Harajuku Lovers Tee on HIMYM
Those of you who watch How I Met Your Mother probably remember that Lily (played by Alyson Hannigan) has a bit of a shopping addiction. She is supposed to be a bit of a fashion maniac. She does dress well but I guess it doesn’t take much to look good beside Marshall who is always wearing the same old jeans and retro style tees. Anyway I noticed one t-shirt she was wearing had some kanji on the top corner and, having an interest in things Japanese, I thought I would try find it.

Alyson Hannigan wearing Harajuku Lovers T-Shirt in How I Met Your Mother
It didn’t take very long for me to find out that it was a Harajuku Lovers piece. Quite a nice shirt too. Harajuku Lovers is Gwen Stefani’s Japan inspired clothing line. This shirt costs $45 from R&S Avenue which is a pretty decent price to pay for quality. I reckon it would cost much more in Harajuku if you could actually find it there. Ongaku means music for those who are curious.
The Spirit T-Shirts
The Spirit was released on Christmas Day and the reception was mixed: cold and lukewarm. I read headlines like:
‘The Spirit’ moves from comics to farce
and
Movie review: Don’t waste money on ‘The Spirit’
and decided that this movie may just be worth missing. To be honest, unless it got amazing reviews I was likely to miss it anyway because I was a bit disappointed with Frank Miller’s Sin City movie.

Eva Mendez as Sand Seref in The Spirit
On the other hand The Spirit has both Eva Mendez and Scarlett Johansson and that almost would have guaranteed it a DVD rental but alas it is not likely to be.

Scarlett Johansson as Silken Floss in The Spirit
On the other hand you don’t have to be a fan of the movie to enjoy these official tees that are available on Cafepress.
Luis Guzman in Zazzle Obama Tee
Filed under: Celebrity, Political T-Shirts, Video, Zazzle
I came across this video on Joost yesterday. I think it must be really cool to get your t-shirt worn by a celebrity. I know Luis Guzman is not exactly an A-List celebrity but he is one fine actor and I would be happy if he were wearing one of my tees. Click on the image above to buy it at the Zazzle store. I think it is also available at Cafepress but I couldn’t find it. Below is the video from Joost where celebrities including Guzman talk about bad Christmas gifts.
It’s Britney Bitch!
Filed under: Band T-Shirts, Celebrity, Music, Zazzle
I noticed a few days ago that a Britney Spears calendar (official) had appeared on Zazzle. Britney Spears, for all her faults, is a huge star, a pop icon so I think Zazzle did well to get the opportunity to hock her official goods to her legions of fans. When I checked out Britney Spears’ Gallery at Zazzle though I found that there was only one item - the calendar. I guess it will sell well but t-shirts and other merchandise would have a more lasting appeal. Perhaps more merchandise will be added at a later date.
Anyway, finding Britney prompted me to get off my ass and tell people about the other music artists that have been selling their official merchandise on Zazzle. I think before that Zazzle spent a lot of resources trying to attract famous names and brands and as far as I can see they have been pretty successful in their endeavor. You can click on the images below to be taken to the artist’s stores at Zazzle. I didn’t include all the artists and new artists are probably added to the line up on a regular basis so if you are very curious you can check out the music page at Zazzle. If you are a musician you should think about using Zazzle as a means to promote your band and make a little dosh too.
Random Shirts in Yokohama’s Chinatown
The other day I had to go into Chinatown (Yokohama - I live in Yokohama) to take a few photos for one of my day jobs and while I was there I snapped a few tees as well. Being Chinatown of course you can expect a few Bruce Lee and a few panda tees and that among others is what I saw. Anyway, I thought I would share.

Bruce Lee T-Shirt in Chinatown

The various emotions of a panda depicted on a shirt.

This shows pandas emotions indicated by the Chinese characters of which I can read but a few. The second from the right on the bottom is drunk panda.

This design, a spoof of Puma's logo was available on many many items. This photo is a hoodie.

This is of course a spoof of Lacoste. Loosely translated it means "turn me over".

I particularly like the chicken and egg t-shirt and how it makes us try to imagine what the chicken is feeling. The pink DOEM M t-shirt: M is for Masochist and the top three characters are the katakana for DO E M. Do means strong. I guess you could translate it as big time masochist. I saw an S t-shirt too.

Both of these tees, like the chicken one above I believe, are from an outfit called Gokigen FACTORY. The left one says O-Hime-sama which means princess and the one the right I am guessing is a very bad translation of In Vino Veritas - In wine is truth.
Microsoft Softwear T-Shirts
Microsoft have just launched a t-shirt line called Softwear. Pretty good name and perfect for a line of t-shirts from Microsoft. In the previous post I mentioned that Mozilla had launched a t-shirt store using crowdsourcing to populate their Zazzle store with designs. Microsoft seem to be taking a more traditional route and as typical with all things Microsoft have put a lot of money behind this venture. I really can’t see why though. It can’t be for the money as the income from t-shirt sales surely wouldn’t even cause a ripple in the pond of income from actual software sales. It could be another attempt by Microsoft to tell us that they are cool, like the recent failed Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates commercials. This time though, I think it is kind of successful. I’m not saying that suddenly people will think that Microsoft is cool but rather that they have produced some quality products and they have gotten help from someone who decidedly more hip than Seinfeld, Illinois rapper and actor, Common. You can even see a video on the Softwear website of Common talking about the tees. At the bottom of this post you can see a video of Common performing at the Microsoft Softwear launch party.

All the tees have a very cool retro vibe. There are eight designs at the moment, four of which it seems were designed by Common. All of them are much better than Microsoft’s I’m a PC store at Zazzle. Unfortunately, I don’t know where they can be purchased or how much they are going to cost yet. If you know more about these t-shirts please leave a comment. Below are two of my favorites.

Jack Johnson T-Shirt Sale
Fans of Jack Johnson should know that he is holding a sale of his t-shirts at JackJohnsonMusic.com. Unfortunately for me though, the only tee that I would wear (large image on left) is not a sale item. Most of the sale t-shirts are $15.
Mad Men Art at Zazzle
Filed under: Cafepress, Celebrity, TV T-Shirts, Zazzle
I came across this wonderful art at Zazzle which was obviously created by a fan of the tv show, Mad Men. I love this show. I think it is the best TV drama I have seen for a while and I think that this artist (Dyna Moe) has captured the essence of the show in her art. Below is a poster of a cutout Joan Holloway doll. I imagine a lot of men having been imagining dressing and undressing this super sexy vixen. Probably a few women too. I think this paper doll is about as close as any of us will ever come to doing it though.
I guess there may be some copyright infringement going on here and these might not stay up on Zazzle very long but they are so cool I hope this is not the case. If you want to get your hands on one of these great items though I recommend not waiting. You can find out more about the artist at her web site, Nobody’s Sweetheart and find more of her goods at Zazzle.
For those of you looking for Mad Men t-shirts there are a few uninspired tees at Cafepress. Click on the Mad Men tee shirts below to check out the slim selection.
Celebrities and their Favorite Tees
Entertainment Weekly have a pretty slick photo gallery of celebrities (15 of them) talking about their t-shirts. The 15th celebrity was Matt Damon and he was wearing a pretty plain t-shirt so I decided to have a little fun with it to see what he would look like wearing some recent T-Shirt Review mentions. What do you think? Does he look better in a plain tee or graphic tee? Feel free to post your ideas in the forum. You can right and save click the image on the top left to edit on your computer.
$9 Bob Dylan T-Shirt
Blatant intellectual property infringement though it may be, there is a very cool t-shirt featuring a Bob Dylan caricature (by Randy McQuien Jr) at TeeFury today. Hurry though as these $9 t-shirts only stay in stock for 24 hours.











































