Flash forward: Topless 'Anne' shirt taking off again

Don't look now, but a controversial T-shirt some thought was too titillating 25 years ago is once again flying off the rack.

The shirt, showing the back view of a topless red-headed woman with braids and straw hat, prompted tut-tuts on Prince Edward Island in 1995 because she could be seen as a grown-up Anne of Green Gables.

But nowhere does the artwork claim she is actually Anne Shirley and the shirts weren't being sold as a licensed Anne of Green Gables product, so there was nothing stopping Anne Putnam and artist Dale McNevin from producing and selling them.

Flash forward to 2020 and they're doing it again — thanks to a recent Throwback Thursday segment on CBC's Island Morning last week marking the 25th anniversary of the tempest.

"I got such an incredible Facebook response to that interview," Putnam said.

"People said, 'I want one, mine's worn out, do it again, I didn't get one last time,' all that stuff. And I thought, 'Well, there's kind of a market survey right there.'"

People said, I want one, mine's worn out, do it again, I didn't get one last time, all that stuff.— Anne Putnam

Putnam ordered 200 of the new shirts and has already sold about 140 just by word of mouth on her and her son's Facebook pages.

And just like last time, she didn't request a licence from the Green Gables Licensing Authority, though she did give them a heads-up.

"They said, 'You won't be issued a licence.' And I said, 'I have no intention of applying for a licence. It's not an Anne product,'" she said. "So I had that conversation. They still don't like it. That's artwork for you."

CBC reached out to the authority. In an email, the authority said it has received no application from Putnam and is not in a position to comment.

Tote bags next

Putnam said she plans to branch out to tote bags and other items with the same design. But for now, she's trying to keep up with orders for the shirts — and not just for people replacing their worn-out ones.

"I thought, 'Oh, the people who were interested would be the people who were interested 25 years ago. But no, there are a lot of young people picking this shirt up. A lot."

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