Happy/Scared/Hungry/Delusional? - you decide..

Happy/Scared/Hungry/Delusional? The Blind Tiger Collective has kicked off has kicked off a week long (more than a) Pop Up Shop in Little Green Gallery..I got a chance to stick my head in to drop off our t-shirts the other day and Elena snapped this oh so flattering picture..Happy/Scared/Hungry/Delusional - you decide!! And, once you've decided, make sure you pop into the BTC shop in Little Green, a whole ton of events happening down there..You don't wanna miss it...

Totebags and Notebooks - Gone for Good!

It's been a feckin' age and a half since I've posted a blog post and I will explain the silence at some stage but for now I've just gotta mention that our totebags and notebooks are now sold out.. It's a bittersweet moment - nice that we've sold out of them but then, on the other hand, kinda sad to see them go.. I guess it means we can now come up with more nifty bags and notebooks (we will, we are) but maybe I'm just a sentimental goof who misses these inanimate objects.. Also, giving you fair warning now that a lot of our t-shirts are running low too..We've been nice and busy here thanks to a huge GrabOne sale we did and literally have hundreds of t-shirts to pack and ship in the coming days.. We're ready! Anyway, bye bye totebags and notebooks.. Do you have one of our totebags/notebooks? If so, I sincerely hope that in about 30 years time they are worth a nice chunk of change - how cool would that be?

The Makings of the T-Shirt

The Makings of the T-Shirt
For men and women to power dress these days, they need to ditch their suits and grab a cool, cotton, casual T-shirt. T-shirts are now what padded shoulders and pinstriped suits were in the eighties and nineties- they tell your boss and colleagues ‘you mean business.’ It’s largely thanks to the billionaire co-founder of the social networking site, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, that the humble T-shirt has come to its present prominence as a garment to wear to work. The man responsible for connecting over 500 million people across the world through social networking is usually seen wearing worn out jeans, T-shirts and a hoodie or fleece. Wearing a casual T-shirt in the 21st century implies you are a potential successful entrepreneur similar perhaps to Zuckerberg in the film Social Networking.

These days the bosses are wearing cool T-shirts and comfortable trainers to work while those still donning a shirt and tie look stodgy. They look like relics in the workplace who need to be replaced with the energetic fresh blood who is inevitably wearing a T-shirt.

It is true the T-shirt has been through many different eras when it varied in popularity, yet it always seemed to play a part but it is the first time it is now being associated with successful business rather ‘young, cheap and cheerful,’ as some might put it.

It was after World War II that it became common to see men wearing T-shirts as veterans wore their uniform trousers with their T-shirts as casual clothing. They became even more popular in the 1950s after Marlon Brando wore one in the film, A Streetcar Named Desire, which is when T-shirts achieved their status as fashionable, tops. In the 1960s T-shirts were a staple fashion item for the youth and rock ‘n’ rollers, in the 1970s they were ensconced in pop culture, and in the mid-1980s the white T-shirt became fashionable after the actor Don Johnson wore it with an Armani suit in Miami Vice.

Some of the most popular symbols marking an event such as a protest or event like a pop concert emerge printed on the cotton T-shirt. Designers are only to away of this as some designer ranges in T-shirts have been sold like hot cakes. With summer just around the corner sales in T-shirts which are ideal summer attire, are expected to rise, as people need not just one or two in their wardrobe but a selection to stay cool and fresh throughout the week. Young designers trying to establish a ‘name’ for themselves are creating new designs on T-shirts which they hope will appeal to a mass audience this summer. The race for the T-shirt design, which could epitomize this summer, is already underway – young designers don’t miss out on the race get your creative juices working.

Many personalized T-shirts advertising businesses or organizations such as leisure centers, physiotherapists and building companies are minimalist, words discretely attached to one side of the T-shirt. While a more recent approach is a company design emblazoned across the entire front. People become human billboards when they set out in a T-shirt with their company slogan all over it.

Even high street shops sell T-shirts with the name of their chain publicized on it for passer-by to see. T-shirts are ideal to send out; because they are light parcel2go.com is cheap.

Charities have found much success in designing T-shirts advertising their cause. Some charities have even sold T-shirts with their name on, in the high street while others leave them for fundraisers to wear during special event such as sponsored runs or walks.

Commemorative T-shirts can be Priceless

You might think T-shirts which advertise you’ve been to a certain place or done a certain event, are a bit naff but they can serve a similar purpose to a photograph. In the future when you come across them folded up neatly in a draw, they can trigger happy memories of the past. They may mark a once in a life time visit to a remote far off place and if they are a celebration of a sporting event, they’re proof as you get older that you were once capable of it - then, they might not have cost a great deal at the time to but they will be priceless to you.

This is a guest post by Imogen Reed from LineGray. If you would like to sponsor a post get in touch..

Bags of the stuff..

We recently held a sale with GrabOne which resulted in an insane amount of orders in a very short period of time.. LUHQ has been transformed into an all singing, all dancing t-shirt packing compound where Elena is the lead folding machine and Rob (me) is the marksman with the pen and address labels and the "spreadsheetUpdaterGuy"..

It's been great having so many orders and sending so many t-shirts out although the post office wasn't best pleased - usually when I arrive to post orders it doesn't take about 15 minutes for them to add stamps to them (stamps which have doubled in price, sigh) but due to the quantity there is quite a bit of work to be done..

The sale has come at a good time for us though.. Things have been a bit, well, challenging and tough here at LUHQ, and this is the shot in the arm that we needed to get reinvigorated and by god I think I am reinvigorated (or maybe it's the coffee coarsing through me).. Elena has been doing stellar work and has created some really great designs for later this year (dresses people, dresses!!!) and she is working on what could possibly be the coolest diary for 2013..

Anyway, I've probably let a cat of a bag that I shouldn't have but such is life..I wanted to ramble slightly and let you, our LadyUmbrella friends and fans, know what's happening in LUHQ.. Why? Cos you're all freakin' great!!!

Now, just a few more orders to get finished so we best crack on..You can of course keep us packing though, you know what to do! Ole...

HUGE GrabOne Sale - 50% OFF!

Hi there, how are you?!! It has been like 4 Ice Ages since the last update but things have been beyond mental in the halls of LUHQ and time/focus is a rare commodity these days.. I'm sure at some stage I'll document the last 6 weeks but not now, not today..Today is all about our HUGE GRABONE SALE!! with 50% off!

We're happy to be able to team up with GrabOne again. There are lots of good people working there behind the scenes and they are a great crew to work and deal with. And, the sure do come up with good deals.. They (and their facebook fans) handcrafted this deal - the top 3 t-shirts chosen by the fans and then 50% off the price - nice! You can avail of the good good now but the deal ends in 11 hours and 24 minutes (at time of writing hehe)..

The t-shirts up for grabs are LadyUmbrella is Friends with Sir David Attenborough, LadyUmbrella and the Wise Owl,
and LadyUmbrella and her Famous Friends - which one do you want?

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Wow, things have been crazy busy here in LUHQ, regular readers would have been able to tell that due to the lack of blog posts - I do apologise.. I'll explain the reasons for being so busy at a later date but suffice to say a certain Blind Tiger is taking a lot of my time...

Anyway, this short blog post is to just wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day - you've all been insanely supportive over the last few years to myself, Elena & LadyUmbrella and we hope you'll continue to be supportive, even to the progeny of LadyU - introducing "Little LadyUmbrella" - let us know what you think of her :)

It Doesn't Look Like Much Now But..

..this will be our shop! Let the kit out begin - ole!

What a crazy few weeks! You might have heard that a few weeks ago we opened up a pop up shop for four days called the Blind Tiger Collective and, well, long story short, it went very well! So well that we are now going to open up a full time shop on South William Street, Dublin..

We are going to launch in early February and really can't wait..The shop is going to stock all of our LadyUmbrella gear as well as a whole ton of other Irish brands..You can find the full list of brands on the Blind Tiger facebook page and you can start to get excited about the launch - we are!

Stay tuned for progress reports on how the kitting out and setting up of the shop goes..And, will you call into us?

P.S. Sharing is caring! Our IT boffins have have got a new Facebook "like" button and Twitter ReTweet button on the top of all our blog posts..Give them a click and make us smile!