Cool Hunting

Minor Variety T-Shirts
by Andrew PotashIn an era when the t-shirt market is saturated with all-over prints and every company has an "artist" collaboration, it's refreshing to see the La Jolla, CA-based label Minor Variety take it back to the basics. The visionaries behind the brand were tired of tees acting as billboards, yet wanted a shirt with a little more flare than a plain tee. Minor...

Alabama Builds Shirt
Handmade in the U.S. with organic cotton and benefiting Architecture for Humanity's Gulf Coast Project, the Alabama Builds tee is a win-win-win situation. An offshoot of the Alabama Project (the short-lived adventure in couture made from recycled materials by local seamstresses in Alabama) the shirt uses the reverse appliqué technique that the Project applied to basketball jerseys, dresses and shirts to much success. The...

New Klaus Tees
Two years ago Klaus Industries proclaimed that 2006 was the new 1984. While the fledgling experiment of democracy is still fledgling, the Portland, Oregon-based company has expanded their line of irreverent and humorous wears. Aside from an update on that particularly ominous theme, these hand-dyed printed shirts extol the tough-guy Abe Lincoln and the need for some domestic humanitarian intervention. “Our shirts are intended...

Turn Nocturnal T-Shirts
Western Massachussetts-basedTurn Nocturnal design studio is the brainchild of designer Matt McInerney and his good friend Jack Strong. Busting onto the scene a few months ago with their best selling font driven "Huge Type Looks Sweet" t-shirt ( still a favorite of mine) they've since followed up with a few others, their latest is "Turn The City and is available, along with Huge Type...

Solid Gold Rags T-Shirts
by Valery JosephThe designers behind Los Angeles-based Solid Gold Rags are sparing us the search for the perfectly worn-in t-shirt with a new line of beautifully tattered tees. Screen-prints of pop-culture icons—French singers and muses Françoise Hardy and Serge Gainsbourg front two of the collection's pieces—the almost criminally soft shirts. Co-founders Perry Shimon, and Oliver Kupperhe seek to create quietly personal, everyday pieces that...

Original Fake Two Fingers T-Shirt
A deceivingly funny t-shirt from Kaws using his trademark Mickey Mouse-esque cartoon hands, it just about sums up the complicated set of feelings I have about New York City (and everything else) these days. (Also see Public School's similar expression of dueling emotions.) Available in black and white from We Sold Out for €65. via Highsnobiety...