lawrence.

Where did the idea for a clothing line come from?

That came in about a year ago. I always wore men’s dress shirts or nice polo patterns, and I saw that no one was really making anything I liked, so I started drawing on shirts for myself. I started wearing them out and every time I went out wearing a shirt, at least three or four people asked me where I got it. I kinda saw that maybe I had something here, so I started drawing on tons of shirts, drawing on blazers. I didn’t start the company to be eco-friendly, but I go to Salvation Armys and thrift stores, and all the clothing I sell is from stuff people are tired of. It’s in this trash pile of clothing and I buy it all up, wash it and design on that. So all the clothing is sort of green-friendly.

I do custom stuff too, if someone sends me a shirt, but all the stuff that I buy is always second-hand. And I like that better, not only because it’s better for the environment but also because all the shirts are already broken-in, like that sweatshirt or pair of pants that you’ve had for, like, ten years, that just fit so well. Like a good pair of cowboy boots, or something. And there’s no worry if they’re going to shrink or the color’s going to fade.

So you draw directly on them with pen?

Yeah, they’re waterproof, dry-cleaner-safe. The inks fade a little, but this [he points to his own shirt, one of his creations] has been dry-cleaned 25 times. You can put it in the washer. These are basically uniball liquid Bic pens you can buy at any Home Depot. I found out that they don’t wash out.

This one [the drawing on his shirt] is actually Biggie Smalls from a Courvoisier ad. I do a lot of musicians, artists, comedians, politicians I like, and a lot of abstract ones. It started out as hip-hop artists that I liked that I was putting on pastel shirts -- I always like that weird juxtaposition.

What does the name of your company -- Gillius, Inc. – mean?

It’s Gilligan and Sebelius – my mom’s maiden name and my last name. I was searching through all kinds of ideas for a company and I’m glad I didn’t settle on something like “Inferno.” Because that’s the first question everyone asks, so at least it has a meaning.

Your art-school self-portraits are visible at JohnSebelius.com – what’s up with the images of yourself drooling ice cream?

I was searching online for random pictures for that first page, and I found a picture of a man and his baby, and he’s posing for a picture with this ice cream cone and the kid is just reaching for it – I was like, this is the sweetest picture I’ve ever seen. So I drew it from the picture and put my face on there. And when you do the rollover, it’s my face changing with different types of ice cream. There are a lot of blogs that are risqué in nature, talking about what the dripping could possibly be, so that’s been interesting.

None of it’s vanilla, is it?

No, no vanilla. Stayed away from that. I’m like, it’s lime green with dots in it, clearly it’s mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Is it hard to draw yourself?

No, because in art school the most basic classes, they’re like, do a self portrait, all the time. I could draw a cartoon of myself right now.

Go.