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.

Retro God is an experiment, a collision of fashion and art, a font of originality, a source for style, a politcal forum, a new and unique way of re-inventing street iconography, surrealism, social characture in to a clothing brand for those seeking a real alternative to ‘I’m With Stupid’ and ‘Kiss Me I’m Irish’ t-shirts.

We don’t license tees, every design here is an RG original. We take a low profit of just $1 per tee to make sure our clothing line is accessible to all! Check us out - prepared to be amazed - prepare to meet the God of Retro.

http://www.retrogod.com