I’m not French, I barely speak French (ou est le biblioteque?), but there’s one thing I do recognise, design, and they have it in spades, well, actually, in this case they have it on long-sleeve tees.
Amka (Moroccan for “someone who has their head a bit in the sky”) are a design studio headed by 27 year-old graphic designer Thomas Gayet, who make rather stylish clothes and posters. I took a particular shine to the Redflower long sleeve tee that they sell (costiness=€23), and they even have it in my size, wait, a French company that go above L, saints be praised!
I’m sure some guys would ummm and ahhh about the flower design, but I think it’s pretty neat, it’s off-centre, it’s not overtly feminine (though there is a girls version with the same design for €1 more), and anyway, who cares what everyone else thinks? You can always says it’s what everyone’s wearing in France…
I know, I should try and remain mysterious, semi-androgynous, and calm, but check out their models, boy do they raise an eyebrow or two.
It’s nice to get to mention a UK based company for a change, whilst I do love the work that Americans are doing (it’s where my t-shirt collection is from after all), I do take pride in seeing some homegrown talent.
Big Fluff are a London based design label, hand painting each item on limited runs (25 of each colour). Their ethos is quite clearly ‘design with people in mind’, all delivery is free to anywhere in the world, and £1 is donated to Medecin Sans Frontiers with every order. Even better than that, if you order 2 items at the moment you’ll get a free hand painted bag, buy 3 items and you’ll get a free t-shirt. And all of this comes on top of their current sale prices!
If I were to make a purchase, I’d recomment this sweater (pic to the right costiness=£39) for the guys, and this one for the ladies (costiness=£39 again, that’s equality ladies!).
I’ve decided not to do posting on the weekend (unless something REALLY catches my eye), like all the big pro-blogs do, because this will be a big pro-blog, someday. So that’s your lot for this week, I’ll leave with this thought.
Two buttons is enough, if you’re inclined to put pin badges on your clothes, bags, anything really, two is enough, any more than that and you look like you collect them, not accessorise with them. Covering your entire backpack with buttons basically tells people that they can go in your bag and steal your Avril Lavigne tickets. By all means have a collection that you can mix and match with, just be careful not to go overboard with it.
That said, I’m no fashionista, I just say what I see.
Picture credit: more badges
Originally uploaded by jodigreen.
Now, being British I’m lucky, I can post this item without needing to fear that I will ever be embroiled in any of the shady business practices that are associated with Urban Outfitters. According to the internet, they rip-off people’s designs, just ask Johnny Cupcakes…
Anyway, let’s go beyond politics, I like this hoody from UO, the asymmetric lines give a little something different, and the runners say “hey, I’m a go getter.” Well, maybe they would if this was a personal development blog, but here they just say “hey, nice design.”
Costiness=$44.99 and they only ship to the U.S., Ca-na-da and Me-hico, so I won’t be able to enter that Seth Cohen lookalike competition, after-all. Seriously, what’s the deal with their range and models, research for their design team must be an O.C. box set and (polaroid) photo’s from a Death Cab for Cutie show.
Maybe I’m posting too many hearts, maybe I’m posting too much girls stuff, either way, I’m digging the amount of awesome hoodies on the internet nowadays.
Fredflare.com has been on my bookmarks list for an age, but like most webstores I like, I’ve never bought anything from them, just swooned over the variety of goods on offer. I haven’t exactly been swooning over this ‘Queen of Hearts’ girls’ hoody, but I do like its look. This thing is all about the love, first off, it’s red, the zipper tag has a heart print on it, there’s the obligatory heart over your physical heart, and you also get a heart button. Hearts are taking over the world!
Costiness=$44 dollars, less than $3 per heart (by my ridiculous attempt at counting the zipper tag).
