Every so often I get reminded by people just how much water and chemicals it takes to make a t-shirt, I’m pretty sure that they’re just jealous because my t-shirt collection is so awesome, but they are making a good point about how I’m destroying the planet by having tees in my closet that only get worn every few months.

I know I’m being flippant in the above paragraph, but seriously,
Continental Clothing are attempting to do their part in the global war on climate change with their new Earth Positive range. Over the past couple of years Continental have been trying to make the company more environmentally friendly, they’ve managed to reduce the carbon emissions of the entire production and shipping process for a basic white tee (size large) by a massive 89% to just 671 grams. It should be noted that this isn’t done by carbon offsetting, they’ve physically reduced the amount of gases that are being emitted from production, in part by only using green energy suppliers that use wind and solar power, using biodegradable packaging, no airfreighting, . This particular tee is also 100% organic (are you surprised?), as certified by the Soil Association, and produced under the Global Organic Textile Standard from Indian Cotton.

These steps have led to the Carbon Trust (a UK governmental organisation) asking for Continental Clothing to serve as a case study for the clothing industry so that others can benefit from their research and development, so they’ve clearly done some impressive work here improving their products.

Its quite hard to review a t-shirt like this, because even though you know it is much better for the environment, it still just feels like a normal (albeit high-quality) t-shirt. Obivously, that’s a good thing, if a t-shirt sucks, people probably wouldn’t buy it just because it wasn’t bad for the environment, so creating something that is either better than the original, or of equal quality whilst resulting in about a tenth of the emissions is a great step for them to make. I had noticed Continental Clothing becoming popular with more and more brands (including perennial HYA supporter Turtlehead) over the past few months, and I would imagine that a tee like this would be popular with people that usually look towards American Apparel when they’re picking a stock tee to print their tees on.I can’t find any information about pricing in the literature, or on the websites, but I would imagine that it would be pretty comparable to most similar offerings from other organic and ethical producers.

You can see the whole range (more than just t-shirts) at the dedicated Earth Positive Online site, and there’s also some info on the range and everything else CC at the main Continental Clothing site.

Yes, I managed to take extra pictures of a blank shirt.

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Tags » continental clothing • eco • Environmental • green • review • Reviews • T-shirts

Clearly Social-T are trying to help me impress the ladies in my life (free t-shirts=love, right?), seeing as they’ve sent over this girlie sized version of their April ‘issue’. Since I covered their subscription model fairly extensively in my last review of Social-T it seems a little silly to go over the entire process again just a week later, so if you missed the first review then check out this post and you’ll find out what sets Social-T apart from other t-shirt companies.

Most of Social-Ts shirts have a social message or issue attached to them, and that is the case with this design. This one takes a look at over-development and pollution in coastal areas, and how that is threatening surf spots. I know, there are bigger things to worry about than where people can go surfing (of course, I don’t surf, so I would say that), but I’m sure that if I lived in a place where the water was rather more inviting then I’d be all over this like a rash, a rash that I would have presumably got from pollution in the water whilst surfing. The 20 spots are listed on the back of the tee in a highly, highly, stylised font, so it doesn’t look like a bands tour t-shirt, which is always a danger when you’re putting a list on the back of a tee.

The quality level, as you’d expect if you read the last review, is pretty damned good. The stock tee is once again provided by American Apparel, I don’t have much experience of wearing girls tees, as you’d imagine, so I can’t really tell you much about the cut, but it feels just as soft as the guys ones and that’s good enough for me. The print feels a little bit thicker than the other Social-Ts that I’ve reviewed, but that might just be because this tee has the largest coverage of print of the three I’ve seen. It isn’t a big issue though, the printing is still of a high-quality. As with their other tees, there is info printed on the inside neck of the tee instead of a hang tag, so there’s not even a chance of tag-showing embarrassment.

Costiness=$32 a month (discounts available for 6 & 12 month subscriptions) Link

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Tags » blue • review • Reviews • social T • Subscription • t-shrits • waves

The second of tee to fall out of the envelope from Your Eyes Lie this week was Skull Bow. Well, I presume its called Skull Bow, YEL don’t really name their tees, but thats what the product ID says so I’m going to roll with it. In my review earlier this week I spoke a bit about the passion that YEL have for their product and what they’ve been through to get where they are, and I’m not going to repeat myself about that, so check out the first review if you’re after some background on the company.

It seems like I’ve spent a lot of this week talking about how it isn’t necessarily that important to ‘get’ a design or understand the meaning behind a t-shirt, and when I’m presented with an image of a skull with a bow-tie wrapped around its non-existent neck, with three rings in the skull where the ear should be, I’m inclined to suggest that not understanding the meaning of the shirt is okay here too, rather than attempting some ill-informed pop-psychology. I really like the image itself, the black on white print in the photocopy style gives it a washed-out grittiness, whilst it also has a few lines around the top of the skull that make it look like an illustration that you’d find in an old school textbook. I do have to take issue with the three ear rings though, they give it an almost cartoon-ish quality that doesn’t sit too well with what I regard as a fairly macabre image, even if the bow-tie is probably there to provide some comic relief.

The quality is impressive, I know YEL spent a long time creating a stock tee to print on and I think all the effort was worth it, they really have produced a beautifully soft, high-quality t-shirt that I know lasts well with washing and doesn’t lose its shape. The print quality is decent too, and doesn’t fade too much with repeated washings, although I think that tees of this style are well suited to a vintage look, so fading probably wouldn’t be as bigger deal as usual if it were to occur, I guess.

Costiness=£15.50 Link

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Tags » Mens • monochrome • review • Reviews • skull • white • Womens • YEL • youreyeslie

HYAs latest advertiser, Social T, sent a couple of tees over recently, which is great because it gave me a chance to make sure that I was still advertising a quality product, because I want you guys to trust the people that I let advertise on this site. I think it says a lot about Social T that even though they’ve already sent me a sample in the past that they wanted me to check out more of their limited edition tees.

For those of you that are unaware, Social T is a company that runs on the subscription model that is increasing in popularity. Basically, you can pay each month, or a prepaid plan (2, 3, 6, or 12 months) and a new tee will arrive on your doorstep around the 15th of each month. Social T will only print as many tees as they have subscribers for that month, so these tees are pretty limited edition, if you’re into that kind of thing. Of course, you do have to make a leap of faith with services like these since you don’t know what will be inside the envelope each month. I quite like being surprised when I receive a tee (I make a point of never picking a certain design when offered a sample), but I guess its different when you’re actually paying for the clothing. Luckily, Social T do have a style that they don’t deviate from too dramatically, so you can judge from their back catalogue of ‘issues‘ whether your style fits with theirs, and hopefully you won’t be disappointed at what you pull out of the package each month.

I know I said that the house style at Social T doesn’t deviate very much, but that doesn’t mean that they’re sticking to a certain type of design, I just think that if you like one of their tees, its fairly likely that you’re going to like most of them. Social T aren’t just making tees that look good (hey, they’re called ‘Social’ for a reason), they’re also meant to help spread the message about social issues and spark up a conversation, and they manage to do it in a way that isn’t preachy. For example, today’s shirt (Issue 15, January 2008) is a bit on the lighter side and has “I resolve to be a better human being” written on it, a lot, obviously as a reference to people making New Year’s resolutions, which isn’t exactly a hard hitting social issue, and as such doesn’t serve as a very good example for what I was trying to say, but I would imagine it could have been a pretty decent pick-me-up if I’d got this in the mail in mid-January just as I was starting to lose track of my resolutions and think that “one doughnut isn’t going to matter.”
Quality is impressive (shocking, I know). The stock tee is provided by American Apparel, so the vast majority of readers know what you’re getting there (soft cotton, sweatshop-free, made in Los Angeles, slim fit, hipster friendly), and the printing is good too. You can feel the print, but it certainly is not rough. I can also attest to the print on Social T’s goods being long-lasting too, since issue 13 is still looking good in my wardrobe with a distinct lack of fading. Instead of a custom tag or the standard AA tag, Social T have printed a tag inside the shirt which has all the expected details on it, plus a mysterious ‘rn#103255′, which I guess might be some kind of print number, so that you know its limited edition, but I could easily be wrong, it has happened before… once.Costiness=$32 per month (some prepaid deals are cheaper per month) Link

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Tags » green • Mens • message • olive • review • Reviews • social • social T • Subscription • T-shirts • Womens

It’s always fun to get mail from unexpected places, and Thailand is one of those places. I’m pretty used to receiving mail from America by now, but the far East is still something of a novelty for me in terms of mail, and even though I know that Your Eyes Lie are a UK/Thai operation, I was expecting a package with stamps bearing the Queens face rather than a serious looking Thai guy. I’m sure the very mention of Thailand and clothes has immediately got some of you worrying about the conditions that these clothes were made in, but have no fear, these tees have nothing to do with little kids that have excellent sewing skills and a lot to do with a creative partnership between British graphic designer Ben Yarwood and Thai fashion designer Alisa Longsuwan.
I met Ben at Margin and we had a good chat about all things YEL and HYA, he told me all about the stresses of creating a tee to print on (no stock AAs here!), the significance of being picked up by Urban Outfitters, and gave me a better overall understanding for a brand that I knew I liked, but didn’t quite get.This tee is also something that I don’t quite get. The phrase ‘Hand of Prey’ is actually a Googlewhack, with the link going to a PDF about the History of Veterinary Medicine in the late Islamic Period… so I don’t think that’s where they got their inspiration from for this piece. But I think not knowing what it means is pretty cool too, t-shirts don’t necessarily have to mean something, and you don’t necessarily have to understand it if they do. The important thing is that they look cool, and undoubtedly this does, black and white tees always give you a lot of options when you’re pairing up your tee with something, which is why I like that combo so much.
Considering how much time YEL put into creating a quality t-shirt (I think they spent about six months testing and retesting different styles, cuts and material blends) its hardly a surprise that they’ve produced something impressive. The first tee of theirs that I reviewed is still going strong four months on, although you should bear in mind that since I own so many tees I don’t wear the same tee as often as most people do. It is quite a fitted shirt, and not particularly long in the body either, definitely a quality product, and the custom tags are a nice touch as well.

Costiness=£15.50 Link

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Tags » • bird • monochrome • review • Reviews • Thailand • UK • white • YEL • youreyeslie

I’m kinda worried about wearing this tee outside my house because I’m unsure over whether it counts as a ‘religious’ tee (though I will tag it as that). It isn’t necessary pro or anti Christianity, but I’m not sure that Christians would be particularly happy seeing Jesus puffing on a death stick. I’ll have to ask my designated Christian friend about it, even though we never discuss religion, presumably for fear of ruining our friendship. Can you see the risks that I take for you people!

Blasphemy aside, I think it’s interesting that Individualitee went with an image of Jesus that isn’t that cartoony, obviously it is a cartoon, but it doesn’t seem to be an image that is directly meant to make us laugh, which makes the tee slightly less whacky, and as I’m not a fan of wackiness, that is something that I’m happy about. One issue that I have with this image is that I always thought the phrase was “holy smokes,” but a quick trip to google suggests that both forms are acceptable, so that issue is probably all in my head.

I was excited to receive this tee because Individualitee’s website is powered by the Spreadshirt print-on-demand service. I know that there are some people will not buy tees from services like this, but when the quality is as good as this then I don’t really understand why. Though having said that I do think that Spreadshirt offer a rather more superior quality when compared to other POD services (though more research is needed on that subject). The main image is printed with flock, but thin and flexible flock, which I was impressed to see since the last flock item I got from Spreadshirt about 4 years ago was much thicker (hurrah for progress!). There is also a little logo on the left sleeve which is printed with regular ink (probably plastisol). The tee is from a stock that I haven’t experienced before called B&C European Style, the cut is of the regular style, similar to Fruit of the Loom, and I’d call it similar in terms of quality, possibly even a little bit softer.

Costiness=$23 Link

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Tags » ash • flock • grey • individualitee • jesus • religious • review • Reviews • spreadshirt • t-shirt

If you said to me “Andy, there’s a tee in the mail for you that has an angry beaver who’s a Mexican wrestler and he’s wearing a banana-hammock” I would be a little skeptical as to whether I’d actually like it. And for a few seconds after I ripped open the packet I still was. When you first look at it/him, he’s not all that lovable (there’s some crazy in those eyes…), but then I kind of got used to the little fella, and you know what? I like it.

The Unknown tshirt is the brainchild of a guy called Nate (who seems real nice, but I think that about everyone who sends me clothes!) who has turned his doodles and comic creations into a series of tees based around bizarre animal mutations, which despite the drawing style and apparent ugliness, are actually quite endearing.

The design is printed on Gildan’s Heavyweight Ultra Cotton range, which as you would imagine is a bit heavier than most tees, but I think they’re pretty good quality, though they are a bit boxier than AA or other fitted stock, so bear that in mind if you’re choosing a size to purchase. The print is actually softer than I imagined it to be, because strong colours like that printed over quite a large surface area do run the risk of creating a flat unflexible sheet in the middle of the tee, but this impressed me, since Nate’s designs do demand fairly heavy inking to give them their vibrant look, though I do fear the print cracking with this kind of design, so I’ll update this post in a month or so after its been washed a few times.

*If you like the artistic style, but not the designs that are for sale, custom artwork can be arranged for a variety of purposes (not just tees)*

Costiness=$12 URL

As usual, more pics when you ‘read the rest of this story’

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Tags » • review • Reviews • t-shirt • the unkown t-shirt • wrestler • yellow

Y’know, despite being a blog about arm-hiding, I’d only ever received one bit of long-sleeved clothing from a company, and I’d never received a hoodie, the item of clothing that this blog built its niche upon (before I sold out and started reviewing tees). That changed on Tuesday when I got a hoodie in the mail from the much-loved people at Oddica.

I was the recipient of the Ghost Cameras hoodie, which was great since I said it was my favourite. I just love the design by Gary Gao, the detailed sketch-work on the cameras contrast really well with the rounded cartoon style of the ghosts/souls, and the lack of colour is most likely a reference to the early sepia-toned days of photography (and one of the least used auto-settings on digital cameras).

The hoodie is printed on an American Apparel pullover hoodie, the first AA hoodie I’ve received/bought, and I really like it. Warm, soft and comfortable, yet still not that heavy. So now when I see a hoodie printed on AA I’ll be able to endorse it without worrying about the quality of the product.

Costiness=$38 (Shipping is the same as for tees even though hoodies obviously weigh more) URL

Oddica have also added a couple of new sleeved styles to two popular designs. The ‘Snailbot’ is now available as a ‘waffle thermal‘ and the ‘Tape Bird’ is now available as a zip-up hoodie.

Lots of pictures (including the return of pictures taken against the bathroom mirror!) after the jump.

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Tags » brown • camera • gary gao • ghost • ghosts • hoodie • oddica • review • Reviews

Ahhhh, political t-shirts, my favourite. If people have the ideas and knowledge to back up their wearing of a politically orientated shirt, then I’m totally cool with them, but otherwise, I declare open season on phonies, and yes, I am talking to you, Hollywood (I presume that at least one A-lister reads the blog). And I feel this after having just spent 3 years studying politics, so I hope you can understand my frustration with people that don’t seem to understand the issues.

Luckily for Ban T-shirts, they shan’t face my wrath, I think that they ‘get it’. Also, their designs are pretty freakin’ sweet, so I was very pleased when a mysterious figure from BT known to me only as ‘the Dude’ offered to send a tee my way. This morning I found a little USPS packet on the kitchen table (same size as when you get 1 tee from Threadless), which always surprises me, because how can such a small packet contain something that fits me?

Anywho, it can, and of course it feels nice because its American Apparel (the 2001 tee if I’m not mistaken), and the printing feels solid, though obviously I can’t comment upon durability (but I will stick my neck out and predict that it will last for quite a while, despite only being thin lines).

The barbed-wire outline of the United States on the ‘Fortress America‘ tee works really well in my opinion, with a powerful sentiment over the current immigration debate that is raging in the US (and in my country - the UK). Though funnily enough I can actually see this tee being worn by both the Left and the Right, seriously, what Minute Man wouldn’t want to wear this on border patrol?

Check out the rest of the Ban T-Shirts catalogue, because they’ve got a wide variety of shirts covering a lot of issues prominent in topical debates, as well as a few classics.

Costiness=$15.95 URL

Coming up sometime in the near future I’ll be posting an interview with ‘the Dude’ from Ban T-shirts, which should be an interesting read.

Two more pics after the jump
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Tags » • america • ban t-shirts • black • immigration • outline • review • Reviews • t-shirt

When I get sent a tee it’s usually in a brown padded envelope, or sometimes in those rather dramatic looking eagle emblazoned grey packets from the United States Postal Service, which was why I was rather confused when I found a large box on the kitchen table on Tuesday morning, I thought that Chateau Roux had made some kind of mistake, they don’t sell shoes as well do they?

Well, no, they’ve taken a very original approach to the idea of the t-shirt; they’re treating it like a high-class shirt.

Click more for the rest of the post.
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Tags » chateau roux • london • packaging • review • Reviews • t-shirt • UK • white