Girl Power Gear

Modern teens are expressing their moods on their tees

By Phuong-Cac Nguyen

They insist that they had the whole "girl power" thing figured out long before Ginger, Posh, et al. turned it into a family value. At the height of Spice Girls fever, New Breed Clothing designers and co-partners Delia Hudson and Patrick Wood were busy in downtown L.A. producing the hippest thing to hit the young women's clothing market: T-shirts. Yes, T-shirts. But not your ordinary silk-screened tees. These simple cotton shortsleeves feature glittery, large-headed female cartoons with edgy phrases and lots of attitude. "We were pushing for an edgier girl," says Hodson, who creates the original girl-power characters.

One particularly popular tee features a sparkly brown-haired babe in pigtails with fists clenched and the beefy message, "I Can Beat Any Boy on the Block." Other designs include a DJ declaring herself a "Groovy Chick" and a cowgirl who warns, "Don't Mess with the Best."

Their tough attitude is becoming a hot commodity at just $18-$20 a shot. One T-shirt sporting the phrase, "Too Cute to Shoot" — which Hodson confides has a reference to heroin chic — is sold out. Others that say, "Too Hot to Handle" and "90% Angel" aren't too far behind in popularity. The characters are even becoming collector's items.

Teens and twenty-somethings seem to be the age range drawn to these childlike images with in-your-face gestures. "We first thought it was because of the glitter," Hudson reflects. "But that's got nothing to do with it. It has to do with the person recognizing themselves in the shirts." Wood, 30, agrees that their clientele relate to the characters on the shirts on some level. "We have one called 'Bummed,' and if you see a girl wearing it, you know she probably just broke up with her boyfriend."

With 24 female characters that make up the T-shirt line, it's not hard to find one to fit any mood or personality. "We have 'Diva' and she's a party girl," Hodson says of the shirt that features a happy-go-lucky bopper who looks ready to hit the nightclubs.

Hodson dreamed up the designs while working at an L.A. forecasting agency. "I used to doodle on the computer, characterizing people in the office," she says. Then one day Hodson got caught. "The woman [who caught me] loved them. She made me print them out."

The coworker's positive reaction made Hodson realize the marketing potential for her characters. Hodson later teamed up long-time friend Wood after visiting a trade show, where they saw designers peddling skate, street and surfwear. "There was a cool vibe in there and we wanted to be a part of it," Wood explains.

The T-shirts are just one part of New Breed Clothing, founded in 1993, which also offers a line of casual, fun streetwear aimed at urban/club-type women.

The shirts are avaialble at the Limbo Lounge, Hot Topic and Pacific Sunwear chains, and through the Delia's (a separate company) catalogue available at www.delias.com. They will also sooon be available in Bloomingdale's across the nation.