(Photo: Mat Szwajkos/Getty Images)

Tyson Ritter, front man of MTV faves the All-American Rejects, is debuting a side project, the Gnomans, which he calls “the world’s first clothing-line-fueled pop band,” on May 16 with an open-to-the-public concert and fashion show at Marquee. Ritter and fellow Gnoman Brian Robinson, “a crazy artist dude” he grew up with, are behind T Bourne Ritkins, the accompanying T-shirt line. Ritter got Lydia Hearst to model the spring line for a photo shoot; she ripped up his only samples to make them more flattering. Ten new designs, the only such shirts in existence, will be showcased at Marquee and then will likely be trashed. “This whole thing really hasn’t been thought through,” Ritter says. “If I wanted to make money, I definitely would be approaching it differently.” So, after a burlesque show (“We’re not talking Ping-Pong balls getting shot out of orifices”), the Gnomans will play while Asian girls parade out in the T-shirts. If all goes well, says Ritter, “the whole thing’s gonna be like the best sex ever—two and a half minutes and then you can go have a sandwich.”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Jada Yuan
• Table of Contents: May 14, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!