This design takes its inspiration from the old ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ slogo (yes I’ve just invented a new word… logo + slogan = slogo). Essentially it comments on the lack of love in the modern world. I’ve been with my partner for years and as yet neither of us has run off or tried to kill the other. Yet when you take a look at current divorce rates you’d be hard pressed to find a marriage that lasts as long as fifteen years, by the way we didn’t get married. Maybe that’s the trick. Al that legal mumbo jumbo probably puts a dampener on most marriages to be, plus there’s the cost, the heightened expectation, and the final realization that married life sucks.

I believe most peopled get married out of boredom, exhaustion, and even just to escape the dating scene, which from over here seems to be more nightmarish than ever. Sure you can do loads more people, but none of them give a damn about you, what goes round… It’s been commercialized - dating is a scene - an act, a long drawn out and badly written play. Almost everyone under thirty is on stage and performing, and a lot of older divorcees  are starting to do the same.

A guy has to get on a bit before he realizes there’s more to it than sex, a lot of women are following suit now, in fact one day I doubt there will be anything other than f*ck buddies and lifelong partners,  I can’t see marriage lasting in the West. Sure you have your strongholds,  religion plays a big part in it.  Catholics  will always give it a go, for most religions  believe there’s no way getting around it. Their whole society is based on the foundation of marriage. I’ve noticed a lack of that reverance in UK politics ever since Blair left… phew. Society isn’t based on marriage, my parents hated each other. Society should be based on mutual respect. But what do I know?

Heartbreaker as with all my tees is available in over 30 styles and shades. Sweats, Tees, Hoodies, come and see the whole collection at www.retrogod.com

The latest tee by Retro God, a wry look at yet another old saying ‘ A kiss of death’. The etymology? ‘The origin of the term "Kiss of Death", Judas’s betrayal of Jesus with a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane’ - Quoted from Wiki.

 Kiss of Death by Retro God

I have a strange relationship with death, as many others, I have my bouts of depression, in fact I never trust an overtly happy person. What on earth does anyone have to be happy about these days anyway? As far as I’m concerned pain, and ultimately death a part and parcel of the whole, life’s journey would be ridiculously inane without it.

Some people have no fear, no fear whatsoever, they’ll jump off mountains, walk on hot coals, throw knives whilst spinning plates. Some people feel no pain, or rather it gives them a thrill, so even if they do screw up the stunt, there’s still a buzz to be had. I imagine that quite a few S&M aficionados could hack being thrown from a bridge or two.

I don’t enjoy negative emotions. I know I’m supposed to learn from them, but what they teach me is try to avoid death, pain and such, not throw myself in to it and hope for the best.

However unlike others who have come to the same conclusion, I don’t want to live forever either. Life for most of society is becoming more and more of a grind. A good bulk of the younger generation of Japan have contemplated suicide. Almost the same numbers can apply to Middle East kids considering a noble warrior ’s death.

The West however, in general, seems to be at odds with death. Health fanatics dropping dead from jogging till they drop, the famous and successful, the icons of history usually meet a nasty end, and many of their own doing.

If you smoke you just committing a very slow suicide, the same for alchoholism. Most people are secretly destroying themselves in one way or another, even if it’s only with worry.

A kiss of death is the ultimate betrayal, then again, the way that society is going, and their never ending quest for immortal youth, I wonder if death itself is now to blame rather than any instigators that may be involved. Sometimes I wonder if perhaps life, or rather the over-abundance of human lives and their close proximity to each other is the problem. For those considering eternity as an immortal, beware!

I don’t want to be here when all you guys are a 1000 or more years old and contemplating your navels. If we keep living longer and longer, you know we’ll run out of space, so that means some bright spark is going to have to start building rest homes on the Moon real soon.

Welcome! At last Retro God has its own blog, and I’ve a lot of work ahead of me. Let me introduce myself, I’m Paul Baines, a UK based fashion designer, and I am Retro God! OK, perhaps a bit presumptuous, but it caught your eye, or you wouldn’t be here. Now, I’m not your usual T-Shirt designer (god bless them, one and all ;p ) - I’m not a design snob - well, perhaps I am - but I do come from a very different background than your usual pick. Way back in the early 90’s I graduated with a Ba Hons in Conceptual Arts & Design.

Now you may ask what the hell is it? Good question, and one I’m still trying to answer myself. Take a peek at Marcel Duchamp, there’s a great start, work your way along the arts time-line, looking for the freaks and you’ll find yourself in Andy Warhol’s Factory. Keep going, there’s Jeff Koons, and hey how about chucking in Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin for good measure. They, however much they might deny it, are all conceptual artists. Right… so why fashion, why mass-made, why the on line store? Why not a gallery? Why not? It seems the greatest gallery system in the world is right here and it’s on line.

It’s my site, it’s yours, it’s every forum and blog out there. I was taught to artistically justify every idea, every action, every piece. I’m still doing it now. In fact, that’s just about the best reason to blog every design I’ve created. I am using the medium of kitsch, of mass production, to subvert social comment, to disable the enabler, inject discourse with street style philosophies, pour them back into the streets via fashion, thereby intensifying further debate on line.

A wonderful loop, something I’m fascinated by, the entropy of discourse. This may all seem very high and mighty for a lowly t-shirt designer, but in all honesty, I try to maintain a low-brow veneer for all my designs, this increases the effectiveness of the subversion.

Take a look at the designs and perhaps you’ll get a clearer idea of my overall line of inquiry. Using common sayings and urban myths, everyday people with unglamorous lives, utilitarian objects, word play and surrealist effect, to convey the current Zeitgeist of the most psychologically damaged culture in history.