When the postman delivered the familiar screenprinted EIO envelope a little smile came across my face. There’s something about EIO clothing that makes me feel a bit like a rockstar, which may well be because EIO make tees worn by rockstars… and Mika.

Things got even more rock when I pulled the tee out of its wrapping paper (not pictured, but it is a cool touch). This tee had gold foil on it, I’ve always thought that there was a certain audacity to printing with gold foil, its flashy, its attention grabbing, and almost completely unnecessary in the best possible way. I maintained my recent run of tee-test professionalism by wearing this tee last weekend, and people loved it, specifically my various lady friends loved it, the guys didn’t really notice, but that’s probably because the butterflies make it a bit feminine for most of my boys. Butterflies and a record player (or a ‘deck’ as the kids are calling it) might not exactly be a combination that everyone will love, but I can almost see a connection,

I’ve never received a tee with gold foil on it, so its hard for me to tell how it compares to other tees with foil on them, but from what I can tell the printing is very sharp, especially considering that we aren’t exactly talking about big blocks of foil, there’s some thin lines and details there that have been dealt with very well. EIO do admit on the product page that the gold foil will distress with washing, and recommend hand washing the tee, so I guess that’s something that you should be aware of, I’ll try and give you an update on how well it washes, but considering how many tees I have it could be many months before I’ve worn it enough times for a washing test to produce conclusive results. The new custom hang tags look pretty freakin’ awesome too.

Costiness=£23.95 (currently on sale, regularly £29.95, both prices include free worldwide shipping) Link

• 3 Comments
Tags » black • butterflies • eio clothing • foil • gold foil • music • review • Reviews • T-shirts • UK

Let’s do the polite thing and let Council Dukes introduce themselves before I give you my thoughts:

Council Dukes is a new streetwear label coming straight outta East London- it typifies all that is admirable about the gentleman thief, the geezer, the cheeky conman who’ll rob you blind with a smile on his face. With a lineage stretching from Robin Hood to the Artful Dodger and from Butch Cassidy to Terry Thomas; history and fortune have always favoured the smart as well as the brave.

To be completely honest, I don’t really see the qualities of a gentleman thief running through this new line of tees, but I do see a lot of promise. The designs, whilst almost entirely focused upon their own name, are fairly original, make decent use of gold foil (no wonder they’re gaining a following in the British hip hop world), and they seem to have the quality aspect down too. All the tees are 100% made in Britain, limited to 100 pieces in their first run, and finished with Council Dukes hem and/or sleeve tags.

Council Dukes

• 3 Comments
Tags » council dukes • gold foil • hip hop • Label Profiles • london • music • T-shirts • UK

Now this here is a really clever design, I love the way that the head seamlessly transitions into being the butt/handle of the revolver, and as ever, there ain’t nothing wrong with putting some gold foil onto a design, especially a gun, it kinda makes it feel like we’re in an African dictatorship!

Oh, and there’s an oversized, Thank Theory branded bullet on the back right should, which looks kinda badass since its in gold too, if it were in white then it would probably just look like a bird crapped on your shoulder.

Costiness=$24 Link (get up to 20% off your order with the coupon code AS7594)

• 0 Comments
Tags » foil • gold • gold foil • grey • gun • Karmaloop • pistol • t-shirt • tank theory