Less Than Positive

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Less Than Positive, black and white tees, funny t shirts, political tees

Less Than Positive are a brand new (they sold their first tee on 9/2/11) Singapore-based label after my own he(art), their blurb reads “Incorporating designs that are laced with a tinge of cynicism and subversion, Less Than Positive takes potshots at things common and familiar.” It’s nice to find a fellow ‘pot-shooter’, it’s something I aim to do with my own art. It’s also nice to see a subversive political edge finally breaching the outer security perimeter of a generally decorative market that needs to beef up its agenda in these angry times of recession and depression. All the tees feature photo-montage designs, clean cut and generously printed with a penchant for black and white, and mainly black heh. Pre-order any of these troublemaking tees for SGD$32 each which works out at about $25/£15 each…

Faceless Tee

The classiest emoticon t-shirt in history! Political oppression served with a corporate smile. Pre-order in black in sizes S-XL.

I See Idiots Lots Of Them Tee

No need for a sixth sense this time round, just take a look around you. Then again it’s all relative, what does a guy like Stephen W. Hawking think of the rest of us with an IQ of 160 rolling around that mind. Then again the actress Sharon Stone has an I.Q of 154 so perhaps most of us are idiots after all. Pre-order in black in sizes S-XL.

Always Be Smiling Tee

Corporate ninja shares a sense of humour, most likely at our expense! Pre-order in black in sizes S-XL.

We Hate Mondays Too Tee

Definitely my fave of the collection, almost up there with this South Park episode. Kim Jong-illin’ with his crew. Nice reference to that one hit wonder and saviour of Africa by Sir Bob. Pre-order in white in sizes S-XL.

For more edgy tees lower your expectations of life and raise them for fashion at www.LessThanPositive.com.

4th Amendment Tees

admin    T-Shirts     4th ammendment, human rights, political t-shirts, political tees, protest tees

4th Amendment Wear offers Americans something that the rest of us would surely love to have, an inalienable right to privacy under the U.S Bill of Rights “which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures”. If you’ve ever travelled to or across the USA by plane you’ll be well aware of the ridiculously intrusive search policy of American airport security. Many travellers in Britain have complained about the fact that they have to remove their shoes and socks to even get through the gate. Well things are getting worse, with the introduction of full body TSA X-ray scanners that see everything, not just the items that maybe concealed in your clothing, but your body too, and I mean all of it, down to the contents of your underwear.

Personally speaking, I think anyone prepared to put up with this in order to get to the States is in actuality agreeing to leave their human rights at the border. There are few if any journeys worth forsaking one’s human rights just for the chance to travel. When you consider all the cancellations, air fares and taxes, minuscule seating arrangements, surly staff and invasion of personal privacy, I wonder how long this situation can continue?

4th Amendment Wear is taking a stand, their metallic ink-printed tees and underwear highlight the plight of air travellers the world over, as they breach the American border. The prices are a little steep, but the process is pricey and the concept is so worthwhile, especially when you consider that airport security applies the same measures to your kids. Of course, this is all meant to be part of a peaceful process, highlighting the imbalance in the rights of travellers versus corporate and governmental agenda. “Most TSA employees are extremely professional, so these clothes are meant to again provoke debate rather than be read as a message aimed at specific employees who are just doing their jobs.”

Metallic Ink Tee

You can see from the pics just how well this tee shows up under an airport X-ray. You can buy the shirt in white in sizes S-XXL for $45 each.

See all of 4th Ammendment’s gear here.

Negrete

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     London t-shirts, Negrete, funny t shirts, graphic tees, political tees

Negrete is a highly subversive London based t-shirt label with a strong street art feel that plunders popular culture and urban myth with great aplomb. Started by a group of well travelled students of culture with a knack for powerful conceptual thinking, I love their tag line “product of a wasted youth”. Although saying that their tees do appeal to a wide range of ages, as long as you live your life with a pinch of cynicism and truth. There’s a powerful street art ethic that pervades throughout their large collection, which includes a new organic range; their Spring/Summer range, a discounted range and a few stragglers from the last season. I really like the way Negrete has done things over at www.negrete.co.uk. For a start they’ve taken the time and trouble to create a “back story” for each and every tee, many of which are both insightful and rather amusing in parts. Their concepts are powerful, leaning to the left field, they deal with all kinds of controversies and slices of subculture. What’s more, for the main part, their graphic skills back up the plan to the hilt, producing some high impact t-shirt designs that really make an impression.

The majority of their tees are home-grown, although there are a few impressive collaborations including art maverick Garry Milne and photographer Lex Kembery. It’s almost impossible to describe the house style over at Negrete, mainly because there isn’t one, I’d say it’s more about the message than prettifying the wardrobe. If you want to make a stand against anything, display a savvy cynicism for the state of mankind, or share a pithy savoir faire for underground pop culture, they’re your boys. All printed on 100% cotton tees in rich clean colours the organic range are going for £28 in sizes M-XL, the Spring/Summer tees are £25 each (S-XL), and the rest range between just a tenner and £12.50.

Negrete are one of those labels that’s managed to catch the Zeitgeist of Britain right now, students smashed up Tory HQ yesterday, with massive job cuts on the horizon it won’t be long before the rest of us join in. I can’t help being reminded of a famous quote from the movie Network “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore”. If you don’t fancy getting into a round of fisticuffs then one of Negrete’s t-shirts is definitely the next best thing.

Love Sprung Tee

An awesome organic shirt, it’s a collaborative work with artist Garry Milne that takes inspiration from the Baz Luhrmann reinterpretation of Romeo and Juliet. I had to include some detail shots for this one, beautifully conceived, beautifully drawn. £28 in M-L sizes.

Drugs Tee

Drugs are bad m’kay? The thing about drugs is that everything older druggies tell you when you’re in those “experimental” years is absolutely true. I remember a hippie chick telling me how resin gives you constipation, a few years later on the toilet I tipped my invisible hat to the girl. Still, toilet-based nostalgia asides, this is one awesome design, if you look carefully you’ll see a few immortal words by Sean Coombs – which according to Negrete were probably ghost written, lol. Only £12.50 in sizes S-XXL. What a bleedin’ bargain!

Sick Rick Tee

A jaded tribute to Ricky D aka Slick Rick, a British born rapper who made it in the Bronx in the Golden Age of Hip Hop. Everything went downhill from there, if you want to know more read this! It’s a sad state of affairs, but as far as t-shirts go, it’s a cracker!

New Yorker Tee

I have to admit this is probably the classiest t-shirt on the block, featuring a rather sublime quote from O’ Blue Eyes himself and stunning photography by the legendary Lex Kembery. It’s probably what I’d wear to a business meeting (if I ever needed to do that), my kind of formal. Available in white in sizes M-XL for £28 each.

There are supposed to be 100 styles over there, I can see around 30 but let’s not  nitpick – see them all at www.negrete.co.uk and check out their blog too.

Non, je ne regrette rien…

Win A 2SB Tee!

admin    T-Shirt Discounts, T-Shirt News     2 sick bastards, 2SB, Berlusconi, Naomi Campbell, celebrity tees, discount, funny t shirts, limited edition, political tees, screen printed, t-shirt discounts

More news from the highly controversial 2 Sick Bastards – they’ve added two new tees featuring letchy Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi and dodgy blood diamond studded Naomi Campbell – plus there’s a cool contest to win a free 2SB tee! Phew…

Win A 2SB T-Shirt

For your chance to WIN one of the new 2SB designs simply tell them… “which granny loving sportsman and Hollywood actor’s mother created the adorable love child expertly illustrated above?

Email your answer to info@2sickbastards.com. This competition is only open to 2SB newsletter subscribers. The 2 winners will be notified at the end of November 2010.

Lol…

Here are the new additions:

Double Delights

Available for guys and girls on pre order at £24.95 each (£5 off RRP) in white and peach – all sizes. Naughty Silvio…

Queen of Blood Diamonds

Again available on pre order at a discount for guys and girls in blue and white and all sizes. Look… they were just “dirty looking pebbles” okay?

As usual they’re screen printed tees limited to just 50 each so if you fancy one I’d snap it up soon as 2SB are doing some brisk trade nowadays.

Illuminati Propaganda Tee

admin    T-Shirt Contests, T-Shirts     Fairey, Illuminati Propaganda, Orwellian, political tees, springleap, t-shirt winner

Wowzers, it’s been a while since I’ve really liked a Springleap t-shirt contest winner and damn what a turn up for the books, it’s half way to Fairey Land (as in Shepard). Red and black is always a stonking colour combo as far as I’m concerned, it’s everything nasty and evil you could hope for. The Illuminati Propaganda Tee has earned Suburbanhijinx aka James Campbell a whopping $1000 in their massive rollover competition, it’s no surprise either considering it’s his 4th win at the site, I think I’ve even reviewed on those winning designs way back when.

Illuminati Propaganda Tee

The Illuminati Propaganda design received a final vote of 4.80 which I swear is massive for Springleap, be prepared to queue lol. You can buy this beaut for R183 / $24 / €19 / £16 in all sizes for guys and girls.

Speaking of evil reincarnate, Orwellian or otherwise I must admit there’s a slight resemblance to Simon Cowell’s ‘X Factor’. Ah well it’s probably just coincidence, then again it could be a vast demonic conspiracy – who knows…

Springleap to their store for more.

Sick Mart Now Open!

admin    T-Shirt News     2 sick bastards, 2sickbastarrds, Banksy, UK fashion, funny t shirts, funny tees, graffiti tees, political tees, stencil tees, street art t-shirts

If you’re easily offended I’d move on now… as for the rest of you social delinquents I am happy to say that ‘SickMart’, the new online store by the t-shirt crazy punks 2 Sick Bastards (yes that really is their brand name) is open for highly subversive business. 2SB are graffiti artists, screen printers, t-shirt designers and all round trouble makers and I feel somewhat relieved that at last someone has the Cahunas to knock  out some quasi-intelligent smut rather than the inanely offensive crap from sites like T-Shirt Hell… These guys roll around in the gutter press like pigs in clover and I love it. They’ve been getting quite a bit of attention lately, and yes, some of it is even positive :p

They will be releasing 2 new limited edition T-shirt prints every 2 weeks in the lead up to Xmas. They’ve kick off with ‘Petrol Bombed’ and ‘Eazy Tiger’ which are available now at a ‘special’ pre-order price. All new designs are available exclusively at ‘SickMart’ in limited runs of 50 pieces each. All their tees are screen printed and available for guys at a whopping R.R.P of £29.99 each and £24.99 for the girls (although you can pay with other currencies too) – however there is a sale on so at least one of their best tees Disgraceland is available at £19.99 right now. If you’re sick of the B.S and love a anti-media showdown you’ve come to the right place!

Back To Smack Tee

Disgraceland Tee

Eazy Tiger Tee

In Greed We Trust Tee

Rest In Pieces Tee

Enjoy Kate Tee

For more gloriously grubby art shirts see the rest of their collection at www.2SickBastards.com.

Psyched Tees From Disturbia Clothing

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Disturbia, Disturbia Clothing, DisturbiaClothing.co.uk, Prodigy, UK t-shirts, art t-shirts, cool tees, edgy, political tees, punk t-shirts, rock, street, unique tees

First off I’m back, I’ve been to the back and beyond, I’m sunburned and peeling all over but all in all I feel fresh as a daisy so let’s get down to business and lay Disturbia Clothing on the Buy Tees couch and see what makes them and their legion of fans tick. If you’re already familiar with this edgy Brit label then you’re in good company. Check out this documentary of The Prodigy’s latest tour and you just might see Liam sporting one of their best-sellers, their Disco t-shirt.

I always feel right at home, culturally speaking, when I visit their site, everything from their products to the web design to their constantly updated left field blog shimmer with a slightly tongue-in-cheek British fervour for the hey days of punk. Their style spills right out onto their highly flamboyant illustrated t-shirt prints which are all highly recognisable as unique yet strangely familiar iconic pieces that make up their collection. Their ideas are their tour de force, some perhaps more obvious than others, but in a good way, in the way you might think ‘damn, I could have thought of that’ except you know you didn’t, and if you ever did, you know you’d never got around to creating them, because if you had I’d most likely be writing about your label right now :p

Their reputation has spread far and wide into the world of independent fashion retailing with 17 online stockists and what I guess must be another hundred or more stores selling their unique wares around the world. So if you like what you see then there’s no excuses when it comes to tracking down any of their infectiously irrational tees, hoodies and accessories (if you don’t order direct), besides which they have a handy mailing list so you can keep up to date with all their latest offerings no matter what corner of the world you may reside. So without further a due, rip a few holes in your best pair of jeans, stick a safety pin through your nose, kick the TV Screen, deface any image of royalty you may have lying around and get ready to enter the minds of Disturbia. 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

7 Tees For (After) Obama’s Inauguration Week

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Obama, Obama T-Shirts, T-Shirts, black, black president, democrat, inaugural, inauguration, political tees

Obama T-Shirts For The Long Haul!

No one likes to be naked in public, well except exhibitionists and nudists, and especially not on such an auspicious occasion as the first inauguration of a black president. So if you’re stuck with a heap of cheesy Obama t-shirts in your wardrobe and are desperately looking for something that stands out for this special event you had better hurry up and get yours too!

This top selection of t-shirts aren’t your usual run-of-the-mill “Change” tees, these are definitely something with a little extra oomph and when it comes to political street wear we all know how important it is not to blend in with the crowd, besides the fact that everyone knows you did the right thing at the right time, you stay ahead of the crowd in style and take that credibility all the way to the kudos bank ;) read more

Obama Tees at Ban T-Shirts – A Date To Remember

admin    T-Shirt News     Obama T-Shirts, ban t-shirts, ban-tshirts.com, democratic government, obama president, political tees, politics, president elect

Woot Obama is President Elect! To celebrate this momentous and historical event the groovy people at Ban-Tshirts.com have produced four new Obama related tees for your delectation. Now as you know I’m not too hot for slogan t-shirts, but I must admit that their tee entitled ‘The Day We Changed America‘ has the most succinct message I’ve seen in a long while. Who knows perhaps Obama will even change the world. Still calm down everyone, the guy has a lot to do and a whole heap of problems to deal with, the world economy, The Middle East, The Russians, the list is endless, but have patience and a little hope and who knows we may all look back on this time as the most important decision in a century.

As For TDWCA, essentially it’s a date, and for many a true antidote to the constant slogan tee reminders of the 9/11 tragedy, the last date that many across the world will remember for many decades to come, it’s wonderful to be able to direct our attention hopes to a new one and finally look towards the future! read more