The Rise And Rise Of SwishSwosh

admin    T-Shirt News     British, SwishSwosh, UK, UK t-shirts, designer tees, swishswosh.com, t-shirt community

SwishSwosh.com, one of our favourite new t-shirt communities is going from strength to strength, they’ve just picked their latest winner, 17 year old Sam Leonard with his slick t-shirt design Warning, Paint can Stain, recently chosen by the public as their latest top tee. Sam has now been posted his prize money, and is officially £1,100 richer thanks to SwishSwosh.com! What’s more SwishSwosh have just been featured on Galway Bay FM, if you want to hear the full scoop click here. They even grabbed themselves a headline in Tilllate Magazine run by the self proclaimed world’s biggest night-life community who have featured them in a glorious 2 page spread complete with photos and interview.

This British brand gives new hope to the UK as we are desperately short of t-shirt collectives in the vein of the behemoths of the industry such as Threadless.com, so it fills me with pride (and a little relief) that the label is doing so well so soon. Offering the UK and the world unique and limited edition tees (only 50 printed per design) a unique British slant on t-shirt design is a welcome breath of fresh air for the market. After all, in this case, you can’t have too much of a good thing, and with a slightly edgier slant than you’d normally expect, I’m more than glad to see the quality of their submitted designs unbelievably but truly improve day by day.

In truth I have to admit that my absolute pick of the crop right now has to be Money Talks by Andy Cheung, take a look at this beauty… read more

Two Tees From Infinite Now

admin    T-Shirt News     The Infinite Now, art shirts, art t-shirts, art tees, designer tees, infinite now, infinite-now-com

The Infinite Now are a brand new t-shirt label, they’ve only two t-shirts on offer right now, which as far as I can recall isn’t exactly infinite, although I have an inkling the reference is more to do with image and design, repetition, the abstract and perhaps even potential. Sean of I-N seems a friendly guy, he’s keen, he’s motivated and he’s already built himself a rather smart site.

I’m always receiving emails from new t-shirt designers asking for my critique regarding everything from website design to t-shirt ideas. When it comes to presentation www.Infinite-Now.com go a long way to offering a perfect example of content over concept, a concept is great, branding is essential, but great products tied with great presentation go far further. If you’re proud of your designs you’ll offer up large and clear photos of your products, Sean’s site does just that.

What’s more I-N are bang on when it comes to quality, with some extremely subtle imagery, good quality printing and a nice line in unique printed labels, this is certainly a brand to watch for the future. Hook up with The Infinite Now at Facebook to learn more about I-N. read more

Plastic Fantastic Kitsch-Nitsch

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     designer tees, kitsch-nitsch, limited edition t-shirts, limited edition tees, one-off t-shirt, unique t-shirts, www.kitsch-nitsch.com

We all want to be individual, and there is plenty of limited edition gear available out there in the world of fashion, but what about one-offs? Ever bought a one-off, one of a kind, limited edition of one t-shirt? Would you like to? Well now you have a chance to be the proud owner of a truly, totally and completely unique t-shirt from Kitsch-Nitsch. Solely managed by the graphic design duo Aka Neon & MNCHRM from their base in Slovenia (guessing by the shipping rates), these guys thrive at illustration, decoration, product design and scenography. However they specialise in a wide range of cut-out vinyl sets, that can be applied to walls, cars, or as they begun to experiment with recently, ready made products such as bags or clothes.

The Kitsch-Nitsch ideology sees design as “temporary and not timeless, revolution is the only way to make a change and constant reinvention and searching for the latest craze are the only things worth living for.” Kitsch-Nitsch offers uniquely limited edition tees designed on computers and made by hand. If you’re into your t-shirts but want something that no one else is wearing in the world, this might be your best bet! They offer world-wide shipping at ‚Ǩ5 for Slovenia, ‚Ǩ10 for Europe and ‚Ǩ20 for the rest of the planet. The site looks like a promo for a new indie band that music journos slaver after each year to make up their column inches for cynical new wave indie aficionados that have heard it all before. Great layout, stunning photos, mad designs, insane concept, it might just work out big time for these two renegades of the fashion world. Take a look at what’s still available to buy right now… read more

Rockomoda’s On A Roll

admin    T-Shirt News     Footage, Rockomoda, Rockomoda.com, UK fashion, designer tees, discount brands, discount fashion

Rockomoda.com are a UK based discount designer label with a passion for t-shirts – so much so they’ve even started up their own brand Footage. Rob, the man behind the operation is an old hand in the urban fashion scene, with over 15 years in the business you can be sure that Rockomoda have their finger on the pulse. Asides from grabbing a bargain t-shirt from a plethora of big name labels like Obey, Junk Food and House of Gods and creating their own tees, Rockomoda have strong ties with the music scene. As it happens their next big do features “KILL THE YOUNG” and “This Machine Is Off” at The Ruby Lounge Manchester if you are round that way on October 1st. If you want to keep up with all the shenanigans be it t-shirt releases, fashion discounts and music promos, you’d be best off hooking up with Rockomoda at Facebook.

There are so many bargains to be had it’s difficult to know where to start. First off if you order £75 or more of their gear your delivery is free, there’s a newsletter that enters you for a contest to win free trainers for a year, plus of course their summer sale is now on with prices slashed at up to 75%! If you want an example of just how low the prices are at Rockomoda right now just check out this black/gold print NY Yankees tee for a staggeringly low £8. There a couple of Supreme Being tees selling at half price, and plenty of Old Glory tees at the same or even cheaper. But if you’re like me, an independent minded indie label loving t-shirt snob at heart, then you’re most likely better off checking out what Footage has to offer. Bright, poptastic, slightly generic at times, but overall a very strong start from what could be a major name in the future if they can grab themselves a decent distribution deal. The collection maybe limited in number right now, but with the experience and financial clout of Rockomoda behind them I wouldn’t doubt if this label eventually becomes a whole new company in it’s own right.

Here’s a few of my faves from their current season… read more

Full Tilteed

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Threadless, designer tees, t-shirt business, t-shirt competition, t-shirt contest, t-shirt prize, tilteed, tilteed.com, win money, win t-shirts

Everyone in the t-shirt blog community is writing about Tilteed.com – another t-shirt vote community but with one vital difference, well actually quite a few. First off “wow”, I mean $5000 in prizes for the launch? That’s $5000 in total for the two winning designs ($3500 for the grand prize winning design, $1500 for the runner up). That is some serious commitment on Tilteed’s side, if you’re a great t-shirt designer, and I mean you’ll have to be the best of the best, then I’d recommend you sign up and upload your finest tee designs now (the winner will be announced on the 29th July) or be prepared to miss out on one hefty prize. It’s about as near to instant fame, glory and wealth that any t-shirt designer can hope for, more than any of the competition, including the behemoth of t-shirt voting sites Threadless.com. If you want a head-start make sure to download their submission kit too.

Patrick from Tilteed contacted us at Buy Tees today and apart from seeming to be one of the nicest guys in the industry he revealed a few more interesting details, it seems he used dabble in t-shirt blogging himself but couldn’t ‘keep up’ with myself and Andy from HideYourArms.com – another great t-shirt reviews blog if you’re desperate for more tee news! What’s more it looks like big things are planned for Tilteed, once they’ve launched they’ll be printing a new t-shirt every 72 hours and paying the artists $500 plus $1 per shirt sold – which should definitely keep the designers coming back for more and judging by the incredible quality of many of their submissions that goes for the customers too. Tilteed aren’t taking any chances when it comes to gaining custom either, just take a look at what they’re offering as prizes just for voting!

The more votes you submit the more chances you have of winning one of the following:-

Members Grand Prize: A choice of one of the following gaming consoles – PlayStation 3 80GB Console or an XBox 360 120 GB Elite Package (which includes Halo 3 and Fable 2) or a Nintendo Wii 2 Player HD Sports Bundle. Plus free t-shirts for a year which clocks up to grand haul of 26 tees in total!

Second Place Prize: Free tees for a year.

Runner Up Prize: Five tees of your choosing.

I only have praise for Tilteed, I love the logo, the layout is clean and fresh, the traffic is already rolling in from plenty of sources including Facebook and Twitter, the designs are superb, and the blog is extremely informative – they even have a forum! But let’s get down to business and check out some of their superb t-shirts, if you want to buy any of these you will need to get voting now! read more

In-House Humour From Collapse Design

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     collapse design, collapsedesign.co.uk, designer, designer tees, font, font t-shirts, text shirts, text tees, typography

Those in the graphic design trade have little to laugh about these days, clients want more and more yet want to pay less and less. In fact many of them think they can do a fine job on their own and end up making a mess of everything from company brochures to website design, but what can you do? Well if humour is still the best medicine then maybe you should try shopping around at the Collapse Design, they offer a fine range of design trade tees, every one of which has a proverbial tongue-in-cheek approach to the labour of love that is graphic arts.

British t-shirt label Collapse Design have a particular penchant for typographic jokes, well known typefaces such as Helvetica and Garamond get the full comedy treatment as this band of merry designers work their magic on familiar tools of the trade, as well as a few deft references to some of the more stressful aspects of the job. ‘Deadline’ features a zombie, ‘Helvetica’ is transformed into a creature of the feline persuasion and ‘Full Bleed’ gets the film-noir/Hitchcock treatment. If you’re sitting in your studio, or perhaps a small grey partitioned area of one right now, then you can probably do with some cheering up. So before you eventually go blind or watch your hands fall off from the worst case of RSI ever recorded, treat yourself to a laugh and roll on over to www.collapse-design.co.uk. Even designers need cheering up once in a while;) read more

No Pants Sale at Randr

admin    T-Shirt News     RANDR, Rise And Resist Apparel, designer tee sale, designer tees, t-shirt discounts, t-shirt sale, tee sale, www.randrtees.com

First off, to clear away any confusion us Brits might have about the nature of Rise And Resist Apparel’s No Pants Sale, don’t worry you won’t have to strip off your y-fronts in order to qualify for a bargain, it’s American pants we’re talking here, you know, trousers. Yes keep your boxers or knickers on (depending on gender and/or personal preference) and roll on over to www.randrtees.com for a wide range of top-notch designer t-shirts at rock bottom prices.

RANDR are a young fresh fashion label based in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a thriving community base and make a point of supporting their favourite musicians, artists and good causes in the local area as well as further afield. The RANDR ’scene’ is a vibrant, colourful and exciting one offering a vision of things to come with loosely formed co-operatives of all creative genres can band together to make a statement, make a living and even make change for the future more possible than ever before. If you’d like to keep up to date with all the exciting events, background information on their artists and new products as they are released then either sign up to their mailing list or subscribe to their blog feed.

Let’s get down to brass tacks, besides the great quality designer tees we’re all worried about money these days and RANDR are well aware of this and so they’ve slashed their prices by a whopping 55% – to be honest that kind of discount is almost unheard of in the market so if you’re a savvy consumer I’d recommend you get your skates on and take a well deserved splurge at Rise And Resist Apparel before they sell out! read more

The Return of Das Monk

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Das Monk, Gong, Kerouac, MGMT, Morrisey, TV on the Radio, designer tees, hawkwind, hippie tees, illustrated shirts, illustration, trippy t-shirts

It’s been a while since we’ve featured the Das Monk t-shirt label and seeing as they’ve just released a brand new collection this seems the most opportune moment. As always Das Monk’s founder and designer Marc Hendrick has pulled out all the stops in order to wow his loyal following and the t-shirt buying public at large. Over recent years Das Monk has expanded into an international fashion label, now being stocked in 20 major stores across the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Experimentation is always at the forefront of the label’s raison d’√™tre, and in more recent times collaboration has too been the name of the game.

The latest symbiosis of talent and style comes from the infusion of Designer Marc Hendrick’s collaboration with international artists Zach Johnsen (US), Tim Laing (UK), Evan Meister (US), and Keenan Marshall Keller (US) for the unique designs in this latest collection. Hendrick’s unique choices in approach and style for the Das monk label have given rise to a cult following over recent years with cult music industry names like MGMT, TV on the Radio, Lupe Fiasco, A-Trak, Van She and Justice all backing the brand’s indomitable rising power in the field of tees.

Combining new designs with old favourites the latest collection is themed as a ‘Midnight in the Mojave’ depicting a story of bad trips, drifters, and desert dreaming in the void of the desert landscape and urban drop-out mythology. Continuing its post-modern take on 21st century psychedelia, tinged with the down-to-earth pain and hardship of a life on the rocks, infusing the bizarre, the irreverence and foresight of yet another lost generation. Let’s take a look behind the monastery walls and see what’s hanging on the line this season:-

read more

New Trompe L’oeil Tees From Koolto

admin    T-Shirt News     911 t-shirt, Italian fashion, Italian t-shirt, designer tees, graphic shirts, koolto, koolto.com, t-shirts Italy, trompe l'oeil

A message about new Trompe L’oeil Tees From Koolto has just arrived in the Buy Tees inbox and this is something many of us tee fanatics have been looking forward to for quite a while. If you haven’t heard of this label, check out Koolto.com or read our review of the label at http://buy-tees.net/2008/10/top-trompe-loeil-tees-at-koolto-com/.

They’re an Italian design house that specialise in creating illusionary graphic tees, nothing too far fetched, simple and bold designs that are realistic enough to stop people in their tracks and wonder, is it real or isn’t it? They’ve been developing this idea for quite a while now and have extended their range to encompass all kinds of illusions including fake accessories such a ties, bow-ties, pockets, necklaces, and more.

Here are examples from their most recent additions to the range including African jewellery and the newspaper series, which features all kinds of newspapers from around the world including The Times (England), The Herald Tribune and Wall Street Journal (USA), and Le Monde (France). Check out the examples:- read more

My New Invisible Friend

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     UK t-shirts, band shirts, band t-shirts, band tees, designer tees, invisible friend, invisible-friend.co.uk, music t-shirts, music tees, rock t-shirts

My old pal, well an online friend, perhaps he’s my invisible friend, anyway, Ian Cretney of Invisible Friend has just released his latest collection of revamped and highly original new tees at his fresh and snazzily redesigned site at www.invisible-friend.co.uk. This is probably a collection you won’t be familiar with, and it always surprises me that I.F haven’t had far more exposure than they do, the truth is that it just takes time for the public to catch on to new ideas and new ways of thinking.

To be frank, one of my all-time favourite t-shirts is by this guy, it’s called Dead Rock Stars, he sent me a freebie when I first reviewed the site, totally out of the blue, as you know I don’t ask for freebies to review t-shirts, I do it for the lurve as they say. Anyway, I love that t-shirt to death, which is rather apt, and looking down I’ve just noticed I’m wearing it again! Ian is what I’d call a true craftsman in the field of t-shirt design and production, he’s a dedicated soul who spent the first few years hand screen printing every single shirt, as the business has grown he’s branched out and took on a little help to keep up with demand, (in fact he’s promised to guide me through the art of screen printing so I can start producing my own graffiti posters), but rest assured, the ethos and philosophy of Invisible Friend is still as strong and true as ever.

Trying to pin down exactly what that might be is a tricky thing though, I suppose you could say it lies somewhere in an artistic mind’s interpretation of urban myth, social revolution and music folklore peppered with a healthy dose of cynical humour and a rather laid-back attitude to mortality. Each t-shirt is almost a work of modern art in itself, the iconography lies halfway between graffiti and Post-Modern illustration, the attitude, quirky, irreverent, and with an undercurrent of ever-so-slightly solemnity, which for me is an extremely refreshing change from the usual run-of-the-mill funny one-liners tees you’ll usually come across on the Net. read more