Two years ago, Eric Atwater (son of the original Atwater’s Cafeteria owners) opened My City Fashions in an empty storefront attached to the popular soul-food restaurant, selling jeans and shorts by Dickies and MFG. But after a series of shootings in south St. Pete last year, Atwater began to sell T-shirts emblazoned with airbrushed likenesses of people who’d been murdered. They quickly became keepsakes for friends and families of the slain. He calls them R.I.P. shirts, and if you take a stroll through Midtown, you’ll no doubt see a few. Prices vary, and sometimes Atwater donates shirts for funerals. Though the shirts may seem a little morbid, Atwater says they help with the grieving process — and also keep the senseless killings in the public consciousness.
This article appears in Sep 19-25, 2007.