Earth-Rise T-Shirt by Public Domain Clothing

admin    T-Shirts     art shirts, cool tee, earth, public domain, public domain clothing, rise, surreal, urban fashion

Earth-Rise T-Shirt

“Houston we have a problem…”

OMG I love it. Isn’t this the best piece of paranoid NASA conspiracy bad trip fashion you’ve ever seen? Well actually it’s the first I’ve ever seen and I love it. If there’s one thing we could all do with it’s more scary astronauts. Seriously though Public Domain Clothing, the auteurs of kook and wry cynical humour in the world of t-shirts have really upped their game with the Earth-Rise t-shirt. A phenomenal piece of trompe l’eoil and a superb tee. I love the the thought that with just a little Photoshop jiggery pokery you can subvert reality as we know. One for the record books in t-shirt weirdness you can get this superb shirt in black for $25 in sizes S to XL.

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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Urban Tees At Affordable Prices

admin    T-Shirt News     AUC, Got Boots, Paul Wall, affordable urban clothing, affordableurbanclothing.com, urban fashion, urban t-shirts, urban tees

Now, AUC otherwise known as Affordable Urban Clothing have a strong line of t-shirt designs, and even a thumbs up from U.S rapper Paul Wall aka People’s Champ. Their site is a little bit ropey, using two Paypal buttons instead of a real checkout system, which I’d always advise against. The prices aren’t the lowest I’ve ever seen, nor the most expensive, but you’ll have to click a product photo to find them. If I ran AUC I’d fire their web designer, get a decent cart, pay for some ssl hosting and use a snazzy template with a custom header to brand the store. That asides, and I mean this is what the t-shirt industry all boils down, they do have a couple of decent designs under their belt, there’s no denying that.

AUC seems to have a fixation with killer clowns, I mean the sort you’d find in a schlock horror rather than ‘killer’ as in the coolest clowns on the block. There aren’t too many designs on offer right now, and asides the clowns and undead clowns there’s a dinosaur, a superhero and a ninja. I think AUC needs to do one of two things with their creative collection, either narrow down their subject matter, or blast it wide open. I can understand them not wanting to follow the herd and produce the usual urban designs everyone else does, but I don’t think they’ve quite nailed what they’re all about at AUC, or not just yet anyway.

I feel like their aiming for something between childhood cartoon nostalgia, and the grim reality or rather horror of life on the street, in a city, trying to make the grade, to earn a little respect. Not sure if it works. The actual brand of AUC’s tees is ‘Got Boots?’ – they’ve used a rather generic font for the logo, and it’s big, and it’s all over some of their t-shirts – which is rather regrettable. The story behind the label is, on the other hand, supremely uplifting. A story of one guy, Donnell Love, and his aim to reach out to the masses of Urban America through fashion whilst serving a charitable foundation SMIP ‚ÄúSingle Mothers In Peril‚Äù. 10% of proceeds from the sale of Affordable Urban Clothing goes to SMIP which is “committed to improving the lives of single mothers and their families by helping them overcome the polarizing issues in single parent homes.”

Where worthy causes are concerned it’s difficult not to simply shower AUC with praise, their t-shirts do have potential, but no matter what my personal feelings, that store really needs redesigning. Anyway forget the store design for a moment and check these tees… read more

A Sound T-Shirt by Skilla

admin    T-Shirt News     music for all, music for guys t-shirt, music for ladies t-shirt, skilla fashion, skilla fashion t-shirts, skilla fashion tees, skillafashion.com, urban fashion

Now I know a lot of you out there love your music tees, some of our most popular articles have focused around some of the top music related t-shirt brands around and so I thought you might want to keep your eye (or should that be ear) on a virtually brand new label called Skilla Fashion. The creative driving force behind the brand is Darold Pinnock who was tagged with the name ‘Skilla’ due to his amazing dancing skills. The man loves his music and you can tell, this has to be one of my recent faves in the genre, I’m not exactly a fan of band tees as such, but musical-themed t-shirts (when they’re executed with a little aplomb) have to be high up there for design subject matter.

The label is rather more broad based in its objectives, one of their quotes states”…concentrates more on the constructive and encouraging characteristics of life. Our aim is to pay great attention to our clothing details, engage and create lifelong relationships with our customers and dealers.” Lofty aspirations maybe but it’s mighty reassuring to find a t-shirt brand or in fact any company that truly wants to focus on building a real and longlasting relationship with their customers. This should be a lesson to a lot of the world of retail, the brand is nothing but its clientelle, if your don’t have them on side you may as well shut up shop now. It’d be great to see the corporate world take the same view, I doubt that will ever happen, not unless we have a global Marxist revolution in the next few years.

Any back to tees, here’s my absolute favourite tee at Skilla Fashions entitled:- read more

The (R)evolution of a Subspecies

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     UK t-shirts, anrchy t-shirts, bmx t-shirts, hip hop tees, skater tees, subspecies, subspecies.co.uk, underground fashion, urban fashion

This is hardcore, this is extreme fashion, this is where fashion, politics and the oncoming revolution collide. This is the name of the game for Subspecies, a Yorkshire (UK) born and bred street fashion label with a taste for subversion served with a healthy dose of anarchistic tendencies, making urban wear heralded by the skater and BMX community as some of the finest in their field. Expect superb quality t-shirts. All enzyme washed to give a comfortable feel when new and made of the finest 200gsm Gold cotton available. Colours have been selected for the urban/street market in earthy tones that ensure the graphics propel from the base colour of the tees. Their artwork is built up with flocks, raised embroidery and raised rubber welds. All their garments have a subspecies trademark ‘T’ bar cut & sew panel on the back, the inner yoke is a non feel printed jersey lining with felt flock monkey logo. The back neck tape is herringbone with a velour overlay for maximum comfort – sizes are available in xs-xxl.

Subspecies have a great attitude towards their work, and are a perfect example of artists using t-shirt design as a progressive arts medium. Their message is always powerful and to the point, without being mindlessly offensive they still manage to shock certain sectors of society with an air of confidence of a global label and are certainly heading for greater pastures as they’re soon to sponsor a whole ream of extreme sports teams and events. Be you B-boy, skater, BMXer, or general trouble-maker, you may not have realised until now, but you are a subspecies!

Subspecies.co.uk is a fully modded flash site/store (and a fascinating experience), so you’ll have to track down the embedded product links there yourself, make sure you sign up for their newsletter and be in with a chance to win a freebie or two, and whilst your at it do have a gander at the blog for all the latest info on Subspecies. Don’t forget to check out their caps in their “Lidz Collection” but for now let’s crack on with some of their finest tees and learn just how hard Subspecies can push their message to the core. read more

101 Apparel – The Sound of Fashion

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     101 Apparel, 101apparel.com, disco tees, discotheque t-shirt, dub reggae tees, music t-shirts, rock t-shirts, urban fashion, urban wear

If there’s one thing 101 Apparel love it’s music, their t-shirt collection affords us mere mortals the closest alignment between sound and vision since well I can’t think what, all I know is if fashion made a sound and you could see it, you most likely find it in 101′s vast range of killer urban shirts. If you’re a DJ, MC, a wannabe, or simply can’t do without expressing your love for great beats to the world, then at least one of 101′s tees has to be in your collection, no argument. Of course there’s plenty more to choose from at 101′s label, in case you’re feeling the chill and want to wrap up, including fleeces, hoodies and sweats, but as you may have guessed by now, we’re focusing on the tees, it’s what we do best ;)

Eric Crandell, the soulful style guru behind the label has a unique yet highly eclectic taste for musical vision. His designs travel through time and across the world in search of the best of the best in aural ecstasy, all the time passing a nod and a wink to the coolest sounds from the greatest genres and sub-genres of all-time. Hip Hop, Dub, Soul, Funk, Rock, you name it 101 Apparel has covered it, in fact they’re all over it like a ton of bricks, so unplug your ears, open your eyes, and get ready for some of the most sound shirts this side of a tropical dawn heaving with party revellers and show stealing dance-off kings and queens from every culture, creed and final destination. A lesson in style from 101 Apparel. read more

Cockney Empire Exclusive!

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Chunk, Cockney Empire, Joystick Junkies, T-Shirts, amazing t-shirts, urban fashion, urban streetwear

Forget Pearly Kings and Queens, forget about doing the Lambeth Walk, don’t walk, RUN! This is the heavy heavy style of THE COCKNEY EMPIRE! Oh my gawd it’s been a long time since I’ve got this excited about a post, if any t-shirt company out there is right up my street it has to be these guys. Sure I’m not a cockney born and bred, well not at all, but my father and his father were born within the sound of Bow Bells so I have a massive connection with the East End (London) culture, and Cockney Empire are about to take it to the dizzying heights of a whole new level in London style.

Okay, okay so the website isn’t ready, but I was totally chuffed when I received an email from Mike “Mauler” Crosby and Steve “Guvnor” James at Cockney Empire who said that my recent review of Chunk T-Shirts and the big mention I gave them has given them a major proverbial kick up the backside and made them realise they’ve got to pull their finger out and start rolling out the fashion and online presence big time. But don’t think CE have been sitting on their laurels, it’s all go go go since they’ve started their promotions at this years Margin streetwear fashion trade show in London and you know what, I expect big big BIG things for Cockney Empire! They’ve already got international streetwear buyers clambering for their gear, so I’m sure when I say, these guys are heading for the big league, you know it makes sense buster. For More information on Cockney Empire and its fantastic range, contact Steve James on (00) +44 0208 519 2500 or email steve@cockneyempire.com.

Just take a look at their insignia for starters, I mean “maybe you have to be a Londoner” (cue music) to really appreciate exactly how cool it is but mixing up Two-Tone style, football and death, well you just can’t get better than that in my opinion. To be fair their influences stretch far further than the East End including New York’s Rockabillies and the Biker gangs of San Francisco, but expect a little more edge, a little more twist in their style compared to the usual crowd. Such as original, edgy graphics and quirky detailing, with classic to lightweight distressed V-necks and Crews, all constructed in top quality fabrics and superb graphics for starters! Anyway let’s take a look at the amazing tees they are already knocking out. They’re set up as two halves, a design agency that creates stunning work for the likes of Joystick Junkies and Chunk (Mike Crosby is an Ex-Chunk senior designer BTW) and their own exclusive fashion label that offers NO licences, that’s right you’ll only be able to buy these from the Cockneys, so keep your eyes peeled and polish your knuckle dusters, it’s time for a fashion beating! read more