Erik Spiekermann is designing scarves and I like them.

What about the t-shirt itself? Surely we can at least agree on that, you plead. Absolutely. A t-shirt is a t-shirt is a t-shirt… except when it’s not. A t-shirt is not just a t-shirt when you care about, say, how long it will last or whether it boasts your favorite sports team’s logo or your rival’s, or, in fact, whether it has a genuine copy of your team’s logo as opposed to a shoddy ripoff. You might care where and how the shirt was made. In America? By people being fairly compensated and well-treated? It might matter a lot to you if the t-shirt profits are going to a mega-corporation or a mom-and-pop shop. All of these attributes—and many more—are integral parts of what it is exactly that you are purchasing.

—Nathan Peretic, Better Than Cheap

Great points throughout Nathan’s post. I especially like, “there is no cheaper version of the same thing.” Amen.

Art director Matilda Kahl wears the same thing to work every day:

To state the obvious, a work uniform is not an original idea. There’s a group of people that have embraced this way of dressing for years—they call it a suit. For men, it’s a very common approach, even mandatory in most professions. Nevertheless, I received a lot of mixed reactions for usurping this idea for myself. Immediately, people started asking for a motive behind my new look: “Why do you do this? Is it a bet?” When I get those questions I can’t help but retort, “Have you ever set up a bill for online auto-pay? Did it feel good to have one less thing to deal with every month?”

I’ve started on this path too.

I creative direct and art direct all day. When I get up in the morning the less I have to think creatively about what I wear, the better for my brain.

Sports brand Adidas has accused fashion designer Marc Jacobs of producing “confusingly similar imitations” of its iconic three-stripe motif with sweatshirts bearing four stripes down each sleeve.

Adidas filed a lawsuit against Marc Jacobs International with the District of Oregon court earlier this week, claiming the American designer’s company used a four-stripe accent similar to its registered Three-Stripe Mark to intentionally “mislead and deceive consumers” into thinking the garments were Adidas designs.

— Dezeen

The world of stripes is cut throat.

An investigation by the ITC found that a total of 36 Ralph Lauren shoe styles infringed on Converse’s trademarks, including washed canvas, Western leather, camouflage shoes, and bleached denim shoes. Within 30 days of the agreement going into effect, Ralph Lauren have to get rid of these, as well as component parts, tools and molds, advertising, promotional materials and packaging related to the offending products. Ralph Lauren will also pay a monetary sum to Converse, but the amount was not specified in the public version of the settlement agreement. The brand’s main concern is putting an end to impostor Chucks.

Trademark infringement accusations can be difficult to prove in the world of fashion, as the New York Times pointed out: companies must prove that consumers associate a given design with a specific brand, and that the design is not just a part of a larger fashion trend. Companies also can’t legally trademark the functional aspects of their designs. But Chuck Taylors are apparently so clearly Converse-specific that even Ralph’s copycatting can’t cut it.

—Co.Design: Ralph Lauren Forced To Destroy Its Converse Ripoffs

Interesting look behind-the-scenes at Chris Lindland’s company, Betabrand:

When San Francisco saw yet another influx of tech workers a few years ago, Betabrand was in a position to capture a new audience – an audience that lived on the internet, enjoyed its wacky bent, and was seeking a kind of practicality and comfort that wasn’t being addressed by other clothing companies. This was around the same time that Facebook, Zynga, LinkedIn, and Yelp were gaining tons of attention for their huge IPOs. In the spirit of maximizing press potential, Lindland created the Executive Hoodie, a hooded sweatshirt made out of pinstriped blazer material, an official sport coat of Silicon Valley, and launched it concurrent with Facebook’s IPO in 2012. Its tongue was both firmly in its cheek and sticking out at the rest of the tech world. Subsequently the company started to specialize in what it calls West Coast Workwear: Bike to Work Pants, to ease a cycling commute with a “slightly higher back rise that is optimal for crack-coverage”; Dress Pants Sweat Pants; Sons of Britches, pants for the “amateur stuntman lifestyle”; and a Ping Pong Polo shirt, for the type of people who have a ping-pong table near their workstation because they don’t want to seem so stuffy that they go to an office, or so square that they have to put on big-boy dress-up clothes.

Betabrand is filling a void in the current fashion and retail landscapes. It’s a great position to be in.

Apparel is the word describing every garment, shoe and accessory product sold and amounts to about $1.2 trillion/yr. This amount of money is not spent only to protect the wearer from the elements-any more than the money spent on telecommunications is spent to convey vital information. Most of the value in apparel, perhaps 80%, is spent on solving psychological needs.

And therein lies the opportunity. As the value is beyond functional, substitution of psychological jobs by new products is a matter of engineering better solutions. Consider the behavior of US teens: anecdotally, theirspending on apparel is fading as the solution to feeling good about themselves increasingly relies on a device and service. Already, in this context, apparel retail is in crisis while buying shifts to devices.
—Horace Dediu, Apparel is next

Logo Removal Service:

via Quipsologies

Matchbook Tees

Get it here.

Nothing says punk rock than a fucking gala event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I just puked a little in my mouth.

Uniqlo just launched a new site. Very fresh.