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Hide Your Arms Interview

Andrew Bowness has been running the popular sleeved clothing blog, Hide Your Arms since January 21st, 2006. Since then he has built up quite the following as the only sleeved blog around. He’s also been a big supporter of Indie Threads since it’s inception.

Would you mind giving us a little background info on yourself?
I’m 22 and I currently live in a part of England called the Lake District. Last summer I graduated from the University of Leicester with a degree in History and Politics, I am currently working on a casual basis for my parents interior design and project management firm whilst I decide what career path to follow.

When I’m not scouring the internet for hoodies I enjoy going for walks in my local area (it’s called the Lake District but we’ve got loads of mountains too), taking photos (here’s the URL for my Zooomr account: http://beta.zooomr.com/photos/11851@Z01), going to see live bands, cooking and hanging out with friends.

What made you decide to start HideYourArms?
As I was entering the last semester at university I was contemplating a move into journalism (yeah, I was trying to work out what job I wanted after being at university for 3 years…), and I thought that running my own blog about clothing – something I was becoming increasingly interested in – would be a good way for me to get a bit of experience within the industry without having the pressure of a real job or internship getting in the way of studying for my final exams and writing my dissertation. To be completely honest, I also thought it might be a fun way to earn a bit of money and maybe get some free clothes.

Youv’e been around for a decent amount of time (a little more than a year, right?) and you’ve gained a pretty fair amount of readership. What would you say has helped your blog become a success?
Above all, I think that quality of products will make or break any blog, if I picked bad clothes, people wouldn’t come. But I do think that the way I write has something to do with it, I’ve had comments from store owners that they want me to look at their products because I give more of an opinion than other bloggers, which is funny because I always feel as if I’m being too nice and going too easy on clothing designers, but I guess if I really didn’t like the design it wouldn’t be on my blog anyway, so obviously most of the stuff I write will be positive. HYA is also the only sleeved clothing blog in the world, so I guess that people don’t really have many other options if they’re looking for a blogger obsessed with hoodies!

What was the first thing you posted about on HYA?
It was a track jacket by Aeropostale, which I actually still think is quite cool, but it doesn’t really represent the kinds of products that I like to post on HYA now, actually it’s a bit of an anomaly from every other post.

Do you ever chat with any of the other apparel bloggers, like Preshrunk, TEEES, CrownDozen, or addic[tee]d?
Yeah, I used to chat to them quick a lot when I was just starting out, when I was doing a series of posts with some of my favourite bloggers telling me what their favourite hoodie was. Recently most of the talk goes on through comments on their posts and name-checks in posts, largely because I don’t really have too much to discuss with them, but if I ever need any advice or want to float an idea out there then we can usually get a pretty good dialogue going.

Do you ever try to avoid covering something that they’ve already posted about?
I never really know where to stand on this issue. On the one hand, it can be pretty annoying to see the same company or t-shirt mentioned by three or four bloggers (sometimes even more) on the same day, but on the other hand, I can’t really expect my readers to read the same amount of t-shirt blogs as I do, and I don’t want them to miss out on something cool just because several other people published their posts before I did. There’s also the problem that we all get hit up with the same standardised press releases at the same time, and since our whole game is telling people about the newest clothing its only natural that people are going to post about those companies as soon as they can. I thought of the ‘Cotton Filter’ as a way for me to combat this, I can give put lots of press releases and news items into one post, giving me more time to focus on finding hoodies and writing about them.

How many of your posts are reviews of actual shirts you’ve been sent?
I took a quick look through the reviews category and I could count 15, although I think there’s a couple more that I haven’t categorised properly, so it’s probably about 16 or 17. It’s a figure that surprises me, since I can often go through periods of my friends never seeing me in t-shirts that I’ve worn before, which really enhances my reputation as being “that t-shirt guy.”

Do you ever get really crappy stuff sent to you hoping for a good review?
I’m actually not as much of a sell out as people would think, I only accept tees from companies and designers that I like and would shop at myself. I really don’t enjoy writing e-mails to companies saying I don’t want their stuff, so I usually offer them a mention in a news post if I think that other people will like their designs. There was one company who offered me money for a good review upon their first contact with me, which gives a pretty strong indicator of the quality of their products, as you would expect I didn’t take them up on their offer.

People don’t actually offer me bad tees that often though, I think they probably get a bit scared of rejection when they look at the stuff that I usually post about.

What are some design elements that you think are overused?
Antlers, lightning, hearts, anything with tentacles, butterflies, paint splatters and clouds. Oh, and skulls too, but that’s been the case for about 30 years so I don’t think that’s ever going to end. The thing is, I like a lot of t-shirts that have these elements (I have at least one tee that features each of the elements previously mentioned), so I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say I don’t want to see people using them, and as long as we don’t see companies springing up called with tees called “The antlered flying unicorn with tentacles for legs that floats on clouds whilst nursing a broken heart” then I don’t really think that there’s too much to worry about.

Are there certain things that you have a particular weakness for – cute models, antlers, interesting print locations, etc?
Yeah, if you are a clothing company and you’re wondering how to get onto HYA, take good product shots, and if you can rope a good looking girl in to model for you, then you’re pretty much set for a bit of HYA post-love. I know it’s really shallow, but this is the fashion industry, right? Interesting print locations are also a bit of a soft-spot of mine, just having a design placed in the middle of your chest is fine, but putting something on your back or an element in a corner can take a tee from being nicely designed but fairly standard to being something really special, as long as the element is in context.

How do you feel about Threadless these days?
I’m still a big fan, they’re the biggest success story of the online tee stores and should be given a lot of respect for that, but I do think that they could improve in a couple of areas.

I’m not sure if its just a coincidence of the times when I look at their store and buy tees, but it does seem to take longer to get a tee from them now than a couple of years ago. They used to be able to process your order in a couple of days, but now the average seems to be three or four, and sometimes more than a week during a $10 sale. Considering how big they are and the amount of tees they sell on a monthly basis (reported as 60,000 a month in August ’06), you would expect better times than that, but it isn’t exactly a huge issue.

I know it’s probably my ego talking more than anything else here, but I would like to see Threadless communicating with bloggers more. Granted, they’re so popular that they already get more press attention than any other brand on a regular basis, but considering how much time other tee companies spend building up a rapport with bloggers and other tee companies, it would be nice if someone from Threadless could integrate themselves within the community more, because despite the transparency of skinnyCorp I feel as if we don’t get that much information out of them on a regular basis. Having said that, it might just be company policy that they don’t give preferential treatment to certain people, and I guess it probably adds to their image if they treat everyone as equals.

One criticism of Threadless that I really don’t like is the argument that Threadless aren’t cool anymore because kids keep seeing other people wearing Threadless shirts. If these people are so concerned about wearing a t-shirt that no one else has, they can just buy from a different store, there’s 100s of companies online selling shirts that are just as well designed and well printed as the tees that Threadless puts out every week.

With your seasoned taste in sleeved clothing, have you ever considered designing on your own? Or at least considered hiring some designers and putting out a line?
If you’d asked me that a year ago I would have given you a straight no, I got into writing HYA precisely because I don’t have the artistic skill to put out clothing good enough to be featured on my own blog, or anyone else’s blog (even the ones that suck!). But recently I’ve been playing around with the idea of putting out a themed line of hoodies designed by some of my favourite designers and artists. There isn’t anything down on paper yet, but I think it could be pretty interesting (have you ever heard of a hoodie-only clothing line?), although it would be kept pretty limited if I went ahead with it. Hey, that’s a bit of exclusive news for you, I’ve never even mentioned it on HYA!

What is the most you’ve ever paid or considered paying for a t-shirt or hoodie?
I once bought a Hugo Boss hoodie for about $190, which is quite a lot but it has lasted for more than 5 years and still looks and feels good. My most expensive clothing purchase ever was a jumper by Paul Shark that was around $380, which is a lot of money, but it is probably the comfiest a well-wearing jumper I’ve ever seen, I actually bought it at the same time as the Hugo Boss hoodie and looking at it you could easily think I bought it yesterday it still looks that good. In terms of t-shirts, I don’t really buy many anymore because of the samples I receive, but I’d imagine it would probably be about $50 for a fairly non-descript designer label tee like Calvin Klein or Hugo Boss, something that I’d pretty much never consider buying now that I spend so much time looking at cheaper and more lovingly-crafted t-shirts.

Do you prefer American Apparel/Sweatshop free shirts over, say, Hanes of Fruit of the Loom?
I am very much against sweatshop labour (who isn’t?), so its a no-brainer for me to go with sweatshop free. That said, I’m not always impressed by the quality control of American Apparel’s products, their tees aren’t that consistent in shape, the stitching isn’t always perfect, but I can’t really argue with the softness of the product. I don’t really have a problem with Hanes and Fruit of the Loom though, the tees last for years and retain their shape, although they aren’t really as soft as American Apparels offerings.

What do you think of clothing companies donating a certain percent of profits to non-profit organizations?
I love it. You might be aware of my commitment to give 50% of all revenue that HYA receives to charity, which has been heartily backed by my sponsors and advertisers. I know most clothing companies can’t compete with me in terms of percentage, I think it’s great when companies try to give a bit back.

You’ve visited quite a few of the more popular cities around the world. Could you list the cities and what you thought of their state on fashion?
I do have a bit of wander-lust running through my veins, so I love to travel, and I’m pretty lucky that I’ve been able to go to a lot of cool places. Here’s a quick list of some of the more notable and recent places I’ve been. Tokyo, New York, Amsterdam, Berlin, St. Tropez (southern France), Rome, Barcelona, Marseille, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Tunis, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, St. Petersburg (in Russia not Florida!), Tallinn, pretty much everywhere in the UK, and probably some others that I can’t remember.

I have to admit that I wasn’t always in fashion mode when I went to these places, so it’s probably not entirely fair for me to compare them all, but I was amazed at how well everyone (from toddlers to grandparents) was dressed in Tokyo. Apart from the obvious exceptions of goths, harajuku girls and the other well known subcultures, they generally have a very subtle and well-tailored aesthethic, usually in subdued colours, which made me (already head and shoulders above them at 6 foot 2 inches tall) stick out even more in my colourful tees.

New York was cool, and because Americans tend to have slightly larger waistlines than most Brits I was able to do quite a lot of clothes shopping. I don’t want to go into ‘melting pot’ cliches about America and its application to fashion, but there was a huge amount of diversity in clothes stores, switching from high-end fashion to streetwear in just a couple of clothing racks, which I really enjoyed since I usually find British high street stores to have a distinct lack of variety.

It would be unfair to comment on the state of French fashion based upon St. Tropez because all I can remember is paunchy perma-tanned men wearing white linen shirts and medallions as they held onto their trophy wives whilst skippering their ludicrously large yachts, and most of those people probably weren’t French anyway (for those who are uninitiated, St. Tropez is basically a rich mans playground in the south of France where I worked for a couple of months last year).

Threadless or Oddica?
Even though I like Threadless, I have to go with Oddica on this one. They’ve always been good to me and we have a good working relationship together, and it’s clear to me that Oddica is run by some really good guys that want to give their artists as much as they possibly can (their 41% programme is amongst the most generous of all the t-shirt companies I’ve come across). They’ve also picked some great artists and has managed to consistently put out high quality designs since they opened up last year. Oh, and their packaging is utterly fantastic.

Krudmart of Karmaloop?
I’ve gotta be honest, Krudmart have been off my radar for a while, I don’t really know why since they stock some great brands, but there’s only so much I can look at and sometimes some good companies get forgotten. So I guess by default I have to pick Karmaloop, although I don’t pick them grudgingly since they are so consistent in putting out great clothing from great brands. I like the way that they sell both popular mainstream clothing (such as their wide selection of adidas and Paul Frank) and support smaller labels both through the main site and the Kazbah.

What do you think of Karmaloop Kazbah?
I think it was a great idea and something that needed to be done considering the vast amount of new labels that have been springing up over the past few years as the internet has made it easier and easier for people to sell their clothing designs online. I like what Blake (the guy in charge of the Kazbah) is doing with it, and how he’s taken on brands that fit in with the Karmaloop image rather than just picking up labels that are most likely to rake in the cash. I’ve also discussed the Kazbah with a few of the brands that are on it, and they all seem happy with the arrangement, so I guess everyone wins!

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A big thanks to Andy for taking the time to answer these questions. It’s much appreciated. Don’t forget to check out Hide Your Arms