The Sun Always Shines on LadyUmbrella

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     LadyUmbrella, art shirts, girl's t-shirts, girls tees, womens t-shirts, womens tees

For those of the female persuasion we have a real treat for you, a feature on LadyUmbrella, an art t-shirt company based in Ireland, and fuelled by the creative powerhouse that is the Spanish designer Elena Montes Casado. In fact it was her experience of arriving in rainy Dublin directly from the hot and spicy climate of her home in Madrid that prompted her to think of the name. “I saw lots of people with umbrellas and couldn’t really see peoples faces and from that I got the idea…”. Casado’s love of animals also shows through in a lot of her work, birds and beasts of all kinds appear in her art, in her own words “I can’t imagine her talking to human beings so instead she has lots of feathered friends (for now).”

LadyUmbrella is an immediately recognisable character for one very obvious reason, she has an umbrella for a head, don’t laugh, it’s poetic or symbolic or something…

I love the style, it reminds me of animation I used to watch growing up as a kid in Britain, it was so gentle and delicate then, a world away from the slick CGI of nowadays. Dreamy, that’s the word, something along the lines of Crystal Tipps meets the original Moomins.

LU launched their online t-shirt store on the 20th of January 2010 and have created a lovely site and store, and of course collection. The whole feel of the brand is light, slightly dreamy and very delicate, something rare in the world of t-shirt art. So… if you’re ready to meet LadyUmbrella read on!

LadyUmbrella & The Trike T-shirt

The LadyUmbrella and the Trike tee has a very deco feeling to it, perhaps the shadows, the line, and the slight feeling of movement is intriguing. As far as message or meaning goes, I doubt there really is any. My partner Christina has just growled and tutted at me, reminding me that not everything has to have a meaning, “you can just feel it you know!”. Too true. So, yes, I’m feeling it, love the light bulbs and my partner thinks the duck is sweet. If you fancy this one it’s available at the intro price of €24 in sizes S – L here.

LadyUmbrella is Away With the Birds T-shirt

Here’s why I think there’s something dreamlike about LU’s tees, the style and content of this tee for instance… LadyUmbrella is Away With The Birds, definitely belongs amongst the stranger scenes of The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine movie, and the clouds remind me of a scene from Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits when the main protagonists have to make their escape from cages held aloft at an impossible height. Casado is like a creative sponge, I’m sure people would pay good money to see her dreams, although it’s all there to be seen in her t-shirt illustrations. This tee evokes a superbly balanced feeling of subdued tension, available at the intro price of €24 in sizes S – L here.

What Came First the Chicken or LadyUmbrella T-shirt

Another fascinatingly dreamlike t-shirt, What Came First The Chicken or LadyUmbrella tee definitely has leanings towards early Surrealist art. I love the details in this one, there’s something about the nature of time, birth and rebirth in this one, or maybe I’m too deep for my own good. The birds on a wire really lighten the situation, and the umbrella poking out of the egg is very sweet. I’d have included a few feathers on the chest though, at first I thought it was a hole, and if it was it should be heart-shaped, then I realised, she’s wearing a chicken suit, though why its plucked I am not sure! Still a beautiful piece of t-shirt design, Elena is a genius at shadows too, not as easy as it might look! Deceptively simple and surreal in its humour and style this tee is available at the intro price of €24 in sizes S – L here.

Right now there are 6 t-shirts in all available at LU’s shop, there’s a gallery there too if you fancy treating your peepers. Do visit their groovy blog and their highly popular Facebook page whilst you’re at ot, if you fan them and comment on your fave tee they’ll give you a generous 10% off of your order!

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