Right. I’ve been avoiding this.

This is probably the worst t-shirt that was in my drawer at this point.

1) It’s too big for me.
2) It’s got a bad design on it.
3) It’s not a nice example of a grey marl.
4) Most importantly – it’s got one of those REALLY bad necks on it. It’s like a semi-turtle-neck FFS!

This tee is plain ugly, but I got given it when I visited a friend who works on a super-yacht. So I had to take it.

The yacht’s called TV and it’s a badboy. The t-shirt’s lousy!

This is a shirt from a range printed up by Dom from Seven in Bristol.

I see Dom out skating every now and then, and last time I went out he was there. I was telling him about this shirt – it’s had a lot of wear now, largely because I’m mildly obsessed by turqoise, but also I’m a lover not a fighter so I can defo get down with the sentiment!

Cheers, Blud.

Innes is a skate clothing brand that I’ve long admired, but haven’t seen much in the UK. It’s founder is Matt Hensley a pro skater from my yoof. You can’t beat a good skull graphic, and I reckon this is a good ‘un! I like the fact that the skull resolves so well from a distance and it’s got gold teef!

When I went to Japan, this was the first thing I bought. I was overcome by the sheer volume of cool stuff in Tokyo, and got shopping paralysis; this T-shirt helped me get into my stride!

This shirt is by Quiet Life, Andy Mueller‘s clothing company. I’ve bought a few bits from Quiet Life before (mainly in the sales – I’m a cheap-skate!). Not only is Andy Mueller an awesome designer, but he’s also an alumni of the Girl Skateboard family Art Dump, and his references all just click with me; photography, ping pong, cycling…

Sweet!

I like the colours on this shirt, a nice combo of print and fabric colour. It’s by the skate brand Chocolate, which is a favourite of mine.

Chocolate t-shirts always go down well with the older ladies too – “Chocolate! I like your t-shirt…”

One of only two band t-shirts I own. Printed on a standard American Apparel shirt. This one was bought at the Modest Mouse gig at the Fleece in Bristol in November 2004. Man, that seems like a long time ago now…

I bought this t-shirt on a snowboarding trip to the States in 1999. It’s defo one of my all-time favourites which I’ve only recently had to stop wearing. I thought that there were some marks appearing around the graphic, but then I realised that it was the fabric of the tee wearing away from years of solid use! I stopped wearing it for fear that at some point the print would just fall out of the front of the shirt!

The image is a New York subway car composed from the brand name “Zoo York“, which I’ve always liked. It’s kept its shape for ten years now and still fits as well as it did when I forst got it.

Quality.

Every year Helen and I head out to Mallorca at least once to stay in my Uncle’s villa and live the high life in the sun. We’ve come to love the island’s capital city Palma de Mallorca, it’s got a really good vibe and some great shops (including Helen’s new favourite).

This tee came from a Palma mission in September 2008. I just like the fact that it kinda looks like me, which is daft I know, but there you go. I’d never heard of the brand Pa:nuu before I got the shirt, and I haven’t seen them anywhere else since. I just found out it’s a Danish brand started in 2006. Now I know…

There are a few of these American Apparel shirts in my drawer. Despite the weird hipster-ness and near-Emporer’s-New-Clothes nothingness of most of their men’s stuff, I do dig the shirts. They’re well made and consistent, they always fit well, and I haven’t had a single one go mis-shapen on me yet!

I picked this one up on an outing to London which turned from a day trip to an overnighter. After spending an uncomfortable night with three of us jammed into a colleague’s hotel room I needed some fresh clothes to wear, so after a quick trip to AA, I had a t-shirt, pair of underpants and sport socks all in this dashing fuschia colour. Dipped and ready to face the day!

This is one of the few shirts I own that is not a medium; it’s a small as I was getting into skinny jeans when I bought it.

The best thing about this tee is that it now has a very special memory associated with it. Since starting this blog my wife gave birth to a beautiful little girl, Jet Reiko, at home. This was the t-shirt I was wearing throughout Helen’s labour and the birth of my first child. It’s defo put the t-shirt up the favourite scale a few notches!

Love thy Fly53

This one was a freebie from a fashion fair in Bristol at Paintworks. This was back in 2007 before we got married there in September. Helen found her wedding dress at this fair, so it was a pretty successful mission!

I got this shirt in two sizes, a small and a medium, as Helen got one too. I quite like the design on this shirt, it’s got a good edge of gnar, even if it’s not the best execution in the world. It’s not particularly a brand I would go for normally, but the main reason this one and its partner stay near the bottom of the drawer is because they’ve both suffered from the dreaded vertical shrinkage! They’re significantly shorter than they started out and are cursed with a touch of bell-tent syndrome to boot.

Ah well, plenty more tees in the sea…