The holidays (school break for students) are over---I know---back to the daily grind. 

But hey, it ain't that bad. After all, it's a fresh start.

Another 365 days to look forward to and spend doing the things we love (and dread). That's just the way it is.

So for all the students out there, get your notebooks and pens ready for a quick lesson on OOTD fashion essentials for 2019.

Athleisure

Still solid in 2019. Aside from being extremely comfortable, this style is easy to setup and is perfect for the student who needs something easy to put on and move with as you go from one class to the next. It's also a chance to show off your spanking sports shoe collection. At its core, shoes are the main stand outs for this fashion ensemble. To spice things up, combo it with your favorite personalized t-shirt for more street cred.

The Neutralist

Pairing a neutral hue with your favorite fashion pieces is always safe and never out of style, it's a solid go-to mix if you don't feel like going all-out. Pairing your basic neutral-colored blouse to a pair of jeans with dark wash or a simple skirt always works and takes out the hassle of figuring out what to wear. Tag this under your “Basics” list and never waste any more time next time you're running late for class.

Back to Basics

It always happens---you pull out an all-nighter for a big exam and fall asleep on your desk---books and all. The alarm rings, you check the clock: You only have 30 minutes before the exam! With Flash-like speed, you take a 1-minute shower and spend 10 seconds deciding what to wear. Your go-to outfit for this situation? A personalized t-shirt and your favorite khaki pants. Perfect for no-nonsense style and it’s super-comfy which helps you remain cool and calm during the exam.

Go Black

There’s a reason why stylists recommend that girls always have their “Little Black Dress” sitting ready in the closet. First, black is excellent in projecting a slimmer figure. Lighter colors tend to highlight some of our curves that we would rather not have anyone notice. Also, black matches well with other colors, so you can wear almost anything with it and still look awesome.

Revenge of the Nerds

Decades ago, your stereotypical “nerd” or “geek” look has always been the butt of jokes in movies. Today, however, you’ll see people flaunting their wares donning their preferred “geek” wardrobe (imagine the uniform they have in Harry Potter movies). What does a typical nerd outfit look like? It usually starts with collared shirt partnered with a pair of chinos. You layer it with a cardigan, your pair of favorite formal shoes and a pair of spectacles (with black rims) finishes the look. This style is timeless and never grows old.

Whether it’s a Darth Vader shirt or your favorite Adventure Time character, there will always be a personalized tshirt for that. Nowadays, Shopify and other ecommerce platforms had made it so easy for both consumers and sellers to connect resulting into thousands of products and orders.

And one such niche that continues to make a killing in terms of sales is personalized tshirt. Just try Googling for this term and you’re bound to see thousands of websites each with literally hundreds of design to choose from.

Today we’ll take a closer look at 3 popular shops where you can cop your next personalized tshirt.

Johnny Cupcakes

Before JC became a behemoth of a clothing store, it started as a brick and mortar business from the founder, Johnny Earle’s, car. He literally sold his Johnny Cupcakes t-shirts at the back of his outside of friend’s gigs. This was in 2001. Several years later, he would open a string of retail shops across the world and ultimately reach global success after launching his clothing store online.

JC is most popular for its cupcake and bones design, which captured that perfect balance of cute, funny, and angst-y philosophy of its fans.

Threadless

This online T-shirt company is credited to be one of the pioneers of crowdsourcing. Back in 2000, the founders started polling forum members to rate various designs where the winning entry would end up in various merchandise like tshirts and other products which will be sold and shipped all over the world. The artist with the winning entry will get paid with royalties from sales of his or her design along with a couple of bonuses from the company. This made the concept very popular among designers and kept Threadless from getting amazing designs from artists all over the world.

Nowadays, Threadless proves to be one of the biggest online and brick & mortar stores that sells a wide range of products with eye-catching designs.

COOTD

COOTD is a budding online T-shirt company based in the Philippines that sells a cute collection of designs covering popular characters and other categories like Food, Drinks, Animals, and more. The designs feature a simple yet engaging appeal that’s a sure hit across customers from all sorts of ages.

What do you get from shopping in COOTD? Aside from their niche collection of catchy designs, they offer shipping all over the world. And perhaps the most amazing part is the price---COOTD shirts are priced so competitively you can grab a couple of shirts for the price of one from the first two stores we mentioned above. Does this make COOTD a better store? Probably not, but it definitely is a hit among shoppers looking to find the best bang for their buck.

I hate waste. Not the waste that you see in the garbage bag, but the act of throwing something away that is still perfectly usable. If I have something that rarely gets used but still in OK condition, I give it away or sell it online. I remember giving my personalized T-shirt of our high school band to one of the kids in our neighborhood. But what if giving or selling are not an option? How can one still repurpose something headed to the trash bin?

Easy, recycle! And in the case of used shirts, here are the top 10 ideas on how you can recycle them.Most of these will work best with a bit of sewing action.

Rags & Potholders - Clothes with heavy fabric are perfect for these. You can cut out the fabric and re-sew the pieces or simply cut a few portions a bit then use as is.

Pillow case - Cut off the arms including the ridge in the middle Sew them shut and voila, you have your very own, homemade pillow case.

Doggie Mat - If you have a dog, turning your once-favorite personalized T-shirt into a doggie mat is a great idea. Similar to making the pillow case, cut out the arms and sew all holes. Best if you can slip in a thin foam before sewing it all up for some added softness.

Tote Bag - Yup, you’re old Nike T-shirt can still “do it”. Tote bags are rather easy to make, make a cut-out as a guide, sew and make fringes at the bottom (for best effect).

Headbands - Didn’t thought of that one, did you? Simply cut off the sleeves (option 1) or cut the whole shirt into small strips of cloth then sew them together to make a headband.

Wall Art - I saw this one once in a friends room. She took her old T-shirt then stretched it out to staple into a wooden frame. She painted on the thing directly (she’s an art major) with an image of an oak tree. Cool.

Book Cover - Aside from covering them in plastic, there’s a cooler way to protect your beloved books. Cloth covers! The great thing is that the process is very much like how you would do it with a plastic cover, so only minimal sewing is required.

Placemats - Pretty straightforward to do. Better if the old T-shirt is made up of a thick fiber like Polyester or Rayon for better durability and water absorption.

Scarf - If your scissor game is strong, you don’t even have to do any sewing to turn an old (preferably printed) shirt into a scarf. The more elaborate prints, the better.

Pet Toys - Sew up a bunch of fabric from your old T-shirt into a quick doggy bone or fluffy ball for your cat.

A friend told you that he is selling brand new Supreme T-shirts at bargain-bin prices. He said he gets it “directly” from the manufacturer’s plant, hence the low cost. While your penny-pinching brain tells you to bite the bullet, you’re common sense tells you the same old lesson: If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Honestly, I’d rather do custom T-shirt printing than wear a clone.

So how can someone determine if a shirt is the real thing and not fake? Here’s our top 10 list of things to check out for to confirm if a shirt is authentic.

1. Look at the logo - Most fake merchandise will seem off if you scrutinize its logo. Check the color, shade, and overall quality of the print.

2. Stitching - Stitching of legit shirts are more complete than counterfeit ones. In fake clothes, you’ll see that the maker seem to have scrimped on the number of threads on the stitching.

3. Fabric - Going back to our earlier Supreme T-shirt example, a good tell of a fake one is the fabric. If it’s too coarse or thick (ratio to cotton is extremely low) it means the manufacturer used cheap quality fabric, an automatic red flag.

4. Spelling - You better believe it. Some fake merchandise out there are so focused on selling their pirated products that they did not even bother to make sure if they got the product’s name right. I once saw a pair Havaianas sandals rip-off which said. “Hawaiians”.

5. Pricing - This is a big sign if you’re getting genuine products. I mean seriously, a Nike T-shirt for $5? Again, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Better to go the custom T-shirt printing route if you’ll ask me.

6. Packaging - Shirts from well-known brands are packaged nicely in matching plastics. Counterfeit ones, on the other hand, especially those that are sold around the corner, get tossed around in bins like you’re buying from a garage sale. Sometimes, they are wrapped in plastics which does not bear the product’s brand name.

7. Check garment seam - a uniform stitch is a good indicator of quality. Clones are typically made with less stitches per inch.

8. Check the shirt buttons - Here’s another trick you should check out. Legit shirts will have their brand name imprinted on the shirt buttons. Counterfeiters usually don’t have the equipment or resources to do this. Also, they want to produce it as cheap as possible so they skip this even if they can.

9. Where is it being sold? - If you see a Louis Vuitton bag being sold by someone who set up shop at the side of the street, do you really think it’s the real thing?

10.Wash care tag - Most fake shirts don’t even bother with placing wash care tags on their products. Again, to save on production costs.