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Thursday, 28 February 2008

Subscribe to a ... T-Shirt?

Here's a weird one, but so wacky it's worthy of mention. Subscriptions, it seems, are no longer limited to comics and magazines - you can now subscribe to a t-shirt. And over 2500 people already have.

T-post is described by the creators as "a wearable magazine". Instead of a subscription to a magazine in your mailbox, you receive T-shirts. As a subscriber, you receive a new t-shirt based on a current news item every six weeks - a story that, if it hasn't made the news, should have, in the view of the people behind t-post. Select designers provide their interpretation of a specific news story and that design is combined with the actual news which is printed on the inside of the shirt.

T-Post design by Matt Furie"What's fascinating about T-post is the interaction it creates," says Peter Lundgren, Editor-in-Chief at T-Post. "Nobody asks you about the article you just read in the bathroom.

"But if you’'re wearing an issue of T-post, people tend to ask what it'’s about. The next thing you know, you’re talking about the ethical treatment of robots or some bank robbers in Brazil who got away with 45 million bucks, you'’re forming your own opinion, getting someone else to think about the topic, and it just keeps going from there.

"Because the news is printed inside the shirt, the subscriber is left with an opportunity to interpret and communicate the meaning behind the shirt," he adds. "It really becomes the subscriber’s interpretation of the story, which is even more interesting to hear about, I think."

The latest design, pictured here is titled "De-evolution?", designed by Matt Furie, a San Francisco based illustrator who says he spends all day in his room drawing and watching YouTube. At night he parties, dances, strips down to his boxers and pours milk all over his body in front of strangers (well, he only did that once).

He likes to draw monsters and animals, likes fur and fangs and feathers, scales and fantasy.

But he especially likes fur, so it's not surprising to see that his vision of the future human race (split in two, as predicted by evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry) includes a fair amount of just that. Fur.

• A subscription to T-post costs 26 Euros per T-shirt, and can be delivered anywhere in the world. All shipping costs are included in that price. More information from their web site: www.t-post.se

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