HIRO CLARK - LIMITED EDITION T-SHIRTS INSPIRED BY L.A.'S DARK SIDE
"The brighter the light, the darker the shadow" reads the "About" page on Hiro Clark's website and while that might be considered a heavy statement coming from a T-shirt line based in sunny California, it drives home founder Andy Salzer's concept behind his label. Salzer, the former designer of NY-based menswear label Yoko Devereaux, made the East-Coast-to-West-Coast move and found that not everything in The Golden State was so, well, golden all the time. So when it came time to launch his next menswear venture, Hiro Clark, Salzer decided to bring L.A.'s moodier side to the city's uncontested wardrobe staple, the T-shirt.
Built on an obsessively researched classic silhouette, Hiro Clark's slub cotton jersey crewneck tees come in core black and white colors, as well as screen-printed versions that are truly limited edition runs. And it's in those graphic tees where Salzer gets to play on L.A.'s dreamy reputation, like high contrast photos of eclipses, palm tress, and foggy landscapes over which "Lost Angeles" is written. Our favorite: one that name checks three of L.A.'s onetime outsider artists—John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Jason Rhoades—in a clean font Ruscha would probably approve of. L.A. might not live up to everyone's expectations, but when has a solid T-shirt ever let you down?