I was in Manchester at the weekend for a fancy dress party (I went as Stalin, but got called anything from Private Pyle to ‘that guy from My Name Is Earl‘), and, as promised, I made a trip to Footlocker to check out the first in what is intended to be a multi-part series of collaborations between Kozyndan and Puma. I was actually pretty surprised to find the hoodie in this particular Footlocker since it seemed to be filled with chavs buying weak streetwear but I did find the grey hoodie tucked away in a quiet back corner of the store. I was also surprised that the price had already been knocked down from £54.99 to £34.99, I don’t know how old the design is, but considering that Kozyndan themselves were surprised to see the hoodie a week ago then I’d presume that it’s fairly new.

The design is typical Kozyndan, based upon a panorama that they have created specifically for the series (the related image is on a removable tag inside the hoodie), its not quite as colourful as their print work, naturally, but there are quite a few little dashes of colour around the hoodie that do make the grey-on-grey colourway look a bit more exciting. It feels like a quality garment, pretty much what you’d expect from a large brand like Puma, and whilst I didn’t drop the cash on it myself, I was mighty tempted. The hoodie can be found at most Footlocker locations in Europe.

Click through for more pictures.

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Tags » collaboration • Exclusive • footlocker • hoodie • kozyndan • puma • T-shirts

In my previous looks at Akumu Ink I’ve mentioned more than once that they’re pretty dark (in the literal and figurative senses), not that that’s a bad thing, but having designs that are always printed onto a black tee are going to pigeon-hole you a bit. I guess that Summer must have arrived in Montreal (here’s some bad pictures I took when I was there 6 years ago), because they’ve seen the light(er colours) and are now offering some of their designs on Army (olive green) for the guys and raspberry for the girls.In addition to adding two new colours to their palette they’ve also added two new designs to their inventory. Death’s Embrace (shown in raspberry) is a rather Nightmare Before Christmas style design in which a skeleton is shooting itself in the head. The skull on the character is actually handpainted, whilst the rest of the body is screenprinted, and AI sent over some exclusive for HYA (and Kat) that I’ve put at the bottom of the post. The Black Rose (shown in Army), has a really cool print placement that wraps the thorny stem of the rose around the side of the tee.One point that I raised in my sample review was that AI put a pretty large print of their logo on the lower back of each tee, one of the joys of individually screen printing each t-shirt is that if you don’t want that logo being printed there, you don’t have to have it printed there, you just need to let them know and they’ll sort that out for you.

One last bit of AI news, they’re going to be at ‘Northern Ink Xposure‘ at the Toronto Hilton, June 13th-15th. I don’t really know much about tattoos, but if you do, and you’re in Toronto, then I imagine you’d want to swing by this event.

Akumu Ink

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Tags » akumu ink • American Apparel • Canada • Exclusive • green • New Designs • pink • placement • releases • skulls • tattoos

Oh damn, I totally forgot to post this, which is a bit silly since it is a code that’s totally exclusive to us HYA folk (unless someone republishes it…), although it does have an open ended expiration date so hopefully its still working. If you spend $50 or more in the Brooklyn Industries online store you can get $5 off by using the coupon code BKIHYA. I think they dropped a new line of graphic tees last week, so there should be plenty for you to pick from.

Brooklyn Industries [Photo credit: Forklift]

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Tags » brooklyn industries • Coupon Codes • Exclusive

Hicalorie, whom I’ve professed my love for on HYA in the past, have unleashed their summer 2008 range upon stores across the world, but they wanted to reward their many die hard fans by posting some items that are exclusive to their Big Cartel powered store. It’s not all quite available yet (the skate decks and original art are labelled ‘coming soon’), but there’s plenty there to whet your appetite. The store is British and all listed in pounds, so I’m afraid it might make painful reading for Americans even with the dollar/pound rate swinging a little bit back your way, but if the prices bring a tear to your eye, at least you’ve got some decent eye candy to look at.Hicalorie.com
Hicalorie store

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Tags » Exclusive • hicalorie • illustration • New Designs • UK

When I went down to London in February to attend Margin I decided I was going to make a bit of a pilgrimage to Concrete Hermit, and since they were located pretty near to The Park and To Be Confirmed shows that I was going to attend I decided I’d be stupid not visit them after writing about Concrete Hermit so much in the past.
In hindsight, the gallery is actually quite easy to find, but because I had a lame printout from Google Maps to guide me it took about 30 minutes walking and stopping several people (most of whom seemed as lost as me) to find them when they’re only about 10 minutes brisk walk from Liverpool Street Station. Located on a fairly quiet street not far from the hustle and bustle of Brick Lane, a street that is famous for curry, art, clothes and graffiti, pretty much in that order. The Concrete Hermit gallery has the appearance of a regular shop, except with a lot less stuff in it. This is a conscious decision that has been made to separate the exhibition space from the sales area, which I think helps them to maintain the ambiance of a gallery in the front of the space when you walk in, you aren’t immediately confronted with items that you can buy, I think that’s important and helps you understand what the CH team want their gallery to be like.
Of course, you can buy things in the gallery as well. Almost everything that is available in their online shop is available in the gallery, and if it isn’t out I suspect that they’d be able to get it for you since, if I remember correctly, their storage space is either located in the basement of the gallery or somewhere very nearby. It was good to get hands on with their t-shirt offerings after recommending them so many time, and I wasn’t disappointed with the quality of their high-end tee offerings, soft tees and soft, vibrant prints are to be found in abundance on their racks, so I’m happy to keep recommending them. Whilst I don’t think it is possible to buy the original works that are on show in the exhibition space, it is usually possible to buy a print or poster from the same artist, and also a t-shirt which has been designed by the artist exclusively for their exhibition at the gallery.

Concrete Hermit

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Tags » concrete hermit • Exclusive • gallery • guide • HYAvisits • photos • tour

No Star clothing, despite already having a pretty decent price for their two birds hoodie ($60), they are offering Hide Your Arms readers an even greater incentive to pick up one of their sweatshirts. If you enter the coupon code HYA20 when you order the sweatshirt you will receive a 20% discount, taking the item down to $48, bargain!

The coupon is valid up until the 21st June 2006 (Tuesday next week), so take advantage while you can.

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Tags » • coupon code • Exclusive • no star clothing

As a logical follow up to yesterdays first half of the interview with Rafael Vera of The Handsome Sausage, I present, shockingly enough, the second half.

I’m a stickler for not crowding the front-page, questions and answers after the jump.
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Tags » Exclusive • handsome sausage • interview • questions • rafael

One of my favourite aspects of writing Hide Your Arms is that I get to interact with a creative community of young designers who are out there doing something different from the norm.

Un-earthing great clothes and showing them to readers is very rewarding (as are the freebies…), but sometimes I like to try something a bit different and get a greater understanding for what inspires the clothing that I promote here on Hide Your Arms.

With that in mind I asked Rafael Vera, from The Handsome Sausage, if he would like to do an interview. My charm and wit clearly won through, as he agreed to and promptly answered my (admittedly uninspiring) questions.

First four questions from the interview after the jump:
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Tags » Exclusive • handsome sausage • interview • questions • rafael