*PLEASE LOOK AT THIS POST TO SEE WHY IT ISN’T A GOOD IDEA TO BUY FROM THIS COMPANY (HINT: IT INVOLVES YOU SPENDING MONEY AND NOT GETTING ANY TEES*

My mum may not approve of this tee (I put my thumb over the ’shit’ speech bubble when I showed her it), but I think its pretty funny. I don’t know what it is, but it’s impossible for me to read it without adding in some kind of accent, which is a sign of a good design to me, because if in my head I’m turning two pieces of toast into characters then the guys at Dirty Microbe must be doing something right.

The design is pretty simple, although I would say that its so endearing because of the simplicity, which adds to the overall cartoon effect. I think that printing it on a bright blue tee is a bit of a masterstroke too, it’s a colour that seems to lift the spirits and make the image look a lot more fun, if it were printed on black I don’t think it would have had the same appeal. Then again, light blue is my favourite colour so you can take that previous sentence with a grain of salt.

The tee stock is American Apparel, so you know what you’re getting there, and the ink is pretty thick, it seems like it will last. In their FAQ they compare their printing style with Threadless, which is a pretty good reference point for almost anyone who’s bought tees off the internet before. There’s a custom label printed inside, with the company name and logo on it, and the American Apparel tag is in there too, just for good measure. There was also a little card inside my package that had pictures of their current line-up of tees on one side and a coupon code on the other for free shipping (I’d tell you the code but it’s downstairs and its far too cold to get out of bed), its a nice way of rewarding customers for loyalty. Although having said that, their shipping to the US, UK & Canada is an astoundingly low $1.99 no matter what size your order is, which is interesting because I know it cost more than that to send me a tee.

Dirty Microbe may well be focused on tees, they also sell a few weird Japanese items, like cellphones lanyards made of golden poop…

Costiness=$12 (currently on sale) URL

More pictures after the jump.

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I thought that after going to all the effort of asking if you wanted to see coats on here I should probably post at least 1 coat in 2006, and when I noticed this coat by Obey I thought it made the HYA grade. It seems like a pretty simple coat, but there’s a few little touches that make it a bit more interesting, like the unusual shape of the cuffs, the enlarged breast-pockets, and the use of sew-ons and printed letters. You all know a Karmaloop post wouldn’t be complete without a bit of blurb:

“Military Iggy Pop II Jacket (Jackets By Obey) If James Brown is the godfather of soul, and Elvis is the king of Rock and Roll, then Iggy Pop is sort of like the weird, strung-out uncle of punk and heavy metal. Maybe the weird uncle that was in the army and has never been quite right. That would explain the military styling of this jacket. Iggy: big fan of tweed, which happens to be the lining of this jacket. Hmmm, curious.”

Costiness=$100 URL

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Oh yes, this is one hell of a hoodie! There’s just so much great stuff going on. First off there’s printing on the front and back, and the design kind of wraps over the top of the hoodie. Secondly, the design of the girls arms runs through the pockets, and its pretty rare to see that in a design, so its good to see someone playing about with that as a design point. Thirdly, the arms glow in the dark, which I’m sure you’ll either love or hate. Fourth, the print makes its way onto the hood (even if it is just a brief appearance). This hoodie from INDVSL ticks most of the boxes for me, the only drawback is that its exclusively for the girls, oh well, maybe next time.

Costiness=$72 (on an American Apparel asphalt zip up) URL

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You know what I love about this blog, it connects me with people from all around the world, and today I added another continent to my growing list of “have e-mailed” areas. South America. The Argentinian city of Buenos Aires to be specific.

My ocean skipping e-journey does bring me back to the UK though, at least spiritually, because this Argentinian outfit draws much of its design inspiration from us Brits and our many, many iconic images, heck, they’re even called Waterloo!

The overall feeling is somewhat retro in style, with designs being based upon movies or music. There’s a lot of companies out there that delve into the retro market and end up with unoriginal designs that have been needlessly faded. And here’s the thing about Waterloo, their designs are not original, that’s kinda the point, they’re twists on the originals, and they’re done very, very well. The tees all appear to have a vibrancy and freshness to them, which I think you’ll agree isn’t something you can often associate with the Rolling Stones!

The have a promotion going on at the moment where you get a 4th shirt for free when you purchase three tees, and you don’t pay extra shpping on the 4th tee. You can also get an additional 10% off your order by using the following code: hideyourarms (oh, and this isn’t an affiliate code, so I don’t feel firty for posting it)

Costiness=$24.95 URL

Disclosure: Waterloo is a advertiser on HYA (although no money has changed hands).

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I’ve wanted to mention this hoodie for an absolute age, you all know how I go gaga for something a little bit different and this item really piqued my interest. You could say that the model wearing a cap in the picture kinda ruins the ambiance, but it’s still a good looking hoodie. I can’t decide whether the print would benefit froma bit of colour, perhaps it’s a bit too subtle in this monochrome colourway. Also, it might have been nice if they’d wrapped the print around more of the hoodie, because as it is the design stops rather abruptly at the upper sides, which lets down the effect slightly. BLURB!!!

“Not only does this hoodie have a very unique neckscarf printed on it, but that neckscarf looks to be billowing just a little bit; as you were swaggering into a saloon at midday, a stranger from another town.

Model is wearing size LARGE

Kangaroo Pocket,Drawstring Hoody

80% Cotton,20% Polyester”

And now you know why I got all Sergio Leone with the post title.

Costiness=$58 URL

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It’s really hard to keep up with Digital Gravel, they add new stock every day, and whilst some of it isn’t to my taste, they seem very passionate about their brands and it appears they set the bar high in terms of quality. I usually think its a bit of a cop out for me to post stuff from Karmaloop’s RSS feed, or Digital Gravel’s ‘Daily Dig’ newsletter, but sometimes items really stick out at me, and ‘Flying Faces’ is one such item. Lets get blurb-tacular:

“A dope new hoodie featuring the Flying Faces design from Foreign Family’s talented Mr44 which merges two F’s (as in Foreign Family, I hope that didn’t need explaining) and two skulls. 44 says he wanted to rock some skulls but didn’t want to go the usual route. And we think he pulled off an original looking skull design very nicely - they look sick to us, and with the giant oversized print on the back it’s real eye-catching. Repeated smaller on the front, without the white details. Woven logo label on the waist.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself, literally!

Costiness=$70 URL

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There’s a lot of good tee and clothes blogs out there, so I thought that instead of me writing a little bit of blurb about news items that aren’t about hoodies I’d just point you at what some other people think.

Ichabods: Some seriously good designs from New Orleans, they have a decent range of hoodies so I’ll be giving them a better look later. [see what the Tcritic had to say]

Owl Movement: Nico gives you the lowdown on Owl Movements new releases.

Click Tees: No idea how/where you buy these but they sure do look good. [via DESIGNSPOTTER]

Fantastic Bonanza: These guys have some schweeeet looking tees, and Nico has a good hands on review of their, ummm, goods.

SALES!: Rangga over at T-Shirt Island has a looooong list of stores with holiday sales, I’m sure the last day of posting has past now, but you can still get savings for yourself.

Azalea Online: A very comprehensive store that caters towards the higher end of the fashion market. Expect to see a few picks from here in the coming weeks. [via Josh Spear]

Imaginary Foundation: HipHipUK mentions yet more stunning work from the Swiss people who seem to operate on a level above me. Adam makes a good point though, it’s art, but would you wear it?

Indie Clothing Blog: You know how long I spent thinking up ‘Hide Your Arms’? Hours, why didn’t I just call it ‘Sleeved Clothing Blog’, then you’d know what you were getting. My tongue-in-cheek bitchy comments aside, this blog is a good resources for anyone thinking of gettin in the tee printing game.

Tagged: Jason has a good rundown of the ruckus that went down at Threadless when they accidentally made a tee from unoriginal work. Seriously, if I ripped someone that badly at uni I’d have been thrown out.

Now don’t forget about Andy when you’re reading different clothes blogs (I promise a hoodie later tonight)!

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Really quick edition today because I’m going to a birthday party 200 miles away (only to drive back the next day for another birthday party) and could do with setting off soon.

All Jelly No Toast: The design may not be all that slick, but content is king and Mark has put together a shop with great quality items (including the recently reviewed Bean Dip), and his comments on each design have far more personality than most. Oh, and if that didn’t persuade you to check it out, the prices are pretty darn low (Bean Dip is available for less than on Karmaloop’s Kazbah).

SA-K: A cool German e-label that I think is built around the Spreadshirt framework. The site is a bit pic heavy but it does look nice, and whilst I must admit that I don’t really get some of their designs (possibly lost in translation) they’re well priced, well drawn, and I know that Spreadshirt do quality printing work, so if you like it, buy it.

I know that this weekend is pretty much the last time that you will be able to order Christmas holidays, but I’m going to keep posting next week anyway, just in case you’re treating yourself this festive season and don’t care when it turns up.

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I was recently very lucky in getting a ticket to see Muse at the new Wembley Stadium in June next year. Even though Muse aren’t that big in America they are massive here, selling out the 75,000 capacity venue in 45 minutes (so they added another day and we had a mad phone-around whilst on a night out pleading with friends to get us tickets). So I thought this hoodie was fairly fitting, since I will be going to city (London) where hopefully the speakers will be the size of houses.

I didn’t just pick it for the loose tie in to a music related story, this is a great hoodie, the switching of visual imagery mixed with the graffiti style yields a really nice result. I quite like the blurb that the guys at Fabric8 have put with this

Wouldn’t it be sooo dope if the city’s skyscrapers were actually humongous speakers? The only problem is parties couldn’t exactly be underground anymore … but we could live with that.

Strange words, but still a cool hoodie.

Costiness=$50 URL

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Bean Dip Clothing were first on HYA more than half a year ago, and they seem to have gone from strength to strength since. I guess they realised that their success was almost entirely based upon my recommendation (wink), because they offered me a hoodie for review. Naturally, I accepted.

Read the review after the break.
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