Madame butterfly

Mysteriously beautiful and flattering as you wear it

Peace and Love

Always find a way to unite them, and don't make it difficult

I Heart Paris, Like... Take a Look at My Face!

Rockstars Don't Die. They Transform

Moustache Comes at the Right Place

Wow Sale!

From Monday 30th May there will be 30% off everything in Lady Umbrella shop simply by entering coupon code wow30. Discount t-shirts will be reduced down to around 19.25euro (£16.50/$27.15) and shipping is still free world wide.

The code will be valid until the 6th of June. To top it all off we are also going to have a bonus special going "Order a print and a tee and get a notebook for free! 

*Happy birthday, Robert and thanks for the discount! You to, Elena :)

99 (Red) Balloons

99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Hielt man für Ufos aus dem All
Darum schickte ein General
'ne Fliegerstaffel hinterher
Alarm zu geben, wenn es so wär
Dabei war'n da am Horizont
Nur 99 Luftballons

Ever since I heard Nena's catchy song "99 Luftballoons" and its English version "99 Red Balloons", I thought luft is German for 'red'. Apparently it isn't. Luftballoon means air balloon, instead of red balloon. Furthermore, the English version isn't quite a literal translation of the original one. Despite the slight differences, both versions pose the same spirit of anti-war protest.

99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky as 99 red balloons go by

A beautiful song for a touchy subject. My heart beats anxiously to its upbeat tunes. Why did they pick red for the balloons, anyway? I don't know for sure, but I'd like to relate the red balloons with red hearts. It should remind us that everyone's got a heart- so use it!

Red balloons being a symbol of our hopes for a peaceful world, let's spread them around the globe. Such an example would be wearing 99 Luftballoons ($44) from the wardrobe of Threadless Select. Designed by Ross Zietz, it's a hooded v-neck that gives you a comfy sexy look. Come hold it before it flies away!

Image courtesy of Threadless Select.

What's Your Favorite Pizza Topping?

Do you like pizza?
Of course you do. Pizza is everyone's favorite dinner, 'cause it takes just a little effort. Pick up the phone, and you'll have it delivered to your door. For me, it takes more time choosing the toppings than the delivery time. I want this and that. Heaps of cheese? Layers of pepperoni? Stacks of anchovies? Geez, I need to make up my mind.

But with this tasty Pizza Girl's Sweatshirt from Lazy Oaf (£60.00), I can have as many pizza toppings as I like. Cute orange-yellow pizzas are all over the marl grey sweatshirt. Orange for tomato sauce and yellow for melted cheese. Oooh, tempting.

Basically, pizza is defined as oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread topped with those two ingredients: tomato and cheese. Other toppings depend on the culture, and experimentation. Australians love bacon and egg, and sometimes prawn. In India they have Tandoori Chicken and Paneer. Israeli prefer very large portions of vegetable toppings such as mushrooms or onions. Hmm they all sound very interesting, I wanna try them all. How about your local-style pizza? Care to share a slice with me?

Image courtesy of Lazy Oaf.

Let Your Heart Flying Away and Up High

Are you a beautiful single women?

And if the answer is yes, then you have a reason to continue reading this post. Why oh why? Because this tee can make your heart fly so high. The hearts will fly searching it's mate, a single and nice gentleman. Nobody knows that your heart will stuck on one of them, feels right, and then decide to fly high together.

Limerence shirts are printed on soft blended tee shirts. They are made in the wonderful United States. Printed in Downtown Lancaster. Also, eco-friendly inks are used. All the shirts are neutral colored, and involve one ink color.

Limerence, in a nutshell, is a small independent clothing company that literally runs from childhood bedroom. Right now, it’s a small operation that has high hopes. The coolest part is in the design work. All of design work comes from vintage magazines, yearbooks, and newspaper clippings dating from before 1974. Maybe it’s a 1950’s issue of LIFE magazine that has ducks migrating south, Or old parent’s yearbooks.

Be ready to fly you heart girls? Fly with this cool tee ($12) and good luck searching your soulmate.

Your Mouth is Your (Fashion) Statement

One of the main rules of communication is knowing when to talk and when to keep quiet. It's annoying to hear people talking about something like they're pro, but the truth is they don't know any better. It's even worse when people talk just to hurt others.

There's an old saying, "Your mouth is your tiger." God gives us only one mouth, because it's hard to handle. That's why we need to think really really smart, before we let the mouth do the talking. Make sure that things you're about to say will bring goodness to anyone hearing them.

Lazy Oaf gives us a lesson in using our mouth. They do it in a fashionable way, of course. The outcome is Shut your Mouth Girl's Sweatshirt (£65.00), which is part of Lazy Oaf’s Play Collection for Selfridges.

This sweatshirt is nothing but ordinary. It features a playful mouth that you can control: when to shut up, when to open wide. Brilliant, eh?

Wear it according to your situation. If you're in the mood of 'silence is golden', zip up the mouth to give a simple look. Otherwise, let the mouth stick its tongue out if you feel like actively talking. By controlling this cute cartoon mouth, hopefully we can control our real mouth even better.

Lazy Oaf offers the sweatshirt in two attractive colours: yellow and royal blue. The size varies from S to XL. What are you waiting for? Stop talking about this sweatshirt, instead get it right away!

Images courtesy of Lazy Oaf.

Catch the Catcher in the Rye, in Style

It's time to get cozy with your favorite novel. You can now wear J. D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye". Brought to you by Out of Print, this stylish fleece adapts the iconic first edition dust jacket designed by Michael Mitchell.

The controversial book is hard to forget. It's hard to forget about Holden Caulfield. Whether you're in or over your teenage phase, I bet you can feel him. He's an icon for teenage rebellion and angst. But I hope you won't go too far.

From what I know, The Catcher in the Rye has been associated with the murder of John Lennon. The shooter, Mark David Chapman, was arrested with his worn copy of the book. Another example is John Hinckley, Jr.'s assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.

This book is nothing sort of ordinary. I personally won't agree that it triggers murder actions. Instead, I would recommend people to read it, in a way that it should lead to discussions about social issues. It's a marvelous piece, indeed.

We should be thankful that we live in the freedom era, where book-banning is not preferable. We can read "The Catcher in the Rye". We can even wear it, giving the impression of "I've read this novel and it's good. Wanna talk about it?"

For $38.00, you can purchase "The Catcher in the Rye" fleece and send one book to a community in need at the same time.

Image courtesy of Out of Print.

Starry, Starry Night

A few days ago I got home around midnight. Alone. The city's very cold this time of year. Howling sound of the wind and tree leaves brushing one another crept me out. Thank God for the stars. Their bright light comforted me from afar. 

"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." ~Vincent Van Gogh

Image Source: http://www.vangoghgallery.com/

For starry nights, I totally agree. I love looking up to the sky and trying to guess which-is-which star constellations. And then I forget about the formal configurations. Those stars are all tiny bright spots scattered on an infinite canvas of the sky. I start to picture my own imagination. There, I see candy canes and gingerbread cookies! Oh my head really takes in that Christmas is coming :D

Well that was my just-for-fun personal creation. A legendary artist had put starry nights into a masterpiece that everyone can enjoy. Yes, we're back to Mr. Van Gogh. This Dutch painter was little appreciated during his lifetime, that he only sold one painting himself. Who could've guessed, today he's known as one of the world's greatest painters. And "The Starry Night" is mentioned to be his magnum opus. The most popular creation, most replicated and sought after in prints.

Painted in Saint Rémy, 1889, "The Starry Night" went on inspiring later works. I mean other people's works. From Don McLean's song featuring 'Starry, Starry Night', to the endless number of merchandise products sporting this image. I suppose you're now guessing that there is a Starry-Night-inspired tee shirt, right?

Of course there is!

The name is "Twilight Tee". It's a cotton-poly tee shirt produced by Mighty Fine. The size is available from XS to XL, and the length is 26 1/2" - enough space to preview the world famous image. 

You can get the best bargain from dELiA*s, where it's normally priced at $24.50. Buy any 2 tee shirts there, and you save $10! 

Holding the Stalks of Dandy Lions

If you were an animal, what would you be? For me, my pick goes to the lion. Okay, it's partly my bias as a Leo. 

As we've heard through our childhood, lions are told as "the king of the jungle". They are strong, brave, and noble. Those characteristics altogether make a great combination for a symbol of royalty. No wonder that lions are found famously on numerous flags and coats of arms all across Asia and Europe. Take the Royal Arms of England and Sri Lanka national flag, for example.

However, the movie "Madagascar" and its sequel "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" have brought us a slightly different version of lion. Alex "The King of New York" is one playful king. Master at dancing and posing, he's simply a celebrity animal. In the second movie, we also see Alex or Alakay's uncle, Makunga and his Elvis-like fluffy hair. He's such a good-looking bad-ass.

Male lions with their attractive manes, they're dandy lions! And Kristen Howdeshell got her own idea of The Dandy Lions in the form of a tee shirt design. She drew a few stalks of dandelions- I mean dandy lions. Of course, each lion has a big hair that's either sleek or bouncy. This brilliant design has made its way to Threadless Select.

In case you're wondering, Threadless Select is a premium line of clothing that takes original Threadless designs and mixes them up to create new up-style designs. This line uses all water-based inks for a softer feel and is made with premium materials, like pima and organic cotton.

Threadless Select offers more than classic tee shirts. It has v-necks, tunics, pullovers, and other styles. As for The Dandy Lions, it's a girly tank dress ($40) guaranteed to crown you as "the king of style"!

Books on Shirts. Shirts on a Mission.

It's time to celebrate the world's greatest stories through fashion. Out of Print has this cool idea of creating tee shirts that feature iconic and often out-of-print book covers. They work closely with artists, authors and publishers to license the content that ends up in their collections. 

Each tee shirt is a work of art, treated to feel soft and worn like a well-read book. The whole collection is just beautiful, but the first one caught by my eyes is the Mockingbird. My eyes don't lie. This one is Out of Print's first collaboration with award-winning designer Mikey Burton. Burton created book covers as part of his grad school thesis project to get young adults interested in reading. The particular piece was designed for Harper Lee's classic "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Let's talk a bit about the book then. "To Kill a Mockingbird" deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. This bestselling novel was published in July 1960 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. Nowadays, it remains a bestseller with more than 30 million copies in print. Despite being Lee's only published book, it led to Lee being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom of the United States for her contribution to literature in 2007.

Bravo to both Harper Lee and Mikey Burton!

Now do you need another reason to buy the tee? I'm not sure you do. But there's actually a really good reason to add up. Out of Print's mission is to spread the joy of reading. It also counts to parts of the world that don't have access to books at all. For each tee shirt you buy, one book is donated to a community in need through their partner Books For Africa. Spending $28 per tee shirt on Out of Print is definitely not a waste!

The Dead Have Risen… Again!

So, tell me what do you think about zombie? Afraid? Or probably you even think that zombie is funny, cute? Oh no…

Talking about zombie, there are tons of movies out there. Name it: Resident Evil with Milla Jovovich, Will Smith with I am Legend, Simon Pegg in Shaun of The Dead. Many movies in zombie genre. Now I even make new movie genre myself. Not only movies, also don’t forget the legendary Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Uh.. Uh.. And the Goosebumps series too.

Now, how if the zombies come up to your shirt? Scary yet gallant. Like this every-night-i-have-the-same-dream shirt from threadless. It is designed by Tony Moore who obsessed with zombies. Don’t peek his blog if you don’t have the courage! The shirt featured with detailed illustration and story. Full printed. No wonder it’s almost sold out. Now left the M and L size for you guys. For the girls, so sorry, unfortunately only XXL size that remains. The price is only 10 bucks, since the threadless launch “2 weeks of terror!” promo until next November 1st. Feel fearless by wear it.

Zombie reminds me of The Cranberries. If the band says the zombie is in your head, now zombies are on your shirt.

Grrrr…

Vampire Fever in Your Veins

Watch out for the latest epidemic: vampire fever is in your veins!

Google it and you'll get bazillion titles about vampire. Either it's in books, movies, or TV series. It's not the first time that vampire has become the hot trend of modern life. Earlier there were Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1992), Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in Anne Rice's "Interview with The Vampire" (1994), and Sarah Michelle Gellar as "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" (1997-2003).

However, current vampire trend is a new kind- it's more about love and relationship, instead of blood and violence.

Stephanie Meyer's "The Twilight Saga" portrays teenage love between mortal Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen. This best-selling book series have been brought into blockbuster movie series. Also in big screen, the Swedish art-house film "Let the Right One In" is partly a sweet children's tale about Oscar, a bullied 12-year-old boy who finds love and revenge through Eli, a girl who turns out to be a vampire.

TV series "True Blood", based on Charlaine Harris' book series "Southern Vampire Mysteries," tells the story of telepathic Sookie Stackhouse who falls in love with vampire Bill Compton. And then we have another TV series called "Vampire Diaries" about a love triangle between a girl named Elena and two vampire brothers, Stefan the good one and Damon the evil one.

Off the books and screens, the vampire trend is pushing to the fashion world. Spiky clutch and fang pendant are just a few example. Lucky you, tee shirt lovers, Wildfox Couture through 80's Purple got you the Vampire Love. It's pretty in pink, with a cute smiley and a tiny drop of blood. The ripped-off fabric adds a bit of gothic rock sensation. For $77, show your statement to the beauty of impossible love between mortal and vampire.

Miss Gaby's Cool Tee

Girls hate to admit if they envy another girl. But I should tell you, "Miss Gaby" here deserves a standing ovation. She does photography, web design, video production and graphic design. And the most important thing is she's living her dream while getting paid for it!  

Gabrielle "Miss Gaby" Duong is a multi-talented artist residing in Vegas. She earns her degree in Web Design and Interactive Media from Art Institute of Orange County. As a multimedia designer and project manager in the music industry, she's got experience with Myspace.com, Hurley International and Warner Bros. Records. She also has done live photography and shot bands such as Gnarls Barkley, The Killers, Taking Back Sunday, NOFX, and Angels and Airwaves.

Now for a spark of inspiration, Miss Gaby shares her creativity in the Collaboration Series by Nollie. The outcome is this cool tee showing an image of musician performing. You're gonna love the V-Neck that surely flatters your sexy neck.  

Let's grab the exclusive tee designed by Miss Gaby, and let's follow her lead in the pursuit of our own dream! 

P.S. To learn more about this genius lady, you can jump to her photography portfolio, web portfolio, MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter. 

 

Ed Hardy Men's Tee shirts Discount Up To 35% off. Hurry Up!

This is the time to spend some cash wisely for designers' tee lovers. Ed Hardy tees for are up for grab at starting price of $57.99*! Umm, sorry sisters, the sale currently for men's stock only.

Streetwear online store main house Dr Jays offers really good selection of original Ed Hardy tees and now they're put on sale corner. Some of them are Beautiful Ghost ($57.99 after discount), Rapper Dog ($59.99), Wave Ghost Multi Print ($59.99), Cobra Open Mouth ($63.99) and Pin-up & Skull Rhinestone ($62.99)... But these are just a few from list, there are more than 70 designs total. This offer expires on September 15, 2009 -- So hurry up, check them out yourself!

Browsing Through Latest Fred Perry's Tee shirts Collection

While Fred Perry is well know for its polo shirt (and sneaker) -- I personally love its tee, especially when I'm on "simple but make impact" mode. I enjoy the latest Fred Perry T-shirt collection and how FP designers play nicely with color combination between the Laurel logo and color of the T-shirt. Check out some of Fred Perry latest collection on Asos.com.

A little bit story about Fred Perry (only if you care): In 1936, tennis and table tennis player Frederick John Perry became the first English Man to win the mens single title at Wimbledon. Later, his clothing brand which followed shortly after is best known for the famous laurel logo on the left breast of polo-style shirts. You know the rest of history, Fred Perry clothing label later went on to be popular with the mods of the sixities. In some countries, brand became popular with skinheads, mods, and other youth sub-cultures.

That's how playing tennis can change your life, at least... when have to lose that on your stomach and hips :P

Who Wears Table T-shirt to the Beach?

Gives vintage-ed yellow, purple and blue a chance to be combined on solid triangles and lines -- this is how you get Table T-shirt, a perfect surf style tee for the fashionista at heart. Triangle patterns are definitely one nice kind of stripes tee I have ever seen before. Designed by Matix, which was co-founded by Daewon Song and Tim Gavin in 1998, these patterns are neatly screen printed on 100% cotton beach-goers tee with solid short sleeves and v-neck sweetness. Grab it from Becker Surfboard for $24