Italian designer Cecilia Felli knows what to do with a broken umbrella– turn it into an umbrella skirt. Pretty great! check out all her different creations over here.

The economic climate has given designers good reason to be concerned, but kudos to San Francisco’s snarky Headline Shirts for bringing smiles to T-shirt buyers’ faces in the best way they know how–cotton and cartoons. With 20 top end menswear stores predicted to be out of business by the end of the year, Chris Gorog, the founder of Headline’s parent brand Revel Industries, says T’s have been the most recession-proof of his three lines (which include the mid-market menswear line REVL and the top-end Gythamander, whose silk neckwear is worth saving up for). The American-made shirts, which include “Party like it’s 1929″ in Dirty Dancing-inspired font, are sold everywhere from Canada to Japan and printed with eco-friendly inks. A series of “I heart NY” shirts include a nod to the Cold War with “I (hammer and sickle) the 80s” and “I (bike tire where stolen frame once was) SF,” which is being introduced in a new local line out today. How’s that for intelligently inspired apparel?

Monsieur T has always provided us with plenty of kick ass tees to rave about on a regular basis. However, with the sizzling season officially upon us, our good friends have upped the ante on their kick ass-ness to not only warm the cockles of our hearts, but our otherwise naked torsos as well. Their scorching new Summer ‘09 collection features designs from a gaggle of top-notch talents such as Arbito (best known for teaming up with MHAK, and Evan B. Harris). While there’s no shortage of eye-popping graphics on this set, there are very limited quantities of the actual shirts. So whether you’re walking around half-naked and need to cover up to get into that fast food restaurant or you’re just looking for a top that will catch that special someone’s attention while cruising the skate park this summer, we suggest you head on over to the Monsieur T website and grab something before they’re all gone.

Obsessed with scoring t-shirts at Threadless before they’re chosen to be made, manufactured, and put on your closet shelf? Check out this new Power Score feature from our pals Jeff and Jake– you can score with the keyboard which means ultra-fast t-shirt scanning and commenting. Love it. Click here to view a video all about it.

Interesting (and dark) interpretations of classic logos like Louis Vuitton and Channel, hand screened and printed on T-shirts for the brand Better Off Dead. This is the Sweeny LV Tee. You get it, I’m sure. $40 CAD and a soon-to-be cease and desist from LVMH and it can be yours.

Oakland-based designer Jen Jennings’ fourth collection for her geometric-inspired line Serial Cultura retains the patterned perfection of former seasons in more subdued fashion. While she’s currently using more muted colors than the lime and fuchsia she loves, the Parsons graduate and textiles aficionado is still using her signature combination of hand-dying silks and digital printing. Repeating shapes created in Photoshop are scanned onto fluid-like shirts and dresses, a process that can take up to a week per item. The resulting triangle bias tops and wrap dresses, which are all made in California, are captivating and now being sold everywhere from New York’s Kaight, Riyadh’s Vibe, and LA’s Reform School.

Images by Scott Clark.

Perennial VA/DC favorite Commonwealth has teamed up with Billabong for a series of board shorts made from a new fabric called Eco-Supreme Suede. The material is made from recycled pure polyester and can be recycled at the end of their life. It takes about ten recycled 12 oz plastic bottles to produce a pair of the tiger camo shorts. I am not a fan of the current options for men’s beachwear but depending how this new Billabong fabric feels, I will probably grab a pair when I am in DC next week. Via Highsnobiety

I recently caught wind of this unique collaboration between Invisible DJ (Santigold, Chester French, Kid Sister, etc) and clothing line LnA called The Music Tee. The front of the shirts have a visual designed by Ian Markell while the back has a full track listing of the 14 featured artists. The coolest part? The hang tag sports a unique code used to download the album which is a compilation mix of said musicians. I quickly spotted some of my favorites - Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Theresa Andersson, and Passenger. While the premier shirt is a mix of multiple artists, there are already plans for shirts which focus on one artist or band. Look for those in the future.

What will I be rocking all summer? The Zuriick Ake Slip Ons ($55). More pictures after the jump. They’re fantastic– available in a handful of colors like Cub Red, Bronx (blue) Charcoal Night and Wrigley (shown here). More pictures after the jump…

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Collect London just launched a gallery style event put on at Vibe Bar in Brick Lane. Designs are entered by the public around a theme set by Collect (the first theme was ‘endangered’). Then, 100 limited edition shirts of each design are made in a perfect fit where you can choose from 6 styles in 6 sizes (fitted, relaxed, fitted vest, slim, regular, etc). Each shirt is also individually numbered. Check out some of the men’s printed shirts– great looking stuff!  Thanks Sally!

The String Republic is at it again, this time with an artist collaboration series with awesome folks like eBoy and Ryan Cox (shown above). Some more of my favorite shots of the other collaborations shown after the jump– shoes are for sale on their website for $40. Summer has officially arrived!

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It’s really great to see how far Kozyndan (Husband and Wife team, Kozy/Dan) have come since we covered them nearly 3 years ago. From posters and artwork to designing sneakers for global brands. Congrats, these Puma pieces look great– and one of my favorite slip ons!

More details over at Hypebeast…

Nike Sportswear (NSW) is the sneaker company’s newest line, featuring exclusive products focusing on a high quality. They made a huge splash when they announced a partnership with Loopwheeler Japan (amazing quality) to produce the world’s best hoodies. Recently, a special NSW project out of Italy caught my eye. Called Nikesportswear Stories, the creative team focused on two DJ’s, a football player and a volleyball player as they went about their daily lives– all using stop-motion photography. Make no mistake about it - though this is a very cool art/video project, there is a strong tie to the ecommerce site. In each scene, the name of the products being featured are captioned near the model. Mousing over the title pauses the main scene and brings up a picture-in-picture animation focusing in on said product. We’ve all seen witty shopping sites but leave it to Nike to bring this level of creativity to an online store. Besides being beautiful, the site is great at doing what it’s designed for - selling products. Check it out.

In celebration of t-shirt weather (yay!) Threadless is running their legendary $5.00 and $10.00 t-shirt sale from today through next Monday June 8th. Get ‘em while they’re hot!

We’re celebrating the return of t-shirt weather with an awesome week-long Summer SALE! A ton of tees are now at $5 and $10 so get ‘em while they’re HOT!

Our friends at COTO, makers of some very fine Sustainable Luxury Accessories just dropped us a note with some of their new products. We’re big fans of the ties (both bow and round/point tip) made from natural silk woven in England, hand sewn here in New York City. They’ve also got some great cufflinks made from things like South American corozo nut, natural briar root, leather rope, and indian head nickels.

Pictures of the collection after the jump. Readers can use discount code “joshspear” for 20% off.

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