I knew who David Lee Roth was since we’re both hard rockin’ amigos (though, admittedly, I didn’t recognise him from the tee), but Patrick Nagel was a new name to me, which I think shows my considerable lack of art history knowledge, but once I found this website about him I did actually recognise the style (I’m cultured!), and the t-shirt started to make a whole lot more sense.

I did something quite unusual with this t-shirt; I wore it on a night out before doing the review. Usually I take the pictures, do the review, and then I’ll wear it at some point in the future, but with this tee I took the pictures then wore it on a Saturday night out with my friends. One of the problems with everyone knowing that I have a large collection of t-shirts that have been sent to me for free rather than me picking and choosing them from shops is that they feel they can say whatever they want about my clothes. Reactions ranged from “that is a horrible t-shirt”, “that looks really weird”, to “isn’t that the guy from Twisted Sister?” Over an entire night only one of my friends realised that the image was of Diamond Dave of Van Halen fame, and none of them were particularly enamoured with it. Out of everyone I know, I’m the only person that actually likes this shirt, so I think that the Patrick Nagel style combined with Roth’s rather ‘unique’ appearance really makes this a ‘love it or hate it’ kind of design, although I guess it could be a British thing, maybe in the US where Van Halen were a lot bigger it would be a whole different story. But its not just the person that I find interesting about this tee, the bright, bold, and numerous colours of Roth and the pink stripes in the background being put over the dullness of the grey t-shirt work really well, providing great contrast.

Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction have been impressing pretty much everyone with their designs, and I’m just as impressed with their quality level, and the press package that they’ve put together. I don’t usually talk about the little press bits that I get sent, but they looked really cool (pics below), and made it feel like they were a company who put a lot more into the design aspect of their business than just the end product. The blank tee is provided by American Apparel, so we all know what the deal is there by now, and the print is amongst the thickest plastisol ink that I’ve ever had (I could be wrong about it being plastisol though). I would imagine that the print is thick because they wanted to produce really solid, vibrant colours, in keeping with Nagel’s style, but it doesn’t make the tee feel at all heavy.

Costiness=$34 Link

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Tags » AITA • Aperican Apparel • Art in the Age • David Lee Roth • grey • music • negative space • Patrick Nagel • T-shirts • Thom Lessner • Van Halen

Its not exactly often I read or write about GAP, but I thought that there were some cool designs in the range, so here it is. According to HighSnobriety:

Gap worked in close partnership with the Whitney Museum of American Art and Art Production Fund to create the collection with the 13 artists, who are all previous Whitney Biennial participants. The Whitney Biennial is a special exhibition held every two years at the Whitney Museum of American Art that features the most important contemporary art in the United States. Gap is a proud sponsor of the 2008 Whitney Biennial.

Is it just me or does that read like part of a press release? I hadn’t actually heard of any of the artists (I’m no art buff), but that doesn’t stop them from being a damn fine line of t-shirts. They’re available from select GAP stores (so the ones in big cities then?), online at GAP.com, a few art museums in the US, and Colette in Paris for between $28 and $32.

‘GAP Artist Edition T-Shirts - Jeff Koons/Barbara Kruger/Chuck Close & More’ by HighSnobriety [via Newshow @ Notcot]

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Tags » artists • GAP • limited edition • T-shirts • whitney biennial

You might have noticed that I haven’t been posting many items of sleeved clothing recently, which is pretty odd since hoodies are the backbone of HYA, but when I’m spending my days wearing shorts and a t-shirt, sitting by lakes enjoying a cool beverage, writing about hoodies doesn’t make a huge amount of sense. I’ll keep posting about them, just not as much as usual whilst its as hot as it is at the moment.

At the very least, today’s hoodie recommendation comes in a cool and refreshing colourway, which is probably why I’m inclined to post it on a day when I literally can’t see a cloud in the sky out of the window.

Costiness=$119 Link

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Tags » blue • geometric • hoodie • Karmaloop • subcript

When I first saw this tee I was all like “sweet, negative space!” I later realised that it wasn’t negative space at all, but still a really cool tee that reminds me of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ a bit, which is usually a good thing when it comes to design style. Printed on an American Apparel blank for both men and women.

Costiness=€22 Link

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Tags » American Apparel • black • lafraise • T-shirts • wayoner

I’m a bit of a fan of clothing and technology being brought together in some kinda crazy meeting of fashion and science (fashience? scishion?), and when it can actually have a practical application that’s even better. The t-shirt above, which LiveScience charitably describe as ‘pretty cool-looking’, can monitor a persons vital signs, which would probably be pretty good for people in hospitals, those being rehabilitated at home, and athletes. One version of the t-shirt collects data on an SD card for later analysis, and another version can be synced up with a smartphone or PDA. I think it would be really cool if the shirt had GPS, and then you’d be able to monitor how your body reacted at different points during the day, I know that’s probably information overload for a lot of people, but it could be a pretty interesting project.

T-Shirt Monitors Heart Rate @ LiveScience [via TeeBurst]

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Tags » health • heart • T-shirts • technology

Check out Glass Boutique’s blog for some of the better entries to their design competition, I’m pretty impressed by the quality level. I’m guessing that they aren’t getting the same level of interest and publicity as the big guns like Threadless and DBH, this could be a good opportunity for people who are new to the t-shirt design scene to get some experience in the design competition world.

Glass Boutique blog

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Tags » blog • design competition • glass boutique