What are the graphics on the Tsrang Label tshirts?

What are the graphics on the Tsrang Label tshirts?

As you can see, we have three different tshirts, but actually only two creatures on them.

• The creature on the brown and black and white  Tsrang Label tshirt is called a denglong
• The creatures on the red Tsrang Label tshirt are called an Ox-Head and Horse-face

Designed by Kiwi-Filipino artist Nadia De Jesus  (she is also one of our models), they’re the comfiest tshirts you can get - cut in a way that’s universally flattering, which is also why the tshirts are unisex.

I wanted to design these tshirts after walking into a streetwear shop and seeing all these graphic tees with ‘Asian’ inspired motifs. An eagle, a snake, even a tshirt that said ‘far east company’. When I googled the company, they were actually an Australian company founded by two blonde people. 

I wanted to make a tshirt that actually had meaning, and was different from the typical designs that other brands made to look ‘oriental’.

What are they?

• Denglong

On the Tsrang Label tshirt you can see it’s flanked by lotus flowers, which Asians and Buddhists froth over because they grow from mud, and the symbolism of beauty coming from filth is just too much haha.

This is also a symbol for the wearer to tell the difference between the good and the toxic too.

• Ox-head and Horse-face

The Ox-head and Horse-face tshirt is actually my favourite one, even though the brown denglong tshirt is actually the best seller.

The Ox-head and Horse-face are also two mythical creatures in Chinese mythology, which are two beings with the head of an ox and horse, two very useful and important animals in daily life before machines.

The Ox-head and Horse-face guard the underworld, which is not a ‘hell’ , but an afterlife. They guide souls through it, just like their animal counterparts do here. For me, the creatures are more about feeling lost in the gloomy and unknown. But I have seen so many skulls, crossbones and devils that I thought there needs to be a better tshirt with more punch and story.

Which one is your favourite?