I think these are all very pretty, and wanted to share them! Not sponsored, I just like writing thorough and thoughtful reviews absolutely dripping with adulation and still buying the clothes at full price... I've gotta restructure my whole life...
My Philosophy: Nearly all of my favorite clothing (and a lot of what I like in life in general, that fact is certainly telling of my character...) is clothing that commits to a concious, bold, and careful rejection of (an) aspect(s) of traditional/inoffensive/mass-produced clothing design. Clothing is art. In my society function is valued over artistic value, and so like many functional objects, practical clothing (that is, off of the runway) is often disregarded as an artistic medium, which is why I feel an obligation to support artists who create works contrary to that disposition. In all the artists, the divergents, the wanderers and the searchers, there is in fact a market for originality, which is why I so appreciate and am inspired by brands such as these below. The reasons that I am passionate about clothing are the same reasons that I am passionate about art: These brands and their designs are my motivation; they remind me that at least certain art is able to withstand the pressures of capitalism. In wearing, appreciating, and contributing monetarily to these designs, a fire, shielded from the facets of my environment that would quench it, is lit within me, that reminds me that no matter what is "normal" around me, another world that could more fully yet does exist where passion and acts of creation are praised for being passionate and creative. Art sustains me in the highschool hellscape, proving that my people are out there for me to find. In particular, clothing and tangentially tattoo and makeup are the forms of art that I think most initially signal to the world parts of the depth of a person, and so for me, someone who struggles profusely with social interaction, I find that clothing is a fantastic method of self-expression. Aight here's some dope drip.
I don't own this or anything from kinwamonster, but I'm seriously considering it with this one, because this jacket is so unbelievably powerful, in color, illustration, and form. The figure (presumably called BIG BAD) is wonderfully rigid, assertive, and evocative, but the style is flat enough that I don't think I'd shy away from wearing it out of fear of making any kind of grotesque statement. This one remains firmly on my wishlist and is eyeing my wallet!
Just from the product photos, this is my favorite piece of clothing ever! It's so nontraditional and vibrant and full. The weave acts as the perfect filter to this amazing picture of a Namwon field and gazebo. It is such a smart artistic decision on the part of Apari to blend the worlds of photography and clothing design to create a product greater than the sum of its parts. I only learned about Apari after this had already been made available for preorder and I was quite saddened to see that it had sold out, but I just checked and saw that it was restocked, so all finanical sensibility is out of the window, and I'm waiting for it to arrive.
Ironmouse is such a cool content creator! With her endless wardrobe, she demonstrates her exquisite taste and patronage of talented artists, and with this piece of merch, she continued that trend. Apari is so skilled at making clothing, I'm really surprised they're not more well-known (I'd never heard of them until I did a deep dive on clothing in a similar genre to OMOCAT's). With this sweater, they really brought their all; that complex weave, whatever you call it, is just so damn hot and is deserving tratment for this awesome Ironmouse art. That being said, even though it was sold out when I first saw it, I don't know if I could've ever bought it; it's quite a statement on the cleavage/general weebage front; I know and love to death that that's how Ironmouse rolls, but I believe that clothing should be utilized to make a particular impression on passersby, and this shirt definitely can make someone harbor the poor first impressions of Ironmouse that I admittedly once had; that she's an oversexualized character born out of the annals of the idol industry. (Side rant: What I just said is definetely a problem present in the vtuber community, and it's the main reason I'm not much of a patron of it. I realize that the vast majority of vtubers love their industry, and while I do think that they should have every right to sexualize their characters, even if for monetary gain, there is some intersection with the promotion of unhealthy, unhelpful, and outdated body standards as in for example the porn industry that I'm not quite sure how to correctly unpack or critique)
I own a t-shirt version as opposed to this, a sweater. I think the t-shirt is more becoming of its bright and free design, but I liked this product picture more... Like everything from OMOCAT, it's super high quality at a reasonable price, and her style is, of course intentionally, so beautifully condusive to apparel, which is why I have a good few of her designs. This one is just so positive and colorful, I love it. I don't have enough yellow in my wardrobe!
The Genshin Impact impression series is really awesome and gets very little attention at least outside of China. There's a couple collections, each cooresponding to a character. I really love the Diluc collection, as well as the Hu Tao one, which this shirt comes from. Like a lot of official Genshin Impact merch however, all of these pieces are only sold officially in China as far as I know. As such, I had to buy it from a reseller, who charges a markup. I found mine for a really reasonable price, but the store has since closed, and I haven't seen it for as low of a price since, so browse a little to find the best vendor. It's not of a particularly high quality; it feels maybe a little plasticky but you'd never know, it looks awesome and is nice and light which I always appreciate for my local climate. It even comes with this awesome little metal bolo tie! Genshin Impact has some incredible fashion designers, and this shirt captures (more subtly) a lot of the asymmetrical beauty I love about the in-game costume design. There are accompanying short and long pants; I kinda think they're too matchy to wear with the shirt though. Also, there's a Hu Tao one-piece dress which looks awesome; I don't fem present (Catholic school, whee!) but that's the kind of clothing that makes me want to!
This one was on a crazy sale, and I'm such a big fan of Ed Hardy's tattooing that I had to pick it up. Wonderful quality - very light but has a tight weave, so it doesn't really let light bleed through. Super vibrant, and the design is sick! The repeating pattern is great, but I really wish the Ed Hardy line had some more garments that used Ed Hardy's bigger designs, even the full back ones; the designs of his I think are the most artistic are most often big ones, though they don't really conform with the bold-lined classic tattoo theme that his line aims to feature more prominently. Ed Hardy is an absolute genius and it's a shame that most of the clothing uses his most comparatively classic designs; he does have a super defined style even within traditional American tattooing, but not enough people know about what I would call his virtuosic and nontraditional works. It's so tragically ironic that a brand centered around counter-culture messages has largely avoided Ed's art which pushed the boundaries of tattooing the most. Society is the enemy of free expression.
This image directs you to just the jacket in the picture, but the whole fit and so much else on shirtz.cool are so damn sexy. A lot of their line is centered around this vibrant primary colors + green palette, and it is exactly the kind of clothing that coaxes me out of depression for a couple seconds. I don't own anything from them, and it's a real shame both the bucket hat and, in my size, the sherpa fleece jacket are sold out (that fleece is such a good aesthetic that I'm missing in my life), but there's just a ton of these super original designs that I may at some point have to pick up.
WOULDJA FUCKIN LOOK AT IT GODDAMN THAT'S A GORGEOUS BOMBER!!! I don't know why, but for some reason I think that this and this alone does perfect justice to Ed Hardy's art. Above you'll see my rant about how the Ed Hardy line doesn't do him justice but this is a definite exception. The koi capture a lot of what I love about Don Ed's Japanese work, and the cranes on the back (not shown here) are sketchy and artistic and rough and perfect - they diverge from the more classic tattoo styles and show a different facet of Ed's genius that the line largely supresses. And that hotdog palette is everything I live for holy hell it's so pretty.