We make no New Year’s resolutions here – or to put it another way, we make resolutions for each other which are immediately broken. I resolved that Kay wouldn’t spray herself with perfume a dozen times a day so my Seven-Up tastes like the fragrance counter of a posh store. She resolved that I wouldn’t throw my cans into the bin from across the office and not pick them up when they miss.

You can guess how far that got us.

But if I had made a resolution, it might have been to make sure that 2010 is a year when I pick T-shirts that will stand the test of time instead of being swayed by funny or geeky ones that are simply ephemera. I could have resolved to focus on design, design, design without deviation from my stated aim. But that sounds a little bit like something Tiger Woods would have said before his recent troubles.

So without resolving, I’m just going to do it. My first real pick for 2010 is from Art In The Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Since 2006, this design company has been working with artists to create artworks that will never be hung ‘at a distance in the white cube of the gallery space’ as they put it. Instead they are working towards linking fine craft with thought-provoking and WOOTable products.

Okay, to be fair, they have one of those insane ‘about us’ statements, the kind that make me want to break windows eg: ‘… We do so by applying the fruits of such labors to the cultural forms of everyday life, granting those who wish to engage the opportunity to do so in his/her own environment … we weave our offerings into the collective surface of myriad personal contexts. In this troubling epoch of industrial commodification, standardization of reproduction, and fomentation of a society of shallow spectacle, Art In The Age issues a challenge and rally cry. We fight fire with fire, subsuming the onslaught of watered down facsimiles and inaccessible displays with thought-provoking products of real cultural capital.’

Yeah, right. Is that aimed at somebody buying a T-shirt or at a grant-funder with a bag of moolah for the righteous starving artist? It doesn’t sound like it’s meant for me, or people like me, that’s for sure. Setting aside the ‘about us’ verbiage, the T-shirts are well described and the little blurb you get on each one is genuinely interesting and opens up ways of thinking about clothing and art. The Chandelier Tee by Matt Neff which is my pick for this week is described as: ‘… appropriated from an original artwork titled, Chandelier #3, a part of a series exploring the use of sugar on paper. White flocking was used to emulate the original print’s feeling and texture on this tee. The effect results in a simple, yet delicate suggestion of illumination.’

And do you know what? It does. It’s a subtle effect that actually achieves that it seeks to achieve, and it makes a teeshirt that is quite simply excellent, a fantastic marriage of colour and form that invites closer inspection. Not the cheapest around this month, when you can get a tee for $9 but the $34 that you spend on this T-shirt really is an investment in good design and good clothing. And that will make you feel good to wear it.

Post by Mikey, who is going to draw on his fashion history degree in 2010.

Possibly he’s going to draw a snail with a skateboard, he’s not sure yet …

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