Focus on ARKA – ARKA on FOCUS

American-based tee label ARKA Clothing just completed their appearance at the FOCUS trade show at the California Market Center in Downtown LA, which was held from October 16-18. ARKA Clothing was invited to exhibit at the FOCUS trade show through “Thread Select” which is a different section of the FOCUS trade show that features the top eight innovative fashion brands.

“We tried to represent our brand personality by trying to be creative with our space by creating custom telephone polls to serve as clothing racks”, explains Shant Der Ashodian from ARKA Clothing. And judgung by these pictures, you can tell that he wasn’t lying.

Can I have some Orange Jews, please?

Sometimes it’s crazy to know that there’s a new tee label, whose designs are based on Jews. On teh other hand – you wonder how such company wasn’t already established? However, I’d like to introduce you a new T-shirt company, called Challah Clothing. Whether your a “Hebrew School Dropout” or you just want to “Fill Up My Cup…Mazel Tov!” Challah Clothing has the shirts for you.

Upon visiting their website, I was absolutely blown away by the shirt called “Orange Jews”, I loved the bitter-sweet irony behind that design. Plus, I like orange tees (not to mention orange juice)! Here are some of my picks.

All Challah Clothing designs are printed onto American Apparel shirts, so you bet you get a quality for your money, speaking of which – shirts are priced $18, which is sweet, I think. And when you order from Challah, make sure to send ‘em the pictures of you, wearing their shirts. It’s always nice.

I’m all Stushed Up!

As I get a lot of emails from various designers and clothing line owners, I always try to check every line and their designs to choose the ones to present at my blog. And I must say I didn’t expect much from newly founded Montreal, Canada based line, called Stushed Up. However, what I saw on their website really caught my eye.

First – I don’t like slogan tees so much, but Stashed Up managed to create nice designs, using fonts / letters in the form of art, combined with some clipart images (the city or the skull).  These are those kind of tees you’ll mention in the crowd for sure, and it will make you laugh or think. And that should be one of the purposes, right? Here’s what I liked the best from their site.

“Well, I am addicted to tees”, says Thierry, the man behind Stushed Up, “I probably have over 2-3 dozens different tees”. Therefore he decided to do his own shirt designs. “The brand advocates self-confidence and awareness through clothing”, explains Thierry, “always to view the positive side of one-self through provocative and colorful designs and/or slogans. Heavily based on typography for the moment, but we got a few very cool looking drawings. Everything is very clean, to sketch-like designs”.

Apart from the tees, Stushed Up also has some cool looking bracelets there, plus they’re pushing into hoodies, polos and hats. Prices (for tees) are around $25, which I think is worth it. Expect a lot more (good) from this label!

Guest blog post by Teezine at Become.com

Recently I was asked by kind folks at Become.com to write a blog post for their site about giving a T-shirt as a gift. Well, I liked the idea and did my best to give few useful tips to chosing the shirt which your loved ones would really like if you give it to them. I’ve also included some images from tee labels such as Fuzzy Ink, Stushed Up, Robit Studios in the article. You can read the entire article here.

I’d like to eat a Hamburger at the Disco

Combining two of the most popular youth-oriented words in order to draw attention on your new tee label is a clever idea! I mean – is there a person who doesn’t know what a hamburger, or a disco is? Nevermind the fact that these two words, combined together, don’t make a sense… It makes a perfect sense if the designs behind it are interesting and eye-catching.

When Matt Linsangan warned me about his new tee label Hamburger Disco, I was curious to see what they had to offer. I was pleasantly surprised to see the use of simple, iconic designs in soft colors (both the shirts and the inks), which aim to younger indie fashioned types of people, as well as those of us a bit older, who like to feel young (again). Here are some of their designs I found worth checking out:

“It all started with a trip to Japan…” recalls creator Matt Linsangan.  While on vacation in Japan, Matt realized that North America didn’t celebrate hamburger couture as much as it should. “Capsule toys, pencils, candy, beach balls, CD Cases, stationary, street art – it seemed like there were hamburgers on everything in Japan. How could we as North Americans – the founders of the hamburger – not represent?” continues Matt.  Hamburger Disco was founded shortly after.

In case you find Hamburger Discos’ nice tees cool, have in mind they are limited edition shirts. So, hurry up to catch yours while they’re still available!