Magu

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Magu.NYC tees, NY T-Shirts, fashion tees, tattoo t-shirts

Magu is not a short sighted cartoon character from yesteryear, it’s actually a New York tee label founded in 2007 that’s got a strong following in its home territory. It’s signature tee sold out in Manhattan the moment it was released, and their house style crosses over between the street and the fashion conscious mainstream. Asides Deathrate which is quite an original type tee, most of their concepts are pretty much familiar, be it skulls, tattoos, hip hop references, Japanese art, and the prices are a little steep at $32 each, but I can see why they’re popular. They give their public what they want, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, it’d just be nice to see some more ground-breaking art, more challenging subjects, even a little more sophisticated humour. Still, I’m sure that food of thought will go down like salted nuts in a dry throat, “if it ain’t broke why fix it?.

What Magu really has going for it is its involvement with the trendy NY fashion scene, having already been involved in a couple of fashion events, and I’m sure that can only grow their following over time. The three tees featured here are $32 each and available in sizes S-2XL, some in a selection of colours too.

Death’s Royalty Tee

Also available in white, although personally I think it looks strongest in yellow, a traditional skull/tattoo tee, well executed but could do with a twist. So many skull tees out there now… don’t get me wrong, this is a good one, but still a skull.

Death Rate Tee

My favourite of the collection, and what looks like a great step forward for Magu, this one (for want of a less annoying phrase) ‘thinks outside of the box’. Yep it’s a text tee, but it’s a little more original, if only they could combine these two talents, I think Magu would see a great leap forward in recognition and exposure.

Wild Carp Tee

Yes, it’s another common  theme, a Japanese style fish-themed tee, it’s not Koi, it’s Wild Carp, and it’s drawn really well, but could do with a tad more surrealism, or at least some colour. Saying that it does come in purple and yellow too.

I wish I could be more enthusiastic, Magu has all the elements needed for a cult label, maybe even something bigger, but they need to work on some more challenging designs for their next collection if they want to cause a stir on the Web.

See more Magu gear here.

Hearts of Kings Tees

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     fashion tees, hearts of kings, lifestyle, spiritual

I always admire t-shirt brands that focus on bigger things than fashion and the bottom line, the thing is they’re not always successful, which is a shame, because there are plenty more ways to improve a company’s image than simply going down the environmental route or donating a little of their profit to charity. The fact is that t-shirt design is still regarded as the poorer cousin in the family of visual arts, but with the best intentions, a little bit of luck, and a decent range of original tees one can work miracles, however small those miracles might be.

I’m sure that there are plenty of examples throughout history where t-shirts contributed to political change, social consciousness, or generally a more positive attitude to a generally grim life for many out there. Positivity is rather thin on the ground at the moment, there are plenty of reasons to get down in the dumps, which is why it’s always refreshing to see labels like Hearts of Kings put content over style, message over media, and a belief in humanity over the usual suspicion most of the media peddles these days.

Here’s what Terrell Lewis from HOK had to say about their t-shirt collection “he brand and name attempts to inspire and encourage, while always maintaining perspective and having fun.  It is about that thing inside of you that drives you to accomplish all you seek to do.  No posers. Just being you and being the best individual you can be. Hearts Of Kings is about that ideal and attitude.”

See if any of these shirts can lift your heart…

The Hearts of Kings Tee

This is their signature shirt available in black and white, the whole ethos of the label revolves around the ideas of strength and perseverance. A very tidy design, perhaps not the best of the bunch but punchy all the same. It seems a natural course for HOK to consider something along the lines of the Richard The Lionheart for the future, the idea of urban knights and street chivalry could be a winner. Get the Hearts of Kings Tee in a range of sizes for $20 each in the current sale.

Unbreakable Hearts Tee

A nice blend of vector and tattoo styles available for girls and guys for $26 each in a range of sizes, a nice if a little sentimental for anyone who’s experienced their own dose of tough love, a bad break up, or even losing that “one that got away”. Wean yourself off those broken romances and relaunch in style!

Hearts of Kings Track Club Tee

People are far too afraid of failure these days, at one time or another in history we garnered wisdom through our mistakes, through trial and error the human race has produced great athletes, artists, scientists, philosophers. No one is born a genius, or rather few who are ever “do anything with it”. I love the motto on this shirt “Fail Fast, Learn Faster”. Available for guys and girls in white and grey for $26 each.

“The brand is inspired by music, sports, art, street and urban culture, and life growing up in the 1980′s, 90′s, and 2000′s.  Designs will include fun, creative, and original designs that will seek to be substantive and define the heart of a king.” See more of their tees at www.heartofkings.com.

LVL Go South

admin    T-Shirt News     European, French, French T-Shirts, LVL Clothing, art shirts, fashion tees

French t-shirt label LVL Clothing have a new collection out for the Summer, it’s called “Sud” which means “South” if you’re not au fait with your Franglais. Anyway, a pretty spicy collection if you ask me, perfect for baffling your less well travelled contemporaries on the beach. All these are available at €29 each in various sizes, but if none of them take your fancy then don’t worry, there are still a few stragglers left in their CRAYON and Bon Appétit Collections! As usual they’re all limited, with the Sud Collection offering just 50 tees for each design…

Check ‘em all out at www.lvl-clothing.com.

Navel Gazing With Big Fluff

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     ASOS, London, UK art fashions, UK fashion, art shirts, big fluff, bigfluff.com, fashion tees, hand printed t-shirts, womens t-shirts, womens tees

Big Fluff have some big ideas which are perfectly transformed into hand printed high quality t-shirts for the connoisseur t-shirt aficionado. You can really tell that BF thinks long and hard about its concepts and performs the same due care and attention when it comes to the production of their high quality urban wear. Amongst their range of tees, tops, sweaters, hoodies and dresses are some superb large scale prints, many of which could as easily transfer to wall art if they chose to do so.

Using a simple, bold and effective stencil style, everyone of Big Fluff’s concepts are designed to make an immediate and long-standing impact on the wearer and those around them. What hits you first about their range is the generously proportioned size of their prints, almost all completely cover the front of their tees, I’d love to see them venture into all-over printing in the future as their ideas certainly lend themselves to an even greater artistic expression.

I’m not particularly keen on the store design, it doesn’t really do justice to the quality of their collection (although this could be very easily remedied), I’d rather be free to focus purely on the products in a plain and simple (even sparse) shop layout. I’d also like to see a little more customer interaction (although they do have a newsletter that seems a little “old hat” for such a vibrant company), perhaps a blog or a mere link to a Twitter account can do wonders! Nevertheless Big Fluff as a label are seriously going from strength to strength, based in London, their hand printed, coloured and finished tees are sold across Britain and the world both on-line and off-line, including the highly successful fashion catalogue firm ASOS and as it happens my GF Christina’s eye has been caught by their offerings as she’s a fan of ASOS herself. They’ve even been featured in Heat Magazine a number of times, so we’re rather impressed that BF have chosen our little blog to review them!

Expect the highest quality t-shirts, they use sweatshop free and fairly traded garments which are produced to very high ethical and environmental specifications and only the highest quality 100% cotton t-shirts and organic t-shirts where specified – using ring spun combed cotton for a smooth, soft feel as the standard. What’s more all their products come with free delivery for the UK!

Gaze in to the navel of Big Fluff and experience a bold and adventurously surreal vision of the world! read more

Fat Gold Are No Fools

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     80s tees, Add new tag, cool tees, disco tees, fashion tees, fashionable t-shirts, fat gold, fat gold clothing, fat gold t-shirts, killer tees

All that glisters isn’t gold, and Fat Gold Clothing are certainly not as precious about ideology or concept as some t-shirt labels out there, but there’s definitely one thing you can expect from FGI and that’s attitude by the bucketful – and by that I mean this ‘their tees are so in your face you’d need surgery to remove them’.

The site is sharp, slick and well organised** yet leaves you unprepared for the raucous behaviour in textile printed form that awaits you. They do a very nice sideline in badges which feature all their mad, bad and dangerous to know creations, and a blog that’s well worth a lookie, I particularly enjoyed their features on a midi controller that looks something like an old Midway arcade game and a fab video of Only by Nine Inch Nails, as well as (of course) a little background info on all their designs. The truth is Fat Gold is more of an attitude than a brand, a mentality than a brand, you’ll either be into it or not.

There’s one particular t-shirt at FGI I absolutely love, Fat Gold Skull (I’ll show you it in a minute), it sums up everything about the label for me, scary and funny at the same time, reassuringly anarchic, totally off the wall but grounded in a great deal of common sense. They spoof where they have to but this isn’t a “funny t-shirt” brand, this isn’t a trendy for the sake of being trendy company, Fat Gold follow their own sense of style (and do very well by it), I’d love to see a lot more tees in the future from these guys, and I do hope they don’t make the mistake of being a slave to “Seasons” like some of their competitors like to do, the fact is “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.

I don’t want to see their best work disappear for the fear of keeping everything fresh, sure add more designs (the more the better) but don’t lose the old favourites. (This last opinion applies to almost all the up ‘n’ coming labels in the market not just FGI). I’d love to see them hold on to a few more of the older tees in stock, such as their Ku Klux Clan spoof of Ghostbusters and most especially their robot tee, but I suppose it all comes down to economics, you have to follow your instincts when it comes to selling tees.

Anyhoo, let’s get down to the nitty gritty and take a big bite out of Fat Gold and see if you like the taste. read more