SHOP
SWANKY, Y’ALL A T-shirt shop with a distinctly Raleigh point of view by SARAH NAGEM photography by SMITH HARDY
T
he way John Pugh tells it, his T-shirt business never would have taken off without a Fritos lunch box. Pugh crafted that metal pail from his childhood into a guitar that he played during gigs as an amateur musician in downtown Raleigh bars more than a decade ago. Often, he’d bring along a small screen-printing kit to make T-shirts on the spot when he was strapped for cash. The goal: “Sell two shirts so I could drink some beer,” he says. Fast-forward a few years; now Pugh 50 | WALTER
and his wife, Jennifer Robinson, run House of Swank on Hargett Street. You’ve probably seen their T-shirts, many featuring North Carolina and Raleighcentric phrases like “919, Y’all” and “Bless Your Heart.” But don’t let the store’s moniker fool you—there’s nothing particularly swanky about it. House of Swank got its name from Pugh’s former stage name, Johnny Swank. (One of his earliest shirts said, “Johnny Swank Blues.”) Pugh started out making T-shirts that he wanted to wear, avoiding the colors of local universities. He experimented
with North Carolina-themed designs, including a mason jar for moonshine and an outline of the state. Soon Pugh and Robinson were spending their weekends hawking shirts at festivals and other events, and they moved the business into two other downtown locations before it opened on Hargett in April 2018. Pugh says he is always coming up with new designs, and he takes pride in helping customers express themselves and where they come from. He’s created designs for many towns, including Garner and “Wiltson” (that’s Wilson, if you’re looking
