Universe on a T-Shirt: Amsterdam
Another gem of a shop I ran into today was Universe on a T-Shirt, a small workshop space on Bloemdwarsstraat, off the busy street of Rozengracht. They primarily sell t-shirt and sweatshirts on which they hand print their sometimes elaborate and always beautiful designs. They hope to help people avoid what they call the H&M effect, AKA going out and meeting 3 other people, all in the same t-shirt. Every single shirt is made right there in the shop, and each piece is unique (or as they say unique messy and colorful). They use the highest possible printing techniques with hand made mosaic patterns– they also believe in fair and ethical trade and all the shirts are made under supervision of the Fairware Foundaiton. The good news is you don’t have to hoof it all the way to Amsterdam to get their stuff– you can check it out and buy it online, they ship worldwide. After we had made our purchase it was a delight to find out that the couple running the shop were actually JoshSpear.com readers!