Sorry for the complete lack of activity here over the past two weeks but lets face it, it is late May, and it is manic here in the office. You see when the summer comes along (when it stops raining), schools start breaking up (so leavers hoodies), people organise events, trips, reunions, short sleeve staff uniforms, the list is endless…oh, and yesterday, a man jumped off the building next to us and landed on a bus…beware the stressful job.
Archive for May, 2007
Want to see what the overtly sex-oriented marketing campaigns look like that are coming out of American Apparel’s (AA) pink, California, offices at the moment? Well AA ever growing website has them online, sorted chronologically: http://americanapparel.net/presscenter/ads/
According to MediaPost’s Marketing Daily (April 20, 2007) who list AA as 8th in their “Most Trusted 15 brands named by the trendsetters“:
Most of the companies cited by the respondents stress simplicity, says Brickley, who notes that many of their favourite companies, from giants such as Apple to smaller newcomers like Method, are known for keeping things as stripped-down and unadorned as possible - not just in terms of the product’s visual appearance but also in the way they organize their offerings. “Apple’s computers and iPods are so clean and simple and easy to use,” remarked one trendsetter. “No excess.”
Well, when it comes to AA, things are certainly ‘stripped-down‘!
If you only do one thing today go and read this article on the history of the T-shirt from Gelf Magazine.
Whether you choose to admit it or not, chances are a critical reserve of self-esteem rests somewhere near the middle of your T-shirt drawer. For within this darkened, hidden quarter lies dormant a secret weapon so witty, so elusively allusive, or just so damn hip it finds itself swathing your chest on only the most important occasions.
some of my favs are:
Choose Wisely!
Here’s another quote from the article from George Carlin’s “Coolest T-shirt Trap” in his 1997 volume of random musings, Brain Droppings:
There are times when you take 15 minutes to pick out which shirt to wear, because you’re going to a place where they’ll be a bunch of guys you’ve never met…and you think, ‘No one has ever seen a shirt like this. This will make them jealous’…then when you get there, no one cares at all. And all of the other guys turn out to be dorks who will wear any piece of shit that’s handed to them. Like ‘Property of Alcatraz’ and ‘Life is Beach.’ What a letdown.
[via Kottke]
originally published at tcritic the t-shirt blog
Indigo Clothing welcomes Karl (left) and Lhea (right), from the excellent, and highly acclaimed, t-shirt blog Tcritic, who are going to be guest authors on the Indigo blog. Life is pretty busy at Indigo right now and we have less and less time to browse the weird and wonderful tee sites that exist, so that is why we turned to Karl and Lhea help us out.
Tcritic is a t-shirt review site, which has over 3000 reported subscribers to its RSS feed. It is full of bright pictures, great editorial and links and adverts to the best t-shirt sites, wheter they be boutique brands or monster marques. These guys spend hours sifting through the detritus to bring their readers the best of what is out there and now they are going to do the same for Indigo readers. We strongly encourage you to check out what they are up to and we look forward to publishing their work here too.
Threadless, the US t-shirt competition behemoth, has got some new t-shirt designs out based on the theme of “Descent into Rapture” from a newly awaited computer game called ‘Bioshock‘. Don’t ask us about computer games but I guess Threadless have teamed up with the makers, Irrational Games and 2K and working together are shipping more tees and games to Generation-Y than they could if they worked alone.
More interestingly, parent company SkinnyCorp, have a great video on their site of the Threadless screen printing and fulfilment process featuring the same kind of automatic presses Indigo use to produce your t-shirts, here in the UK.
There has been a flurry of eco/ethical/organic posts on this blog of late, but nothing in comparison to miles of column inches in the press at present. I hope we aren’t overdoing it but the green issues that face the apparel and promotions industry are the most exciting thing to happen to it since someone decided to call a couple of pieces of cotton stitched together, in a ‘T’ shape, a t-shirt.
Of course it is not just our industry that is affected - the implications of eco-consciousness will reverberate throughout the triumvirate of politics, economics and sociology. If we agree that this movement is fundamental, it is perhaps inevitable that the PR and marketing people will look to utilise and manipulate the message for their own ends. I’m a capitalist, I realise that this is a probable consequence and see no hypocrisy in people both supporting the green movement and profiting from it. You may call it a win-win situation for the free market economy and the world.
I therefore disagree when I see statements in literature from one of our organic suppliers, Continental, stating:
‘We think it unethical to exploit ‘ethical trading’ as a marketing tool.’
Philip Charles, MD, Continental Clothing Company
‘Ethical trading’ will only grow if marketeers promote it and utilise it in their arsenal, and of course when Continental send us organic t-shirt samples and price lists, what are these to be called if they are not marketing tools used to promote sales and generate profits?
I do have a key caveat though, and in credit to them, I think this is what Continental really mean, and it is the concept of ‘Greenwashing‘, a pejorative term that critics use to describe the activity of giving a positive public image to putatively environmentally unsound practices. Talking with friends and colleagues, they can instantly name examples of this phenomenon: “Talk about that rubbish Shell ad with a man, his son and a straw,” said one unnamed source from the West-End (he is scared of the power of oil companies)!
Herein lies the problem. Greenwashing engenders cynicism, a dangerous by product of poorly conceived ethical marketing. To quote Whellams and MacDonald (2007):
“If consumers come to expect self-congratulatory ads from even the most environmentally backward corporations, this could render consumers sceptical of even sincere portrayals of legitimate corporate environmental successes. Thus well-meaning companies, companies committed to responsible behaviour with regard to the environment, have every reason to be critical of companies that greenwash.”
I think we are at a defining moment in this movement. When Selfridges and Hindmarch start doing what they are there is a risk that a pivotal point will be reached and this rapidly growing bubble will be deflated. In the mean time it may be worth investing in green tech stocks on AIM?
Not to be upstaged by the hype surrounding Anya Hindmarch’s bag (that is not plastic), Selfridges, the famous London department store, has ditched its yellow bags for paper ones. According to Drapers Record, Selfridges chief executive Paul Kelly claimed that this was an environmental move that also happens to represent the retailer’s upmarket image. This is a good move but like others I am sceptical about the timing - sounds like a PR department jumping on this bulging bandwagon.
[Source: fashion.psfk]
Indigo printed the t-shirts for London College of Fashion’s ‘Is Green the New Black?’ campaign and it is great to see that Vogue, the top fashion magazine, is supporting the campaign by running the story. More about the campaign on our previous ‘Is Green the New Black?‘ blog post.
‘Is Green the New Black?‘ is a week of events and activities (Monday 30 April - Friday 4 May 2007) run by the London College of Fashion, “with exciting guests to help unravel some of the most complex issues that face the fashion industry today.”
Laura Bailey is one of the faces of the campaign and Indigo is proud to be one of the event sponsors. We printed all the t-shirts above, all of which have had a previous life as a promotional t-shirt and have been ‘recycled’ for the campaign.
To get involved, book a place at an event via www.fashion.arts.ac.uk/green or simply have your say by logging onto www.myspace.com/londoncollegeoffashion.
