Frit People Tee by Bourdi

admin    T-Shirts     Bourdi, French T-Shirts, Frit People, funny t shirts, funny tees

French artist Bourdi has released his latest tee via RueDuTeeShirt.com and it’s a cracker. You might be familiar with Bourdi’s work, he’s a regular contributor to the French t-shirt community Mr. Poulet. Now that’s a site I need to feature again sometime, nice shirts! Anyway, check this out…

Frit People Tee

For those who need a translation ‘Frit means fries’, so essentially they’re French Fries, haw he haw he haw. Love it. Not keen on the store though, looks like a print on demand site which means you can get the design on just about anything you like, but the t-shirts seem decent enough and start at €16.90 each. Here’s the Google Translate link if you need it.

See more of Bourdi’s funny t-shirt designs at his blog.

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.

Meet Mr. Poulet

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     France, French T-Shirts, French tees, Monsieur Poulet, Mr. Poulet

Even though the French t-shirt community Mr. Poulet sports the tag line “Original Chicken Clothes” I am almost 100% sure that this is just a taste of French humour, which has had its detractors in the past. After all France thought Jerry Lewis was a funny man. Still, sociological history aside the site looks fun, and for those a little rusty on their Franglais you’ll be relieved to know there is an English speaking version too. What’s even more enticing is their whopping great €2000, although that’s not guaranteed, it all depends on how many of your tees they sell, which is fair enough really. The small print states you earn €2 per t-shirt sold up to 1000, they do promote their shirts so you should receive a healthy slice if their customers bite. Each t-shirt vote is in the running for 7 days so it’s a pretty fast turnaround from submitting to voting to selling.

What you should first notice about the collection is just how different their winning designs are to the usual selection at US sites like Threadless. Plenty of surreal comic art with a subtle sense of humour, some might say there are similarities with Japanese art on show, the French and Japanese do share a lot of sensibilities, especially in the area of illustration. What’s really nice is how many of the prints appear to be hand drawn, which is a welcome change. Take a look at some of my top picks from their store:

Come On! T-Shirt

Available for men, the Come On! T-Shirt by by Môd offers up a surreal slice of cartoon chicanery. I love the premise, your daughter is a freak and the circus will probably take her away. I used to know a kid who really did run away with the carnies, he ended up working on the dodgems, by the time I knew him he was washing up in a hospital kitchen. So much for the glamour of the open road. Available for €25 i nsizes XS,S,L and XL.

Escape T-Shirt

The Escape T-Shirt by pstole is incredibly retro, it reminds me more of Soviet animation from the dark recesses of the Eastern Block than French design, I really like it. Almost like an homage to oppressive governmental propaganda and the failed promises of an Atomic Age, this superb illustration has to be an instant classic in the world of tees. Do make sure to check out their other designs including Autumn Time and South North. Escape is available in S/L/XL for €25.

Quai de la Seine T-Shirt

I love the way the Quai de la Seine tee by Miguel is so French, I mean it’s French beyond imagination. I use to get worked up when Americans came over to the UK looking for Dick Van Dyke chimney sweeps and horses and carriages on the cobbled roads of London. Sometimes an image sticks. Then I went on an exchange with my school and realised that France, and especially Paris, isn’t full of berets, striped long-sleeved t-shirts, onions on strings and bicycles. I have to admit I was a little disappointed, but it did make me realise very early on how much one’s culture stereotypes others for convenience. The truth is the moment we got off the ferry the place was crawling with Goths covered in Depeche Mode tattoos, but that was the mid-eighties after all. Anyway, way off point. Get this painfully stylish slice of French nostalgia in t-shirt form for €25 in XXL (yep almost sold out!).

Home Sweet Home T-Shirt

The Home Sweet Home T-Shirt by Flambi is fascinating. Flambi’s style, a shroomy mix of Americana arts and crafts meets the Blue Meanies from The Yellow Submarine, with a dash of Alice for good measure, makes up for a totally mad t-shirt design. No idea what’s going on, no need to. One word… great. Only available in XL for €25. Yep another design to sell out and fast.

You’d better get down there before they all sell out: www.monsieurpoulet.com

Tasty Green Tees From PLB

admin    T-Shirt News     Candian t-shirts, French T-Shirts, PLB, designer eco tees, eco tees, ecological t-shirts, environmental t shirts, environmental tees, green t-shirts, green tee

Pier-Luk Bouthillier, the man behind PLB at www.plb-store.com, one of Montreal’s most popular independent green t-shirt labels, has an impressive CV. After a stint as Art Director for the cultural weekly ‚ÄúICI Montreal‚Äù, he began freelancing under the name ‚ÄúPLB Design‚Äù. For over a decade Pier has worked alongside some major advertising agencies, collaborating on projects ranging from design of promotional material for theatre companies and stage productions, to identity and logo design, product advertisements, packaging and website design.

In 2007, he launched his first in a series of environmentally-themed T-shirts. Sales of the T-shirts, in collaboration with the “Crazy Lily” boutique have been a rip-roaring success. His “Protect Nature” design has already sold over 600 units (and counting) worldwide. The in-house style of Pier and the PLB is stark and uncompromising, almost modular in appearance, each t-shirt plainly and clearly spells out an aspect of the environmental cause with the professionalism he has garnered whilst working on big budget commercial and corporate projects throughout his varied and impressive career.

Expect no compromises, this is a fashion label you will either love or you won’t, far removed from the stereotypical image of ecological fashions, Pier-Luk offers a limited range of confident, chic, and for the right market highly desirable t-shirts that suit the progressive and career-minded go-getters of the 21st century. Whilst still affording them some form of assurance that they are in some way helping to “spread the message” that unless the world starts changing its habitual obsession for consumerism and waste, it may just be the last years of so-called civilisation. Designer eco-tees that look more at home on the back of a model on a catwalk than a hitch-hiking hippie – that’s the name of the game with PLB.

Pier-Luk has melded his passion for design and concern for the environment to produce a range of t-shirts that suggest the sustainability of design as much that of the Earth’s resources. Offering the consumer an opportunity to take “baby steps” towards a greener society via “intelligent consumption” integrated with a healthy respect for the environment. The iconography of PLB’s products reflect this balance, viewing good design as a fusion of aesthetics and functionality in harmony with one another. Each tee has been printed with water-based inks, although I would’ve thought that they would all have to be made from recycled cotton or hemp to fulfil PLB’s objective of promoting themselves as a purely ecological t-shirt label. Something I am sure that Pier will be considering as we speak? It would be most ironic to think that PLB was actually damaging the earth in able to promote it’s sustainability! 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