ROGUES GALLERY
Available at
Barneys Co-op (all locations),
John Derian 212-677-3917,
and Steven Alan 212-343-0692

A Rogues Gallery's Goth-esque design.   (Photo: Courtesy of Nathan Eldridge/Rogues Gallery)

Overpriced, artificially aged T-shirts with brainless slogans are as tired as last week’s indie band. The true hipster knows that cool is in the obscure, which explains why Rogues Gallery, a tiny company based in Portland, Maine, has become the choice purveyor of genuinely interesting tops. Owner Alex Carleton started the company a little over two years ago by overdyeing vintage tees in shades of black, gray, and navy in his sink and then handprinting them with images he describes as “obscure icons of New England history and nautical imagery that reference Jack London and Herman Melville, with a touch of punk rock.” That means skulls that look taken from an eighteenth-century gravestone, sailing ships, and various menacing animals, all on perfectly soft, broken-in tees, starting at $55.