Now I have discovered an on-line business that takes my love of reading, my affinity for aiding philanthropic endeavours and my fetish for quality tee shirts to another level: it’s called Out of Print Clothing and it’s truly amazing. The art on the shirts is representative of some of the great, long-out-of-print literary classics and the company works closely with artists, authors and publishers to create tees you would be proud to own and wear. The fact the shirts are made from the finest, softest, distressed cotton make the experience of donning them sublime, as well.
The very BEST part, however, is Out of Print Clothing’s recognition that, while we in North America are literally wallowing in them, many people around the world do not have the luxury of reading books. So for every tee shirt sold, they donate one book to their non-profit partner, Books for Africa! Is that not an incredible concept? And why isn’t Chapters carrying this line? They have just about everything else.
Take a gander at OOPC’s site, outofprintclothing.com, and see the small but lovely variety of men’s and women’s book-related shirts available for purchase, including Fahrenheit 451, Slaughterhouse-Five, Catcher in the Rye, On the Road, Brave New World, Of Mice and Men, Atlas Shrugged, A Streetcar Named Desire, Lolita and other gems. I’ve ordered a William Burroughs’s Naked Lunch shirt and I can’t wait to slip it on as I search for an affordable print edition to buy. The film version starring Peter Weller wasn’t so great, but then again they seldom are.
More summer tees to keep you cool and comfy
These aren’t your granddaddy’s tee shirts, so give them a look-see if you enjoy that casual, comfortable look that will take you through the summer and, indeed, the rest of the year, too. -
If clever original wording is your “cup o’ tee,” then Hollywood Loser (www.hollywoodloser.com) an all-Canadian endeavour that hawks the Alexander of Hollywood line, is for you. Catch phrases like A Legend in My Own Basement, Time Flies When You’re Having Sex, More Angry Than Depressed, I (heart) Unacceptable Discourse, Legalize Reality, Hopelessly Bourgeois, Cogito Ergo Sum, Every Day You Haven’t Written is a Day You’ve Written Off and many more can be found on the website at www.hollywoodloser.com. The designs are great and the shirts are very, very comfortable, I can tell you.
For more rock-and-pop-culture oriented tees, head over to www.tshirtblast.com, a New York-based business that has virtually every popular music band depicted on graphically lovely, hi-quality shirts. They’ve also got many movie-related, humorous, celebrity and election-oriented tees and the site is as much fun to peruse as it is to purchase off. I own one of their shirts, featuring John Lennon, that is one of my all-time faves and garners thumbs-up gestures wherever I go. Last December, they got into the holiday spirit by donating tees to American armed forces personnel stationed worldwide, the numbers based on sales to the public.
These aren’t your granddaddy’s tee shirts, so give them a look-see if you enjoy that casual, comfortable look that will take you through the summer and, indeed, the rest of the year, too.
