Sushi Princess Tee

A sushi princess tee that frames a snack like a portrait

A girl with long hair and a flower clip holding a plate of nigiri, Princess arcing across the top in script, a halftone dot field behind her and Japanese type marking the foot. The sushi princess tee is the most decorative panel in the collection, and every element in it is doing something.

Sushi is the obvious Japanese food to draw and therefore the hardest to draw well. It has been printed on so many garments that the only way to make it interesting is to change what surrounds it — and here the surround does all the work. The dot field behind the figure comes from print culture rather than from food illustration, the arc of script above belongs to a shop sign, and the plate is held at chest height like something being presented rather than eaten.

The palette holds it together. Everything stays in a narrow band of creams, pinks and browns, with the salmon and tuna providing the only saturated colour in the panel. That restraint is what keeps a busy composition from turning into noise, and it is more difficult than it looks: two more colours and the whole thing would collapse.

It comes in white, black, apricot, slate and piggy pink. White is the cleanest and lets the dot field read as printed halftone. Black inverts the palette into something closer to neon. Apricot sits nearest the colour of the rice itself, slate cools everything down, and piggy pink is the reading the artwork was drawn for.

Printed onto 240 gsm cotton. A dot field is where fabric distortion shows first — an uneven row of dots is visible immediately, while an uneven line in a drawing is not.

Oversized cut, dropped shoulder, crew neck. Take your usual size for the intended drop, or size down for a closer fit. A pleated skirt below, and hair clips in even numbers on both sides.

• Type: Oversized graphic tee
• Material: Heavyweight cotton, around 240 gsm
• Print: Back print — girl with a plate of nigiri, 'Princess'
• Fit: Oversized, drop shoulder, crew neck, short sleeves
• Sizing: True to size for an oversized look — size down for a closer fit
• Colours: White, black, apricot, slate, piggy pink
• Wear it with: A pleated skirt, hair clips in even numbers