Taking something old and giving it a fresh purpose makes sense these days, like using old tires as workout devices, and re-purposing your ex-girlfriend as a one-night stand. For a line of tees recycling the past, check out Public Domain.

From three smart-alecky designers, Domain unearths images from both pre-1923 public domain stock and "creative commons" photo areas from sites like Flickr, which they playfully manipulate and slap on custom slim-cut blanks via water-based printing, providing a supple feel known as a "soft hand" -- a nickname you've sadly assumed since you ran out of ex-girlfriends. Some of the tees take old-timey dudes and juxtapose them with modern verbiage: there's one with two country club bros from the '20s, wearing knickers and tennis whites alongside the question "What Is Love?"; another shows a guy in a tux and top hat sitting in a hot-air-balloon basket, with "Let's Get High"; and a third counters a serious, handlebar moustached, bowler-capped Victorian gentleman with the question, "Where My Bitches At?" because "My good sir, have you any notion where my harlots have absconded to?" didn't fit on the shirt. Others're more like Warhol/Lichtenstein-inspired pop art, and have fun with 20th-century images: "Earth-Rise" uses two astronauts on the moon and the Earth rising in the background to form a skull; "Grace Kelly" layers a lady-like Grace with a hot, un-lady-like punk chick with a tat and a biker hat; and "Stalin" presents an inkblot with a super-curvy pinup girl alongside everyone's favorite tyrant -- hopefully she doesn't think Gorbachev is the glasnost with the most.

There's also an online-only collection that seems to be about beloved objects: "Time To Get Ill" flashes three '80s calculator watches, a collab with Rap-Up magazine rocks candy-colored headphones whose cord has sparks shooting out the bottom, and "Highball" covers the entire chest with a huge, dripping highball glass -- a few of which are exactly what you need to get some hot, steamy ex tonight.

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See the online offerings at PublicDomainClothing.com