Bean Dip have been along for the HYA ride since the beginning (technically since day 41 but that is pretty early on), so I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for them, but even if they were sending me a tee or a hoodie for the first time I think I’d still be just as impressed with the quality of their products.

The design itself.is pretty much classic Bean Dip, large print, bold and powerful colourway, and a graphic that’s inspired by a lyric from a Jay-Z song I’ve never heard of that’s probably really, really famous. Yeah, I don’t really get the context, but I do like the graphic. Like I already mentioned, Bean Dip aren’t shy when it comes to bright colours, and this white is bright, it’ll probably fade away a little bit after a few washes but it still gets you noticed. Usually I’m not a huge fan of white clothes, because I have an acute fear staining them, so I generally just didn’t wear them, but recently a few companies have sent me white goods and they’re really starting to grow on me, perhaps they have some sort of slimming effect?

The interior hood print really adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the whole hoodie, and I think that the addition of another colour to the palette (especially gold on a hoodie about money) helps to break up the whiteness, whilst putting the print onto the interior of the hood helps it to remain pretty subtle.

In terms of sizing, it is a little bit over-sized when compared standard sizing, which fits in with their aesthetic, and fairly short, with the elastic at the bottom hugging in more than with most hoodies, but I know that the elastic on BDs hoodies lasts, so you won’t end up with a billowing garment within a couple of months.

Costiness=$56 URL: White, Green

No prizes for guessing what you’ll see if click through.
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Even though I can’t really make out the design all that well, the ever-shrinking emo side of me really likes this tee, and the text kind of squares off the design quite nicely.

One last thing; nipples!

Costiness=$15 URL

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Its quite a strange print, but they have called it ‘Abstract Teknique’, so I can hardly complain, can I?

I like the way that it’s layered, and the different colours are really complimentary, its not exactly a loud and proud kind of design, just nice and subtle.

Costiness=$64.99 URL

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I really love the idea behind the polaroid camera, when you take a picture with it you immediately have something tangible in your hands, and even though I don’t think I’ll ever buy or even use a film camera again, I enjoy having real prints of my photos, its not really the same telling people to look at my Flickr gallery when I can take an envelope of photos to someones house and we can look at them and talk about them together. Yeah, Flickr is social, but there’s nothing like getting together with real people to reminisce.

That was a bit abstract for a tee review, but I think that key to PDCs designs is that they trigger a nostalgic reaction from people who are probably slightly older than me (yeah, I remember that polaroid model, but I love old tech).

People really seem to like these micro prints that PDC are doing, usually my friends don’t take that much notice of my tees, except for saying “another new tee? When are you gonna get something that’ll fit me?” but these tees are actually generating quite a lot of interest, and whilst it is quite weird to be sat a table in a pub with people looking at your chest (unless you’re a girl, obviously) I think it says a lot about the quality of design in these tees.

As ever, quality is top notch.

Costiness=$25 URL

Guess what you’ll see if you click through for more?

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The name says it all really. Bunnies. Chainsaws. Genius.

I guess the name doesn’t really say it all since there’s an eagle holding the chainsaw in its mighty talons, but then I wouldn’t have been able to use that zippy one-word sentence typing. The employment of a hand drawn style does suit this kind of surreal animal and object pairing, although I do find the way that there are three different drawing styles quite odd, they don’t seem to fit together perfectly.

Costiness=$32 (Canadian) URL

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I dig this jacket, largely because it has the feel of an old-school training jacket from a football (… real football) team back in the 70s, yet I really don’t associate X-Large with football style or culture. Admittedly, its an odd reason to like a jacket, but its a reason nonetheless. I know that it says this is a track jacket, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the product pic is hiding a hood.

Costiness=$59.45 URL

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Here’s something odd, every other day this week I’ve opened up the box from Public Domain, pulled out the next tee in the pile, taken it out of its plastic bag, taken some pictures, then gone to write about it. I usually go to PDCs website to make sure I get the name of the tee right, but this design isn’t listed on the boys section of their site, or even the girls section. So I guess you can’t buy this, maybe its a new design that will come on sale soon, or maybe its an old tee they had left over, who knows?

Clearly, this tee is very much influenced by Hokusai’s famous colour woodcut ‘The Great Wave of Kanagawa’. Yes, parts of that last sentence wouldn’t have been possible without this page and google, but at least I recognised the image enough to google ‘famous Japanese art waves’. I like the way that The Great Wave looks, so quite naturally I like this tee, but I do think that it could be improved upon. One of my favourite things about the large prints in their current range is that they’re the full item and the prints don’t just cut off into thin air, but that doesn’t happen here, there’s just a line on the left. I guess I’m being unfair, because what else could they really do? That’s how it was in the original, so what was I expecting from a modern rendition?

As ever, I’m extremely impressed with the quality of the print and the tee itself, but you’re probably getting bored of me saying that by now.

Public Domain Clothing

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Look at me keeping promises, I said I’d try and get more track jackets on the site and I’ve followed through with this beauty I found on Etsy.

I’m about to head out, so after getting your hopes up with the previous sentence I’m going to let you down by just using the blurb to describe this jacket:

“This super light jacket features a Seagull TLR (twin lens camera) in all its glory - perfect for Lomo junkies. This jacket is very lightweight and would be great for spring or cool summer nights.

Hand screened on a super-soft Alternative Apparel 100% cotton fleece jacket with exposed seams and raw edge trim

color: black on army
size: Men’s M, L, XL. let us know what size you’d like in the notes to seller at checkout.”

Interesting fact (if true), seagulls don’t actually exists, they just happen to be gulls that are by the sea.

Costiness=$35 URL

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I thought we’d take a look at a brand that’s on the slightly higher end of things since I was tipped off about them by Matt. True Love & False Idols don’t have an ‘about me’ page on their site, so I’m just going to have a stab at describing them myself. Lots of large, layered, vintage-look prints, some of which seem to have historical, religious and political connotations to their design, although nothing there’s nothing too in-your-face about the references.

I must admit, their hoodies aren’t typically the kind of thing I’d wear, but I know that kind of style is very popular with some people, and I think this selection looks better than most of the other hoodies in this style that I’ve seen before. Most of their hoodies are reversible too, which is always a bonus!

Like I said, TL&FI are a bit more on the high-end compared to HYAs usual assortment of college-kid-wallet friendly apparel, some of their hoodies are $235 (although you can basically half that if they’re reversible!), but a number of their tees and a few hoodies are on sale at Bazaar Adriatic at the moment, and with free shipping, which makes them rather more affordable. TL&FI are also available in a quite a lot of bricks & mortar boutiques, so look up the list on their site and go take a look if you get the chance (I’d love it if someone could report back about seeing these in the fleshcotton).

True Love & False Idols

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When I hear the word ‘aloha’, I immediately think of Hawaii. So quite naturally (I presumed), when I found out about Aloha Victory I thought I’d be checking out some designs from the land of grass skirts and drinks served in coconut shells. Oh, how wrong I was, Aloha Victory are actually based in Florida, but when I actually take a look at this design, both the Hawaiian and Floridian (is that even a word?) aspects are quite apparent.

And when I say apparent, I mean it has both coconuts (Hawaii) and a space shuttle (Kennedy Space Center) on it. I know I probably should have picked up on that the second I pulled the tee out of it’s envelope, but I thought it was a pretty cool way to give a nod to both the geography and the spirit of Aloha Victory. I really like this design, all the elements seem to work so well together, the ‘A’ and ‘V’ that sit on either side of the space shuttle are a really nice touch. One of my favourite aspects of the design is the way that they’ve really brought a sense of perspective to it, which isn’t usually a feature of most tee designs.

The print feels like quality, whilst I’m still not entirely sure about inks, I think that it is printed with plastisol ink, whatever it is, I think its printed to last. The stock tee is a Hanes Beefy T, and I do believe that its the first I’ve received since starting HYA. The Beefy T is, as the name suggests, a bit thicker than a standard tee, and the cut is a bit boxier than a standard American Apparel tee, it still feels pretty soft though, and I would imagine that it’ll last pretty well with it being a little bit thicker.

Costiness=$18 URL

More pics after the break.
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