Nostalgie: More Than Just a Tee(s)

While many T-shirts are more or less disposable, Bryan Bowie, the founder of the Virginia-based label Nostalgie, makes styles that can handle a bit more mileage. The 24-year-old designer prints his own hand-drawn illustrations onto super-soft tees spun from 3.08-ounce cotton, and last summer they struck a chord amongst the male clients at New York's Odin, where they sold out in a matter of weeks. Having identified a void in the casual luxe category, Nostalgie is now on a brand-building tear.

For spring/summer '08, Bowie is refining his bread-and-butter products and expanding the line. The T-shirts, which are tailored a smidge slimmer this season, sport vintage-looking prints of baby carriages, feathers and Indian headdresses. Striving to create pieces that will be “something unique for people to see and own," Bowie is experimenting with jewelry and leatherworking as well. For a series of necklaces, he's scrimshawed drawings onto ivory, sterling silver, leather and wood pendants, which are strung on vintage chains, and hand-stained belts feature burned-in etchings of Bowie's artworks. There's also a line of Nostalgie messenger bags fashioned from canvas and tweed with laptop sleeves embedded inside.

Even as Bowie acknowledges that "it's not hard to bite off more than you can chew," he pushes forward with grander schemes for Nostalgie in Fall '08. He plans to round out his menswear with a broader range of garments, deliver more handcrafted accessories, launch a leather bags line and, for the first time, produce some pieces for women. Bowie is even contemplating a venture into furniture design. It doesn't look like this budding lifestyle label is going to remain a one-man operation for long.

—Robert Cordero