I must be going soft, two hoodies for women this week and the most descriptive thing that I can think of when I look at either of them is “cuuuuuuuute!” I guess I’m just a sucker for this kind of design style. Hicalorie have got a really impressive lineup of goods available in the Karmaloop Kazbah, and whilst all their models are women, I think all their products are actually unisex, and the ladies just need to order a size down from usual. Also, the hoodie is california fleece cotton, made sweatshop free in downtown LA, which I think is thinly-veiled code for “hey, we print on American Apparel!”

Costiness=$68 URL

• 0 Comments

I can admit that its not exactly the worlds most original concept, although I guess it it more original that the time that someone at Urban Outfitters decided to drop some cupcakes out of an airplane… Also, I’m not entirely in love with the use of the rather clichéd font that’s being used for the text (well, what else would the font be used for?). I know I’m ragging on it, but I do like it, honestly.

Costiness=£42 (free p+p in the UK and Ireland) URL

• 1 Comment

I guess that technically this hoodie is actually “Japanese Kimono Vintage Floral tattoo Asian Art Hoodie” but that doesn’t really roll off the tongue very nicely, does it? So I cut things down to a bit more of a manageable size, that and I really don’t understand where the kimono reference comes into it.

I’m really starting to get into Etsy at the moment, maybe I’ll do an Etsy week at some point in the future.

I may rag on their product-naming skills, but they’ve put together a really nice hoodie here, I like the way that the different elements layer and flow, and I especially like the way that the design moves around to the back.

Costiness=$43 Shipping=$6.50 US, $15 Int’l URL

• 2 Comments

Awww, look at ‘em, the prints, they’re just so ridiculously cute! Personally, I would have printed it on a baby blue hoodie, because I don’t really like the lack of contrast between colours of the peach and the fabric, and the pink does put it into that realm of girly girl rather than just a girls hoodie (not to stratify the gender), but…. its sooooo cute!

There’s some other cool stuff going on as well, like a rhinestone skull and crossbones on the hood, and a little image with tokodoki written underneath it on the back of one of the shoulders (possibly their logo?).

Costiness=$58 URL

• 4 Comments

Enlighten me, what’s this printing technique called? The reason why I like this hoodie is because of the way that the buildings in the cityscape aren’t printed, but for the life of me I simply cannot remember what the style is called, and I wouldn’t even know where to begin with keywords for it on google.

There’s also some interesting two tone printing on the inside of the hood (click through for a pic), I can’t decide if they’re anything more than just lines, but they do look like they might be tiny bits of text.

Costiness=£69.99 URL

• 1 Comment

Oddica: Happy 1st birthday to Oddica. I’m really glad that these guys have made it through their first year and are still impressing me as much as on day one.

Beautiful Decay: Sasha from B/D e-mailed me about their four latest designs (I must be moving up in the world if B/D are e-mailing me). Naturally, they’re all fantastic, but I think that ‘lung music‘ might be a particular favourite of mine.

Gen Art Pulse’s Free T-Shirt Tuesdays: Cool little project these guys have got going on, I’ll let them explain: “we interview an emerging indie t-shirt designer and give away one of their tees to a reader.” Awesome!

Ironic Corporation: Have some blurb: “We’re a small business based in Boulder, Colorado and our company is the culmination of years of blood, sweat, and tears. I’m a writer and photographer and we put a lot of effort into the writing and images on our site and I think they turned out pretty cool. We have some unique product ideas and my favorite is what we call the “Freedom of Speech Bubble”: Essentially, it’s a shirt with an head of Bush, Cheney, Clinton, Tom Cruise, or Paris Hilton with a blank speech bubble where the customer can write their own saying with iron-on letters or erasable markers. We also have a pretty cool contest associated with the Freedom of Speech Bubble concept where people send us their ideas for shirts andwe mail our 3 favorite submissions a free shirt every week.” I really dig the speech bubble idea, I don’t know how original it is, but I can imagine it being pretty popular.

Glass Boutique: They’ve got some great designs from brands I’ve never seen before, and whilst the price range might be a bit high-end for most Americans, their special section is pretty affordable.

Akomplice: If any of you happen to be in Los Angeles on May 22nd head on down to Akomplice’s release party for their latest line. I’d be there, but the HYA jet is out of gas…

The deets:
“Free 21+ Akomplice Summer Release Party
Special performance by Talib Kweli.
THIS TUESDAY May 22nd at Club Element
(1642 N. Las Palmas, Los Angeles, CA 90028 |
www.elementhollywood.com)

1. Large media presence: MTV, E!, 944, Vapors,
Entertainment Weekly, Urb, etc.
2. Purple carpet with step and repeat.
3. Talib Kweli performance + surprise guest.
4. Fashion show with sexy girls only wearing t-shirts and
sneakers.
5. Free give-aways.
6. DJ Vice.
7. On the spot custom sneakers.”

• 2 Comments

You must have known that the recent flurry of cheaper hoodies would come to an end at some point? I guess this isn’t too bad because its about $80 (£1 is still about $2, yeah?), and we all know I’ve featured stuff that makes that look cheap as beans (at least until the bean market picks up again). And anyway, it’s British, and everything in Britain seems to be more expensive than everywhere else in the world, $900 for a PS3 and one game, for example (and thus, I have an Xbox 360).

Its a pretty cool design, I feel that its pretty representative of the kind of cartoon style designs that have been coming out of the UK for a while now. Personally, I’d like to see it printed a bit bigger, but that kind of size and placement seems to be fairly prolific within the UK clothing industry, so maybe people are slightly afraid of breaking out of the invisible box.

Also, it would be nice if the drawstring wasn’t obscuring the print, since its the most important part of the photos.

Costiness=£40 URL

*Edited: I put the wrong product name in the title*

• 3 Comments

I’m not really a fan of posting scandalous/funny/politically charged tees like this since that seems to be the domain of many other blogs, but I saw this and thought to myself:

1. Who would have the balls to wear this?

2. Who would want to wear this?

It leaves me feeling very old, because I keep getting reminded of the phrase “its not big, and its not clever.”

Costiness=$32 URL

• 2 Comments

Its weird how I seem to end up inadvertently having themes running through posts. Yesterday’s recommended hoodie was related to charity, and so is todays (a portion of your purchase goes towards getting children out of poverty), but once again I had no idea about that aspect when I deemed the hoodie fit for HYA recommendation.

Big prints seem to be popular at the moment, that, or I like them and I’ve decided that everyone else does too, so this hoodie is right up my/everybody’s street. It isn’t exactly flashy, but its certainly a quality design, the style (and the content) reminds me of medieval drawings that depicted daily life that used to see in school. It’s pretty odd subject matter for a hoodie, but Rise Up have pulled it off with aplomb.

There’s also a similar print (same framing, different image) on the back, but you’ll have to click through to see that.

Costiness=$54 URL?rcode=AS7594

• 0 Comments

Apparently, To Write Love On Her Arms is a “non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for those struggling with depression, addiction, cutting and suicide.” When I picked this hoodie to write a post about I had no idea about the ‘movement’ aspect, so it was a pleasant surprise when I found out that buying the hoodie might help people (clothing+charity FTW!).

Yeah, it is a pretty simple design, but I really like the simplicity of it, clean and bold, with a small star embellishment to give it a little extra interest. The little bit of blue writing does detract a bit from the cleanliness of the front, and pretty much undermines my whole argument for liking this hoodie, but the handwritten style of the blue text does add quite a nice contrast.

Printed on American Apparel.

Costiness=$38 URL

*THIS PRODUCT IS SOLD OUT, I DO NOT SELL IT, OR KNOW WHERE TO FIND IT ANYMORE, SORRY*

• 23 Comments