Cool Hunting

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...

Public School T-shirt and Jacket
Leading the way in grown-up street wear, Public School recently released Fall/Winter 2008, their second collection. We've been into their clean cut but somewhat edgy designs since the label launched last year; the quality materials and subtle details set them apart from the rest of the rack at Barneys or Fred Segal. Their new NY Hearts Me t-shirt (not available until next Fall 2008),...

Angora Brick by Various Projects
Named for collaborations between the owners, Project No. 8, the latest NYC avant-boutique, carries some of their earlier projects (under the heading Various Projects) as well. The Angora Brick is an actual brick covered in hand-knit fuzzy angora, and one of many other knitted works that co-founder Elizabeth Beer conceived. A play on contrasts—softness versus hard right angles and the weight of the brick,...

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...