The only way to describe Kowtow’s style is uncompromising, if you have any antipodean assumptions floating around your head then Kowtow is most likely the best place to shake them up and leave them in a thosand tiny pieces. When I first came across their work I expected their studio to be based somewhere in the gritty underbelly of New York, artistically they lend a lot to the late 1960s Pop Art movement, names like Warhol and Rauschenberg are just two that come to mind. Their bold and upfront iconography has to be seen to believed, and their subject matter, well eclectic would be an underestimation. Furthermore all of Kowtow’s products are 100% organic and fairtrade, they even send a FREE CD with every order – anyway let’s take a look at a few of the goodies they have on offer right now!

Now this one has left me flummoxed, I’m not usually short of an informed opinion or two, I could cop out and say that Kowtow’s Ganesha Tee is merely an update on a traditional Eastern spiritual icon, but for me there’s a clue in the graphically styled aura surrounding the figure, and that is it’s remarkable resemblance to an asterisk chopped in half. Now at first it reminded me of something like a Kimberley Clark logo, but then I checked the meaning of “asterisk” and came up with a very strange alternative name for the term at FreeDictionary.com – The Kleene star – (Or “Kleene closure”, named after Stephen Kleene) The postfix “*” operator used in regular expressions, Extended Backus-Naur Form, and similar formalisms to specify a match for zero or more occurrences of the preceding expression. Nah I’m pulling your leg, it’s their logo, still it is a great tee all the same!

Einstein Tee by Kowtow – well here’s a cracker of a t-shirt, I love almost everything to do with Einstein, I still can’t remember the movie with Einstein and Marilyn in, of course I don’t mean they actually starred in a film together, it was made in the eighties I’m sure, strangest movie I never did see, that’s what comes of trying to watch TV when you’re drunk at a New Year’s Eve party. so, Einstein, yes an iconic figure if there ever was one, I’ve been desperately trying to work out how to include him in my own art series but we’ll have to wait and see. I love the 3D glasses, is it a comment on his genius, did he see in three dimensions whilst we all see in two? It’s most likely he saw in four whilst we all see in three, but where the hell are you going to get some 4D glasses, I suppose you could stick a couple of digital watches in a Rayban’s frame, but I doubt the resulting image would be quite so iconic. The first moment I saw this I thought of Warhol, I’d have thought he’d have made this image first but no, so kudos to Kowtow!

I’m sure there’s no great meaning behind the Panda Suit Tee by Kowtow, but it’s beautifully illustrated and rather hilarious all the same. This image takes me back to a few near disastrous parties as a child, one where I was forced to dress like a scarecrow was perhaps the worst, I’m sure it was one of those last minute panic attack creations that mothers will insist on making if all else fails. An old hat with straw poking out, an old school jacket with straw poking out, an old pair of shoes with straw poking out. The straw really itched, and so being an intelligent kid I removed it all and then I merely looked like a boy in old tattered clothes. The other kids kept asking what I was supposed to be and I’d point at the pile of straw under the table and tell them, “erm, that”.

There are plenty of fantastic designs on offer at a whopping 25% discount in Kowtow’s February sale, so get down there now, and whilst you’re at it, check out their music section, yes they’re a music label too! If you’d like to keep up with all their exploits try their Myspace page ;)