Overpay to feel connected to a celebrity

Mandy Moore claims to have started her t-shirt line, Mblem, because even though she doesn't know high fashion, she "knows t-shirts." I mean, good for her and all, but who doesn't know t-shirts? Not only does it just seem, shall we say, not too tough to make t-shirts, there are already quite a few people who do t-shirts, and who do them well.

Now, maybe I'm just being unfair because I resent Mandy Moore for diminishing my chances with Zach Braff, but I will say that I don't think any of her t-shirts are bad. I just don't think that any of them are particularly good. There are already so many decent t-shirts on the market, it doesn't make sense to me to pay $50 for one just because it has a celebrity's name attached to it. American Apparel makes great basic tees for much less. If you're looking for a not-so-basic tee, there are brands that are considerably better than Mblem out there. Try Threadless for amazing, original designs. For an artistic interpretation of concert tees, United Bamboo is doing a beautiful line (which is supposedly available at I Heart in New York, but I haven't seen them there yet). If you want a really cool t-shirt and you're willing to pay for it, try Odin in East Village (tee pictured at right) for shirts that are limited edition, so they're original in more than one sense of the word.

I loved Mandy Moore in Saved. I don't think she's a bad actress. Actually, once more, I don't think that she's a bad t-shirt designer, either. I just think that there are a lot of better ones.