T-Shirt Party

admin    T-Shirts     British tees, London t-shirts, gangsta tees, indie t-shirts, rudeboy, t-shirt party, underground t-shirts

Let’s get this straight from the start, T-Shirt Party is a Brit label, they’ve got some really cool tees on offer but the site is a mess, and those dodgy Youtube videos don’t help. But what the hell, it’s all about the (t-shirt) love, so let’s partay!

All the tees come in sizes M-XL in white – ‘because G’s only wear white!’ and prices including postage range from £10 to £15 depending where you are in the world. Original ideas, great designs, edgy, dodgy and heaving with attitude, definitely one for the rudeboys. If you can stand the heat enter the T-Shirt Party…

Get ‘em all here.

Cheer Up Clothing

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     British tees, Cheer Up Clothing, Cheer up, UK t-shirts, designer t-shirts

Cheer Up Clothing is a UK based fashion label that offers a range of simple yet stylish graphic, logo/branded and typographic tees and hoodies for a discerning market. They’ve already had a ton of press coverage here in Britain including Front and Kerrang Magazine. They’re also big on music and sponsor several highly acclaimed bands and touring artistes, such as Four Year Strong, You Me At Six, All American Rejects, The King Blue and more. They’re constantly producing home-grown best sellers and are tipped for the top, especially in the international market.

CUC is what I’d call a “real” fashion brand, high quality and confident branding whilst creating a unified style for their collection – which is not an easy thing to do. I’m not so keen on the pocket logo apparel, I remember as a kid everyone buying Lacoste sweaters sporting a tiny crocodile logo. A savvy kid at the school yard asked his dad, who ran an embroidery business, to print up a few hundred tiny crocodile patches. Yes he sold out the first day. I didn’t even buy one of those. Still, even if I am a fashion Marxist I can still appreciate their more creative graphic shirts and the inventive use of their rather groovy logo in their collection. Expect plenty of ice cream themed tees – I’ve even included one in this post. All the tees are unisex and sell for between £20 and £22 (except one on sale for £16) each and are available in a wide range of colours dependent upon the design. Sizes range from XS-L and I’ve noticed a few discontinued t-shirts so watch out – when they’re sold out they’re really sold out.

CU wanted me to mention that their latest collection will be released Wednesday 17th November in celebration of their third anniversary – but as usual I’m featuring my faves across the board.

Tag Foil Tee

Higgledy Tee

Spaceman Tee

Scribbles Tee

All in all there’s some very cool stuff on offer at Cheer Up Clothing, personally speaking I love the Spaceman Tee – but I always like astronaut-themed tees. Maybe it’s something to do with wanting to be a spaceman as a kid and then discovering that I sucked at maths.

Anyhoo, take a look for yourself, it might just put a smile on your face… www.CheerUpClothing.com.

New Hideout Tees

admin    T-Shirts     British tees, Hideout Apparel, Hideout Tees, graphic t-shirts, graphic tees

It’s been a while since we’ve posted about Hideout Apparel, they’ve a couple of new tees on offer, and they’ve done a great job of sprucing up the site. I have to admit I’m not keen on one of the tees, and regular readers will probably guess why in a moment… I’m not sure if I’ve made this suggestion before but I really think it’s time to get a separate domain name for the brand, or at least a subdomain, it’s easier to rank on Google, more fans find the tees, the brand gets greater recognition and so on and so on. Ah well we live and learn.

So here are the two newbies on the block:

Kraken Tee

There seems to be something of a resurgence for the Kraken, I’ve reviewed at least one other Kraken tee this month, and I’m sad to say this is the lesser of the two. It’s not so much the quality of illustration that’s at fault (although the lack of colour doesn’t help) it’s the damn rectangular print.

I feel like I’m turning into that crazy old man next door who spends all day shouting at his TV and occasionally hitting it with his walking stick. The problem with filling every part of print is that it reveals the limitations of the process. It just looks cheap. Sure it’s a big rectangle, but in a way that makes it worse, I don’t want to look at the edges of a print, I want to look at the design. Then there’s an enormous logo at the bottom which again I’d have preferred they’d left out.

I’m tempted to link to an example of how it should be done, but that’d probably be too cruel. Anyway I’m sure others will disagree, Hideout have a strong following after all. I just think, damn, what a waste of a concept. Could be so much better. Available for £20 in Asphalt and Heather.

Take Flight Tee

Phew… I am very glad to say I have exactly the opposite opinion on this one, beautifully drawn it looks like a frame from a French Zombie animated movie, very Quixotic in its own elusive fashion. The composition is great too (no rectangles in sight). For me it’s a far better tee than the first but I’m guessing it’s all down to the internal politics at Hideout, they’re friends and creative input is shared equally, even though I am convinced one has far more design talent than the others. Still… get the Take Flight Tee in Steel Blue and Asphalt (although confusingly some of the photos look as if they’ve been tinted red) for £20 each.

Ah well we live and learn.

‘ave a Banana…

admin    T-Shirt Designers, T-Shirts     Banana Tees, British tees, Dale Edwin Murray, funny tees, graphic t-shirts

I hadn’t heard of Banana Tees until yesterday, they’re a new t-shirt brand on the block with a friendly easy-going attitude and a couple tip-top tees in the collection already. Run solely by British illustrator, designer and t-shirt fanatic Dale Edwin Murray, having achieved plenty of success designing for clothing companies, bands and major retailers as well as plenty of t-shirt contests – he’s decided to strike out on his own and used his alter ego Bananaman (no not this one >>  Bananaman) as inspiration for the brand name. But don’t expect banana themed tees at every turn lol.

All the tees are available at £15 (or 15 squid for cockneys), the majority of which are 100% cotton (apart from the marl gray which is 10% polyester and made in Honduras), shipping is reasonable at £1.50 for the UK and £7.50 for the rest of the world. I particularly like the distressed look of the prints.

Make Ideas Real Tee

A lovely sentiment perfectly rendered in a great piece of symbiotic design. Creativity should always be encouraged, not that Dale needs it, he’s well on his way. Being an old Warhol nut I’d have called it “Art Factory” but I am after all a bit of a posh git so ignore me lol. Get your MIR Tee (no not the defunct space station – it’s just an unfortunate acronym) in sizes S-XL.

Live Well Tee

Another positive message rendered in a quirky and appealing design – damn Dale is a positive guy – give me whatever he’s drinking. A nice simple illustration that I’m sure BUPA wished their ad agency had come up with, available once more in sizes S-XL.

See the rest at www.BananaTees.com.

The Sick Kids

admin    T-Shirt News, T-Shirt Reviews     British tees, The Sick Kids, character t-shirts, hip-hop t-shirts, indie tees, music tees, rap, toon shirts

The Sick Kids is a streetwear brand launched in South London during the Summer of 2009 by comedy female rapper Kelly Jackson aka Jackson Kid, who makes up one third of ‘The Sick Kids’ alongside her sister Lele [SPEAKS], who is also a published solo artist through EMI Records. [SPEAKS] set out on her own, fresh from finishing up at ‘the Brit school of arts’ in Croydon and started working with various random producers making beats and sending them over to her on Myspace, as well as collaborating with her rapper boyfriend ‘Worthless’ and their beat maker friend ‘Pig Man Dan’, recording on basic home studio equipment and software.

It was whilst performing gigs that she and her sister came up with a few t-shirts for a show in Camden Town, it wasn’t long before the team branched off into t-shirt design, and what started as band merchandise has now become a fully fledged indie t-shirt label. The Sick Kids’ influences include a love of street fashion and music, from hip-hop sportswear to punk rock studs and denim… from cartoons, Disney, and comedy to horror, TV, the news, film, the 80’s and 90’s, toys, photography, churches, graveyards, junk food, crooked teeth and Rosehill Council Estate.

Here’s a few tees from their first collection, all are available for girls and guys in all sizes at £16.99 (some are a little cheaper)…

Ghost Kid Tee

Available in 3 colours for girls and guys.

Puppet Kids Tee

Wasteman Tee

I’m a big fan of ‘bad’ rap, the funnier the better, The Sick Kids might not be at the level of hilarity of say GLC and The Lonely Island, but considering their lo-tech roots this track is pretty impressive too:

If you fancy keeping updated with everything from the Sick Kids stable then you can hook up with them at Twitter, Facebook and Myspace.

Frog Faced Souply

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     British tees, Frog Faced Souply, Scottish t-shirts, fair trade, original, screen printed tees

Here’s another new kid on the block, Frog  Faced Souply, straight off you know they’re serious about their tees, the site is smart, the name is mad, and the designs are hot to trot. In case you’re still scratching your head about the name well… ‘souply’ is an old colloquialism for the word ‘supply in a supple manner’ (I’m none the wiser either) and the frog face, well that could be anyone. Still, who cares, it’s a cool name for a brand and that’s all that matters.

So, they’ve decided to launch at the very end of the summer, not the best time to do it but with the 24/7 365 days a year online world at their fingertips it shouldn’t hold them back too much. It’s run by a talented and very friendly couple Gary and Louise from their base in Hamilton, Scotland, a true cottage industry indeed, or should that be croft? They’re probably working from a spanking new industrial unit but it’s nice to dream of them weaving their own cloth by a loch with deer tapping at the door for a little bread and gravy. Sorry, Chris is away for a few days at Bestival in I.O.W so I’m feeling a little poetic and forlorn today.

Anyway, on with the tees, there are three available right now and they are, I promise you, blinding designs, definitely a great start to what could be a rather exciting collection. Every tee is fair trade and is screen printed by hand and they’re offering an amazingly competitive shipping rate, a flat fee of £3 anywhere in the world. Wow.

Crash! Boom! Blat! Tee

There’s definitely a cultural/age crossover going on between Gary and myself. I too read the Beano in my most formative years, although I quickly defected to Marvel and DC, comics like Viz definitely revived the British “funnies” tradition in the world of comics. The Crash! Boom! Blat! Tee celebrates the under appreciated art of the comic book sound effect. When something does it’s job well, most people ignore it, it feels so natural you don’t think twice about it. This is one of those instances. I for one have always recognised the powerful iconography of this near “invisible” art form. A nostalgic graphic bonanza available for £22 in all sizes at the store.

Diamonds Tee

I was born a year after the release of the legendary Beatles album ‘Sergeant Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band’, my parents were very very young and my earliest memories are of SPLHCB being played over and over again. I did something very similar with Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ in my teens, although that involved consuming something stronger than Farley’s Rusks. FFS (the brand’s acronym explains everything) offer up a very appealing semi-abstract design influenced by the classic tripper tune ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’, John denied the association with acid (L.S.D) but come on, just listen to it and tell me it isn’t. The Diamonds Tee does two things I love, and at the same time, it’s the ultimate visual mash up printed on a cotton tee. Taking inspiration from the tripped out hippy culture and mixing it up with vector graphics synonymous with arcade games of the early 80′s (a la Asteroids, Tempest etc.). This t-shirt rocks, and then some. Get it for £22 in all sizes here.

Girls Girls Girls Tee

Nothing to do with the awful Mötley Crüe hit this sexy number offers more than first meets the eye. Ooh cheeky. If you want to shock your mum, once she’s found her reading glasses and inspected your washing, then this is the tee for you. It might not help you pull on the dance floor but you will earn the respect of other drunken pervs at the bar :p Seriously well drawn, beautifully in fact, it looks like this was originally an ink ‘n’ wash drawing. Far classier than the subject implies… Get it for £22 in all sizes here.

Keep up to date with all the goings on at Frog Faced Souply at their blog, Facebook and Twitter.

Swish Swosh Sneak Peek Preview!

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     British t-shirts, British tees, England, N. Ireland, Scotland, Threadless, UK t-shirts, Wales, swish swosh, swishswosh.com, t-shirt community, t-shirt voting

In just under 24 hours SwishSwosh.com – a British t-shirt contest site will be officially opening their doors to the public, and just to stir up a little more excitement I thought it best to share the love and let you all see what’s around the corner from this exciting new store. What I can tell you is this, Swish Swosh will be offering all their t-shirts on pre-order at £12 each (£15 for winners), yes a Brit tee community at last, and they already have quite a few cool submissions under their wing, and that’s no surprise seeing as SS are offering a whopping great prize of £1100 for the first place winner plus 50p per t-shirt sold. The total in prizes is £2009, and with ten winning positions to fill I’m sure a lot of you budding t-shirt designers can see a chance for success here! Every runner up receives £101 plus 50p in commissions which should be enticing for the least adventurous, but if you haven’t submitted a tee you will probably have to submit for the next round. There has been so much demand that SS have actually been accepting votes in beta, and some of their tees are already in pre-order!

As their motto states ‘no more clones’ SS will be limiting prints to just 50 of each size per print so if you do fancy any of their winning tees (and hoodies) I’d hurry because I doubt they’ll be hanging around too long. Although this will be a monthly contest so if you do want to get in on the action you have a decent amount of time to get on board for the next round. Fancy submitting a design? Then submit your design here. They want cutting edge, drop dead gorgeous designs if you can muster them, and I’ll tell you why.

The two founders of SS (I’d give you more details but their meet the founders page simply states ‘be patient you nosey gits’ right now) decided to create SwishSwosh.com after running a heap of successful club events where they witnessed fashion atrocities that would send anyone barmy, not only in calibre but also quantity. Imagine turning up for a night out and bumping into half a dozen other clubbers wearing the same t-shirt as you? It’s not just sad, it’s a a sad indictment of the state of corporate fashion these days. The fact is that originality is king, and that’s what SS are all about, if you want originality they will try their damndest to provide it via an army of keen talent touting for your votes. Let’s check out how Old Blighty are fairing in the t-shirt contest war… read more

Pigs Stags and Hens? Customised Tees at Piggi!

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Brit Pop t-shirts, British tees, UK, UK funny t-shirts, hen night, hen night t-shirts, marriage, movie t-shirts, stag night, stag night t-shirts, wedding

Now I’m not the marrying kind, I’m sure there are a lot of blokes who feel the same way and perhaps even a few women. My parents divorced as a kid, and most friends I know have seen their marriages break down, but at least they had a party the night before that fateful day, so their are some positives I suppose :p

If you’re about to get hitched and you’d like to celebrate the occasion then I’d recommend the pithy range of customised tees available at Piggi-Clothing.co.uk There are a few crackers there that are bound to garner a few titters on your stag/hen night. Their best designs find inspiration in many modern movies classics such as Reservoir Dogs and The Matrix, so you’re bound to find something up your street.

I do like the way they get all your friends in on the act, such as in this t-shirt designed in the style of Quentin Tarantino‘s “Kill Bill“.

As you can see you can get all your mates on the night included in the line-up with Piggi’s Kill Bill t-shirt. In this case everyone is embroiled in the potential murder of their groom-to-be friend Mark, if Mark didn’t have the jitters before he surely will now.

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