Its Tuesday and time for the third installment of T-Shirt Tuesday. I have had a lot of fun so far with these, they open the door for some commentary on style in general as it relates to t-shirts, which is fun to write, if not to read.
"Splatter in D Minor" from Threadless
In t-shirt news this week come a store-wide sale from Threadless. At $12 a tee they are a lot cheaper than normal, but as Andy at HideYourArms points out, this is $2 more than their normal $10 sales that have occurred with regularity for the last few years. Oh well. $12 is still a cheap tee, especially for the quality of the tees and artwork provided. For the sale, they reprinted 15 designs, including my favorite Threadless shirt of all time (so far), “Splatter in D Minor” (pictured above). There is nothing else really cool to note, maybe more next week.
This weeks feature t-shirt comes from the ‘vintage/distressed t-shirt’ department: my Vintage LEGO logo tee.
Close Up of 'Vintage' LEGO Logo Tee
LEGO has had a hard time selling themselves beyond their toys. LEGO branded t-shirts, watches, pens, etc, all get made but often are clearanced out quickly and rarely last long. The LEGO pens line is best branded non-toy line they have, but I question how it makes money because I so often see them on clearance. Anyway, when I saw this shirt in the catalog a few years ago I knew I had to have it, but it was costly. Six months later on clearance for $9 and I was happy to pick one up.
Ego my LEGO
This shirt was designed by the Paul Frank company, but honestly, what is creative about it? For such a big-name designer, the shirt is only a distressed/vintaged logo graphic. Anybody with a computer and photoshop could do it. Despite my attempts to avoid mass-market brands when possible, I like the distressed/vintage look and if I relate to the brand, I’ll break the rules a bit.
Wearing the 'Vintage' LEGO logo tee
The distressed/vintage style has been around for a while. I first remembered seeing it at Hot Topic stores when I was in my mid and late teens. Apparently, shows like I Love the 80s and its spin-offs got gen x and gen y kids into memories mode and suddenly they wanted to relive their childhoods through shirts with vintage style images of logos, characters, and icons of yesteryear. Nintendo capitalized on this the most with their comprehensive and ever changing line of NES and SNES inspired shirts, and have recently expanded even into N64 inspired shirts… like that was so long ago. Now any brand that has existed for more than a few years are making vintage inspired shirt designs, and to my great pleasure, LEGO joined the game, albeit for a short while.
What is nice about these shirts is that they allow you to connect with your inner geek while still feeling somewhat stylish. The distressed look goes great with denim and cargo pants, which make up most of my inventory of bottoms. Vintage shirts, but especially my LEGO shirt, can be great conversation starters, and while I can’t say that my LEGO shirt helps me pick up girls, it also probably doesn’t hurt. Part of the reason I love t-shirt collection so much is that I can wear my collection, and when I don shirts like this one, I am reminded why its fun.
Until next week, don’t go naked–find a good tee!