I’m whole-heartedly in love with this Nixon Melodie Girls T-shirt – lovely spring colors, and a cute cap sleeve style that makes the tee work whether it’s chilly outside or unseasonably sultry. The best place I can find it for sale is Skate Warehouse who have it at the sale price of $12.99. But, they can’t ship this one outside the US of A, sorry British and other non-American girls.

Cute little flying bird and tree/candy sucker details on this one give it a lovely feminine feeling without it being infantile – too often T-shirts for women (although I could take exception with Nixon Melodie calling all females ‘girls’) are very babyish and this one totally isn’t.

I’m also amazed that skate warehouse has an actual live and kicking forum. Never come across such a thing on a clothing/lifestyle site before that actually functioned for more than a couple of months before interest totally died out. Kudos to the team at sw for keeping this alive and to their loyal forum members for posting some genuinely interesting (if a little weird) comments.

Post by Kay who is feeling more springy every day …

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Something a little retro about this T-shirt, waved it under Kay’s nose and she muttered about ‘High Fidelity’ which is a book about music, apparently – who knew?

Anyway I feel good about this T-shirt for two reasons:

1. the colour scheme of the pale blue and greyscale overprint is masculine in an understated way – it’s not macho, it’s just confident about its place in the world
2. the subject matter is great, stacks of vinyl are the quintessential retro male emblem and that made me feel that in these days of threatened male space, somebody has masculine interests at heart.

That somebody is Dephect – founded in 1999, and focused on such key iconic cultural markers as skateboarding, Hip Hop and underground art, the clothing label has become an established brand for those who like good graphics without insanely silly marketing or madly inflated prices.

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… and the mind turns to bunnies. Not bunny-boiling but cute little bunny-rabbits, hippity-hoppiting around on the new grass of spring and all that stuff. Also candy and chocolate. Lots of it, in a basket, carried by a rabbit – right? Possibly my current thinking is influenced by Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, which is destined for 3D greatness, I reckon.

So, given all that, why is my pick a British bunny? Because Mikey finds this stuff and sends it to me – and also because there is something weird about the British and their companion animals that comes out in whimsical design. I really like this detailed image by Brat and Suzie designer Polly Vickery and illustrator Louise Boulter because the hand-printed effect, over the striped T-shirt, has a fresh and quirky feel – the kind of thing you could imagine Phoebe having worn in Friends – that goes on to become a classic wardrobe item.

American bunnies, this year at least, seem to be a little simplistic, and while there’s nothing wrong with simple rabbits, in T-shirt terms I wanted something that offered intricacy without looking fussy, and worked with a spring wardrobe that has to range in a single day from hoodie, socks and gloves through to T-shirt and shorts.

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I think it’s pretty good that I made it to March before giving in to my lust for funny tees – I like big laffs and I cannot lie …

So finding a tee that’s grin-worthy and design-strong was my task. And it was pretty easy.

The Mountain is one of those companies that apparently has the ability to heal the world one T-shirt at a time by using environmentally friendly stuff, blessing your T-shirt in some karmic way, and sending it by elk or ether-post or some such green system that doesn’t have a carbon footprint, just an angel’s kiss. I don’t know, I don’t understand any of that gubbins. I just like the rasta iguanas! And what’s not to like?

A good balance of detail and strong horizontals gives this T-shirt depth without fuss and the iguanas are awesome. When the sun shines, a tee should have a glint of summer in it, right, and today this T-shirt is like a promise of blue skies and easy days to come. Make it so.

Post by mikey who thinks the rasta revolution is too long time comin’ …

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Mikey was telling me about Love Hearts, which are a British kind of candy that looks really cute – and then he actually sent me some and they look cuter than they are, as they have a pretty aggressive flavour, a bit like filling your mouth with cola and Lysol and then shaking your head really fast.

But leaving aside the taste, they are a treat for the eye, and when I then saw this uber cute Pandy Cane hoodie, with its Love Heart logo on the front and clever slogan on the back, I thought it was a neat idea.

There’s always a question about unisex clothing in my mind, which is how unisex it really is – do women like clothing that’s branded by truck companies or breweries? Will guys truly invest in ‘unisex’ clothing that reflects some girly brand based on toiletries or some kind of feminised activity like yoga?

Surely the compromise is candy – it’s something both genders can get behind (or get themselves around) and it’s very very tasty …

£34 for a limited edition hoodie seems reasonable to me, and you can impress your friends by telling them all about this heritage British candy when they compliment you on your stylish garment.

Post by Kay who thinks fizzy candy is just dandy …

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Brand New Intention have sweet new T-shirts from Jared Nickerson and to push their collaboration into new promotional kicks, they’re giving away skateboard decks, laser-etched black-books, and random t-shirts to people, chosen at random, who order one of Jared’s tees.

As for those Jared designs, I’m much more in favour of the black on coffee combo than the red on blue, which looks like it could be something that damages the retinas in their early morning fragility, but either way, if you fancy a freebie, you could get goodies with your new T-shirt by gambling on BNI picking your name out of their virtual hat.

If you win, let us know, so we can feel good about spreading the word.

Post by Mikey, who thinks that a skateboat would be more use than a skateboard, right now …

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Right now, Rakes and Strays, the little sib of Eio Clothing, is working on its new collection, but this, from the current website, is simply the most lovely t-shirt I’ve seen in 2010 – it’s a hand-printed piece of pure beauty.

I could pick a few little bones with the women’s version, which ties up the back with knots (I dislike clothing that can be removed without my willing consent, would a guy like it if I could make him drop his pants by pulling on a string on the side? Okay, maybe it’s best of you don’t answer that) but seriously, this T-shirt has everything else going for it. Strong design, classic colour-ways, utterly brilliant use of motifs linked to typography to make a coherent fashion statement.

And there’s a women’s long T-shirt version which is the same price as the standard (and how often does that happen? Normally you pay a lot more for the long version) which would look heavenly with leggings and strappy sandals. Trust me on this.

You may wonder why you’re looking at the male version, with all I’m saying, but it’s largely because Mikey seems to be unable to get his eyes to focus on the female t-shirt, because the blonde babe who’s wearing it has done something to his vision …

Also, given that Rakes and Strays produce only limited edition print runs, this is one of those T-shirts that you won’t be seeing on everybody and his parents this summer, which makes it both an artwork and an investment.

Post by Kay who thinks too much, too young has passed her by and she’s heading for too little, too old at warp speed …

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Deliberately wacky – and keen to share the lurve by teaching any old bod, even one they drag in off the street, to screen-print via “The Screen Printing Primer”, an illustrated step-by-step guide that promises readers will “Learn how to screen print blindfolded in the bottom of a ship in a hurricane” – Print Liberation are my anti-valentine choice.

Actually, it’s really difficult to pick an anti-valentine. Note the red. Note the curling, heart-like detailing. Anything you cast your eye over at this part of the year either seems to be valentine-themed or is ironically valentine-like.

So I gave in to my inner romantic and chose this soft grey track-style T-shirt as being suitable for lounging around the house NOT having a hot date if you’re a laydee whose bloke has cocked up the romantic weekend thing.

I also picked it because the price is high enough that if you’re a guy who missed all the hints about the romantic weekend thing, you can spend $22 on this Luren Jenison exclusive top and win back your sweetie. For why? Because it’s called feud …

Finally it’s my pick for today because Print Liberation are a neat indie, although their wordiness would drive me insane, totally insane, if I had to spend any time with them.

Post by Mikey who’s disgusted at his own inability to avoid the crass commercial themes of Valentine’s Day but also wants Bethan to know she has his heart and all that crap …

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That’s what they call it (can I say it doesn’t look like a Buddha to me? It’s a Michelin Man, surely? Or maybe a Buddha/Michelin mashup?) at paper root clothing. It’s my anti-Valentine’s day choice, as Mikey and I have agreed that this year we will not have a Valentine’s T-shirt.

Paper root clothing have an ‘about’ page that Mikey would approve of. It says ‘mind your own business’ and if I have anything to be even the teeniest bit quibbly about (I think I just made that up, I don’t think there is such a word as quibbly) it’s that they use Big Cartel as their storefront so you have to have a paypal account to purchase from them. Okay, it’s a minor thing if you have paypal but if you don’t, it deprives you of the chance to buy this very gorgeous garment.

So why, apart from the sexy colours and the boldness of the design, and the cute joke implied in a Buddha (or Michelin Man) running with ice-cream, did I pick this T-shirt?

You mean I need more reasons than that? Gosh, you people are picky! Okay, it’s a subtle joke, right, but the Buddha advocated compassion rather than love, and Valentine’s Day is all about love, so this is sort of the antithesis … clever, eh?

If you’re unconvinced, just accept that I never need a reason to pick a tee that features food. The. Food. Is. The. Reason. Okay?

Post by Kay who thinks running with ice cream is a fine idea, totally …

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Lars Harmsen is editing a book about typography in T-shirt design and culture. Unsurprisingly, the book is called TypoShirt (One) which makes us clever types at teejunkie think that Lars is planning a series.

So, he’s calling for entries – the title will be published by INDEX Books (Barcelona) this very year, and if you have a T-shirt design created explicitly with typographic elements, you might get featured. You get a complimentary copy of the book and, of course, everlasting fame.

So get your stuff off to Lars, let us know you’ve entered, and we’ll review the book when it comes out!

And while we’re on the subject, it’s a chance to plug one of my fave sites, the ‘just down the road’ guys at Chalk Brighton and their very cogent question – what’s so bad about feeling good?

What indeed ….

Post by Mikey, who thinks that typography is underrated and not just because his final show included a whole sh**load of typographic prints …

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