What is a wallet? Just some piece of fabric and Velcro overfilled with receipts and prophylactics? Sure, if it's 1987 and/or you're in high school.

The thing is, that wad of cash and debt in your pocket can be more, so much more. It can be useful and fashionable, no offense, Velcro.

Where, you may ask, would one acquire such a fine specimen of wallet? We thought you'd never ask. Take a gander at Makr.

We've all seen the art inspired abstract prints that are a key trend this summer. What we bet you didn't know was that the look is also an easy DIY project. Instead of shelling out a cool thousand for a D & G dress, why not do one just as fabulous yourself?

Here's what to arm yourself with:

Whit Honea is a slacker, a borderline degenerate, and a daydream believer. He's also our resident expert on casual chic. If it's comfortable, and not heinous, he's all over it. He's quite charming, really.

Moral Fabric is a t-shirt company that originated in Texas. Their passion is to make t-shirts that "focus on the psychedelic art movement of the 60's and 70's, ancient Middle Eastern mosaic patterns, perception vs. reality, spiritual ideologies, and the intelligent designs of Mother Nature." You know, cool stuff.

Let's play a little game. When we say "tiered skirt", what's the first thing that comes to mind? Hippies? Flower power? Prairies? We're about to erase that perception from your mind. No, not by our mind boggling Tom Cruise like super powers (you wish!). It's far simpler than that. We're going to introduce you to the flirty skirts present at the Luella, Givenchy, and Zac Posen spring/summer 2008 runways.

Do you know what guerrilla gardening is? Neither did we! But it's popular enough to attract droves of fashionable Londoners who turned out last week to support Grun In London, an art exhibit inspired by concrete jungles.

Whit Honea is a slacker, a borderline degenerate, and a daydream believer. He's also our resident expert on casual chic. If it's comfortable, and not heinous, he's all over it. He's quite charming, really.

Yes, we've featured the t-shirts from Threadless before, and we most likely will again. For one thing, new designs are added weekly, and for another thing, they rule.

Whit Honea is a slacker, a borderline degenerate, and a daydream believer. He's also our resident expert on casual chic. If it's comfortable, and not heinous, he's all over it. He's quite charming, really.

Designer Eric Crandell, based in Southern California, aims to bridge "the gap between art, music, and fashion." His art graces album covers as well as t-shirts that can be found at 101 Apparel.

The quote featured on the website reads: "Bringing people back to when art/music was raw...still developing...at its best."

Every the most ardent fashionista will surely admit that there are some things which are - yes! - more important than the latest designer bag, Paris Hilton's newest business venture or what the stars are wearing to another black tie event. Nadia Plesner certainly thinks so: the 26-year old artist from Holland has created a series of striking posters to highlight the tragedy of the ongoing genocide in Darfur (in which so far 200,000-400,000 people have died -- and 2.5 million have been displaced from their homes).

To mark the contrast between the suffering of the people of Darfur and our love of celebrity style and gossip, she drew a starving African child holding a chihuahua dog and a purse which looks similar to something LV would make.

Whit Honea is a slacker, a borderline degenerate, and a daydream believer. He's also our resident expert on casual chic. If it's comfortable, and not heinous, he's all over it. He's quite charming, really.

We're pretty excited about the latest line of t-shirts from No Mas. The Ecstasy of Defeat collection is a series of t-shirts devoted to the world of sports and the glorious agony that is defeat. If someone fell short of exceptions you may very well find them here.

Whit Honea is a slacker, a borderline degenerate, and a daydream believer. He's also our resident expert on casual chic. If it's comfortable, and not heinous, he's all over it. He's quite charming, really.

We've featured David & Goliath on here before. In the past we had pretty specific things to discuss, like labeling yourself and how rape isn't funny. Today we're going to take a more general look at what David & Goliath do best: funny t-shirts.

Whit Honea is a slacker, a borderline degenerate, and a daydream believer. He's also our resident expert on casual chic. If it's comfortable, and not heinous, he's all over it. He's quite charming, really.

There will be blood, and possibly some sweat (not shop!) and tears. These t-shirts from Blood is the New Black are yet another example of wearable art where couture is the canvas. What's great about Blood is the New Black is how they give equal time to both the art and the artist, which we like.

As the end of days draws closer and closer you probably find yourself wondering what you should wear. Is it formal? When the chemical warfare starts will the mall stay open? These are important questions, and that's why Diddo Velema has created this conceptual art project using Gucci and Louis Vuitton. There's got to be more to the final countdown than the Final Countdown, right?

Just like the bottles of water, rolls of toilet paper and case of Spam you have stashed in the basement, a gas mask is an important part of a well-stocked apocalypse survival readiness kit.

The thing is, you can't stay underground forever, eventually the Spam will gel beyond means of consumption and at some point you'll run out of shows on the TiVo. That's when you need to don your gear and head to the surface to see if anything besides cockroaches and Starbucks survived. Grab a raid latte and show all the mutants how to look fabulous.

It looks something like this:



Oh, and if these aren't enough, there's always this.

Designer Gas Masks is a conceptual art project. The masks are not real commercial products!
They are designed to be displayed in magazines and exhibited at galleries. They are not for sale.

[via Format]

Perhaps the concept of a t-shirt as art isn't as novel as I thought. However, I believe that it is still more exception than norm. T-shirts offering a casual canvas for high-brow art is an ingenious way to bring culture to the masses. They look great and feel good. Anything that meets at the corners of comfort and style is okay in my book.

Today we are looking at Artcotic. They, according to the website, "are an interactive community of artists, designers, and coinsures of unique and original art."

This is what they create:

I've been doing this "t-shirt of the day-ish" thing for a couple of weeks now and as such I've been able to share with you some great companies and designs. Most of the shirts tend to fall into the line of humor, whether it be obvious or hidden behind big words, subtle hints, and/or irony. I'm a fan of the funny t-shirt.

Uneetee does carry some funny shirts, but I wouldn't say that it is their 'thing.' I've seen a lot of good t-shirt art lately, but this stuff feels more like art that just happens to be on a shirt. They have some fantastic designs.

Last year, I posted a report from the Baltimore Comic-Con, where artists James Jean and Paul Pope made some surprising announcements about plunging into the fashion world. After reading this great post on James Jean's deal with Prada, I decided to share a little more about his work.

As an illustrator myself, I'm a tremendous fan of Jean's work. He does the coverwork for one of my favorite comics, Fables, and I even have one of his signed sketches hanging in my bedroom. Although his paintings are great, his linework is what really blows me away. The fluidity and organic lines interweave until they form the most delicate figures. Just taking a look at his website is enough to show you why he was asked by Prada to create fabric and that huge mural that now envelopes the Soho Prada store.

This is just the start of the growing trend of having illustrators bring their work into fashion. Hint, hint... Versace, call me.