Category Archive for ‘in-hand review’ at Fantastic Blognanza!

Archive for the 'in-hand review' Category

Bloodgold: Guest Review

Published

on May 21, 2008

. 4 Comments

This is another guest post from Germany by Markus, the guy who runs Shirtspotting [to see Markus' last guest post for Fantastic Blognanza, click here]. Yes, it’s been a while, but I’d like to present you another nice tee shop from Germany I found that you might like. Actually, I didn’t find them, they contacted me, which is always a good idea if you have a little shop that deserves attention.

Bloodgold Clothing is one such case. They started their shop in 2006 and have already gotten a little coverage on the blog scene. One thing that makes them different is their experimentation with print positions. Their small neat designs are draped around the neck or on the shoulders … who says the print always has to be on the chest?

Swing at Bloodgold: €29.00

I particularly like Swing: a cassette (you can’t go wrong with tapes anyway!) out of which the tape hangs, goes up to the collar and on the back of the neck there’s a little girl using it as a swing. Neat. So when Benny from Bloodgold kindly offered to send me a shirt, I went for this one. Here’s some photos of it. I totally suck at taking photos and so does my cam. Please excuse this.

Anyway, what I found:

Feel: this shirt is one of the softest and best-feeling I ever wore. It’s silky smooth and it has a great cut, too. I can’t tell exactly what brand of blanks they use, it can’t be American Apparel.

Print: Different from most labels, the designs are not screenprinted but flex printed, which means that they are cut from flex foil and heat pressed to the shirt. On mine you can see this by a bit of foil slightly sticking out at the collar (seen here) … but don’t worry, you can’t peel it off and it’s not disturbing.

Number of people telling me they liked it when wearing it the first day: Three, which is quite a good ratio.

They have some other nice shirts, too, like Alter Ego, a face that watches your back for you. In sum, Bloodgold is really worth checking out.

That’s it for today, I hope the next guest post won’t take so long.

Link: [Swing at Bloodgold]
Expensiveness: €29.00

Thanks for the guest post, Markus! Be sure to check out his German t-shirt blog, Shirtspotting.

Design by Hümans in Barcelona! Part 2

Published

Sven

on March 28, 2008

in Design by Humans, friends, in-hand review and t-shirts

. 4 Comments

Here be another guest post by the famous (infamous?) Sven Palmowski (aka a.mar.illo), a member of the Fantastic Blognanza Coalition of Good People.

It’s been a while since our first DBH review appeared here at Fantastic Blognanza last fall. Since then, we’ve received a bunch (and I mean a bunch) of new shirts from California, so it’s about time to continue with a second part. These are only a few of our new favourite shirts, listed in chronological order:

One of the designs from Design by Human’s very first collection, even before they started holding contests, was Addition. It’s been sold out for a while, and I grabbed it immediately when they reprinted it. I really love that tee colour—it’s called “Cardinal Francisco”.

Click the pictures for a closer look!

Then, in September, Seed by danr was named Shirt of the Day. It features a simple design with suede leaves (they really feel nice):

We already have two tees by this Brazilian designer called ninhol. Mine is Welcome to Brazil, and this one is called Madre Tierra:

A few days after that came Dead Pony, Shirt of the Day winner for October 26th. A very cool design.

The Control Room is a very special shirt. The print goes from the front to the back! Amazing!

Let’s continue with flower, a design I made myself, which comes in a different colour for guys than it does for girls. I like the girls’ version so much better!

Another one of my own designs is Metropolis, a drawing inspired by the German art in the twenties.

Just yesterday we received a new package from Orange County (near Los Angeles), the home of Design by Humans. Despite the disclaimer that comes with Blackbird’s Attackin’ in the Dead ‘O’ Night, believe me, it’s still a great shirt! By the way, it just replaced Robot Attack as DBH’s best selling design.

Also with that last bunch came Made of Steel, another one of my own designs. They really did a fantastic printing job—I’m totally impressed!

Finally, here’s one of my and Carmen’s absolute favourites: All Is Vanity, by mathiole.

Thanks for the update, Sven! And until next time, everybody: putting antifreeze in your hot chocolate is not a wise way to preserve its warmth. See you later!

Lions Roar at Thriving Ink

Published

Greg

on March 12, 2008

in in-hand review, new releases and t-shirts

. 6 Comments

A little over a week ago, I got Lion from Thriving Ink in the mail. I’ve been meaning to blog about it ever since then, but since last week was the sort of week that keeps throwing things at you and just doesn’t let up, I never found the time to write my review. So apologies to you, dear readers, and to the kind folks at Thriving Ink, for dragging my feet on this one!

When I first saw the package, I was surprised to find myself greeted by a rather largish poster mailing tube. (Sorry—no pictures of this one! You’ll have to use your imagination.) Inside was the shirt, as well as a couple of small Thriving Ink posters. The posters had gotten all rolled up from being in the mailing tube (as posters are wont to do), but the shirt was in perfect condition.

I suspect the distinctive packaging style has to do with Thriving Ink’s philosophy of “t-shirts as art”. From their About Us page:

Thriving Ink shirts are designed by real artists from around the world as art for art’s sake; Thriving Ink has simply put the art onto a wearable canvas – shirts.

So just as you would send an art print through the mail in a poster tube, they’re sending out their t-shirts that way, too. Or at least, that’s my interpretation.

Anyway, on to the real stuff.

The shirt is American Apparel, so you know you’re getting good-quality stuff as far as the actual shirt itself is concerned. In fact, I had never tried on a black AA tee before, and I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable it was. Nearly every other black shirt I own has an uncomfortably heaviness to it; this one, on the other hand, was good times all around.

Click on image for larger verson.

Not only was the shirt comfy, but the print itself was surprisingly soft. Not perfectly soft, of course—it’s a big print with light colors on a dark background—but much better than one might reasonably expect.

All in all, I’m a big fan of this shirt, which makes me look forward to getting my grubby mitts on some more quality stuff from Thriving Ink. Awesome work!

Link: [Lion from Thriving Ink]
Expensiveness: $29.95

Can’t Hold Us Down: Guest Review

Published

Markus

on February 4, 2008

in in-hand review and t-shirts

. 0 Comments

Hi, my name is Markus and I run the German t-shirt blog Shirtspotting. Joe kindly offered me to do some guest postings on Fantastic Blognanza which is quite an honour for me. So from time to time I’ll inform you about my findings in T-Shirt Germany. I’ll start off with a new discovery that is really worth sharing. It wasn’t my own discovery in fact, but I’m grateful they introduced themselves to me. CHUD is short for Can’t Hold Us Down. Of course I don’t believe anybody would want to hold them down, because CHUD is run by two great guys. Anybody who puts out shirts that say ‘music pulls me through‘ can’t be bad. As they mention in the little interview I did with them, they started the whole thing in order to create something that is different from global players and mainstream labels and put some soul in their work. So they print, dye, label their shirts themselves or even add sewn applications.I have recieived a sample tee, Scales. I liked the idea of the small red star, which adds some color to the design. I’m a freak for stars anyway. It’s hand-dyed, so the seems shine through in white. And I ordered a jacket with a great Trojan giraffe… both are quite convincing. Below are some “What I got” pics. I’m sure I’ll wear these things quite a lot.

Link: [CHUD]
Expensiveness: €15.90-24.90P.S. The site is currently in German only, but this shouldn’t keep you from having a look. You just need to know that ‘Jetzt kaufen’ means ‘buy now’, and I’m sure they’ll answer all your questions via email.

Design by Hümans in Barcelona!

Published

Sven

on October 12, 2007

in Design by Humans, friends, in-hand review and t-shirts

. 4 Comments

Well, sharing their passion for t-shirts and octopus trees I feel very nicely honoured to have been asked by the fantastic guys from the Blognanza to write a guest post about how some of the t-shirts from Design By Hümans made their way to Europe. So first let me briefly introduce myself: My name is Sven Palmowski (aka a.mar.illo) and I was born and raised in Germany. I have worked as a freelance illustrator for more than a decade, which allows me to make a living from my passion for drawing. In 2004, I made a new home in Barcelona, Spain.

The shipping of our shirts only took 7 days from California to Spain, which is a very short time for a package like that, and fortunately I did not have any problems with extra customs expenses. The package arrived in good condition and had even some trinkets in it like pencils and stickers.

These are the shirts my girlfriend, Carmen, and I ordered:

I Did by skaffa might be the cutest girl’s t-shirt at Design By Hümans, and it’s Carmen´s favourite too; the very first day wearing it she was asked about it by shop assistants in one of the countless little indie/alternative fashion boutiques in the gothic quarter of Barcelona. Simply cute with its pocket appliqué:)

underwaterdeer by fawnfruit was my favourite illustration in the Kick Off Contest. When I first saw it, I was convinced I had the winning design before me. It did not win, but it made Shirt of the Day and it’s an absolutely fantastic shirt. It’s also printed on a thicker and softer fabric than the others.

Chaos came from the Ocean by Steven is my personal favourite of the men’s shirts we ordered. The shiny silver highlights makes it just perfect.

Rescue by ckoelle is an impressive print. We only have it in the women’s version, but Carmen is very happy with this one too.

The Adventure by dwgagner is a design I love very much, but it’s the only one of the shirts that disappointed me a little bit at first sight. The ‘Large’ shirt is larger then the other ‘Large’ shirts (all the others fit me perfectly), and I´m not totally convinced about the reverse seams (which is a good idea but in this case it means just being printed on an inside-out t-shirt).
But after wearing it a while, I liked it too.

I don´t want to comment on the last of the designs, treepeople by a_mar_illo, because it’s my own

I will say this much: the soft prints and the shirts are just perfect… love!!!

Link: [Design by Hümans]
Expensiveness: $15-$24

Robots Keep on Attacking: An In-Hand T-Shirt Review

Published

Greg

on September 1, 2007

in Design by Humans, in-hand review, new releases and t-shirts

. 10 Comments

Perhaps you recall Joe’s post from only a few days ago, when he let us all know about Robot Attack, the $5000 kickoff prize winner at Design By Hümans? Well, hopefully you do. I mean, it was only a few days ago. If you don’t remember, then either (1) you don’t have such a great memory, or (2) you’ve only just started reading the Fantastic Blognanza. If it’s (1), then maybe you should get that checked out. And if it’s (2), then, I mean, come on—where have you been? Seriously, get with the program!

(I kid, I kid. I love all our readers, old and new!) (In a strictly platonic and wholly non-creepy way, of course.)

Upon reading Joe’s post, I ordered a print of Robot Attack for myself. It arrived in the mail just yesterday, and I’m happy to report that I’m pretty impressed with the package.
Continue reading ‘Robots Keep on Attacking: An In-Hand T-Shirt Review’

In-Hand Review: PopJunkie Design Are Dead On with ‘Out to Sea’

Published

Joe

on August 3, 2007

in in-hand review, new releases and t-shirts

. 5 Comments

I received the gorgeous Out to Sea t-shirt from PopJunkie a couple days ago, and it exceeds my high expectations. Everything about it is beautiful for every sense to which t-shirts can appeal.

Out to Sea (full) - PopJunkie

PopJunkie really put this one together: the composition, execution, and t-shirt selection complement each other terrifically.

Strong CompositionAs far as composition goes, printing the large design in the bottom corner gives the entire piece a dynamism that a center placement just wouldn’t have, an effect to which the circling gulls contribute (despite their low contrast with the background).

Out to Sea (detail 1) - PopJunkie

Precise yet Beautiful ExecutionThe print itself is excellent, and the crisp halftones of the clouds gives them a feeling of ethereal wispiness. Even though the white (or light blue—it’s hard to tell), flexible ink is slightly transparent, it just adds to Out to Sea’s immensely charcterful design.

Out to Sea (cloud detail 1) - PopJunkie

Thematic T-ShirtPopJunkie could not have chosen a better garment on which to print Out to Sea than Alternative Apparel’s Water Heather Contrast Stripe Crew. Despite its rugged, nautical look, because this t-shirt is a semi-sheer cotton/polyester blend, it’s superbly smooth to the touch. Although the exterior stitches on the sleeve and bottom hems look odd, fret not: they are blind stitches that are just as strong (see the thumbnail below for a detail picture) and make the hems practically invisible.

I couldn’t finish this review without mentioning the hangtag: it consists of a large piece of heavy, off-white cardstock embossed in dark brown. It adds a classic, upscale touch to an already wonderful t-shirt.

Link: [Out to Sea at PopJunkie (also for women)]
Expensiveness: $35
Garment tech specs: 40s, 100% polyester white stripe, 95/5 cotton/poly grey stripe. 1×1 100% cotton rib in collar, .625” blind stitch detail on sleeve and bottom hems. semi-sheer stripe fabric, 100% cotton threads. garment washed, pre shrunk.