The Temperature’s Rising At Hotlife

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Frankie Says, MikeC, band tees, emptees, funny t shirts, hotlife, illustration, livingthehotlife.com, punk, skater, skater tees, t-shirt design

Recently MikeC of www.LivingTheHotlife.com contacted me and demanded to send me a couple of sample tees, as you might or might know I am one of the few t-shirt reviewers who doesn’t require freebies, but he was pretty insistent, he wanted to make sure I knew first hand exactly how high the quality of his products stands up, and I’m telling you, it’s up there with the best. It’s not just the100% organic fair trade tees he prints on, which are incredibly soft by the way, but the designs themselves are incredibly well drawn and fantastically ‘clean’. Mike is obviously an old hand at illustration, I took a peek at his biography on his rather hilarious FAQ page and found a few gems to help warm you to this relatively underground label:-

So HOTLIFE is designed exclusively by MCHC Art/Designs? Absolutely, 100% hand drawn by MikeC himself.That way you know you’ve got an 100% original design. Lots of “designers” like to take clip art and add a photo shop filter and pass it off as a design…we would rather make something thats unique and rad.

I’m pretty sure 90% of my wardrobe is made up of designs by MCHC already, what bands and such has he worked with? Thousands of bands, too many to mention, but Thinkfast! Records, Victory Records, Acacia Strain, A Day to Remember, Hawthorne Heights, Madball, All Shall Perish, Mychildren Mybride, Between the Buried and Me, Salt The Wound, Bishop, Emmure, Catch 22, & Kill Your Idols, just to name a few.

Now that’s a lot of bands! Hotlife have a strong connection with the music scene, if you fancy upping the stakes and making your own band’s image a little more hardcore then you can commission Mike’s talent as a t-shirt designer via his Myspace page. He even helps promote the bands he works with by graciously featuring their latest gigs at Hotlife’s news page.

It’s difficult to categorize Mike’s style, his illustrative style is strong, very strong, and even though there are reminders for me of punk and thrash, biker and tattoo imagery, there are two distinct qualities to his work that makes it rise above the competition. Firstly, as mentioned earlier, his drawing technique is fabulously clean, he actually draws everything by hand as you can tell, his line is fluid and flowing, the compositions spot on, I’m sure this guy must have been doodling throughout every spare minute of his life. Apart from the trained eye and hand co-ordination, there’s the humour, his sense of fun is infectious, one of the first tees to jump out at me was his interpretation of Frankenstein’s Monster in Frankie Says Relax. Which for me is hilarious, as was the original band that came up with that tune, although the latter wasn’t entirely intentional.

I’ll start by reviewing the tees Mike sent me, I’d have got my cute GF to pose but she’s up to her neck in work today, so I’m afraid you get the ugly guy instead of the babe. Still the designs should more than compensate!

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Two New Tees From Hideout

admin    T-Shirt News     BMX, British Design, Enter The Tree House, Hideout, Hideout Tees, skater, sports t-shirts

Hideout T-Shirts have just released two new designs, you may recognise the name from our previous review at http://buy-tees.net/2009/03/freestyling-with-hideout-tees. They’re a British label famed amongst the BMX community for both their unique style and extensive sponsorship of the sport. They even make their own BMX videos!

Anyway the two new designs by Tash Walkerdine and Jon Moon, two of the three designers in the partnership. Both tees are available for £12 each and are already proving to be strong sellers in the line. Due to their rather snazzy Flash site I can’t link directly to their products, but you should have fun perusing through their deck of ‘t-shirt cards’ nonetheless ;) read more

De-clutter With Simplified Clothing

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Detroit, Simplified Clothing, indie tees, simplified clothing t-shirts, simplifiedclothing.com, skater, sneaker, urban t-shirts

As the site says, Simplified Clothing Midwest Love, and it couldn’t really be any clearer. This Metro Detroit suburban rebel label aims to give conformity a kick up the ass whilst simultaneously shelling out a hug or two to the dudes and dudettes who couldn’t give a damn. Life can be bland no matter where you are but suburbia can be most stifling of all, with neither the bright lights of the big cities or the freedom to roam of the wide open countryside, suburbanites learn to amuse themselves in a unique blend of wannabe metropolitan style tinged with a little yearning for a sleepy Sunday laying out in the backyard. Sunny days with planes making tracks in the skies, the radio blaring, itching to get going but enjoying the peace. Where the hell shall we go this weekend? God, don’t say the mall again? How about taking the train up town and catch a movie, or a club maybe? No, the night buses are full of puke and weirdos and everyone who’s got a car wants to drink. I’ve been there, suburbia, a strange kinship, restrained by regret and times wasted wanting. But things are changing, suburbia’s sources for fashion once appropriated from other more glamorous locations, finally gets its own back, putting its own homespun cynical philosophy on the garish and gaudy stylings of wannabe celebs and loft apartment dictators who have nothing better to say than ‘Look at me, I’m fabulous!’.

Simplified Clothing is a Mid West collective gunning for a placement in their own home turf and beyond, mixing up highly graphic inspirational art with plenty of nods to sneaker and skater culture, yet always staying true to their roots of suburban America. De-clutter that mind, turn your back on the busy streets and follow the rainbow that leads to where the grass is greener and sliced up like pieces of apple pie. It’s a neighbourhood barbecue for the soul, it’s a street party of the mind, it’s Simplified Clothing.
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