A Code Of Honour Amongst The House Of Thieves

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I’d like to introduce you to a brand new label, it’s full of twists and codes I’ve not been aware of before, in truth I had to get a few explanations from the guys behind House of Thieves, and it all boils down to the world of thieves and their criminal gangs’ iconic tattoo and pendant art. Reading the blog at HOT (makes a great acronym), they say that at anyone time “within the limits of the City of London alone, an army of male and female thieves, twenty thousand strong, find daily and nightly employment.” Sounds like things haven’t changed much since the times of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist to me.

The House of Thieves only have a few items on offer right now, the label is fresh out of the box and so are their ideas, and even though I don’t usually feature designers with such scant collections I thought I’d make an exception this time seeing as the whole idea is so novel. I’ve seen a few biker’s tees, faux-gang t-shirts and the likes before, but this, as I’ve mentioned, this is a first for me. If you want to go ahead and check out the store click here. Beware though, every design at HOT is a limited edition, once it’s sold out no more will be printed!

The Russian

The Russian is hand printed distressed pearlescent white & gold print on a black vintage wash shirt. The dots mean ‘thief’ and ‘5 year sentence’. The heart tattoo reads ‘Thieves love is eternal’…….The skull with the knife translates as “To live as a snitch in this world is dangerous” which is basically a threat to other criminals. I thought I’d check up a little on the whole Russian prison gang scene and see if it at all compares to what I’ve seen in documentaries about high security jails in the US. It’s worse, a brutal and desolate world of cunning and ruthless brutes, baiting and baying for power at any cost. This t-shirt is still available (woot), but I’d hurry as it seems that HOT so have a habit of selling out lines rather quickly.

In Google there seems to be an enormous interest in Russian prison gang tattoos, which might explain the influences behind THOT’s own designs, including your usual biker style images of Christ, The Devil, skulls and so forth, but mixed with everything from Dollar signs to Lenin, but there are other designs used for specific purposes. An initiate in a gang must have a rose tattoo on their chest, and one who has failed to pay back debts or broken the criminal code can be punished with other blatantly sexual tattoos, sometimes on their faces, in order to embarrass them and serve as a warning to other would-be transgressors. The most important images in the Russian prison gang culture are:-

The four suits from a deck of cards:

* Spades – the “suit of thieves”.
* Clubs – a “criminal” suit that represents a sword (mostly ex-warriors).
* Diamonds – the “chummy suit” (i.e. stool pigeons and informers). This suit is usually forcibly applied.
* Hearts – a sexual symbol. It marks the wearer out as a “passive homosexual”/sex object within the prison/sex toy.

Ancient Egyptian tattoos:

* Eye of Horus – Protection from enemies / back-stabbers.
* Anubis – Protection from death.
* Ankh – Eternal life.

Thieves Lover

This one’s rather gorgeous, almost Romanticist in appearance, I’m sure there are a few allegorical references rolling around this design, birth, death, sex, but then again this could simply be following the tradition of prison wall photos of lovers and wives, or just plain old naughty pics cut from jazz mags. I do like the Edwardian/Deco homage and think the image is surprisingly powerful, even in the context of HOT’s other more violent imagery

Thieves Mask (SOLD OUT)

Now I wouldn’t normally feature a t-shirt you can’t actually buy (who knows maybe if you beg), but I had to show you thieves mask for one reason alone, if you notice their are a row of teeth beneath the skull? Pete from HOT actually saw this image on a thief’s pendant, and it represents a standard punishment for anyone who breaks the gang’s code of conduct, essentially a warning to all who plan on ‘cheating the man’. I wonder if they do private work, with the price of dentists these days this could save the prison systems a fortune.

All of the t-shirts at House of Thieves include a great printed label and a free and an absolutely unique hand-made pendant. The pendants are made from antique and found objects bound with leather chord and finished with antique brass clasps. The leather chord on each pendant has been treated with natural beeswax for a smooth feel against the skin. Head on over to HOT and take a look for yourself before all of their tees have sold out

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