We're pretty big on being transparent here at Blank Label. We want to have an honest relationship with you, we want to tell you when we're screwing up or gloat when we've done something well, it's just more interesting that way.

In honor of our three months from launch on Halloween, not so much in celebration of Scotch Tape's anniversary, but that's still cool, we thought we'd share some earlier versions of our site from the vault. Be warned ... some of these are pretty ugly

Main Site

What www.blank-label.com was on 30th of October 2009, the day before launch. Ha. Definitely makes us laugh. Honestly we're not exactly happy with our current site, hence still the BETA tag. We might keep it up for a while because it leads people to give us a lot of feedback, which in turn helps us improve. You'll see quite a few site improvements we hope you'll like in Feb.

 A design we toyed around with back when we thought selling custom suits online would be a good idea. It was a good design for your straight-up e-commerce site, but just didn't quite have the spice and bite we were looking for.

Custom Men's Dress Shirt Design App

 Before color was cool, and in fact before Zee, our Chief Hamster, and Alec, our Lead Artist, even joined the Blank Team. It seems like a good render, and a front and back view, but was actually really hard to get the fabric colors on the shirt, and probably would've taken forever to load.

The measurement tab here kind of shows you how little we used to know about our loyal shirt designers. Co-created custom men's dress shirts should be a fun process, having that 'Measurements' Tab and expecting guys to either know their body measurements or get a tap to measure themselves was just plain silly. We never quite figured out what we were going to put in that large 'Accessories' Tab either, we'll let you know when we do come up some interesting ideas. In respect to transparency, we'll be sure to run them by you first.

What We're Going to Show You Next Week

 Proudly listening to Matchbox Twenty's How Far We've Come if only we actually knew How Far We Have To Go.

Fan Bi, Chief Shirt, reporting on Blank Label updates on the co-creation blog.

Dsquared2

Amidst the strictly fashion-forward crowd that inhabit Milan during fashion week, Dsquared2 brought confidence and style to their collection with a mixture of different looks and perspectives meshed together, topped off with their signature-cut jeans. 

Leather, studs, and a splash of color brought together a glam/punk theme for Dsquared2’s collection. Male models strutted something manly on the Dsquared2 runway with class and sophistication to rival all of Dsquared2’s previous collections. Imagine if you will, fit men somewhat taller than the average guy who just happen to be extras on a sequel to Fight Club complete with the black eyes and fat lips – this is the 2010 collection for Dsquared2. 

My favorite look for the collection:

One of my favorite looks was a black overcoat with lining on the collar. The pants were classically cut and creased at the top. This is in addition to what looks like to have been a v-neck sweater that was more than a little transparent, slightly covered a black slim tie. A basic white shirt and black pointy-toed shoes topped off the look. Together, the ensemble glittered and screamed, “I was on a date with a married woman and her husband found us just as she was unbuttoning my overcoat!”

Prada

Prada is classic. Since its inception, Prada has made the man look as elegant as possible – but every now and then, like the man – Prada deviates from the script adding the element of surprise and intrigue. This was the case during Milan Fashion Week when Prada premiered its latest collection. 

This collection, ironically – showed more colors than Prada’s spring collection. Purple, yellow, and a vivid magenta took to the runway nestled in overcoats, blazers, suits, and cardigans to accentuate, while trying not to intimidate. Everyman doesn’t necessarily look good in every color. Still, Prada does a good job of bringing together their collection of color amidst their trademark gray, blue, and black. This year, khaki made a guest appearance that was just enough to tease the fashion senses without dulling them. 

My favorite look for the collection:

One of the things that I liked the most about this collection was the appearance of brighter colors. The collection comes off as a fresh perspective. My favorite piece epitomizes the feel for the men’s element of the Prada show. A light-tan overcoat with buttons impeccably placed on the breast and torso of the coat along with black/blue slim slacks dominated the model who also wore a yellow/brown sweater underneath with a basic blue shirt. I will say that Prada did a horrid job of choosing the model, which looked absolutely sickly in the look. Just the same, the perspective was strong and well-stated.

James R Sanders is a Guest Blogger and Fashion Muse for Blank Label's co-creation blog. You can also find his thoughts on Fashion and Brands at James Sanders at Large.

You never need a perfect match when pairing your collared dress shirt with a tie, but sometimes it helps to have a few tips so you don’t create a visual disaster. 

It turns out that a lot of guys are afraid of the bold tie.  They are unsure how to match it.  When to wear it.  If it will offend people.  But we’re loving bold ties especially the new wool, plaid tie trend. 

 awesome visual courtesy of Rigmarole

Bold Ties & Neutral Shirts

Bold ties go with neutral dress shirts. Remember that! If you want to be daring and try out a bold, plaid tie, understand that matching it with a bold shirt can be an eye sore.

A bold striped tie is good too. It’s dashing for a subtle, but sophisticated look.  But again, it’ll only be flattering with a neutral shirt. Otherwise the boldness of a crazy dress shirt and tie can be a real dressing disaster. 

The most important thing when matching bold ties with shirts is to try to pick up on the tones of the tie.  If the tie has any color in it, you should take this into consideration when matching it with a shirt.  A simple pale gray shirt will look great with many bold ties, but sometimes it’s nice to pair a bold blue tie with a pastel blue button-down or sweater.

Bold Shirts & Neutral Ties

Bold shirts are great, especially for the party scene.  If you’re trying to celebrate in a hot plaid print but still want to look formal, check out a laid back tie.  Bold printed shirts and bold printed ties are too much of an eye sore, think about them as too much of a good thing.  If you want to wear a bold striped shirt, or a loud colored shirt, you should think about wearing a toned down tie.  Some great toned down ties this season are charcoal tie options, matte on silk striped.  Charcoal is a great color for a colder season because it’s a change from simple black tone, but still dresses up an outfit. 

Neutral Ties & Neutral Shirts

There’s usually no such category as bold tie with bold shirt.  But, if you can pull off that look than you are one very lucky man.  However, pairing a neutral tie with a neutral shirt can work out well.  Some of our favorite neutral ties include a dark charcoal wool tie, dark forest green silk, and dark purple silk tie.  The dark charcoal wool tie will look good with any pastel colored, neutral button-down you pair it with, that’s why this tie is a hidden gem.  However, if you want something more exciting, try a dark forest green tie with a pale beige, green or gray dress shirt.  The green tones match best with beige-brown, pale green, or pale gray tones and complement each other.  Another option is to match a dark purple silk tie with a pale purple, gray, brown or even pink dress shirt.  Purple tones match best with lighter purple, pale grays, browns, and light pink tones.

This post was written by Danielle Bentz, marketing maven and custom men's dress shirts co-creator for Blank Label.

Ever since I got involved with this custom men's dress shirts company, my friends consider me an expert on men's dress shirts. Not just styling, but how to iron them, how to fold them, even how to care for them. I wish we had all the answers. But my answer is probably just as good as their's.

But here are 7 humorous ways how NOT to wash men's dress shirts:

1. Spray it with Febreeze and hope that funky smell will go away so you can wear it again without anyone noticing. I don't even recommend this in emergencies.

2. Applying a bleach pen to stains, and then just wearing the shirt again because it's odorless and now without visible stains. Come on man, throw it in the washer!

3. Only handwashing that one part of your dress shirt where you spilled spaghetti to get the color and smell out. If you're going to go through the trouble of washing one part of your dress shirt, wash the rest of it while you're at it!

4. Dunking it a few times in hot or warm water mixed with deodorant soap. First of all, please use laundry detergent if you're really going to handwash for clothes. I've seen men make this mistake this before. It's sad how many guys I know who don't know how to properly do laundry.

5. Excessively steaming it instead of just throwing it in the wash or taking it to the dry cleaners. Sure, the dry cleaners puts harsh chemicals on your shirt and can damage the shirt overtime, but steaming your men's dress shirt is not a proper way to clean it.

6. Washing it with your other favorite dress shirts. This is a HUGE faux pas. It's true that your dress shirts get jealous of each other. You never know which shirts will come out of the wash, and which will never return (no, I'm just kidding about this one).

7. Waiting until the last minute when you run out of dress shirts, and clothes for that matter, to hit the laundromat.

 courtesy of dobenjamin

Anyone else have funny recommendations for how NOT to wash your men's dress shirts?

Suggestions for how to properly wash a dress shirt? Might be an idea for a follow-up post.

This dress shirts article was written by Danny Wong for the co-creation blog.

This growing trend in denim wear is getting hot, but is it for you?  A lot of girls are already accustomed to turning up their jeans for a collared denim look when wearing flats, or sneakers.  However, does this look translate well for men?  

 one classic example of what we're talking about thanks to lostwithoutwords

Men’s magazines such as GQ are offering this look as the new single-man sheik.  So what’s the issue?  Well to be completely honest, although this new style can take your denim to a new sexy extreme, it can also make you look shorter, like you don’t have enough jean to cover your legs, or just plain like a tool.  Men who value their fashion and sex appeal should be daring to try this turned up jean style, but be careful to follow a few steps.

1. Don’t get too anal.  If you’re usually OCD about a lot of things, this style may not be for you.  Think about how many times you would have to fix your pant leg if one side was folded up higher than the other as you walk around town.  This style is meant to give you a laid back, careless fashion, so don’t worry about the neatness of the cuff. 
2. Don’t over-fold.  One cuff is enough.  If you start multiple layers of cuffs by folding the pant over and over, your look will become cheap and overworked.  Chill with the folds.
3. Don’t show your bare skin.  I’m sure your ankles are very manly and sexy, but no one wants the make their jeans look two sizes too small…helloooo redneck.  Make your look fresh and buy pants that you can fold once without baring skin.

Most men do not know how a dress shirt should properly fit. Also, most off-the-rack men's dress shirts never fit right because standard sizes are set up to fit 'well enough.'

Here are a few ways to tell if your men's dress shirts fit:

1. You can comfortably button up your collar without choking yourself. The collar should be big enough for you to slip in a finger or two, and should not feel tight. It should not feel loose either.

2. The sleeve length is perfect when your dress shirt's cuffs just end at your wrists when your arms are at your sides.

3. The dress shirt's cuff is only a little bit wider than your wrist, but not wide enough that you can pull your hand through your cuff without unbuttoning.

4. The chest circumference of your men's dress shirt fits right if you can comfortably move your arms without too much restriction, and the seams connecting the body of the shirt to the sleeves are resting on your shoulders, not above your bicep.

5. The girth (waist) of your dress shirt is only a few inches larger, circumference-wise, than you are. This way, there isn't excess baggage from your dress shirt around your waist when your shirt's tucked in, and that it's not so tight that your seams are close to splitting. When baggy dress shirts are tucked in, they give the impression that you have a muffin-top, regardless of if you're an athlete at 170lbs or a lean 135lb man.

6. The dress shirt is long enough to fit your preference, whatever that may be. There are special dress shirts that are meant only to be worn tucked in, others that are only meant to be worn untucked, while some are long enough but short enough to wear either way.

Most dress shirts you buy at your normal retail store will not give you the fit that you need. For me, I would never buy a dress shirt unless it was slim fit with a 14-14 1/2 collar size. Finding a shirt with those size preferences was a nightmare though. The market was 'too small' for all big retailers to serve. A slim fit dress shirt with a 14-14 1/2 collar would fit perfectly in all areas except the collar. I truly needed a collar that was 15-15 1/2, but shirts that came with that collar size were too big in ALL other areas. In my old shopping days, I had to compromise the fit of my collar to have a fit that worked on every other part of my dress shirt. But you shouldn't compromise your comfort and style (I was never able to button the top button without feeling like someone was choking me, and I couldn't comfortably wear a tie this way either) by buying just any dress shirt off-the-rack. Shoot for bespoke tailoring, or get custom men's dress shirts that you designed with the perfect fit in mind. You can start designing your own dress shirts online with our dress shirt design app now.

This post was written by Danny Wong for the co-creation blog, trying to convince men to adopt co-creation and forget about buying off-the-rack.

At Blank Label we’re all about self-expression and we specialize in giving all of you guys the tools you need to become inspired.  Whether it’s in using your creativity to design your own custom men's dress shirts, or to inspire passion for expression itself, we want to ignite your creative side.  And why do we think this expression is important?? Well think about it this way…social media is all about self-expression.  And since social media is the new wave in communication you should optimize the way you are presenting yourself on the web.

 courtesy of one cool diagram thing from ivan walsh

Here are 5 simple ways to be sure that you are expressing your own label:

1) First you have to figure out what you have to say.  This can take a lot of thinking because there are a million things that people want others to know about themselves.  There may be one thing you would want to express to your employer and another thing you want to express to your peers.  However, you need to decide what is most important to you.  Make two lists of roles you fill in life: Writer, Traveler, Explorer, or Musician….and a list of things you are passionate about: Cooking, Fashion, Design, or Modern Literature (the more specific the better).  Once you have explored and defined yourself then you can realize what you want to express to others.

2) Next you should optimize your appearance (hint- This doesn’t mean your face).  This means figure out where are represented online- your facebook, twitter, blog, flickr accounts.  Go to each of these sites and make sure they are expressing who you are.  On twitter you can follow authors if you enjoy writing, personalize your backgrounds to express your passions, or even tweet about things that are interesting you in some of the roles that you play.  In your blog you can focus on things you are passionate about.  The more specific you are the more others can realize who you are which can help you create valuable connections with people working on similar things in their life.

3) Explore your interests.  Now that you know who you are, you should be doing more to look into your passions.  You won’t believe some of the things you can find other people doing that you might be able to connect with.  View other photographer’s albums on flickr if you enjoy taking pictures.  Follow politicians on Twitter to see different projects they are working on.  Research blogs of young fashion designers it in order to see how they are succeeding or what connections they may have in the fashion industry.  All of this exploration will help you build your network and inspire you to make great things out of things you love to do or learn about.

4) Look for opportunities to reach out online and build your personal label.  When you find someone doing something cool that interests you contact them by email (whatever you are comfortable with).  Tell them who you are, why you think what they’re doing is great and maybe ask them a question that might help or inspire you.  Hey if they make it in life, you’ll have made a very valuable connection just by reaching out. And no matter what, you’ll still gain some valuable information either way.

5)  Cement your personal label.  Do something bold like creating a simple personal website, starting your own blog or even just synchronizing all of your social media sites.  From all of your exploration of your interests you should have a good idea of what others are doing out there in your fields of interest.  Don’t simply copy their websites or blogs, make it all your own and have fun with it.  Whichever path you take just make sure you constantly update any information you have online to make your personal label express what you’re all about.  This will give you the best optimization of your online expression.

This post was for our co-creation blog by Danielle Bentz.

At Blank Label we’re all about co-creation, in particular, co-created custom men's dress shirts. That is what happens when we combine your creativity with our resources to create something completely original. At the start of the year, 3 Things for Blank Blog in 2010, we promised we'd keep you updated on what was going on in the world of co-creation, what were interesting co-created products, why it was all so important. We highlighted some trends in Co-Creation, Mass-Customization and Fashion 2.0. Today we're asking what you think. What would happen if more companies looked into integrating their customer into the creation process more?  Would companies like Subway and Dell have been as successful if they didn’t offer such customizable products?  We sure don’t think so.

 courtesy of one very cool pic from fabio aro

If you take a deeper look a lot of different companies, large and small, are embracing the co-creation trend.  Car companies like Mini will let you build your own car models online to find a design that best fits your style.  Now, we can all agree that they aren’t there yet with full co-creation.  I mean, there are only so many models, colors and features to customize, but these companies are allowing for more customer input which is great!!

We want you gets to get excited about making your own choices.  Companies should work with their customers instead of just serving them.  That’s why we always ask for your opinion in what turns you on, makes you tick, or turns you off about what we do. 

Let us know what you think the next trend in co-creation will be…What's the next great product that needs to be co-created ... Who is the up-and-coming co-creation company that's going to change everything about how consumers and producers interact ...

This post was written by Chief Shirt, Fan Bi for our co-creation blog.

In the next 5 years, we're looking to make co-created custom men's dress shirts as popular as custom t-shirts are today. We're certainly not sure if co-created dress shirts will ever be as big an industry as custom tees, but heck, we're going to try.

But if that doesn't work out, maybe we'll move onto pants, suits (again), or even men's underwear. If it does work out, we're still going to look at how we can continue to revolutionize men's fashion through co-creation.

The purpose of our existence (aside from making money, which certainly is not our main goal) is to change the way men consume. First, we're starting off with men's dress shirts online by using our dress shirt design app to put the power in YOUR hands to create and design something that you wanted, something individually made, tailored with the exact details you wanted.

At Blank Label, we're hoping to revolutionize the men's fashion and retail industry. Maybe we won't be the company that is the be-all and end-all of co-creation, but we still envision a world in which consumers have an actual say in what retailers are creating. I'm personally tired of shopping for things that I want, and never being able to find the product that fits my exact specifications. Isn't it also incredibly frustrating when that awesome dress shirt you bought, which you thought was totally unique and funky, was bought by 70 other guys in your town? I experience this a lot in my hometown of NYC, where 8 million people live and where many others travel to. I'm very likely to pass by strangers wearing clothes that I have in my wardrobe. Sometimes, I see guys wearing the same thing that I'm wearing that day!

That's part of the reason why I love Blank Label, because the clothes that I wear were created by me, designed to my exact specifications, and were made only for me. Therefore, out of the 6+ billion people in this world, I'm the only one with my individually made custom dress shirt.

Since mass-production and mainstream retail have failed consumers by providing product that is one-size-fits-all and one-style suits many, uniqueness and creativity are out of the question, so we're leading a revolt!

We're fighting against mass-production, lack of individuality, and being a slave to the all-mighty retailer. We're fighting for co-creation, personalization, and consumer empowerment.

Here are several ways for you to join the revolution:

1. Tweet this post and mention @blanklabel

2. Share this post with your friends on Facebook

3. Spread the word about co-creation and convince people to turn away from big retailers if there's some company out there that can provide product you're looking for that you can personalize and is affordable too (we're not in the best economic situation, I know)

4. Email a link to this post to your friends to get the word out

5. Link to us and this post on your blogs, tumblr posts, websites, etc.

6. Consider buying any co-created products, perhaps a co-created men's dress shirt (if you're female you can snag a shirt for a male friend or family member), to support companies looking to be a little disruptive to mainstream retail. For other co-creation companies, see my post on mass-customization, co-creation and fashion 2.0

We'd appreciate your support of this movement. We're not entirely looking for you to give us money so we can make you dress shirts (naturally we're not against the idea either). That's definitely not our biggest motivation. We're looking to really push the co-creation movement. Regardless of if we're the bigger co-creation company in the next 5 years or not, we just hope to convince traditional retail to adopt co-creation or to support co-creation companies in their initiative to crush the stubborn traditional retailers. But the only way that can happen is if YOU the consumer adopt and support co-creation too.

This post was written by Lead Evangelist Danny Wong, pushing the co-creation movement each and every day on the co-creation blog.

Blank Label is currently looking for a Handy Man (Web Developer Intern) to work with our Chief Hamster (CTO), Lead Artist (Graphic Designer) and Lead Evangelist (Online Marketer) to make www.blank-label.com  the most kick ass e-commerce site with the most awesome Design-It-Yourself Custom Men's Dress Shirt App EVER! Ha, yes we are a bunch of fools, but at least we’re not tools.

We’re a self-funded startup, that launched October 31, to fundamentally change the relationship between individual consumer and apparel producer by offering affordable (starting at $45) co-created custom men’s dress shirts. Already getting orders everyday we’re looking for the opportunity to scale up, and with the long laundry list of things to do, we’re seeking some development help.

The team is spread with Chief Hamster in Orange County, Lead Artist and Lead Evangelist in Boston, and Chief Shirt in Shanghai (where our dress shirts are made). We’re pretty chill about working remotely, dialing in for all hands calls twice a week, being super responsive on email, and keeping scheduled to our project management tools.

Of course we’d love to bring someone on full-time but the reality is we’re a startup not in the cash-flow position to do so. Instead we’re looking for someone quirky and different up for an entrepreneurial opportunity, interested in supplementing college or their day job with some extra cash. Ideally we’d be able to work with you part-time for a couple of months and then dive into stock options and dreaming about the bigger picture.

We hire on culture and attitude first and skill set second. Preferably our Handy Man is a bit of a generalist who can work with our Graphic Designer on some front-end work whilst being able to engage with our Chief Hamster in actual programming in our ASP.NET framework. Experience with ASP.NET or e-commerce or doing any else tremendously awesome is a BIG +.

If this sounds like an interesting gig to you, drop us an email with five things you would do to improve our site. If we agree with three of them, we’ll chase you down. 

As an aside, if you have a friend or colleague in mind, if we hire someone you refer to us, we'll give you a Blank Label co-created custom dress shirt!