M.Nii Makaha Pocket Tee

Lately I've been obsessing over vintage surf photography. It's become a slight fascination of mine over the past couple of months, be that for my itch to travel more and experience the new or from a nostalgic point of view. There's something about surf culture that evokes a sense of freedom, adventure and comradery that I can really get on board with.

M.Nii is one such surf brands I've enjoyed researching into, and their Makaha pocket t-shirt sums it up perfectly for me. It's the kind of t-shirt that you can wear every day, for it only to improve with age. The type you pick up from the store one minute, then to only realise you've had it 10 years and can't bare to part with it. That's what I want from a t-shirt.

For more information on M.Nii visit here, check out this behind-the-scenes video of the making of M.Nii's collection with GAP here. 

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The Stripe T-Shirt

 The Stripe T-shirt - Universal Works

Stripes, stripes, stripes, this t-shirt has them by the bucket-load. You want them, it's got them. I've been an avid wearer of striped tops for as long as I can remember and I won't be stopping any time soon. My sponsors Stuarts London offered me an item from Universal Works's SS13 collection and before I knew it I'd added another to the collection.

It's warm enough to pull out the short sleeves now (yes even in grey Manchester....) so I've been wearing this over the past couple of weeks. There's two types of stripes on the tee, the panel on the lower back actually wraps around to the front ever so slightly as you can see by the photo; it's not as noticeable when you're wearing it but it's a pretty cool design feature. It's all topped off with a mustard yellow ringer style neck. This is the first piece I've owned by the Nottingham based company, so far it's two thumbs up from me. Read more about the Universal Works story here.

Here's a quick summery:

Pros - 100% premium cotton // Mustard yellow accents // Variable stripes // Great quality

Cons - Sizing is very small so had to go up to a large // Slightly longer in the body

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Uniqlo UT Collection - Keith Haring

Blackpool's Comedy Carpet / Street Art / Largest Disco Ball in Europe. Images by Hollie.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to get involved with Uniqlo's new UT T-shirt Collection, featuring designs by Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

I was offered one of the t-shirts from the new UT Collection, so I went for this orange Keith Haring number featuring one of this iconic designs on the front. I tested out their new video app, UT Camera and shot 3 short clips wearing my Keith Haring t-shirt around some of my favourite artwork and installations in my local area. It was a refreshing change to make these super easy videos loops and a nice way of sharing on social media rather than just posting images. Plus the results were pretty entertaining!

Locations - All 3 locations I chose can be found in my hometown of Blackpool. The Comedy Carpet is a huge space filled with famous quotes and sayings by comedians from around the globe, designed by Gordon Young. The second piece can be found just behind the Winter Gardens, I know little about this piece but I do know it's really stunning. And finally, the biggest disco ball in Europe can be found on the South Promenade and looks pretty spectacular in the dark with the nearby lights reflecting off it.

As well as the launch of their new app, Uniqlo are running a competition to win 2 x VIP tickets to Lovebox festival. All you have to do is download the Uniqlo UT Camera app and get involved.  Upload your clips using the app and tag them with the hashtags #UT_LDN and #UT_CAMERA. You can visit the Uniqlo UT Camera hub to view my videos and browse the rest of the gallery. 

The full UT Collection is available here.

Thank you to Uniqlo for asking me to be involved the UT Collection project.

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Reiss 1971 captsule collection - Competition

"1971 Reiss" is the new capsule collection from the hi-end high street store. The collection is mostly focused around denim that you would ususally expect from the high street stores mainline collections, which hints that it will be aimed at a slightly younger customer base that at current.

To celebrate this new collection, Reiss have joined forces with Dazed & Confused to create a t-shirt competition. The idea of a t-shirt competition os so that their new jeans have the perfect partner. The brief is to take "1971" and interpret it however you wish, they urge you to look at the year for inspiration but create something that is fashion forward and not just another band t-shirt.

To help everyone get started Dazed have commissioned a few artists to come up with their own designs. Here's my favourite: by Graphic Artist Damien Poulain, inspired by the missions into space and the astronauts playing golf on the moon.

For more information about entering the competition and details visit Dazed Digital or go straight to the new 1971 Reiss site.

Is anyone inspired to enter? I would but my graphics skills aren't up to much.