The London Vandal

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     London, The London Vandal, graffiti t-shirts, graffiti tees, street art tees, urban tees

First off I must declare an interest, or at least an enormous bias, I lived in London for years and have always been a big ol’ fan of street/urban/graffiti art, so as far as I am concerned The London Vandal (urban art blog and collective) could print a poop on a t-shirt and it would still be worth reviewing. What The London Vandal are doing is exactly what I’ve always hoped for the future of the indie t-shirt industry. As soon as street artists began screen printing limited editions of their work to fund those daredevil jaunts around the world I knew it wouldn’t be long before they began to stray into the t-shirt market, especially as they use exactly the same gear to print them up and here’s the proof.

The London Vandal fund their superb urban art showcase site at www.thelondonvandal.com and all their personal exploits on the streets of London with the sales from their unique tees, which have just about all the street cred you could ask for. Damn, Fairey is such a sell out these days we need something other than ripped Banksy’s for our beloved tee collection. Asides the enormous kudos the designs are top-notch, I wouldn’t expect any less from these guys. There are only 3 tees on offer right now, one is designed by the legendary toon tripping Dutch illustrator that is Rick Berkelman. Ironically enough the other two are by French artist Reack, so none are actually by a Londoner (hey I’m an urban artist and I’m in was born London… hint hint lol).

Anyway check ‘em out, they are gorge, and on offer at £17 each in all sizes right now.

The Original Tee (by Rick Berkelmen)

This one is limited to just 150 so I doubt I will be getting a freebie lol. Love it, love Berkelmen’s work, a really nice composition and cute too – which is a rarity for me to say positively – but yes damn it, it’s cute all right? J

Don’t Get Caught Tee (by Reack)

Lovely piece of graffiti inspired illustration from French artist Reack, there’s another one for you in a ‘mo. Good advice too!

King Noir

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     King Noir, London, UK, art t-shirts, illustrations, streetwear, tattoo art

Founded in 2009 King Noir are a UK based streetwear brand, the brainchild of two highly creative friends from London, Lawrence Gumm and Thomas Gilmour, expect some very funky and original designs!. Set up shortly after Gilmour (not the voice and guitar of Pink Floyd in case you were wondering) lost his job in a London based art shop, he teamed up with pal Gumm. Lawrence Gumm harks from a film industry background and is a connoisseur of  tattoo art. Having been tattooed by some of the most widely respected artists on the scene such as Frith Street’s Xam, Deno and Valerie Vargas it was obvious where their passion and inspiration for outstanding design would spawn. After a few successful brainstorming sessions in an East End boozer the concept of King Noir was born.

There following is small but highly devoted, and with a little exposure I can see King Noir emerging as part of the staple diet of underground streetwear scene of London and beyond. Here’s a few of my faves from their current collection…

Balloon Vs. Storm T-Shirt

The Balloon Vs. Storm tee is available in B/W and red in sizes S-XL, this rather hypnotic little number features a beautiful composition and perhaps a lesson or two for life. A gloriously illustrated vintage hot air balloon that would make Phileas Fogg green with envy sails through a shower of arrows, beyond them lies an abstract sun featuring another of their motifs at its centre, an equally surreal crown with a third eye. At only £15 this and all of their t-shirts are what I would class as a bargain. I can imagine their prices much entice a lot of new custom, which is the whole point after all!

Ninety Nine Anchors T-Shirt

Another slice of utterly British surrealism, I can see King Noir gathering quite a following for their delightfully weird take on fashion. Ninety Nine Anchors features just that, except for some reason they’re dropping from a giant Victorian umbrella. I am starting to wonder if Gumm and Gilmour’s local boozer is spiking their drinks with hallucinogens. No matter what they’re drinking, it’s definitely the right poison. Perhaps the strangest nautical theme tee I’ve seen in a long long while, it’s available in white for £15 in all sizes.

Red Dead Doll T-Shirt

Loving the combo of a Russian doll and Day of The Dead art, this tee is again available in B/W and red there’s as with other shirts in the collection a ‘third eye’ peeking out of the design, and a very subtle use of the logo. A love the woodcut effect in this illustration, a great confluence between folk art and post modern grit give this t-shirt a real edge. Both colours are available for £15 each in all sizes.

Black Crown T-Shirt

The Crown tees are available in black, red and grey and feature their superbly simple yet downright strange logo. If you’re looking for bold design with no messing around then look no further. I get the notion there’s more to it though, living in Britain we’re not citizens but subjects of the Crown. We’re spied on by more cameras than any other country in the world. Two popular subjects for a lot of artists in the UK contemporary scene, this nifty combination of  two major problems blend into one gloriously tribal motif. Get this tee for £15 in all sizes.

Check out all their work including tees, badges, stickers, hats and limited edition posters at www.KingNoir.com and make sure to follow all their graphic exploits at Twitter.

Urban Tees at The Ugly Kids Club

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     British t-shirts, London, The Ugly Kids Club, UK, grime, hip hop, street, urban fashion, urban t-shirts, www.theurbankidsclub.com

Probably one of the coolest labels we’ve featured at Buy Tees so far, The Ugly Kids Club is a UK based urban wear brand and collective with a strong street following who’s vibrant collection has been featured in the likes of:

Loaded Magazine‘s 10 of the Best : ‘No. 8 – Best for in The Club’ – Loaded Oct 09
Front Magazine : ‘…ace bunch of designers, artists and tattooists… website has a f***-load of tees, so go and treat your eyes’ – Front Sep 09

TUKC provide a great online experience, offering a shop where you can load up on all their latest t-shirts and sweats as well as a vibrant online community and blog packed with tons of features on everything from fashion to music, street art, skateboarding, funny vids, gigs and more. But what matters to us and hopefully you the most are the quality and originality of their t-shirt collection, and don’t worry, you definitely won’t be disappointed. They have some powerful designs under their belt, think ‘street’, think in your face, think swagger, you’re there. One thing you can be assured of, these tees aren’t ugly!

No matter the attitude you’ll find their t-shirts are all of a high quality in both design and production, with some very unique concepts and ideas on offer, spoofs of corporate logos, booze, the Facebook phenomena, tattoos and skulls seeming to be the order of the day right now. Their T Shirts range from £25 to £16 and are all limited edition, generally they won’t print more than 100 of each design and once a design is sold out, it’s gone forever – so no need to worry about staying fresh!

They’ve had some very fine grimy tees on offer in the past too, their archive reveals all that have been sold and sadly not available any more – their store includes an archive in the footer where you can see what you’ve missed. This one – UCK Rizla – would’ve been my favourite (modelled by Skinnyman and featured at Grime Garms.)

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Dissecting Dnæ Genes

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     London, UK t-shirts, dna genes, dnae genes, dnagenes.co.uk.UK tees, funky t-shirts, indie tees, socialite, t-shirt sale

To be honest the first time I’d heard of Dn√¶ Genes was yesterday, I’d received an email from Socialite Style discussing future opportunities for my art in the fashion world. I answered enthusiastically, and spent a while checking out their fashion events site before stumbling across Dn√¶ Genes. They’re a rather cryptic brand as it goes, their site didn’t give me much background information to go on, but from what I can gather they’re UK based, hedonistic in their outlook and a favourite with London’s socialite set. Their FAQ page begins with a concise and emotive modus operandi and is quickly followed by a wealth of visual ephemera of kitsch and kooky film and personal nostalgia.

The site is simple yet leaning on the good side of ‘slick’, the layout is easy to navigate, the products are for the most part impressive, very impressive at times, but without some kind of history and specific agenda I found it difficult to truly connect with the brand overall. However that aspect of the label can be easily remedied, what Dn√¶ Genes needn’t worry about is their creative direction, they have some truly hot tees on offer, again simple yet slick, and I am sure are a big hit with the wackier side of the trustafarian set around North and West London. Although it has to be said their prices are incredibly reasonable, especially at the moment seeing as they have a big sale on with all tees going for just £15 each. Still, money isn’t everything, you can’t buy class and Dn√¶ Genes have it by the silver spoonful. Let’s take a peek at how the other half live ;)

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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

Congrats to House of Thieves!

admin    T-Shirt News     Glass Boutique, London, UK fashion, fashion jobs, fashion news, glassboutique.co.uk, house of thieves, men's fashion, t-shirt contest

You may remember my review of HouseofThieves.com a while back (read it here). Well I’m sure you will join me in congratulating Pete and his crew for their latest triumph, they’ve just nabbed third prize at GlassBoutique.co.uk‘s summer t-shirt design competition. Glass Boutique are a UK based Men’s Etailer with a penchant for stylish and wearable togs sourced from across the world. read more