Here is the "woman sized" shirt that my co-worker E asked me about. (It has a big drawing of two pheasants on the back, so it's a bit less dull than it appears from the front.) This was actually my first reconstruction, so the neckline was a little bit screwy as you can see. But a definite improvement over the choking ribbing on the original. I don't know about you, but I hate a t-shirt that has a high, tight neckline - they are way too hot and constricting. A t-shirt should be comfortable, which this one definitely is.
Anyway, as you can see, these t-shirt reconstructions are lacking in fabulous artistic merit. Not a single mushroom painting, clipper ship applique, Marilyn Manson headshot, rubber duckie stamp, rock lyric stencil, or flouncy ribbon to be seen. However, I do have high hopes for salvaging some nice pale blue t-shirts that have faded in spots using a stencil/bleaching technique; I'm really thinking I need a blue t-shirt with little bunnies on it to begin with. Have you guys ever noticed how quick light blue cotton t-shirts are to fade in splotches into a lavendarish pink color after only a few washes? Even my light blue t-shirt from American Apparel faded almost immediately, while the other colors have held up very well as basically any other color of t-shirt always does. It's a disappointment to me because I love to wear a blue shirt with beige pants.
Also, I have to admit, some of the bird appliques on Wardrobe Refashion were really cute. I am also thinking little frogs have potential. Will someone reading this blog please hurry up and have children already so I can dress them in funny wee outfits? (Or perhaps I just need to indulge my inner child.) One of the things I loved about the WR blog was seeing the adorable little kid clothing. I have to say, this picture of the woman's little girl wearing a "married" dress and walking down the aisle with this unexpected companion was terribly sweet.
7 comments:
That's really nice.
(Now that you mention it, I don't think I do have light blue t-shirts. Weird.)
I got a light blue American Apparel t-shirt at work (from the marketing guy for Logitech's how not to contest) and it faded as Sal describes in the first wash, which means it's definitely in the pj pile. I guess that's not a very good color. What's sad is that this was the first free t-shirt they actually had in my small size -- probably because the contest was aimed at teens.
Colorfast blue dyes are much more expensive than other colors - this isn't just true for clothes, it is also true for most products. It is only in the past few years that blue cars, for example, have started holding their color at all well(all car colors fade, it is just that traditionally blue ones faded worse than others) - there was a breakthrough on paint which led to a more (Not perfectly) colorfast blue paint. I think at Ford, anyway, the cars I see with this dye are Mazdas like mine, Fords, and Lexuses(Lexi?).
Cheap shirts of other colors often use multiple dyes to reach other colors, rather than dyes of a specific color. (Both a single, truly 'purple' dye, and a 'purple' of blue and red dyes, are used.) You can tell this if your purple shirt gets redder/pinker, or your green shirt yellows. And of course that red dyes 'bleed' is almost universally known, and true on almost any cheap fabric or dye.
As an aside, American Apparel strikes me as a somewhat creepy company. The tagline in the upper left (Made in Downtown LA, Vertically Integrated Manufacturing) is weird. The made in USA sentiment is ok, but since when is "Vertically Integrated" a marketing positive? Even when it is used, companies spin it rather than use the term normally associated with anti-trust law.
Also, even in a quick wander around the website you start running into some seriously creepy, in a child-pron sort of way, poses on the models. (When I went to Sally's link, the 'Try it withs' is a 'unisex solid rib vest', and another is a tube sock. Both had slightly creepy poses showing. A quick wander around the 'socks' area and you hit some 'more views' where the socks (view six) aren't exactly the 'feature' of the photo. Maybe this kind of photo is common on clothes websites these days, (cranky old man accent) but they seem a little worse than the ones I've seen.
It isn't just the women's stuff, either. Menswear also has its share of pronshots. (Look at view 8)
This doesn't even cover the real guy that runs the company. (Do a search on "Dov Charney". Even the relatively 'mainstream' hits, like "Inc" magazine", sound sex-offender bells.)
I was impressed [??] by this pornalicious baby photo:
http://store.americanapparel.net/7041.html
(Don't worry, it's not really that bad.)
Tam, that baby photo immediately reminded me of the cover of Kate Bush's "Lionheart" album:
http://www.amazon.com/Lionheart-Kate-Bush/dp/B000007MVL/ref=pd_bbs_sr_8/104-3663972-7211904?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1181592568&sr=8-8
They need to offer it in an animal print.
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