Dephect

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Dephect, UK t-shirts, designer, graff t-shirts, graphic tees, hip-hop t-shirts, indie tees, urban tees

I’ve been meaning to get around to reviewing UK label Dephect for ages, I have no excuses bar the fact they’re so well known I wasn’t sure what I could “add to the mix”, but seeing as I’ve already reviewed their mates over at Sutsu it seems only fair! If you haven’t come across Dephect before (where have you been?) then you’re in for a treat. As for all those more familiar with the label I’ve lined up a few of their delectable screen printed tees from their latest Spring / Summer 2011 Collection. So it’s all good ;)

Dephect was borne from the mutual love of skater culture, the 90′s hip hop scene, and the passion of four friends in London for underground art and design. All this and more was to collide in a symphony of creative energy that eventually developed into a signature urban Brit fashion label with fans across the world. The site is as slick as the tees, and this latest collection pulls out all the stops when it comes to street savvy style with a London bad ass attitude that takes no prisoners.

In addition to their classic graphic tees Dephect have released a selection of high-end progressive cut and sew pieces, heightening the quality and experimentation for this unique brand all the more. Original design is abound at their store, created by hand picked artistic talent from around the world, each with their own cool biography page. Men’s tees are RRP. £24.99 but with the sale on there are plenty up at just £14.99 and for the girls £22.99 RRP and just £9.99 for the sale items!

Scrawl Tee

Damn, nice style! Designed by UK graff artist Dan Kitchener, this takes me back to the good old days, 2000 AD, Alan Moore knows the score. Sweet. (Also available in white).

Face Tee

This one’s by El Niño de las Pinturas (The Boy of Paintings) who’s something of a cult hero in the streets of Granada. A dreamy graffiti style tee that’s available in a selection of colours and cuts.

London Black Book Tee

This limited edition shirt, designed by old school London graf artist Met, to accompany the London Black Book which features rare and unseen sketches and characters from over 200 of London’s top graffiti artists including Elk, Zomby, Drax, Mode 2, Cazbee, Goldie, Teach, Coma, Vibes, Neas and Met plus many more. Also available in white. Funny thing is the book is cheaper :0

Skull ‘N’ Mics Tee

The ultimate pirate tee, if you’re gonna’ rip that beat do it in style ;) Also available for guys in heather.

Finally a couple of real bargains from the sale section…

Mr Vinyl Tee

Love it, vinyl nostalgia, the best there is. Get this one in heather and charcoal for the guys and olive for the girls.

Staying on the vinyl theme here’s another total bargain from the sale…

Remixomatic Tee

Ver..ver..ver.v..v..v..very funky with a nice set of colours to match you can get this at £9.99 for girls and £14.99 for guys. Loving the gold version to bits, or should that be bytes?

There’s plenty more on offer including sweats, hoodies and prints, plus videos and tunes when you’re brassic. Unleash your dephectiveness at www.Dephect.com.

Phat Tees From Leino

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Chariots Retired, Hide Your Arms, Ian Leino, Threadless, designer, illustrator

Ian Leino is an indie graphic designer and illustrator based in Asheville NC who has for many sneaked under the radar when it comes to t-shirt visionaries, asides a great deal of respect at Threadless and the occasional if rather brief mention at various tee blogs like Hide Your Arms, so we here at Buy Tees think it’s about time the guy deserves to get the full treatment, a real review of his work to date, with plenty of visual goodies for all. Leino’s illustrations draw from a wide range of artistic styles and eras, he’s as adept at recreating the imagery of the past as he is at clean cut vector work, and more often than not, with a healthy dose of sass to keep his following smiling all the way to the checkout.

Leino is an independent guy, he doesn’t have a store, as mentioned he’s well known at Threadless, he’s also had a fair few commissions for clients including Cinder Block, Live Nation, Cotton Images, as well as other tee contest sites such as TeeFury.com and DBH. Leino, it must be stressed, is an all-rounder, he creates just about everything under the sun, be it CD covers, posters, calendars, however it has to be said that many of his t-shirt illustrations are stand out designs, and well worth checking out. You’ll have probably spotted many of the following in your time, such as a Collection of Flies and Vampires Beware, but what the heck, great tees are great tees, and besides this guy needs more exposure. If there’s one thing we can’t stand at Buy Tees, it’s great talent going to waste. Let’s take a look at what makes a phat tee in these lean times, over to you Leino… read more

The Monster Tees Are On Jessica Hill

admin    T-Shirt News     Eat Chumps, Hot Topic, Jessica Hill, Monsters I Haz Em, artist, designer, hottopic, hottopic.com

This is just a quickie. I want to give a shout out to Jessica Hill, an accomplished painter, illustrator and t-shirt and environmental graphic designer based in Nashville TN with a flair for creating some rather cute t-shirts, many of which feature beasties of every shape and description. She sent me a really friendly email asking for a mention for her latest creation which has just been snapped up by Hot Topic which essentially deserves a round of applause all round. That’s a rather major label to be fraternising with and I for one am really impressed.

The t-shirt in question is her Eat Chumps Tee. A great design and a sense of humour to boot, I can see Jessica is going places in the t-shirt world, who knows where it might lead her! 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

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