I’m off down south for the weekend, partly to be a tourist, and partly to go see one of the biggest bands in the UK, Muse (as well as My Chemical Romance), at the new Wembley. Yep, I’m going to walk onto the pitch at Wembley, I’m actually going to live out part of many kids dreams.

I’m away until late on Monday night and won’t have any internet or e-mail access, but I’ve write up a review that will be auto-posted (hopefully!) on Monday, so please check back to see that.

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Time to take a look at the ‘mega’ version of the previously reviewed calculator watch micro tee. PDC are sticking to their tried, tested & trusted style of retro consumerism, except this time its been planted onto a loud and proud colourway of orange print on a yellow-tinged cream tee.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love their big prints, they dominate the tee and that’s the way it should be, especially when you’re using a one colour print such as this. A comment on the previous micro version of this tee said that “there’s more nerdlingery going on in this tee than just the Casio calculator watch… check out the time displayed.” I don’t really know the nerdiness of the time (forgive me!), but my very best googling did turn up a couple of lines from the bible, I wonder if that’s what Joe meant?

I’m almost getting bored of saying this by now, since I know it and you know it, but the quality of Public Domains tees and printing is absolutely top-notch. The cut is similar to American Apparel, except slightly shorter and a little bit more stretchy.

Costiness=$25 URL

Click through for more pictures.
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I’m sure there’s a term for the art of giving a face to inanimate objects, and I should probably learn what that term is, because there are sooo many tees and hoodies out there in utilising whatever it is you would call that style. Usually, a tee that has some kind of political, social or environmental message isn’t that well designed, its often a case of substance over style, so its great to see that Allmightys used their design competition to get some well designed tees out there on the theme of ‘Mother Nature’, and they’re giving €1 to Friends of the Earth with the sale of every tee too.

Allmightys are pretty new to the increasingly crowded design competition scene, but I think they’re a pretty welcome arrival because they’ve actually got a decent roster of artists (I guess they set themselves apart by being quite picky about their artists) who are putting out some good looking designs, and if it looks good then I don’t think it would be fair to complain just because they’re another design competition style company.

Costiness=€25 URL

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Designgive are a company that I just can’t help but love, they have quality designs, their clothes are cheap, and they still manage to give away a portion of each sale to charity, and the customer even gets to choose where that charitable contribution goes to!

I think they manage to keep their costs down by having a set amount of time in which a design can be pre-ordered, and when that period has ended they print up the orders and ship them out, meaning there’s little-to-no spare stock that they’ve wasted money on. This process also helps to keep designs limited edition, which I’m sure will appeal to a lot of people.

I picked this design because it has a cute/ridiculous style to it, and I really like the way that the colours work together.

Costiness=$25 (hoodie version, $3 to charity) URL

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I can’t believe that I’m going to hit the heights of fashion blogger cliché-dom, but Local Celebrity are so hot right now. I saw one of their tees on MTVs Real World, and they’re being worn by Pax Jolie-Pitt, Nick and Aaron Carter, and Carrie Underwood. I know those guys aren’t A-list, but it does get me a little excited that I get sent the same tees as a a freakin’ Backstreet Boy!

In a lot of American sitcoms there seems to be a group of people that meet up once a month and play poker, it seems to be as much of an American pastime as baseball. It isn’t quite as big in the UK, but there’s been quite a lot of poker tournaments on our sports TV channels, and when I was at university quite a lot of people seemed to be into playing a casual game, even if we would often squabble about the rules. Whether the game/sport is popular in the UK or not, clothing based on gambling seems to be pretty big, cards and poker slogans seem to really lend themselves to vintage look tees and polo shirts. I can only presume that this kind of clothing is just as popular in the US.

The tee has a good vintage look to it, and the two-tone printing on the orange helps to enhance that 70s feel. The stitching on the shoulders feels as if its a bit thicker than with a usual tee, and I don’t know why, but that kind of gives it more of a vintage feel as well. In terms of quality, it feels like an American Apparel tee, and its cut like an American Apparel tee, so it may very well be an American Apparel tee.

As an added bonus, if you buy this tee, you’re automatically entered into a prizedraw in which some people will be flown to either Los Angeles or Las Vegas to play in a private one table tournament with a pro-player called Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, pretty sweet, eh?

Costiness=$22.50 URL

Bumper crop of expandable thumbnails if you click through.
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I always burn with anger (inside, I’d remain the consumate gentlemen on the outside) whenever I see anyone wearing a tee with Che Guevara on it. I get the feeling I may have mentioned this pet peeve of mine before, but this tee is actually pretty clever, so I’m going to let it slide just this once, especially since its based on Rebel Ape’s classic Planet of the Apes/Guevara mashup logo. I get the feeling this tee is reversible, because there’s a picture on Karmaloop’s site of the ape logo itself that has the unusual label of ‘inside view’, and, well, it is called ‘The Flip Tee.’

Oh, and it has gold foil, so obviously I was going to give it a mention!

Costiness=$40 URL

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Ahhh, sack races, one of the most pointless forms of racing at school sports days. I say pointless because I never really worked out how to move quickly whilst in a sack, thus I lost the races, and if I couldn’t work it out then I’m pretty sure that its a waste of everyone’s time. Nice graphic though!

“Product Information
wee sackrace hoodie - every body jump!!! jump!!!

small print positioned on heart <3

hoodies designed by tee and toast: a funky t-shirt brand with a quirky sense of humour. unique, limited and independent!”

There’s quite a large colour selection for the ladies to pick from, and happily, it is also available for dudes.

Costiness=£42 URL

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I went on a shopping trip down to Manchester today, and I was actually surprisingly impressed with what I could find in the mainstream shops (I even bought rather a nice pair of shorts), but I particularly enjoyed visiting Wood, Exit, Westworld and a fantastic little bookshop called Magma where I spotted prints by Eboy and KOZYNDAN, as well as tees by Concrete Hermit and 2K by Gingham. I picked up a cheap copy of 200% Cotton, and almost got a tee-nerd-rection when I spotted the 2nd issue of T, the journal of t-shirt culture, I’ll give it a review later when I’ve given it a proper look. I know what you’re thinking, what does this have to do with this tee, well, fear not, I have an astoundingly ridiculous segue…

One of my friends bought some vinyl records today! And this tee has lots of decks on it, so, the story is almost justified now… As ever, its a sweet tee, their micro line just keep growing on me, and the turntable cheqeurboard print looks great. The colourway is rather more subdued than some of their other efforts, but the grey/blue (Grue? Bley?) colour of the turntables is really nice, and a slight change from the regular white that I would expect most tee companies to use.

The printing is sharp (as in, no errors or blemishes), yet the tee and print are still ever-so soft, with a slightly fitted cut that is also forgivingly stretchy.

Costiness=$25 URL: Mens, Womens

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I was really in two minds whether I should run this tee, not because I’m ambivalent about their designs, but because they’re just so goddamn good, its so hard for me to choose just one, so there may well be an almost PDC-esque deluge of Universe on a t-shirt merchandise in the coming weeks (ha, take a guess who the next post is about?).

There’s been quite the dearth of cephalopods around here for quite a while, I hope it didn’t effect my audience! Seriously though, this is a very, very nice looking tee, with some original styling, and just for a change, they’ve actually taken some really nice product shots as well. Y’know, I know Dutch people are stereotyped as being laid back (UoaT is based in Amsterdam), but would have it really been so hard for them to give their tees a name?

Costiness=€34 URL [thanks, Stylehive user!]

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Paint splatters are an oft-used design element in the clothing industry nowadays, but it isn’t every day that you see a hoodie that only has splatters on it, making it ever-easier for someone to think you’ve had a rather artistic painting accident on your clothes. I can’t really see any kind of pattern or join-the-dots type imagery in the print, so I guess that what you see is what you get with this hoodie.

“Hooded sweatshirt with “bleached spots” detail and distressed logo on front; front kangaroo pockets; ribbing 5.5″ at cuffs and 3″ at waistband; 100% cotton.”

Now that is some sexy blurb-age.

Costiness=$33.95 (down from $50) URL

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