I wrote about this Italy-based company a few weeks ago and mentioned that I couldn’t really work out what ‘frustone’ meant, despite having it explained to me by the owners and them selling a t-shirt that is actually called ‘Definition of a Frustone.‘ Well, I think I’m getting closer, but I’m still not 100% there with it. Clearly, ‘frustone’ can mean ‘problem’, I’ve gathered that from this tee, but when it was being sent to me I was asked to let them know when it arrived, “because the mail here in Italy can be a bit frustone,” so I guess that it can mean something that is a bit flaky too (and most likely corrupt judging by my semester of studying Italian politics).

The design is obviously a moderately simple affair, based upon the iconic images taken on the surface of the moon (and they were) by the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission. I can’t find an image where Neil Armstrong is saluting the American flag like this, so I guess the Frustone crew have taken a bit of poetic design license there, but it’s a solid looking image, and the addition of the little footprints suggests that they can handle printing more intricate work than this fairly blocky image.

One of the reasons why I was excited to receive this tee was because I’ve never seen, touched, worn, or even smelt (what? I do this stuff for you guys!) a bamboo t-shirt, and that’s what Frustone print all their tees on. I’d heard good things about bamboo (and not just its ability to be used as scaffolding), and whilst I’ve got no idea about how it will survive over the course of time, I am really impressed with it at the moment. Its very soft, fits well, and has a bit more stretch to it than a regular cotton tee, meaning it can be a bit more forgiving if you put on a few pounds over winter. Oh, and apparently bamboo shirts are better for the planet, which is nice. The print is decent too, solid but not too heavy, and with no imperfections. I guess you could say that this tee isn’t frustone… or not, seriously, what does this word mean?

Costiness=€24 Guys buy it here/Girls buy it here

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Tags » bamboo • frustone • green • Italy • logoteesthatdontsuck • review • Reviews • space • T-shirts

I know what you’re thinking, these tees are pretty normal looking, nothing special, not really worthy of blogging, right?

Well, Mister (or Missus) Know-it-all, prepare to eat humble pie, because these tees are heat sensitive. As the temperature rises the cloud begins to fade away and the sun appears, which is not only a really cool use of heat sensitive ink, but also a great way to illustrate the point behind this design.

You know when its winter and the days are really short and it starts to get you down? A more extreme version of that is Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.), which is what this tee is very cleverly highlighting. As the weather gets sunnier and hotter, your tee is hotter, and therefore gets sunnier, and you’re happier, sooo cool!

There’s another design that has a cloud on it which brings up the message “the sun is nature’s prozac” which is technically just as impressive, but I don’t think it has quite the same impact.

Neither are for sale, unfortunately, I think they’re just part of a designer’s portfolio. [via Kottke]

*The designers website seemed to disappear as I was writing about the tees, so those links probably won’t work, unless there’s just a temporary issue.

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Tags » clever • cloud • funny • innovation • notforsale • sun • T-shirts • technology

LaFraise are managing to keep things hot over in Europe even if the weather insists upon being distinctly depressing and unsunny. The gallery has a few of their latest releases in it.

laFraise

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Tags » American Apparel • hot model • lafraise • releases • T-shirts

Enclothe released four new designs (well, three new and one reworking of a classic) a couple of days ago, one of which, the green one, Digfoot, was created by Sven Pamlowski, known to many as a.mar.illo. All four tees are pretty cool, not following any specific kind of theme or style, which is something I like about Enclothe, they print what they like, not what they think will sell well… although chances are these will sell well anyway!

Enclothe

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Tags » a.mar.illo • enclothe • Mens • New Designs • releases • sven palmowski • T-shirts • Womens

Ugmonk have been posted e-ver-y-where recently with the white tee up there, Lowercase, but let’s not just give attention to the popular kid, it can’t all be Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!, Jeff Sheldon (Ugmonk creator) has put together a great first mini-season, who decided to launch his own brand following after whetting his appetite with design contests.

Here’s a mini-blurb that gives you a decent idea for what Ugmonk is about:

With the market being oversaturated with complex, crazy designs, Ugmonk’s mission is to provide simple yet fresh designs through various products.

Mission accomplished I’d say!

Ugmonk

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Tags » American Apparel • red • simple • T-shirts • type • typography • ugmonk • white • yellow

Stereopanda haven’t been on HYA for far too long, so I’m glad to welcome them back by actually writing about something that actually hides your arms, which is something of a novelty at the moment, but since Summer seems to be long gone I think its time to get back in the hoodie habit.

SP have two new offerings, one is a classic varsity style jacket in a great blue/white/brown colourway, and the other is a windbreaker which has an upper-body all-over print of Stereopanda’s latest logo.

Oh, and that logo in the background of the picture isn’t photoshopped, I’m pretty sure they actually have those massive letters.

Stereopanda

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Tags » blue • brown • France • jacket • stereopanda • varsity • windbreaker