UTGP 2011

What is probably the worlds biggest t-shirt design contest has yet again been launched by Uniqlo’s UT. The Grand prize is $10,000 which is pretty sweet for one winner. The contest is open to everyone regardless or nationality, age or whatever.

This time it is a themed contest which is a bit weird but that’s OK. I’m sure Uniqlo makes a lot of profit from their affiliation with Disney already and this will only feed the cash cow. Seems like it is quite unnecessary though.

Applications close September 19, 2010.

Link: http://ut.uniqlo.com/utgp/

Graniph takes on Hello Kitty

As I tweeted not that long ago, Graniph did some work on their website and while I am not all that impressed with the result aesthetically, I love the new larger images and non-flash viewing of their products. Very nice. And I guess from now on when I post about Graniph tees you will have larger better pics to gaze at before going to their website to make your purchase.

Anyway as you can see, Graniph are having a Hello Kitty collaboration or I should probably say Kitty-chan collaboration as that is the more popular moniker in Japan which is where these particular tees are being sold. Sorry international Kitty-chan fans. There are 10 t-shirts in this particular line but I just picked out a couple that I caught my eye for being reworking of popular Graniph t-shirt designs.

This t-shirt clearly uses the backpack and headset design from Graniph’s “fake” series.

This one is the Teddy Control t-shirt with a Kitty-chan hat.

Everything and wotto

Wotto is famous for his doodles and you can find his work adorning t-shirts all over the internets so of course it probably came as no surprise to learn that his design was chosen as one of the first t-shirts at Edo Label. As you can see this is a fairly complex piece with a cornucopia of familiar looking characters. I don’t know how wotto does it. Does he picture these weird but cute pictures in his head and try recreate them on his PC or are they naturally occurring when he puts pen to Wacom. Either way it doesn’t really matter because the result is more often than not stunning.

These design is available on girls and boys tees but the print is smaller on the girls, as well as the mens small tees. Cost, just 2,100 yen (about $22 depending on the exchange rate).

Logo in disguise at Edo Label

This is the first t-shirt printed by Japanese t-shirt contest site, Edo Label. A little birdy tells me that there will be  a new t-shirt coming soon and as I haven’t featured Edo Label since the pre-opening contest was being held I thought I had better do it now. This is a pretty cool logo t-shirt by radiomode aka Budi Satria Kwan. The concept of a zebra combined with a barcode has been done before but I haven’t seen it done quite so expertly before. It is a blatant logo t-shirt but still manages to be cool. Check it out at Edo Label, Japan’s only ongoing t-shirt contest site.

Stormtroopers invade Harajuku

I mentioned a while ago that there was a Star Wars t-shirt event in Uniqlo Ginza and Uniqlo’s UT Harajuku stores. I didn’t have a chance to attend but a couple of Japanese bloggers did. Even if you can’t read Japanese you can enjoy the photos.

Check out these two Japanese Star Wars fan sites to see more pictures.

• Japanese Garrison
• STARWARS FAN

The tees that Uniqlo released are not great but they are officially licensed if that’s your thing. They do have a pretty cool vintage vibe though. Again, the site is in Japanese and you need to scroll down a little to see the 6 Star Wars tees on offer.

Dragon Ball T-Shirt

I am not too sure what has happened over at Uniqlo’s website. Fast Retailing, owner of Uniqlo, are expanding so rapidly that they are probably trying to make a tighter ship. They have pulled the UT site into the main Uniqlo store in Japan (I’m talking web here) and I just can’t find the US UT store. Anyway, they have just released some more manga collaboration t-shirts and this Dragon Ball one caught my eye.

Even if you can read the Japanese I don’t think they ship overseas. If anyone can find it in the US store please drop a link.

Star Wars T-Shirts coming to UT

Star Wars fans: mark your calendars. Uniqlo have announced that they will be releasing a Star Wars line on March 3rd 6th in the Harajuku UT store as well as Uniqlo Ginza. So if you are in Tokyo on that day you might want to check it out. They note that Boba Fett won’t be making an appearance at the stores. I’m not quite sure what that means though.

I have to go to Tokyo on that day and it is fairly close to Harajuku so I might just pop in to see what’s happening. That’s a big might though. Wrong day. Woops.

Graniph 2010 Winter Sale

The Graniph sale has been on for quite a bit as you can see and that is the decidedly strange way they depict up “up to 30%” off in Japan. I know English speaking nations would put the tilde (squiggly hyphen) before the 30%. I’ve been corrected. It actually means from 30% up so there are even better bargains to be had. Anyway the sale is still on and while there are a decent number of bargains there are not a whole lot of t-shirts. Below are two interesting tops that are in the sale.

Great deals at Graniph for PayPal users

Design TShirts Store Graniph has teamed up with PayPal to offer some great deals to ensure you get some bargain t-shirts. Graniph is the ever expanding Japanese t-shirt company with over 80 stores worldwide and an online store with a huge selection of t-shirts.  And new shirts are constantly appearing!

Anyway, in collaboration with PayPal they are offering three ways to make your shopping experience even better.

1. 15% Off
2. Free shipping
3. Chance to win 12 t-shirts.

Sounds awesome because it is awesome. The only catch that I can see is that you have to pay with PayPal but that doesn’t seem like a catch to me at all. In fact it could be seen as the 4th bonus.

You can find out more details on the Graniph website. As I am living in Japan I can’t take advantage of these offers but on the other hand I can and do just pop into the local Graniph whenever I feel like it.

A tee with a difference from Uniqlo

Living in Japan I do see a lot of fashion that makes me look twice or sometimes even stare. In fact, just the other day I saw this lady wearing what looked like a big sofa cushion as a sweater. To be honest though I am still not convinced it wasn’t a sofa cushion. I really wanted to take a photo but of course that isn’t always easy when it comes to strangers.

Anyway this little number comes from Uniqlo and is only 500 yen (about $5) in the sale.  A cool and simple design is placed on this interesting article and of course there are suspenders attached. I have a feeling they won’t keep your pants up though.

[I don't know if it available outside of Japan.]

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