Glamour Kills - Killer Tees

I stumbled across this crazy clothing store at BigCartel.com last night but I was too whacked to write about it, yes I’m an insomniac but even I have my limits. Glamour Kills design and sell all kinds of items, in fact their site seems to be a real hive of activity, truly a barmy army of fans out there for GK, but I’ll concentrate on their tees, as you’d expect.

Firstly what hits me is the sheer size of their prints, every design near enough smothers the whole front of everyone of their tees from neck to waist, and every colour as crisp and full as I would ever hope to see. This is what I’d class as an independent art tee label, they truly do live up to the title, sometimes their work leaves me a little confused, but I doubt there’s supposed to be much of a message behind their work as the fact that they relish fashion and style and project that passion through their clothing label.

Better Believe It is any sci-fi buff’s dream tee, a great deal of work obviously went into this t-shirt, I love the all-over printing, and the sentiment rings true, for all those who’d like to believe but don’t have the evidence!

Technicolor Love mixes up one of my own favourite stables of design, ‘TV testcards’ with the art school feel of early 80’s graphics, very Talking Heads, very ID Magazine. I love the way they’ve started to grunge this one then pulled back to give the design a clean/messy look, Warholesque.

Mixtape-Mixup makes me nostalgic for all those awful house parties way back when, we didn’t have a mix-tape guru amongst our lot and so we had to put up with a lot of each other’s junk. Sometimes democracy in action can suck, but then again we were all so smashed it didn’t really matter. Eclectic outsider-art meets acid-head - mental fonts, love the ‘Fresh 2 Death’ reference, really fruity colour, a modern classic.

I don’t normally like slogan tees but GK’s Rock ‘n’ Ruin tee is so much to the point it’s made a hole in my head, it’s almost the ultimate wannabe tee for every failed rockstar out there, it’s the ultimate ‘you wish’ statement and the funky blended complementary colours really fire off the cloth. It’s like the 80s all over again (but only better!). The only criticism I’d have is that it looks a little more like a disco martyr than a rock legend’s tee, perhaps black with silver and red text (with a few rhinestones or beads) might help this t-shirt fool the hardcore metal crowd.

Most Epic Tee Ever is hilarious, I’m also convinced they titled this just to get some immediate rankings but I’ll forgive them because for once there is a ring of truth to it. Well I say that but in fact I will have to file this one under a ’so bad it’s good’ category. I have a whale of a time reviewing t-shirts, I’d like to say the same about designing them (I will if they start to make some decent money), but what I can’t stand are the requests I receive from far less inventive designers. You know, the one’s with every vector pack imaginable stuffing the print area with as many skulls and Dollar signs, metallic fonts and flames as possible. GK have done it as well, but at least they know it’s funny. Absolutely hilarious!

If you want to check out the rest of GK’s fab collection of tees click here.

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