It's that horrible time of year where you want to update your wardrobe but don't want to start buying for summer yet because it's still freezing outside! What to do?

Follow in the footsteps of Rihanna, Alexa Chung and Nicola Roberts and get a slogan tee. Dress up with this season's floor length skirts or throw on over leggings for an easy day time look - either way, you'll have an instant wardrobe update!

Quirky, bright and cute we've branched out from illustrations to bring you these brand new tee's...

Claire from the Scarletz sent us a snap of herself sporting her Chiwawa Tee along with her very own real life Chiwawa. The Scarletz are billed as the hottest new girl band around. They're not manufacted, they write all their own songs and with influnces like Madness and The Specials they're right up our street!

Selling all things glamorous, beautiful and interesting... Brat and Suzie fits in perfectly!

The name is influenced by Owner Hannah's glamorous Grandmother Joyce, as a child Hannah would enter her Gran's bedroom in absolute awe, filled with pearls, powder puffs and Chanel No 5 and Hannah wanted to replicate that within her boutique.

Since opening there has been a fantastic response to the boutique and we love having Joyce's Closet as a new stockist. So if you live in the area or just visiting the Pennies make sure you stop by.

On Friday night we were really happy to see one of our favourite Bristol bands BabyHead play in the Chia Wallah tent. They were as always very entertaining and we were especially pleased to see front man Tom bang on trend in his Kaftan! Make sure you check them out, they are Brat and Suzie's new favourite band: www.babyhead.co.uk.

Once the light began to fade we were able to shut up shop and walk around the festival and we spotted our t-shirts everywhere! Here's a few of our favourite ladies that we met sporting their Brat and Suzie festival looks...

Brat and Suzie's latest collaboration with illustrator Emily May has resulted in some brilliant new prints.

Emily has always been an animal lover. Having owned over fifty family pets over the past twenty years, with animal rescue shows and nature documentaries being her guilty pleasure and with an embarrassing pattern of cuddly baby animal calendars hanging on her bedroom wall, it's no surprise that this almost obsessive love for animals has become her favorite topic for illustration. She continues to draw the things she loves, learns from and laughs from, and is forever inspired by the weird and wonderful world around her.

Naturally then working with us on our new autumn/winter range was always going to be a success right? Definitely right! We loved the new illustrations so much we couldn't wait till next season to show them to you. So here's a taster of what's to come...

Find out more about Emily May's work

If you want to know more about Kate read on...

Kate Lindop grew up and currently lives in the countryside near Sheffield, England. Growing up with family pets and surrounded by fields of sheep, horses, chickens and cows has always given Kate the inspiration to draw animals. The animals represented in her drawings have evolved over time to become strange hybrids, surrounded by details taken from the natural world.

Kate graduated from the University of Lincoln in 2010 with a BA (hons) in Illustration. During her study at Lincoln she won an international art competition based on the Terry Gilliam film 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' and secured a placement as a junior illustrator for Topman Design.

Working primarily in pen, Kate produces illustrations ranging from tiny doodles to large-scale worlds full of the strange, weird and wonderful things in life. Fuelled by a love for art, nature, music and cups of tea, Kate continues to illustrate the things that fascinate, inspire and amuse her.

To get you feeling jolly and more importantly to keep you toasty yet stylish, Brat and Suzie offer the ultimate alternative to the hideous Christmas woolly jumper. And ok, while some ultra cool retro kids may incredulously be able to work a hand knitted oversized eighties horror of a jumper complete with dodgy reindeer scene, the majority of us will stick to a more modern and chic alternative like these fab numbers

Now all you need is a chunky knitted scarf or bobble hat to wear with your jumper. (did you know knitting is the new fashionable past time? No? Well off you run to the haberdashery store!).

If you are wearing a Brat & Suzie creation then it's certain to have been printed in England, and it has almost definitely been printed by some one called Steve! Steve and Steve busily work behind the scenes screen printing each item by hand. Every Brat and Suzie garment is hand printed with thier expert care and attention.

We thought it was about time that Steve and Steve got some recognition for the hard work they do making our animals come alive in print and it might be interesting to you our lovely customer so see where your t-shirt comes from. Here are a few snaps of the guys doing their thing with our latest addition to the collection the Deer and Penquin sweaters...

You can dress your sweatshirt up over shorts with tights, layer over a dress or even a cute swing skirt. Ashley Olsen's look below is elegant and casual so try teaming up your sweatshirt with a pair of smart trousers and use your accessories to finish the outfit off.

On our shoot, stylist Nicola Ahmed chose our Penquin sweatshirt and used a cute leather skirt and denim jacket to complete to look. If you don't have legs like a model (let's face it, who does?) or it's too chilly, why not put on a pair of woolly tights to keep out the cold? Finish this off with some serious cool boots and you're ready to go.

Rock and Roll!

With DJs, drinks, DIY and an alternative food court of sweet and savoury treats it there was plenty to see and buy! After a busy day maning the stall we had a dance to The A-Maisonettes, The Vinyl Vendettas and She Runs With Wolves while and learned to Lindy Hop and Jitterbug with a special beginner's class by Swing Patrol.

Some pics of a great day...

Here are some sneaky pics of Brat and Suzie in White Forrest:

For more information about White Forrest or if you're a New Zelander who wants to get your hands on some Brat and Suzie gear, visit their website for details.]]> Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:03:40 +0000 http://www.bratandsuzie.com/blog/sexcity/ Ooh check us out! We were part of a very fashionable Sex and the City night at the trendy Anise bar! We dragged the animals along for some cocktails and canapes and let them impress the stylish guests. With a 20% discount on the Brat and Suzie goodies, makeovers from Benefit cosmetics and a nail bar... it was a fabulous night all round!

Daisy Lowe is already a big fan and will be seen back stage in her much loved Brat and Suzie Meerkat vest. You can be on trend and individual at this summer's festivals, our tees and vests are the perfect addition to your summer wardrobe.

Gemma explains all:

"I will be straying from my little east end London life of vintage shopping, flower market visits, gin swilling and disco dancing to travel to Africa to climb a very big bloody mountain in aid of Made Africa! I am hoping that my Cindy Crawford and Elle McPherson work out dvds, a cut back on the beloved gin (and recently discovered gin and white chocolate cake!) combined with some sexy new walking boots will get me to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro! (I will of course be attempting some more serious training don't you worry!). Our team will face 6 days of gruelling 8 hour walks, temperatures as low as -25ºC, blisters and for a certain unlucky few - altitude sickness. The money raised from the trek will go to Bidii School and other local charities that work with the children of Kibera to get them back into education or apprenticeship schemes so they can learn a trade such as the charity AMREF's 'Dagoretti Child in Need Project'."

Go Gemma! Go Gemma!

Bringing our quirky illustrated t-shirts to sun-kissed Spain, our first Iberian stockist is Horus, located at 12 Santa Nonia, Leon. They have very kindly sent us some photo’s of their lovely shop.

Our tees and vests are cropping up all over the place. Here are just a few of the exotic locations our animals have been spotted, sent in by our roving team of fans...

Polly Vickery – Wearing our yellow Meercat stopping to eat Sushi in Hong Kong while looking for inspiration for our new collection.

Charlotte Vickery - Climbing Ayres rock Australia sporting the Neon Catbow Tee.

Anthea Smyth - Looking very glamorous in her Pugdog t-shirt on Bricklane London.

Here at Brat and Suzie HQ we thought it was about time we got our tees and vests onto some professional models - what better way to show off our great new designs? Enlisting the help of our new friend and photographer Marie Absolom, we had a great day shooting our two girl models Lilly and Eve...

Eve was up first and looked great in the new Burglar Rat vest. We couldn't resist putting the mouse ears on her for a super cute look. Making everything outfit we gave her look great - Eve made modelling look easy...

One of our best friends Toby White from the band Out of Bounds came by to help us by modelling some of the men's tees. We thought his tattoos would look great with the t-shirts. I think Toby was more scared of modelling with Eve than playing to hundreds of people!...

Lilly arrived in the afternoon and got straight into making the curve vests look amazing. Teaming our unicorn vest with some gold sparkly hot pants is a really great festival look for this summer - Lilly really rocked this outfit on the shoot...

Just as we began to tire and thought the day couldn't get any better in walked our last male model Bradley. All the girls in the studio suddenly weren't so keen to go home any more! Take a look at a few of the pictures of Bradley and see if you agree...

So Christmas is over and we have at least another two more months of the cold and dark before the first hints of spring time. The only way to get through it is seems to be putting on a bright t-shirt and sitting in front of one of those SAD lights!!

Here at Brat and Suzie we are busy working on our Spring/Summer collection, which is pretty hard considering the snow outside. But despite the cold weather, we’ve come up with lots of new designs that we think you’ll love when the sun finally does come back. Some of the new animals that will be waking up from hibernation soon include: Otters, Bears and Ferrets to name just a few.

I've been rushing to get the crop tops finnished and just put  them up on the website so you can get your spring outfits sorted well before the snow stops.

Happy new year!

We’ll be launching some brand new designs and there will be a great discount for all visitors so book yourself a ticket for the ultimate pre-Christmas shopathon – we’d love to see you there.

If you can’t make it to Birmingham, be sure to follow our progress on Twitter where we will share some special discount codes and keep you all up to date with all our celeb spots!

Happy Shopping
Brat & Suzie

Outside of London, Brighton probably has the largest concentration of indie fashion stores in England so take a trip to the South coast town and you will be spoiled for choice for quirky and original clothing. Our pick of the bunch for men’s fashion is Boy Parker. Slap bang in the middle of the bustling North Laine (and just across the street from big sister shop Get Cutie for the girls), Boy Parker stocks everything for the man/boy about town needs. A large selection of funny/comic/retro/illustrated tees and geek-chic pants make them our number one tip for cool clobber by the sea. 

BS8, Bristol

This Park Street staple has been feeding Bristolians’ desire for cool, original tees for over a decade. Spread across three floors, BS8 stocks a vast selection of hip labels covering every style you can think of – from street/skate wear in the front, to dressy stuff upstairs, retro/kitsch on one side and bohemian/hippy in the back – you are bound to find something that takes your fancy no matter what your taste. And even if you’re broke, BS8 is worth a visit if only to marvel at the cool paint job.

Mash, London

This legendary Oxford Street store has been fitting out London’s cool kids with street wear since 1986 (I remember buying some MC Hammer inspired ridiculously baggy jeans here back in the early 90s). With a vast selection of eye-blisteringly colourful tees at reasonable prices (considering the location) if you’re on a t-shirt hunting mission in the West End then you simply must pay Mash as visit.

Resurrection, Liverpool

One of the many former Quiggins shops forced to relocate, Resurrection now boasts a massive store in Bold Street but their constantly evolving stock has retained the quikiness beloved of Liverpool’s finest such as The Zutons and the Coral.

Your favourite shop not here? Let us know about it in the comments below, happy shopping...