Broaden Your Horizons With Casa di Culture

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They say that travel broadens the mind, and Casa di Culture, a highly unique and stylish t-shirt and fashion company run anonymously by three jet-setting sisters, has a tendency to reflect that in everything they do. Besides t-shirt designing, making and selling ethically produced tees, (organically printed with non-toxic ink), they also produce scarves and create jewellery. Think Audrey Hepburn, a lightly packed luxurious travel bag, a sun setting on the horizon, and a wealth of exciting international cultures and you are half way there.

Each sister is based in a different part of the world, although I can imagine that wherever they lay their respective hats are their homes; soaking in the atmosphere and picking up ideas and styles from as far as Zimbabwe, Turkey, France, The Netherlands, South America, Japan, Germany, and the USA. These three fashionable siblings have created a glamorous site and store at Casa di Culture, to keep the world updated on all their adventures through the medium of fashion and is well worth a jaunt if only to soak up a little of their unique perspective on the world – and as I’m sure the girls would tell you themselves – nuestra casa es su casa. I can imagine many of you have at some time received an obligatory gift from a loved one, a souvenir of their distant travels, some of the least imaginative tees in the world can be found at tourist hotspots, such as the infamous “My boyfriend/girlfriend/ went to (any city you care to mention) and all I got was this lousy t-shirt”, there are also the rather trite “I Heart” monstrosities that spawn from most cities of the world, “I heart NY” or “I heart London”. Well… you can breathe a deep sigh of relief, because Casa di Culture have reinvented the travel tee, they have shone their wisdom and clarity in to this dark recess of the t-shirt industry and reinvented the concept for the good of all! To get a “feel” for each of these t-shirts take a look at CDC’s unique collection of videos, yes they have even created videos dedicated to each item they produce!

Peaceful Osaka Tee

Osaka, once the political centre of Japan before the power shifted to Tokyo (once named “Edo”) in the 17th Century is a thriving modern commercial and industrial city. However Osaka is also known as a worldwide hub for robotic research. The Osaka Metropolitan area (KANSAI) teams with robotics research institutions and companies including Osaka University, ATR, Panasonic and others. It may sound like sci-fi but the robot market, which encompasses the medical, welfare and daily living fields, is expected to reach US$7.7 billion (about 900 billion yen) by 2010! As CDC points out the robots of Osaka of purely for peaceful purposes, so if you do visit don’t expect to witness giant killing machines at war with Godzilla! I really like the simplicity of Peaceful Osaka, an understated and mature style, a subtle placement of the design, and an extremely delicate line illustration, avoiding the usual blatantly comic interpretations of the genre.

√úber Retro Tee

There’s retro and then there’s retro! The √úber Retro tee (available in natural and gray & yellow), taking its influences from a diversity of different cultures and ages including 80s break dance, Afro-Brazilian capoeira, and the ancient Angolan martial arts. As CDC states “the shirt reflects the beauty and nomadic nature of culture, illustrating that it’s constantly recycled and remixed!”. What’s particularly engaging about the design is its initial 1950′s feel, a style almost akin to early kitsch-beatnik in illustrative style, something “off the cover of a magazine” – the design is particularly effective in gray and yellow.

Daydreaming Tees

This particularly stylish range entitled “Daydreaming” offers three different colours, Daydreaming in Cuba comes in plantain (banana yellow), Daydreaming in Lugano (cream) and Daydreaming in Dakar (kola nut), which in essence sums up what Casa di Culture is all about, soaking up the colours, sounds, scents, and atmosphere of far flung destinations around the world. Each t-shirt dyed naturally and printed with non-toxic inks features a rather sumptuously lithe young woman striking a pose for the camera. I love the simplicity of these shirts, the colours are subtle as they come, and the orchid motif (I am assuming it’s an orchid) sets off the composition of this design. I wonder, perhaps for the future a different flower from each destination might be an idea, something to further enhance the idea of travel and culture. Very hip.

Afrique Chic (Limited Edition) Tee

Hurry, if you want one of these there are only two left in stock! Afrique Chic is a very salubrious little number, evocative, exotic, and peppered with a savoir-faire near forgotten in todays t-shirt industry, I’d say that CDC have near achieved a heightened sense of formalism with this particular design, a very dressy number indeed. I can imagine Afrique Chic on a rather leggy model parading around a garden party at the back of an ambassador’s mansion, raising a few eyebrows as she passes by the stuffed shirts and black ties. Floral yet not flowery, graceful, and finely executed for effect.

If you’d like to keep up with all of CDC’s adventures then make sure you hook up with them at Facebook as well as subscribe to their nomadic blog at casadiculture.blogspot.com – which offers a fascinating mishmash of culture, music, fashion and travelogue. However, if there is one way to truly connect with their unique and fascinating stance on life and the international zeitgeist of the world it would most cerainly be through their fashion creations at www.casadiculture.com!

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