Cool Hunting

Yack Fou Tees
Perhaps a play on the French Connection's "fcuk" line, Yack Fou is a playful Berlin label making tees and hoodies imprinted with their deceptive-looking name. Printed on 100% cotton, they're definitely eye-catching. Some of the designs even stand on their own without the gimmicky name, like the lego design (pictured), which also happens to look a lot like the album art on Beck's latest...

Print Liberation
Philadelphia-based design studio Print Liberation carries a line of tees, prints, and accessories that will make any font nerd swoon. Printed on American Apparel, we like the layout and concept of the "Don't Give Up" tee, which avoids the bumper sticker-like pitfalls of other message shirts by using non-centered and so-clichéd-it's-meaningless text and was also one of Print Liberation's wheat paste campaigns. The same...

Alternative Apparel
A good t-shirt is hard to find, but Alternative Apparel (a clever(?) play on garment giant American Apparel) offer superior quality in a variety of styles and colors. Our product testers report that the material is softer than American Apparel and of seemingly finer quality. First of all, they’re pre-washed so there should be no shrinkage. And the manufacturer boasts that they’re stitched to...

Rock N' Clothing Tees
The collectable desirability of vintage Rock and Roll t-shirts nears that of sneakers. In the case of the Rock shirts however, the thinner and closer the garment is to the end of its life the better. A Mötley Crüe tee, owned by a slightly chubby and sadly misunderstood teenager, only to be used later by her mother to clean toilets, simply adds to the...

Welcome Squid Overlords
Take me to your leader. Monday night I heard the most esteemed and funny neurologist Oliver Sacks speak at Columbia (he is a super naturalist: into ferns, squids, cuttlefish and stereopsis). It was a fascinating lecture, but his Welcome Squid Overlords shirt transfixed me. It was so strange, I had to find its meaning. Was it from an episode of Star Wars that I...

Low Tee Bathing Suits
Low Tee makes men's bathing suits from vintage t-shirts (props for recycling). The suits are fully lined in Lycra, and have elastic around the legs and waist, which also has a drawstring. Because the suits are made from vintage t-shirts they are all one-of-a-kind (which we also like). And if you ask nicely you could probably send in one of your own shirts to...