Chor Bazaar – 21st Century Indian Fashion

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Brooklyn, Chor Bazaar, Hindustan, India, Indian T-Shirts, Indian Tees, NY, New York Tees, South East Asia, cbaz.com, hindu, international t-shirts

Chor Bazaar are a Brooklyn-based designer label with solid roots in India and they’re well on their way to dispelling the misconception that India has little to offer other than their traditions and religion, and I’ll tell you how…

No matter how open minded you may think yourself, the truth is the world (with no small contribution from the media) happen to apply cultural stereotypes to just about every country out there. For instance there are many Americans who have never travelled outside their own borders, or at least no further than Tijuana and yet they still appear to think that Britain still ride around on horses wearing bowler hats and pin stripe suits whilst drinking cups of tea from bone china cups. The same ethos applies to India, most Western designers (especially those in fashion) have been stuck with the same ideas since the 1960s, mandalas, multi-limbed and animal-headed deities, you know the score, the same old ideas rehashed ad-infinitum.

Chor Bazaar offer a selection of highly original t-shirts at their on-line store www.cbaz.com, that should at least raise a few eyebrows, perhaps there’s change in the air, following the success of the multi Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, more and more people around the world have been drawn in by the radical cultural, sociological and technological changes now happening in India. Chor Bazaar are ready and set to capitalise on this new wave of enthusiasm for Indian identity and will push the Zeitgeist as far as they can, their first offerings certainly reflect their modern, contemporary and highly individualistic approach to fashion design.

All of Chor Bazaar’s graphics are designed and silk screened in their Brooklyn, workshop. Most of their t-shirts are fashion-fit, vintage soft, 100% ring-spun cotton. The team at CB include their designer Umang, in fact Chor Bazaar’s roots stem from his RISD architecture thesis which offered a redefinition of Hindu Architecture for first generation Indians in the United States. Yash, Umang’s brother is the businessman behind the company, they shared their father’s dream of promoting positive and relevant Indian culture in America, and could see immediately how the idea of an Indian-fusion t-shirt collection could do just that.

The future is here, the future is now, it stretches across continents from the USA to India and it’s filled with surprises, fusing cultures, styles and attitudes in a whole new way – read on to see just how different the real India is… read more

KidRobot.com – Not Just For Kids (or Robots).

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Beck, Budnitz, Chilli Peppers, Green Day, Jane's Addiction, Koznik, NY, Neil Young, Offspring, Pearl Jam, design, designer t-shirts, kidrobot, kidrobot.com, manga, tees, toys

Designer Paul Budnitz designer and creator of Kidrobot is (and I quote) “the world’s premier designer and retailer of limited edition art toys and apparel”. Sure he’s blowing his own trumpet a little louder than most but the guy really does know what he’s doing. Kidrobot.com started selling their strange toys in 2002 and just as wacky line of urban wear in 2006 and have gone from strength to strength ever since. read more

New York Style For The World At R.A.G

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     NY, NY style, New York T-Shirts, R.A.G, Rag Clothing, Rag Manhattan, graphic t-shirts, graphic tees, urban wear, urbanwear

R.A.G Clothing opened its doors in NY in 1959 and has since expanded its number of stores to 5 locations across Manhattan. My partner came across RAG Clothing on a recent trip and was surprised (and relieved) to find their inimitable range of stylish designer t-shirts and urban wear are available online. They offer a great line in graphic art shirts although I’d say their men’s tees outclass the women’s by miles. There’s also a small selection of I Love New York tees for those of you who can’t quite afford a weekend fix of NY right now, though again they aren’t quite on the same level as their graphic t-shirts. read more

One Punch Machine Gun Takes No Flak

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Gun, NY, New York, OPMG, art tees, cutting edge, one punch machine gun, urban style, urban t-shirts

If I was a New Yorker I’d make tees like One Punch Machine Gun Clothing at OPMG.biz and you know why? Their designs are the shiznit, and in this case it doesn’t boil down to the usual formula of great graphic style meets solid conceptualist thinking. Although they excel at both, the extra secret ingredient at OPMG is attitude, and they have heaps of it to spare. A New York attitude to creative fashion that takes no prisoners, and if they did they’d be the most probably be the most stylish escapees this side of penitentiary. read more

Ugmonk Opens For Business

admin    T-Shirt News     Jeff Sheldon, NY, Ugmonk, Ugmonk.com, Vermont, catwalk, classic design, classic t-shirt designs, designer t-shirts, fashion, limited edition

Jeff Sheldon of Ugmonk.com has just announced the release of his first three tees at his new designer t-shirt store. At the moment there are but three t-shirts on offer, but I have been assured plenty more are on the way. I wouldn’t normally feature a store with so little to offer (so far), however these tees do offer a slick and rather classic New York / Bauhaus Typography style that you don’t see around as much these days. Saying that they’re based in Vermont, which makes me think that Vermont may have less of a laid-back hippy fashion scene than I’d previously assumed.

Jeff created Ugmonk in response to the high saturation of cluttered design in the t-shirt fashion market, stripping back the redundant extremities of the over embellished style common to many labels at the moment, providing a stripped-back alternative, relying on the eternal qualities of line and composition. The first 100 of each of his designs include a limited edition screen-printed tag which is a very nice touch. read more

Big Apple T-Shirt

admin    T-Shirts     Big Apple, I love NY, Magritte Apple, NEW YORK USA, NY, NY T-Shirts, NYC, New York, New York T-Shirts, Son of Man, T-Shirt NY

Big Apple T-Shirt by Paul Baines

It’s funny how places can get nicknames, I checked out the origin of New York’s alter ego, and it seems the term was coined by NY jazz musicians of the 1930s and ‚Äò40s, some say it’s to do with the depression and all the apple sellers on the streets, but I think the music scene would’ve been far more influential than a few fruit sellers. Besides there was some kind of crazy jazzy dance back then called the Big Apple too, so not surprisingly the name caught on.

There isn’t much to explain about the Big Apple T-Shirt except that it’s influenced by famous painting The Son of Man by Ren√© Magritte, a Belgian Surrealist with a knack for creating the iconic. You can probably recognise the influence straight away, there aren’t many images out there that obscure a portrait with a giant apple, then again, it could just be an average apple placed close to the viewer.

I have a strange kinship with New York, all it a long-distance relationship, okay yes, in a voyeuristic sense, I do love New York! I haven’t been there, I suppose I should go, my partner has and she enjoyed herself, but she wasn’t ecstatic, I knew why, we’ve been spoiled by a history of film, one tribute after another up until the 1980s when everything on location in New York was actually filmed in Vancouver and other less populated, less memorable cities. I suppose no where can live up to my expectations these days, it’s no one’s fault in particular, just the wealth of filmography that has used New York city as a backdrop to countless stories.

I’m sure plenty of New Yorkers will be rolling their eyes by now, it’s true, how can I tell what New York is like from across the Atlantic, well, I do know that every city I’ve lived in or visited has become busier, more crowded, more congested and more polluted than the last. It’s practical to create a megatropolis in the midst of an Industrial Revolution, even at the beginning of an Information Age, but soon, very soon people begin to realise they don’t need to commute, the oil crisis will speed up the process, and more and more lumbering behemoth corporations will experience a painful commuter burnout. Then we’ll see the rise of the local economy once more, a resurgence for convenience and practicality. Then New York, London and many other incredible cities can make some room, and all we’ll use them for is entertainment, the arts, cultural and historical experiences, trade, and shopping for luxury goods, it’s what they were built for in the first place. In times gone by the only people who lived in a city lived in squalor or owned a serious chunk of real estate. Funny how things always turn full circle if you wait long enough.

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