Posts filed under 'Promotional Clothing'
The area, which gave a start to many a famous name from Bernard Gant of Gant shirts through to Calvin Klein, and is home to the Fashion Walk of Fame, is shrinking fast. Fashion designer Anna Sui wants to save it, and she’s trying to do so by using fashion to save fashion – along with scores of other names in the fashion industry she’s exploiting the high profile of New York Fashion Week to get the message out. And the message itself is carried by a classic black T-shirt stating Save the Garment Center.
The problem is that new zoning laws have changed the way buildings in the district are classified and many landlords are hoping to turn what have been factories into luxury lofts and chic hotels, nice for them, with rising rents but not so nice for small fashion contractors who will have nowhere else to set up their small but essential businesses. Sui, Vera Wang, Nicole Miller and others are encouraging their fellow Council of Fashion Designers of America members to help promote the T-shirt which also bears the email addresses of New York City officials who can be petitioned to change the zoning – those rather less than stylish addresses are on the back of the fashion-statement T-shirt, by the way! And if Sui has her way, those details will be seen on the backs of many a model as she does her catwalk turn …
Anna Sui courtesy of Budjit
August 26th, 2008
The American Politics Journal, which is a rather tongue-in-cheek publication anyway, has taken issue with the uniforms Ralph Lauren designed for US Olympic team members to wear during the opening ceremony. Or rather, they loved the uniforms, loathed the great big white polo pony plastered on the men’s jackets. As the journal puts it ‘Of course, this is typically American: create something combining taste and quality, and then reduce it to rubble it by advertising where you bought it – and how much you paid’.
Well maybe. But then, Ralph Lauren paid a pretty penny to become the licensed producer of Olympic replica wear – why shouldn’t the company get its brand in the camera’s eye? Possibly because the Olympics are claimed to be an advertising free zone, but come along, we all know that the sponsorship opportunities are heavily fought over – Ralph Lauren was just a bit more up front about its role and intentions than some of the other designers and is getting more publicity as a result – and isn’t that the point of promotional clothing?
August 19th, 2008
The American Presidential campaign took a fascinating twist last week – John McCain published an advertisement suggesting his rival, Barack Obama, wasn’t a real contender but a lightweight celebrity like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton. ‘He’s the biggest celebrity in the world,’ it said. ‘But, is he ready to lead?’
Well it seems that somebody else was prompted to ask herself the question – and came up with a surprising answer.
Paris Hilton posted a video on the internet in which she introduces herself as a celebrity: ‘Only I’m not from the olden days, and I’m not promising change like that other guy. I’m just hot,’ she says, and then thanks the ‘white-haired dude’ (McCain) for mentioning her in a campaign ad, which she suddenly realises means she’s running for president. It’s a hilarious and very professional send up of herself and then came the final proof that she’s serious – she’s launching a campaign T-shirt bearing the slogan ‘Paris for President’ of course. They will be on sale before the end of August and the mind absolutely boggles …
Paris Hilton courtesy of Alex CD
August 15th, 2008
A T-shirt has been removed from sale in Selfridges in London, after complaints about the image it bore were made to the Oxford Street branch in London. The shop is close to the site of a fatal stabbing earlier this year when 22 year old Steven Bigby died after being stabbed through the heart in May during an argument outside the MacDonald’s eatery.
The offending T-shirt was an item of merchandise promoting the Los Angeles punk bank The Red Hearts and the design showed a flick knife sticking out of a wound pouring blood.
A customer saw the offending item when she was in the store buying clothes for her teenage son and complained to a member of staff, who refused to remove the T-shirt from view, but when she called the store to complain, the company sent her a letter of apology. Today a Selfridges spokesman said, ‘We can confirm that following a complaint the T-shirt was withdrawn. We apologise for any offence caused’.
August 8th, 2008
Karen Davidson, great-granddaughter of Harley-Davidson co-founder William A. Davidson is creative director of general merchandise for Harley-Davidson and supervises design for the company’s two decade old MotorClothes division. Since 1947, when the first Harley leather jackets appeared, the biker ‘uniform’ of black leather jacket, jeans and T-shirt has been a classic, but now things are changing – the traditional ‘leather’ has been joined by leather treated to be water resistant, and even by cottons and synthetic materials.
As bikers have aged, they have also wanted more from their clothing, like shirts that work on the bike and in the office too. And the customer mix has changed: men purchase about 60% of the clothing and women buy 40%. This has meant creating brighter colours and new styles along the classic lines. Pink leather jackets were introduced a couple years ago and fitted Harley T-shirts are a big seller. Now the line is expanding again to include grommets and appliqués to personalise both T-shirts and jackets.
Harley-Davidson T-shirt courtesy of jorgemejia
August 1st, 2008
The Beijing Olympics are upon us and various nations and their athletes have taken the T-shirt route to expressing their views of the Chinese Government. Germany, since the 1940s, has had some of the most outspoken Olympic participants and this year they have strong feelings about human rights in China.
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One group of German athletes has designed and promoted wristbands that say Sports for Human Rights, with proceeds going to Amnesty International
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Yvonne Bönisch, gold medal judo winner in 2004, is boycotting the opening ceremony to protest human rights violations in Tibet
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During a send-off for the German Olympic team at the weekend, the German Olympic Sports Confederation was presented with T-shirts with slogans ranging from ‘Fair Games’ to ‘Sport for Human Rights’, ‘Free Tibet’ and even ‘Free China’! They were donated by former German athletes, including Dieter Baumann, 5,000 metres gold medal winner at Barcelona Games in 1992, and the sprinter Ines Geipel.
Australia’s Olympic team also seems to have a large percentage of athletes concerned about Tibet.
- More than 33% of the team declared in a poll that they wanted China to withdraw from
Tibet
- Tour de France cyclist Cadel Evans, who will compete at the Beijing Games, sported a ‘Free Tibet’ T-shirt during a race in Belgium earlier this year and he wore the same provocative T-shirt under the yellow jersey worn only by leaders in the Tour de France, when he won stage 15 of this year’s race. He finished second for the second time, but didn’t wear his T-shirt onto the winner’s rostrum.
Cadel Evans courtesy of midge
July 29th, 2008
But not just any old T-shirt. It was the elite troops of the Colombian Army who deceived the terrorist group ‘Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’ (FARC) into handing over hostages who’d been kept in the jungle for nearly six years. And one of their tools was a Che Guevera T-shirt.
The left wing terror group had become expert in kidnapping during its war with the Colombian state but Colombian Army members infiltrated the very highest levels of FARC and were able to bring a helicopter to a jungle rendezvous, claiming they were taking the hostages to an international meeting to show FARC’s power. The most senior member of the infiltration team spent nearly half an hour on the ground with the terrorists, laughing and joking, and clad in a Che Guevara T-shirt, which seems to have helped the FARC soldiers accept that he was ‘one of them’.
Once back in the air, the amazed hostages, including Ingrid Betancourt, a former candidate for President of Colombia who had been kept in isolation for over five years, were told their ‘captors’ were actually their rescuers.
Che courtesy of slavin fpo
