Go Ape For Go Ape Shirts

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Ed Pincombe, Go Ape Shirts, designer t-shirts, indie t-shirts, screen printed shirts

GoApeShirts.com is run solely by the ever dedicated Josh Perkins, a designer with a passion for t-shirts who with a help of a small army of talented friends has been knocking out some rather stunning designs lately. Now and again other t-shirt blogs have featured one or two of their products, but as usual it’s down to Buy Tees to give you lovely people the full lowdown on this uniquely funny yet creative label and their impressive range of original tees.

All of Go Ape’s shirts and hoodies are screen printed by the highly professional Mammoth Printshop of Alabama on American Apparel products, so you’re rest assured everyone of their tees is both sweatshop-free and of the highest quality. Shipping is $4.50 for one shirt and $1.00 more for each additional shirt after that. Orders outside of the USA, Canada, and Mexico are a flat $4.00 extra per order. They also say they accept design submissions, but be warned, Go Ape are highly selective, so all designers out there, prepare for disappointment!

Some of the current designers on their books include Leon Ryan (who also designed their superb logo), Julian Glander, Hong Kong’s Graphic Airlines, Henrique Lima, John Mitchell (whose sketches lie precariously in between Aubrey Beardsley and Ralph Steadman – the illustrator for Hunter S. Thompson‘s Fear and Loathing in  Las Vegas), Olly Moss, UPSO, Cloxboy and far too many more to mention. Still you get the idea, this is a classy operation, as far as the design department goes anyway. So, let’s go ape and check out some of their finest tees on offer at the moment… read more

Delete Toast Tees

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Delete Toast, art t-shirt, art t-shirts, art tees, designer t-shirts, photo montage, surreal tees

Here’s a brand new label, and I mean so fresh off the press it’ll burn your fingers. Delete Toast, which must be the strangest name for a t-shirt brand I have come across so far, are offering a slick batch of super fine tees to kick things off. Recently started by Joyce Kim, a professional graphic designer with an advertising/art direction background from NY’s Pratt institute, you can expect quality over quantity.

I asked Joyce about the name, “it’s simply a happy accident, a random blending of two words to form a new oxymoron.” Much like her t-shirt designs which are for the main part collages/photo montages, peppered with rather funky typographic and abstract experiments. Joyce lists her influences far and wide, being inspired by the fine arts, abstract graphics, nature, music, streetwear, and high fashion, her tastes and style are indeed eclectic.

There are only a few tees on offer at the moment, but rest assured more are to come, still what there is on offer is top quality so… let’s get toasty ;)

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Hell Hath No Fury Like Seventh.Ink

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     7th Ink, Fury Shirts, Seventh Ink, designer t-shirts, graphic tees

Now before you literally start scratching a proverbial hole in your head with confusion, yes the brand is Seventh.Ink and yes their domain name is FuryShirts.com – if you really want to know the potted history behind this decision read their interview by our good friends at T-ShirtMagazineOnline.com. In short it’s catchy. However I know that most of you would rather see the tees on offer, which are predominantly more on the graphic design side rather than illustrated on the whole so let’s get down to business.

Some seem a little too reminiscent of the Arsenal Vector Collection at GoMedia.us for my liking, who personally I’d say do as much damage as they do good for the t-shirt industry. The reason being that even graphic elements can lose their visual currency over the long term, as they say “familiarity breeds contempt”, although I wouldn’t go that far, I’d always advise t-shirt designers to merely use these vector packs for inspiration and never paste vectors straight from the DVD.

Still judging by their latest release and others of a similar ilk, strong character-based designs with a sideline of puns for good measure, pulling back from the abstracts, and focusing more on artistic / humour shirts which they do so well, I have a feeling in my bones that 7th Ink are on the verge of leaping into the big league …if they keep this up. So here are my top pick of t-shirts at Seventh Ink, and what’s more, some good reasons why:-
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Fall ’09 at Beautiful Decay

admin    T-Shirt News     Aya Kato, Fall 09, SickSystems, beautiful decay, designer t-shirts, graffiti, illustration, latest tees

I’ve just had an email from Beautiful/Decay, and yet again they’re offering a whole new batch of beautiful tees for your delectation, including some superb designs from the likes of Russian graffiti crew The SickSystems, a lovely typography shirt by Jessica Hische, and three new offerings from the inimitable Aya Kato – Japanese master of the illustrated line plus Ben Tegel, Official Classic and Colin Strandberg. BD have certainly been busy (as usual) snapping up the best of the best to feature in their latest collection, so without further a due, let’s get cracking on and check these beauties out:- read more

A Hangover Cure From Xenotees

admin    T-Shirt News     Etsy, Handmade tees, Xenotees.com, cool tees, designer t-shirts, xenotees

Buy Tees are Xenotees firm fans (aren’t we all?). They have a devoted following which we soon found out about when we first reviewed them in The Strangely Exotic Mind Of Xenotees. Their appeal is both quirky and alluring, their approach experimental, and their products top-notch. So of course we delighted to hear from Noelle the creative wizard behind the label who told us she was taking up the gauntlet and extending her range of silhouette shirts with her latest creation entitled ‘Too Much Party’. Not so abstract as her some of previous incarnations but definitely geared to a wider market!

Too Much Party T-Shirt

Guaranteed for a laugh (even if you are suffering the effects of a wild night out), the print features an official vintage Pabst bottle opener with a bunch of newbie bottle caps! Too Much Party is currently available in three colours (Slate, Cranberry Red and ladies versions in Heather Grey and Kelly Green) and plenty of different sizes but as usual stocks are limited so if you’re planning to use and wear one of these tees to full effect, take some Alka-Seltzer and rush on over there before they’re all snapped up!

We’re off to London for the weekend to do much the same thing, get hammered that is, so see you all Monday and have fun!

410BC – An Age of Teemocracy

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     410BC, 410bc.com, NY fashion, designer, designer t-shirts, ethical fashion, hip hop, indie, political tees, punk, sweatshop free tees, urban wear

410BC is a New York based clothing company and arts collective with their finger on the pulse and their eyes on the horizon of change and equality. With a strong ethical background and a total commitment to the ecology and conscious consumerism in every aspect of the brand, they focus on strong conceptual design in equal measure favouring a wide spectrum of subculture arts including skater, punk, hip-hop, indie and D.I.Y. There is a really strong sense of community at their site www.410BC.com and they actively encourage participation from both their wide and loyal customer base and their eclectic band of designers and artists.

I usually ‘wing it’ when it comes to t-shirt reviews, preferring not to get to bogged down with subjective ideas from designers and focus on what I see the way I see it, sure it’s not particularly objective but it can be informative for both the label and the general t-shirt fan to see a different point of view to the traditional bog-standard interview format. However I have to admit I cheated a little when it came to the name of this particular brand, Nicole co-founder of 410BC enlightened me to its origin – “410 BC stands for the year Democracy was restored in Athens. The Athenians were at war, but they managed to restore their own institutions by fighting for what they believed in. We chose that name because it resonated with us strongly. Through the company we promote conscious consumerism and fighting for what you believe in. We believe in supporting artists, sending a positive message, only using sweatshop free and organic cotton tees and giving back to our community.” A rather admirable mantra for any fashion brand I am sure you will agree.

The company have definitely stuck to their roots from day one, unlike many brands in the market they like to stay as connected with their audience wherever possible, from their humble beginnings they have certainly picked up plenty of good habits, constantly pushing their positive message and encouraging public interaction all the way. Do have a read of their blog if you have a moment – there are some great fashion, style and other features going on there and whilst you’re at it check out their LookBook which features plenty of photos of past customers donning their marvellous clothes. Plus of course you can also meet and greet 410BC via Myspace, Flickr and see their latest vids at Youtube – oh and check out their latest contest too!

However ethics asides what’s as if not more satisfying for me is that their creative stance is as powerful as their ecological one with a cornucopia of great designs available at the store, an ecelctic range of sources and ideas for their particularly unique style, and to top it off a rather fabulous website to showcase their work. Let’s take a trip to 410BC and see exactly what makes them so special in the market today… read more

Christian Audiger – The Most Expensive T-Shirts In The World?

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Christian Audiger, celebrity tees, designer t-shirts, expensive t-shirts, high priced tees, most expensive t-shirt in the world

Before I begin I know Christian Audiger‘s iconic tattoo t-shirts aren’t the most expensive t-shirts in the world, but they’re damn close. In fact as far as I know the most expensive tee used to roll in at an original whopping $1540K price tag, now it’s still slightly more expensive than Audiger’s from Fendi at just $199 (lol) but I still think there’s a point to be made here…

I know that Giorgio Armani used to offer their black Cashmere Tee at $1000+, but it’s a big name brand and it’s made from cashmere, it’s still not worth the price tag but there are some partial reasons for the excess. Then there are retro tees, I mean original vintage ones, sure if Jimi Hendrix used to wear it or The Sex Pistols auctioned off a limited original selection, or indeed for any famous association I can again (to a degree) understand the inflated price tag. But why are the likes of Christian Audiger and Fendi charging such astronomical prices? Well the short answer is they can get away with it.

The fact is you will always expect to pay a premium for an established world wide designer brand, be it a catwalk designer or a sports clothing company, but what about when a brand is still establishing itself on a global stage? Sure you may have heard of it but has everyone? I know who Christian Audiger is but I know my t-shirt designers, if I stepped outside and asked the next ten people who Audiger was I’m pretty sure none of them would know what he does for a living. Sure the case may be different in other countries but still is he a household name? The same can be asked of Fendi, does their brand honestly offer enough cachet to price t-shirts up to $1540? I’m guessing not seeing as they’ve slashed the price (relatively speaking) down to $199. Still I’m surprised it isn’t selling at a quarter of that reduced price.

Here’s the lowdown on Fendi’s most expensive offering in their t-shirt department…

* 100% cotton
* Intricately embroidered paillettes throughout
* Banded crewneck
* Short sleeves
* Straight hem
* Made in Italy

Hmm… okay so it’s embroidered, I’m sure that if they’d sold them all at their original price they could have bought the factory that made them! I can’t understand why they thought this could fetch such an extortionate price, even at $199 there’s no fathoming their logic on this product. I’d expect it to be embroidered in real gold thread at the very least.

So what’s different about Audiger’s premium rate line of t-shirts? Well to be honest there are some superb designs amongst the collection, not that I believe I could ever pay full price for one at the current prices, even if I could afford it I just couldn’t live with that kind of financial decision. Still. rich people need t-shirts too, I’m sure the celebs get their freebies and do a great job of touting them around La La Land, and well for the rest of us we can just stand and slobber with our tongues hanging out at their virtual shop window wondering exactly how much a copy from Thailand would set us back. read more

KidRobot.com – Not Just For Kids (or Robots).

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Beck, Budnitz, Chilli Peppers, Green Day, Jane's Addiction, Koznik, NY, Neil Young, Offspring, Pearl Jam, design, designer t-shirts, kidrobot, kidrobot.com, manga, tees, toys

Designer Paul Budnitz designer and creator of Kidrobot is (and I quote) “the world’s premier designer and retailer of limited edition art toys and apparel”. Sure he’s blowing his own trumpet a little louder than most but the guy really does know what he’s doing. Kidrobot.com started selling their strange toys in 2002 and just as wacky line of urban wear in 2006 and have gone from strength to strength ever since. read more

Word Up To Wordans

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     European tees, French T-Shirts, Wordans, Wordans.com, cafepress, collective, crowdsourcing, designer t-shirts, t-shirt community, zazzle

Antoine the co-founder at Wordans.com t-shirt community gave us a shout at Buy Tees for a review. The site is in many ways a pretty straightforward Zazzle or Cafepress clone, except for a few vital differences. Sure the site design is clearer and friendlier than many of its competitors out there (which there are more than a few now), and yes there’s an English and French speaking version for all the Euro t-shirt fans and designers seeking something just that little bit different than the norm. But what struck me immediately about Wordans is the fact you’ll find no trace of tacky mugs and mouse mats and gawd knows what else their competitors like to dabble in. What’s more they actually have some really decent designers under their wing, and they make sure you know it! read more

LightningFast.com – T-Shirts That Save Lives

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Africa, Charities, Charity T-Shirts, charity, designer t-shirts, donations, ethical t-shirts, fair trade, good causes, organic t-shirts, poor, t-shirt

A mission statement from Steve Savides at LightningFast.com:-

“When you buy a T-shirt, what do you get? A bit of warmth? A bit of cool? How about real change? When you buy Lightning Fast clothing, you’re helping transform communities. That’s because we channel 50% of our profits into projects that are proven in helping children and families escape a cycle of poverty. At Lightning Fast, we’re about combining the love of cool with the love of change. It’s a virtuous circle. You get great design on organic, fairly traded clothes. And people from Romania to Swaziland to South Africa, UK, are given a hand to build sustainable lives.” read more