Somewhere along the way, a woman decides she is finished explaining herself. Not angry. Not dramatic. Just finished. Salty And Unbothered is the collection I put together for her, and for everyone who recognized a face in that first sentence.
Why this collection exists
I keep meeting her. She's the one who answers a long, winding request with Not My Department and goes back to her book. She reads an entire situation from the dock in about four seconds (Read The Room exists because of her), and when someone keeps talking anyway, she has Save Your Breath ready. She isn't trying to be difficult ~ she's just done auditioning.
The names in this collection do the talking so she doesn't have to. Hard Pass, Sailor. Absolutely Not Sir. Are You Finished? Each one is a complete conversation, usually the end of one.
She's not one woman
Unbothered isn't a single personality, and the collection knows it. There's the social director who leads with More Bubbly, Peasant and Priorities, Cocktail First (you've vacationed with her, or you are her). There's the quiet one who claims a No Wake Zone and means it. There's the friend who collects everyone's news without ever once asking for it... Spill The Kelp was practically written in her honor.
And then there are the self-portraits, which might be my favorite corner of the collection. Finally Self-Aware. Flawless As Expected. Drama Per Inch. Stay Crabby, Darling, for the one who made peace with exactly who she is a long time ago and is simply waiting for everyone else to catch up.
For her, or for the one who came to mind
Here is what happens when people browse Salty And Unbothered: somewhere around Not Today, Guppy or Bold Of You, a face appears. A sister. A best friend. The woman you travel with who has never once apologized for ordering first. You don't really browse this collection so much as you suddenly remember someone has a birthday coming.
Maybe it's Dress Code Rebel or Dockside Dress Code, depending on whether she breaks the rules or writes them. Maybe it's Uncharted & Unbothered for the one who never needed the itinerary, or Anywhere But Here for the one who is already mentally on the water. Maybe it's I Said Impress Me, which takes a certain eyebrow to pull off, and you know exactly whose.
Every design in the collection lives on a Comfort Colors premium tee, so the attitude arrives on something she'll actually want to wear.
Pearl supervised the assembling of all this from the dock rail and offered no commentary, which, from a pelican of her opinions, is about as close to an endorsement as anyone gets. There are more designs waiting in the collection than I've named here, including a few (Scuttle Along, Sir, Seas The Drama, Spiky Drink Coaster) that deserve to be discovered rather than described.
If someone came to mind while you were reading (someone usually does), the whole collection is right here.
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Written by Mari Bennett. Thanks for reading.